What Ted brought from Australia

An acquaintance of ours, Ted Kravitz "Ted our man in the pits" from BBC F1 racing brought us three interesting bottles back from the Australian Grand Prix. The first was an excellent Semillon from the Barossa, not Hunter Valley this time. It is by Peter Lehmann and is called 'Margaret' after his wife. Reasonably low in alcohol this wine has won prizes and is interesting for both these facts. Only today the press bring to British people's attention that Hunter Valley Semillon is one of the great contributions of Australia to the world of wine. We agree with that wholeheartedly and now it seems the Barossa can join in the party.

The next bottle was an Aussie Montepulciano from the Adelaide Hills by Minchia which went down only too easily

and the third was something molto interessante, a Rondinella (60%)/Corvina (40%) Amarone blend by Freeman Vineyards, Hilltops NSW.

It doesn't say on the bottle what the ratio is between the Rondinella and Corvina

so we emailed Freeman Vineyards and received a detailed reply from Brian Freeman giving the above percentages and saying thst he is planting more Corina because he finds the Rondinella lacking in personality. He uses the Rondinella in Rosé now. We asked about Molinara and he said he reckoned that wouldn't have any more personality than Rondinella. It's good to find someone with such initiative. Brian Freeman reminds us of such free Australian spirits as Robin Day of Domaine Day who make all sorts of interesting wines from Saperavi to Sangiovese, Ilario and Dino Michelini of Michelini Wines who make a Marzemino, Joseph Grillo (who also makes a 'Moda Amarone' wine called "The Joseph", Mark Lloyd of Coriole vineyards who make Sagrantino and others.