wine blogging wednesday

When I first saw Beau’s Wine Blogging Wednesday theme Where’s Wino?, intending to take us on a world wide tour of wine, I was shocked to see the southern hemisphere absent from the list of possible wine origins.

After being reassured by Beau that he had already planned for Where’s Wino? II to feature the southern wine producing nations, I went out to find one of the wines from his set categories:
White Wine - New York, Oregon or Italy
Red Wine - Washington, Spain or France

After picking a white wine and blogging about it with pretty pictures and all, Beau has told me I'm a silly billy - how are people going to guess what wine I'm writing about when I've posted massive photos all over the place. Hmmm?

So the happy snaps were then removed and the wine became anonymous for the guessing game. Once the winner was annouced, I brought the photos back for your viewing pleasure.

Since American wine is near to impossible to find in my neck of the woods (the Italian area of Sydney) I settled on the easy find: Cusumano's 2004 Insolia (AUD$14).

Origin: Sicily, Italy
Producer: Cusumano
Grape: insolia/inzolia
Vintage: 2004
Vineyard: Salemi (TP), Monreale (PA)
Vines: 10 years old; south-east facing; 4,200 plants per hectare; 7500kg grape yield per hectare
Harvest method: Manual, early September
Production method: Cold pressed with skins (10’C) for 12 hours; soft second pressing; 4 months on the lees in stainless steel; further maturation in bottle

Colour
Insolia is usually a straw coloured wine, and while it was certainly not botrytis gold I found it to be deeper than straw and closer to a pale gold. It was a medium yellow.

Nose
The nose had some slight tropical attributes (pineapple?), with a slight lemon edge and a touch of almond. It also had a tinge of smelly feet :)

Palate
The palate was quite honeyed with a touch of creaminess and a pleasant acidic end-note. Ever so slight sweetness prevailed throughout the palate. Light on the tongue and yet it still contained full body characteristics. It had a short, slightly bitter finish and no sour, lingering aftertaste.

Insolia should be served slightly chilled (i.e. not too cold) and is recommended with fish and white meats since it can cut through strong acidic accompaniments such as lemon juice and chilli.
Insolia is a grape native to Sicily and is found predominantly in Sicily’s western areas. There are also a few insolia in Tuscany, where they are called Ansonica/Anzonica. It should be served slightly chilled (i.e. not too cold).

It is recommended with fish and white meats and can cut through strong acidic accompaniments such as lemon juice and chilli.

I drank my insolia alongside pan-fried John Dory (a typical fish served in Australia) and salsa verde.

This will make a gorgeous summer wine to kick back and chug-a-lug through the weekend.

Check out Beau's recap and to see some of the wines people have chosen.

Tags: morsels and musings food blog food and drink australia wine blogging wednesday wbw wine white wine sicily italy insolia inzolia ansonica anzonica alcohol fish john dory salsa verde