Australia's Italian varieties

As a bridge between last week's plethora of Italian tasting notes and this week's more varied offerings (which include a look at how 2006 burgundies are coming along and some great value from Argentina), Richard Hemming examines some of the Italianate examples of Australia's popular 'alternative varieties' which, now constitute more than 5% of all Australian vines. Pioneer Coriole's historic McLaren Vale cottage is shown here.

Soon after having sampled a wide range of Italian wines (see Italian round-up), I had a chance to compare the Aussie equivalents. Obviously the styles vary widely, and the best tended to be those...