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This
elegant Italian white wine grape variety is creating a buzz in Australia.
Arneis plantings in the vineyards of the King Valley of North East Victoria,
in the Mornington Peninsula and the Riverland Wine region of South Australia
have now been in production for a few years. The next couple of years
will see if Australian wine consumers will share the enthusiasm for these wines.
The flavour of Arneis wine
Perfume, fruity, apples, pears, white grapefruit, floral, citrus, anise, hint of herbs...
These are the flavours you can expect in this superb Italian variety according to De Long's Wine Grape Varietal Table
In
its native Piedmont Arneis produces elegant white wines with powerful aromas
of almonds and peaches. The variety was much less popular in the 1970s.
The variety presents problems in the vineyard, but better clones and handling
have seen Arneis wines become more popular. Interestingly, small quantities
of Arneis have been used traditionally in Piedmont as blending material
for the red variety Nebbiolo.
Wines
made from the Arneis variety in Australia can be a little neutral, but
at their best these wines can be complex and aromatic and redolent of
almonds, pears, peaches and honey. They make ideal accompaniments to seafoods,
antipasti and salads.
Australian wineries
using Arneis
- Beechtree Wines McLaren Vale
- Berrima Estate Southern Highlands
- Box Stallion Mornington Peninsula
- Brown Brothers King Valley
- Chrismont King Valley
- Coombe Farm Vineyard Yarra Valley
- Crittenden at Dromana Mornington Peninsula
- Crooked River Wines Shoalhaven Coast
- Dal Zotto Estate King Valley
- Dromana Estate Mornington Peninsula
- Dunn's Creek Winery Mornington Peninsula
- First Drop Barossa Valley
- Helen's Hill Estate Yarra Valley
- Kingston Estate Riverland
- Lazzar Wines Mornington Peninsula
- Mac Forbes Wines Yarra Valley
- Parish Hill Wines Adelaide Hills
- Pizzini Wines King Valley
- Rochford Wines Yarra Valley
- Rutherglen Estates Rutherglen
- Symphonia King Valley
- Tertini Wines Southern Highlands
- Vale Creek Wines Central Ranges Zone
- Vale Vineyard Mornington Peninsula
- Wirra Wirra McLaren Vale
- Wombats Run King Valley
- Yacca Paddock Vineyards Adelaide Hills
- Yandoit Hill Winery Bendigo
- Yarraloch Yarra Valley
- Zonte's Footstep Langhorne Creek
James
Halliday in his excellent Australian
Wine Companion credits Colin and Rosa Mitchell of Yandoit Hill Vineyard
(near Castlemaine in Central Victoria) with introducing the variety into
Australia.
The variety has its own class at the Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show.
At the 2007 AAVWS Crittenden Estate from the Mornington Peninsula received a silver medal for their 2006 Pinocchio Arneis.
Bronze medals were won by Chrismont, Dromana Estate, Rutherglen Estate, Symphonia and First Drop. Thus there were six medal winners of the 11 Arneis wines entered, indicating a fairly consistent achievement for this emerging varietal wine.
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