Winemakers Brett Woodward and Sam Rumpit discuss the four Italian varietals in our Winemaker’s Craft ‘Single Suitcase’ collection.
Nebbiolo
Aglianico
Barbera
Sagrantino
You are invited to tour Italy with us from the comfort of your home.
Italian varietals have become highly sought-after in Australia, thanks to innovative winemakers and our eagerness as consumers to try new wines.
Saddler’s Creek Wines is a boutique winery owned and operated by the Laureti family, whose philosophy is to craft wines for the sole purpose of being savoured with both good food and good friends.
By carefully selecting and harvesting small-batch parcels of the highest quality fruit and then, with a gentle hand, produce wines of premium quality… elegant, well balanced and fruit driven.
Enjoy a wine experience like no other… we wanted to create a welcoming and relaxing atmosphere to enjoy your wine tasting in. Set in our beautiful wine garden, each weekend we feature acoustic live music and delicious food which is pet and family friendly.
Saddler’s Eats offers a casual seasonal menu designed to complement your tasting experience; open Friday twilight, Saturday and Sunday Lunch.
‘Wine & Chill’ experience gives visitors the chance to relax and connect with each other. Savour a glass or bottle of wine with delicious food and unwind to live music. Our picnic garden overlooks the vineyard and the Brokenback range is ideal to cater for group bookings, tailored wine and food experiences available.
Our Wine and Food matching lunches are inspired by the Laureti’s family tradition of gathering weekly at Nonna’s to celebrate life’s simple pleasures of enjoying good food and great wine. Held each Sunday, you will be guided by our wine expert through our featured wine flight which is presented in premium Plumm stemware and served with matching dishes prepared by our chef. See our website for monthly featured experiences.
We’re re-releasing our 2021 single suitcase Italian wines of which we have three of them sure do Alano y Barbara and sagrantino almost an ABC nearly an ABC uh we thought it’s a good opportunity to grab a glass grab a bottle of each and see how these wines
Are traveling so let’s go through these wines individually have a bit of a look see what we think yep so first we have the AL they only get better with age and that’s what’s important here these wines are stunning when this Alano first went to bottle it was bright purple florals it
Was really pretty and delicate now it’s got a bit of age on it that delicacy is still there but it’s a bit richer it’s got that red current of raspberry going on in it the Tannon isn’t overpowering so it’s still very easy to drink summer winter whenever all year round it’s a
Really pretty wine it’s definitely starting to show that slightly more Savory character than it did obviously when it was bottled and it a little bit more useful was primary front fruit now that’s still there uh it’s certainly no wilting flour but you can still you can
Start to see that texture and the t com out a little a bit of time now the Alano is a volcanic variety it comes from the south of Italy Basilica to Camp that sort of area and what these volcanic varieties do is they go into the bottle
And they look fresh and they look pretty straight away and then with time they are really well known for just getting better and better with age and this is just really fitting into its shoes it’s coming a long way it looks really it’s good it’s more balanced than what it was
Before you know that that prettiness of fresh fruit previously was very attractive and um but not so much of a LSU it wasn’t whole is the thing perfect um way of explaining it it was pretty but it wasn’t 100% there just like Brad um now with a little bit of age it
Really has started to get bigger and better and stronger and we’re really happy to see it evolved that color is stunning um it clearly has a few more years left in it too so we’re keen to see how this keeps on going Yep looks good next one next one all right up next
Guys we have the Barbara now Barbara is quite a common Variety in Australia these days you’re seeing it left right and center it’s gain massive traction huge popularity and there’s a reason for that it’s a alterate grae variety that’s not alternate yeah exactly right like
Tempo now as well true yeah it’s uh I guess a good way to relate it to anything would be and don’t kill me this the shz of Italy it’s um it is really big and juicy it has that nice Red Berry flavor red fruit very similar to Hunter
Valley shz in that style um it’s light it’s crunchy it’s got that nice midweight sort of palette um but it still has a hell of a lot to deliver which is really exciting uh mid pallet really sticks out it’s juicy and Rich and mhm like the Aliano that we tried before
You can definitely see that this one wi Stone to come into its Groove it’s more balanced it comes up with this slightly textural spicy character and then it’s just this Rich core of Plum and black current absolutely after a rack of Golds and Silvers last year in the awards
Circuit um I’m really Keen to see how these go in the wine shows across Australia to see what that Evolution looks like in the eyes of Judges consumers everyone so it’ll be really cool to see where these are sitting now um that one’s just yum I don’t think we
Need to talk too much more about that because it’s just drinking fantastically it’s juicy it’s approach you can describe without actually tasting it put that with some food and or even just by itself it is more approachable uh than what I was expecting I was expecting it
To be a bit more musly and and fleshy in the Tannon um Department in comparison to that mid pallette but it’s definitely stitched itself together that’s looking good nice again that color looks really nice as well the flavors are fresh the acid it’s bright you can see it still
Has a good few years to it too so alono Barbara Saga all have a lot of life left in them I’m impressed I like it 2021 single suitcase sagrantino is the third wine that we produced in this series it is the biggest and boldest of
The lot my pet name for it is the kunara cab sa of Italy it is a monster it’s big it’s juicy it’s musly there there’s no messing around with this one if you’re a fan of Big Reds think our Bluegrass cab think our reserves if you’re that’s what
You like to drink this is the wine it’s it’s just brilliant it’s big and chewy and monstrous it’s certainly uh a more of an assault on the senses to uh use a term it’s big and rich and it’s much more drying and it the tannin are persistent it’s a much bigger wine if
You want something to just drink by itself on the table without food then the Aliano and the barar is where the action is but if you are having a a heavy meal or alternatively you’ve already had the meal and you’re going into heavy cheeses and stuff like that
That’s where this stino uh fits in the mold of these three wines would you agree with that abely yeah I mean what we got to remember about stino it is the highest Tannon content highest antioxidant of any great variety so yeah really healthy for you yeah absolutely
Um it actually balances the there’s no heart tick on there we might need drawn on with liquid chalk um yeah it look it’s a big powerful wine and that high tan and high antioxidant content in it is what allows it to age it’s just going to continue to develop and develop and
Develop those flavors will continue to jump out of the glass it’s really leaning into that some people have heard the word tobacco leaf or um brown sugar really that nice charred Oak character as well um BR sugar without the sweetness if you can imagine that like molasses that’s probably the best way to
Put it um really dark dark fruit characters dark cherries dark plums dates that sort of thing it has a lot going for it and it has a long way to continue improving as well it will only get better from here which is really exciting to makees like that all three
Of these wines certainly have a good amount of life ahead of them now how long that will be we we don’t know yet there that long Life 3 years 5 years 10 years well let’s be honest there’ll be none left after 3 years we’ll probably have drunk it all that’s
Um but these wines are they’re setting in good Steed for for some time in your seller so if you were lucky enough to take delivery of some of these wines last year and you still have them I would encourage you to open them and try them again uh cuz they will have changed
Since you last bought some absolutely alternatively if you’ve already drank them or you’re new to sadas Creek and you haven’t tried these wines then I’d employ you to come to the cell door or jump on the website and take the opportunity to add some of these to
Either your dinner table uh or to your seller so during the month of March and April for 2024 we’re re-releasing our 2021 single suitcase wines and we’re also releasing our brand new 2022 nebiolo so you we’ll have the opportunity to uh pop all four of these Wines in your seller alternatively if
You wanted to to come to the cellor here in the hunter Valley and taste these wines uh with some uh food matching and have an enjoyable day out or weekend here in the hunter Valley uh we’d encourage you to do that because hey that’s what it’s all about so here’s to
Sadas Creek single suitcase Italian series cheers