Just as the smell of clean sheets on the bed can signal a new start after an old affair, the fruit of the 2007 Coriole Vita Reserve Sangiovese is very pure and fresh like a soft, plumped pillow. Although perhaps it'd be more fun if it smelled a little less clean and a little more dirtier. Cabernet Sauvignon in Tuscany develops the unmistakeable taste of the warm Tuscan earth and the Coriole Sangiovese has developed a taste that is distinctly McLaren Vale: there is breath of iodine particular to wines found in the Seaview region. This is only the second Reserve Sangiovese, and I hope over time, the Sangiovese vines will take more taste from the McLaren Vale land. Right now, the room is aired and the bed is ready to dream and tasting the wine last night at such an early vintage, it is full of promises...McLaren Vale in South Australia is the home to many Italian immigrant families who have been making Shiraz on old vines but whose heart I suspect belongs to Sangiovese; the Italian influence pervades the region. The heart is happy and hopeful here: the nose has varietal complexity of perfume with unique 100% Sangiovese character of dryness on the palate; it is a ravishing serious perfume with drying tannins that prepare the mouth for food. Everything is integrated, perhaps more so than the strict separation between tannins and fruit found on the same age 100% Sangiovese Chianti - although it has a similar weight of fruit.
If the house is Tuscany and each room in the house is a region of Sangiovese (Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Maremma) Coriole throws open the window to a cleansing McLaren Vale ocean breeze promising new things on the horizon.
In the previous post, Bang for the buck? I stated I was looking for wines that are amazing and can't be found anywhere else. The next series of post will be a report on some of the wines I find here...
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