Happy Birthday Coriole Sangiovese. Twenty one today. Tried to fit a yard of ale into the bottle to celebrate but it all gushed out of the neck… obviously the wine is far too civilised for that sort of thing.
Rich and dark with cocoa, licorice, dark cherry, earth, flowering herbs and a slight menthol character. Medium to full bodied with good weight and extract, toothsome chalky tannins and attractive nutty dark cherry flavours. Balanced and long. It’s a more robust expression of Sangiovese but none the worse for it. Tasty stuff. Drink : 2009 - 2012+ 92 Points Gary Walsh, Winorama
The Sangiovese variety was pioneered in Australia by Coriole Vineyards. It was first planted in 1985 as a contrasting style to Shiraz, the great tradition of McLaren Vale. It has proved to be ideally suited to the warm maritime climate of the region. Some people say that if you have not yet acquired a taste for Sangiovese then you need a holiday in a farmhouse in Italy... preferably Umbria or Tuscany.
The fruit is from some of the oldest producing Sangiovese vines in Australia. These vines are at Coriole, or contracted growers in McLaren Vale. It is rare for a new vineyard to qualify for Coriole Sangiovese until it is at least 10 years old. As Sangiovese tends to produce large crops, a variety of techniques are used to control crop levels to ensure high quality fruit is produced.
Sangiovese winemaking is very traditional. Grapes are fermented in open fermenters and hand plunged. The different blocks are aged separately, all in older oak hogsheads for about a year. A few months before bottling the selection and ‘assemblage’ takes place. In most recent years, Coriole Sangiovese is made from 100% Sangiovese. In 2006 there is also a separate bottling of one of the newer clones- ‘Brunello’ - which has been planted on Coriole’s estate.
