Unfussy Wine Enthusiasts | Wine Reviews & Articles

As we go through our roster of wines from the 2014 NSLC Port of Wines Festival we get to try wines that stood out on the day.  The Italian table was a bit of a hit and miss group of wines wrapped up with a lot of really nice but expensive Amarones and Barolos.  This Sicilian wine came in at the middle of our price point at $21.79 which is a little high for Nero d'Avola but this is a nice wine.  According to Wikipedia this grape is the most important grape for the island at the tip of the boot of Italy. In the glass this wine is a lighter bodied red which is typical of this grape.  It is very purple in colour and in the glass you see it has a slight transparency for a darker red.  Again this is typical of the grape. The nose is very smokey and has a strong leather sensation when you breathe deeply.  There is a very plummy undertone to things and it makes it an enticing smell.  Really quite nice. Nero has Pinot No...

This is yet another selection from the 2014 NSLC Port of Wines Festival.  We didn't get to a lot of the Australia table overall but there were some highlights and we felt like this wine was one of them.  Australia gets a lot of attention during the show with very drinkable and palate friendly wines but for a few years we didn't feel like they deserved the hype.  We found a lot of over ripe and hot wines with too much jam in their reds and over-oaked whites.  We think Aussie wineries are getting the message that some jam and oak are great but too much doesn't keep people coming back for more. This Cabernet has a deep purple verging on black colour in the glass. The wine is very thick in the glass though the legs on the swirl are super speedy. It looks like a rich, thick luscious wine. The nose on this wine is pure strawberry jam. We're wary of that jam smell but it is combined with blackberries and black cherries and is quite attract...