On my last trip to Italy last April, I did a 400km mercy dash to Puglia from Abruzzo to visit the wineries and vineyards of some of the producers I was interested in importing. One white wine blew me away and I ordered 400 dozen as soon as I tried it.
Well this wine: Luccarelli Bianco Salento 2010 from Puglia is now getting some fanstistic reviews from some of the best wine journalists in Australia. I always have a bottle of this wine in my fridge at at A$15 retail, it is such a fantastic wine.
It has really good distribution in independent retail in Melbourne and Sydney as is already on the lists of some pretty smart Italian restaurants.
Here are some other reviews and some background information on the wine.
Comes from the heel of Italy (Puglia), is made from local grapes (Malvasia Bianco, Verdeca, Bombino Bianco), that are no longer just for local people, and is boot full of personality. Importer: Mondo Imports
Spicy, mineral, a sort of pear/apple fruit and floral too. You might think it’s fat and round, but then controlling lemony acid brings it back to feeling lean – a wine of contrasts. There’s some orange, dried herb and fennel flavours in there too – especially on the finish which features just a tweak of bitterness. Toothsome good value. The score? Don’t think any will complain about my rating, and indeed, some may find it churlish – but this is a wine made for drinking, not scoring. Recommended. Drink : 2011 – 2015 90 Points Gary Walsh, The Wine Front
Deep and plump smelling, some lees creaminess, yellow stonefruit. But it’s all about the taste: excellent weight and intensity, pith and peel and creaminess, tight and really lip-smacking fruit. The fruit lasts long on the palate in a refreshing, primal, unaffected way. Can’t think of an Aussie or New Zealand white now I’d want to drink at this price. But I would buy this. 90/100 Tim White, The Financial Review
Love the Lucarelli Bianco Salento. Made up of MALVASIA BIANCO – VERDECA – BOMBINO BIANCO This fantastic white is made of three indigenous grape varieties from Puglia
In the heart of D.O.C. Primitivo di Manduria area, centre of production of one of the most intense and scented Italian wines, the art of vine-growing has moulded the landscape through the patient and meticulous care of very old bush-vines, which are still manually treated, with millenary techniques dating back to the times of Basilian monks or even earlier to the ancient Greeks. Together with ideal climatic and environmental conditions, the bush vine system allows to bottle wines of great organoleptic quality, and uniqueness. The aim of Terre di Sava is to make its work the faithful expression of the traditions related to the territory it was named after, through a moderate, non-invasive use of modern vinification technologies. This intuition generated the Terre di Sava challenge: to enhance and make fondness grow around the villages, the bush vines, the grapes; ancient traditions – combined with modern technologies – which are never to be lost. Terre di Sava Bianco Salento is a beatiful coupage of varieties: Malvasia Bianca, Verdeca, Bombino Bianco.
il vino da tavola 