Fontalta 2007 Fiano (Sicily)
I bought this in a pub, for no other reason than I'd never heard of the grape before. I'd been planning to drink beer since pub wine can be rather dodgy. Does that make me a wine geek?
The wine is extraordinarily pale, and has a strange, sharp smell reminiscent of fermenting apples.
On the palate the predominant flavours are very ripe apples and pears garnished with a note of mint. The wine has a creamy texture and a refreshing acidity which balances nicely with the sweetness of the fruit. The honeyed notes drop off toward the finish which is clean, and strikingly acidic with flavours of grapefruit. Very unusual and a very nice wine for cooling down on a hot day. 4/5.
Bogle 2005 Viognier
Bought in the New Year sale at my local wine store.
The wine is slightly golden and - oddly - slightly cloudy. It smells not unlike peach schnapps with up-front fruit and alcohol with slight vegetable notes.
The flavour is a succulent mouthful of plump peach, apricot and pineapple followed by a hot burst of perfumed and exotic spice. The wine is rich, mouth-filling and creamy tailing off into a slightly odd finish with those vegetable notes coming through again. I've had slightly insipid European Vigonier before, but this new world stuff really seems to show the grape to it's full potential, resulting in an really good wine with balanced fruit, acid and complexity. 5/5
