USA orange wine, Channing Daughters '10 Meditazione

Channing Daughters '10 Meditazione

Beautifully Apricot in colour and a little warm. There is a big lychee hit and pink musk lolly on the nose. I also detect a woody spice, perhaps cedar or ashwood. Can you guess what it tastes like? White-peppered musk lifesavers. Seriously. As well as booze-soaked dried apricots.. and more. This is definitely a white wine that will appeal to red wine drinkers.

Meditazione is an exotic, non-traditional white skin-fermented (or orange wine) blend inspired by the “Vino da Meditazione” wines in the Friuli region of Northeast Italy. The Channing Daughters 2010 Meditazione is comprised of 28% Muscat Ottonel, 20% Chardonnay, 18% Sauvignon Blanc, 12% Pinot Grigio, 10% Tocai Friulano, 5% Viognier, 5% Aligote, 2% Semillon. What a mouthful!

You need to try this for yourself. In Australia, contact Brooks and Amos.

USA wine, Channing Daughters '12 Rosato di Refosco.

Channing Daughters '12 Rosato di Refosco.

Wines from Long Island come from a salty, maritime climate and I find that there is always some slight salty aromas or tastes with these wine. Coupled with the Refosco grape makes for a challenging and interesting flavour profile. I say challenging because I personally do not have a reference point for the flavours. Refosco is a very dark-skinned grape, native to Friuli, Italy. Channing Daughters Winery have an amazing array of alternate varieties. They also make quite a lot of rosé, seven, in 2012. This rosé is purpose made with as little as 3 hours skin contact.

To try and describe a unique flavour such as this is tricky, but here goes: The nose is a little like a Pinot Noir, with the promise of something more, perhaps Sangiovese. Sound weird but it is good. Refosco is a very tannic variety plus lends itself to real black fruit flavours. I also got some black olive pip come through. A dead-set perfect match for charcuterie.

To try Channing Daughters wines in Australia, get in touch with Brooks and Amos here.