There wouldn’t be too many wine drinkers in Oz that haven’t heard the name De Bortoli.
And more than any other winery I can think of, De Bortoli are continually tweaking and extending their range of wines under label. Creating outstanding entry level, drink now $10 wines that taste like they should have mid $20 price tags right through to their most expensive, age worthy premiums, the range and quality is hard to fault. In fact their Vinoque Nebbiolo Rosé at around $12 is just ridiculous value for such a great drinking, food friendly wine, one that will make you reassess the thought that rosé is just “a sweet, girly wine”.
This constant tinkering has seen a new “Down the Lane” range created to make use of some of their lesser known varieties and styles of wines. Taking inspiration from “Melbourne’s laneway culture” they have knocked out a trio of wines that are good drinking, with an unbelievable price point of just $12, which will end probably around $10 as a real shelf price.
De Bortoli was originally established in 1928 by Vittorio and Giuseppina De Bortoli in New South Wales’ Riverina area, and over the next 80 odd years, expanded to now hold vineyards in Victoria’s Yarra and King Valley’s, along with the Hunter Valley in New South Wales. It’s currently overseen by the third generation, in Darren De Bortoli, his sister Leanne and her husband, De Bortoli chief winemaker, Steve Webber, with the fourth generation of De Bortoli’s involved in the family business as well. Those four generations have evolved and shaped De Bortoli to become one of the most dynamic operations in Australia.
While it’s their Noble One that has garnered them fame throughout the world, it actually makes up only a small percentage of their sales. With nine winemakers on their books they’ve shown that a major part of their success has come from recruiting, getting the right people in the right places, and letting them have their head, rather than hamstringing them and trying to mould that person to fit the winery’s idea of what they should be or should be making.
This new range has come about from playing with new varietals at their Riverina, King Valley and Yarra Valley properties over the last few years, particularly blending those varietals with well-known and some new-comers to the Australian market place.
These aren’t wines that will sweep you off your feet and carry you to nirvana, their price points don’t allow the craftwork that are needed for those sorts of wines. But they are good, honest, well drinking wines that work well with food, and perfectly fit the budget for interesting weekday wines.
The Range (and a few more):
De Bortoli “Down the Lane” Pinot Grigio Arneis 2016 – a touch of Vermentino thrown into the mix, but not enough to make it to the front label. Light touches of nougat on the nose, some pear and lime and white frangipani. Pear mineral and some light salty/briny notes in there which will make this work extremely well with seafood.
De Bortoli “Down the Lane” Gris de Gris 2016 – named after the French term for making a white or Rosé wine from red and grey coloured grapes, in this case Pinot Noir (black/red) and Pinot Grigio (grey). Turkish delight, red apples and pear, there’s a textural quality on the tongue, reminiscent of nearly frozen cream, high slurpability factor on this.
De Bortoli “Down the Lane” Shiraz Tempranillo 2015 – Tempranillo is often blended with Grenache in Spain, but here we tend to blend it with Shiraz, the two work so well together, and this is no exception, there’s a resiny quality about it, with vanilla cola characters, raspberry and spice. An interesting savoury finish too.
Vinoque Nebbiolo Rosé 2016 – a cracking example of a “grown-ups” rosé, none of that cordial sweet style here, no thank you. Its superbly dry, lots of musk, fennel and salty almost tar like notes, super pale in colour and super gluggable. RRP is $25 but it’s about $12 in the bottleshops. Can’t recommend this particular vintage enough.
Bella Riva Sangiovese 2014 – De Bortoli planted out their BellaRiva vineyard in King Valley in 1994 and it’s been producing interesting alternative Italian varieties since then. This is another example of how well they can punch above their price point. Its nutty and spicy, with cherries and a delicious savouriness that will work so well with food. At about $13 this is one that you will want to buy a bit of for our warmer winters, heck it’s great during summer with pizza too.