The holidays’ over: and what a way to be greeted!!

New Umberto label in the flesh

Well I hope everyone had a relaxing January, spending time with family with a glass of something nice in your hand. I had two fantastic weeks off and arrived back at work today with a container from Italy. Talk about stepping straight back into it.

Considering how crazy December was (records were broken across all our businesses) we have been busy restocking with today roughly our 10th container for the year. Luckily in this container was more Umberto Luigi Domenico Prosecco. I think half of Australia have been crying for the first 15 days of January whilst we have been waiting on stocks of this wine.

This week will also see the arrival of the first shipment of Gianfranco Soldera wines in Australia via Mondo Imports. We drank a bottle of the 2006 last night and it blew us away. A bottle of 2004 in early December also showed so beautifully that left all of us at the table flabbergasted. No words needed to describe the quality.

This week we have the 2008 Soldera arriving, a wine that I think will be considered one of the ‘great Soldera’s’. I drank two bottles of this wine with Gianfranco in Italy and it is already so complete.

See below for Antonio Galloni’s review of the wine:

The 2008 Toscana Sangiovese lifts from the glass with striking perfume. Soft and silky on the palate, the 2008 presents an exquisite range of Pinot-inflected fruit backed up by super-silky, impeccably polished tannins. The 2008 spent 18 months in cask and finished its aging in steel, so it is quite different from virtually every other wine made at Case Basse, but it is drop-dead gorgeous just the same. Gentle hints of spice linger on the sensual, ravishing finish. This is an extraordinary wine from Gianfranco Soldera. Drink 2018-2038 96 points Antonio Galloni, Vinous

In other news:

A 97 point review from Gary Walsh at The Wine Front for Hoddles Creek Estate 1er Pinot Noir 2013 has seen this wine sell out at a wholesale level within 2 weeks of being released. You should be able to find stocks at good independents around Oz for the next few weeks before they sell out as well.

2005 Hoddles Creek Estate Chardonnay: looking good at 9 years of age…

I don’t drink as many older Hoddles Creek Estate wines as I should. But when I do, they always put a smile on my face.
This bottle, consumed over 3 days looked fantastic from the first glass to the last.

2012 vintage wines @hoddlescreek looking good….

Last week I had my good friend Vito who handles nearly all my freight from Italy in Melbourne for a few days and I thought whilst he was here, I would show him Hoddles Creek Estate in the Yarra Valley, run by my brother Franco D’Anna.

If you haven’t been to Hoddles Creek Estate or the Upper Yarra, it is very different to the ‘valley floor’ with it’s picture perfect cellar door’s which is now almost custom built for wine tourism. The Upper Yarra on the other hand, is like the wild west of the Yarra Valley and still quite undeveloped in terms of tourism and population and this I think is a good thing.

Whilst the 2012 whites and reds are still some time away from being released, already at this young age, the quality across the board is excellent. These are wines with a high level of natural acidity, poise and complexity and with time in the cellar, they will age gracefully for many years to come.

Last night’s Hoddles Creek Estate Winemaker dinner….

Last night I drove up to our vineyards in the Yarra Valley for a dinner in the barrel room of our winery to drink and listen to my twin brother Franco (who runs the Estate) talk us through a number of back vintages of Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir and one freaky Cabernet Sauvignon

The last dinner we had in the barrel room was a massive success and it illustrated just how well the wine ages. My idea of work at Hoddles is cooking the bbq during vintage and visiting Franc and the boys do their stuff outside of vintage. Nights like last night are a great way to show the talents of Franco and our site.

Again all the wines looked fantastic, but the real surprise packet was the 2006 Hoddles Creek Estate Cabernet Sauvignon which has developed beautifully. Franco thinks we can make this wine once every ten years so whilst it is not viable in a commercial sense, it is a joy when we produce a wine like the 2006.