If variety is the spice of your life then the range of Village Belle wines should be on your red wine drinking menu.
The Belle is the Glug Wines home for wines outside the standard Barossa Valley choices of Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon and blends containing them.
We are interested in taste variations to the Barossa and Eden Valley core varieties and actively search for them. Many of the wines are not made by Glug, but are purchased one barrel at a time from small grower-makers we follow.
These vignerons are an adventurous lot and their desire to learn means they will try anything at least once. So, they become our source for the many alternative varieties that are now planted across the Barossa. They retain what they can sell while we are offered a barrel or two each vintage of varieties surplus to requirements.
We like their wine making attitude and since the first Village Belle of 2013 have bottled over 15 different varieties. Grenache though is a staple and we have offered 2013, 2016, 2017, 2020 and now this 2022. All different and from many different makers.
| The old Barossa, the port and sherry Barossa, was about Grenache as it reaches a high sugar content. The new Barossa was about Shiraz so Grenache with pushed to the side. A flickering revival began in the late 1980s and this has grown to save what remains of the old bush vines. Grenache is a Village Belle favourite and we have offered 2013, 2016, 2017, 2020 and now this 2022. |
Carignan is a Spanish, French, classic Mediterranean variety which has a long history in the Barossa and was used to make fortified wines. Heat and a long slow ripening period suit it best. The Barossa Valley may be its ideal home though by the time winemakers woke up to the merits of Carignan most had been grubbed out.
Currently this is my late afternoon sipping red. Less the big nose of Shiraz and more the fragrance of Grenache is the way to approach this variety.
Village Belle Barossa Valley Carignan 2021 $14 a bottle
