Whenever we can, we take our little grill out to the woods. This sounds idyllic but the exercise is often fraught with problems that have nothing to do with bad weather — which is also a problem — ranging from the time A. threw my keys down a rubbish chute by accident and me and a friend had to lower him in to get them, to the time we thought we’d grabbed a pet nat, popped the crown and saw a cork. I biked home to get an opener while he started the grill, then sat out the sudden storm under a tree while I sat out the hour on the couch.
This time I had his keys.
But it doesn’t always go wrong and sometimes we even grill in summer. This was one of those beautiful July times last year and if you can never say never then you probably can’t say 'always' either, but Frank Cornelissen's Contadino will always remind me of summer grills gone right**.
"Contadino" ’14 is your ticket to a different, very neon galaxy. To a place where blood orange glitter rains fall on mountain sage and dried carnations and you're inflatable raft floating fast down fiery flows of lemonade lava sipping icy fire water from a watermelon skin cooler through curly straws with an electric storm raging overhead. Equal parts glou glou as an ancient soul.
"Contadino" ’14 is your ticket to a different, very neon galaxy. To a place where blood orange glitter rains fall on mountain sage and dried carnations and you're inflatable raft floating fast down fiery flows of lemonade lava sipping icy fire water from a watermelon skin cooler through curly straws with an electric storm raging overhead. Equal parts glou glou as an ancient soul.
Tasting notes:
Looks like jungle punch which, for the record, is always a turbid neon blood-orange colour. Smells like rhubarb left out in the sun and muddled raspberries. The sips start wild with not-quite-finished fermenting flavours and front-loaded acidity and a CO2 spritz on the lips before tuning in to sharply delineated morello cherries balanced by the high-tones of a herby, wild strawberry finish. Who says neon can’t be serious?
//
"Contadino" 2014
Frank Cornellisen
Field-blend of 85% Nerello Mascalese plus local varietals from his old-vine vineyards: Nerello Capuccio, Minella Nera, Alicante Bouschet, Minella Bianco
Mt. Etna north valley, Sicily
**Update: I stand corrected. The 2015 did not remind me of grilling.
Ok I'm done now.
