David Ellis
Winemakers in Italy use an interesting technique in which they pass the wine from one ferment over the skins of grapes from another – calling it Ripasso – to create wines of quite stimulating complexity.
The Hunter Valley's ever-imaginative Andrew Margan did the same in 2010, re-passing Shiraz that had been made from the 2009 vintage over the skins of a number of different varietals from the 2010 vintage in a second ferment.
His now-released 2009 Special Reserve Ripasso is the intriguing result, and while typical Hunter Shiraz juicy berry and spicy pepper are to the fore, the challenge is to try to determine what were those other varietals over whose skins Andrew re-fermented this wine?
It stumped us and Andrew is keeping mum. But certainly this is a great dinner party drop to stimulate the conversation and challenge the taste buds: get some mates together around a Winter's beef casserole and see just how good you are in determining those other varietals.
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