2020 Blanc Yangarra Estate Wines

Blend of 5 grapes: 62% Grenache blanc, 17% Roussanne, 10% Clairette, 8% Picpoul, 3% Bourboulenc 

Geology: Sandy Loam over clay, Sandy loam mottled with ironstone fragments over clay. 

Altitude: 150M above sea level 

Tasting Note:

Floral, apple, grapefruit, aromas. Really attractive taste of ripe apple and stone fruit, with intensity of flavour. Good balance of fresh acidity, fruit and long clean finish.

A lovely spring-summer wine that combines crisp freshness with layers of nuanced flavours. 

Winemaking: “Pressed and fermented all the Grenache Blanc and Roussanne separately. The Picpoul, Clairette and Bourboulenc were picked together, as the ripeness was very similar and their volumes small. The unclarified juice was fermented in 675 litres ceramic eggs and older French oak barriques, with no acid or sulphur additions. These varieties are supposedly very susceptible to oxidation, but we find we get better results not adding sulphur until the completion of primary sugar fermentation. The resulting wine was then matured in those same vessels on the lees and stirred monthly for 4 months. Bottled July 2020.”

Listen to the 'Wine On The Frontline Interview with Yangarra Winemaker, Peter Fraser:

 

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Last week a picture was posted on Twitter of vines in Shabo, a large estate that lies to the west of Odesa on southern Ukraine’s Black Sea coastline. The image seemed benign at face value but the reality, of course, is that the city of Odesa has been bracing itself for attack by Russian forces. 

 

As COVID-19 conspires with the grimmest of winds and rain to force a societal retreat behind our own front doors, the word ennui springs to mind. The muddle of displeasure is pierced when Natalia hands me a large bulbous glass of a liquid I do not recognise.

 

 

Britain’s lamentable exit

On the eve of Britain’s official departure from the EU, my partner and I decided to explore a small town on the Italian Riviera where thewintry cold doesn’t feel so much like cold war bite.

I had warned my significant other that I would be having an inverse departure party, a release of the sanity valve if you like!

 

Sitting inside the ancient castle walls inside the town of Soave, a short drive from Verona in northern Italy, the unique slightly almond aroma of the indigenous grape, Garganega, rises gently from my glass. The castle sprawls up the side of an extinct volcano that gives the region its variant soil structures that mark out the better quality of Soave wines.

 

Tanisha Townsend decided to move to Paris 4 years ago after regularly passing through the city en route to the world’s most famous vineyards. In fact, it was about 2 years ago at the Printemps de Champagne Bouzy Rouge tasting in Reims that I saw (who we shall now refer to as) GirlMeetsGlass chirpily speaking to her web followers on Snapchat.

 

The cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, the final resting place of Saint James, rises out of the landscape, infested with antiquity. The rambling steep streets give way to shafts of dramatic light, emblazoned chapels, and tightly packed tapas bars, dusty, as old novels pressed together in antiquarian bookshops.

 

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