Varney Wines Triplo

Alan Varney has dwelled on this wine for several years  – and it definitely repays that focus. You’ll notice the lack of a vintage year attached to this wine, because there are, in fact, three vintages within. And to nail the Triplo title, three varieties as well. So it goes: 2021 Nebbiolo (45%), 2022 Sagrantino (30%), and 2023 Montepulciano (25%). An all-Italian origin, SA grown trio, the Nebbiolo from the Saturno Longview Vineyard in Macclesfield, a much respected Adelaide Hills source of the variety, while the other two elements come from the Lopresti vineyard in McLaren Vale’s Whites Valley vineyard in the Sellicks district. Italian upon Italian upon Italian. The Nebbiolo rules the wine’s sensibilities: dark red rose fragrance, red currant and cut pomegranate seeds and pith, fruit and earthiness, sweet/sour/woody with all the expected tannins of all three varieties, the spice of Sagrantino, and freshening of the more youthful Montepulciano within the multi-vintage matrix. It’s clever, thoughtful, compelling and unique – points for all of it.

Tony Love

Journalist at Winepilot

Tony is best known for his 10 years as News Corp’s National Wine Writer, with weekly columns in major metropolitan mastheads throughout Australia including The Adelaide Advertiser, The Sydney Daily Telegraph and the Melbourne Herald Sun. He continues to write feature articles and columns for all the major Australian wine media publications. Tony has also worked as a restaurant reviewer, section editor, book editor, digital content provider, journalism teacher and was named Wine Communicators of Australia 2018 Legend of the Vine (SA). Find out more about Tony at tonylove.com.au

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