Yangarra Ovitelli Blanc 2023
- 96
- $65
- Drink by: 2025-2030
Share
Some wines transcend their varietal makeup. While the technical details—winemaking choices, percentages, élevage—may matter to some, they dissolve entirely in the sheer experience of tasting. This is one of those wines. As I sit with it now, the specifics fade, and what remains is the ethereal bliss of an exceptional white. Notes of pineapple core, nashi pear, and starfruit emerge first. Yellow fruit pulp, dry sand, and pumpkin shells seem to scatter across the floor. There’s also a savoury edge—wholewheat flour, hay, and fennel seed.The palate delivers, not just in fruit, but in complexity—olive brine salinity and the savouriness of pickled winter melon elevate this from a simple sipping wine to a perfect pairing for poached chicken, pork rillettes, or three-cheese ravioli. The acidity, though a passenger to the driving fruit, carries enough energy to keep the wine bright and vibrant from start to finish. Some kernel texture ensures that it will age well over the next 3-5 years as well.
Shanteh cut her teeth at Sydney’s Award-Winning Quay restaurant where she worked for over a decade and was Head Sommelier from 2018 till 2022. She has been nominated for the Good Food Guide Sommelier of the Year award on three occasions and claims that her experience as a Len Evans scholar as one of the highlights of her career. Shanteh hosts her own weekly podcast ‘Over A Glass’ with the Deep in the Weeds Network and spends her time writing for various publications and judging at numerous wine shows across the country.
