Tertini Wines and The Little Rascal

The final post covering my recent trip to the NSW Southern Highlands, but my no means the post of least 'blog-worthiness'!

I first came across Tertini Wines when I was browsing the stalls at the Tulip Time festival in Bowral, and Mr Ladybird and I liked their wines so much that we decided to pay their winery a visit during our stay. I'm no wine expert, but I know when I like something, and I do like supporting small businesses when I visit new places :)
Tertini Wines is a small, award winning winery dedicated to producing premium wines. Their winery is located close to Berrima in the Southern Highlands, a cool climate region. We arrived at the cellar door in the mid afternoon ready to try some lovely wine and to learn form about the vineyard and their products. We were greeted by Sandy and Robert of Tertini Wines who couldn't have been more friendly and obliging as we sipped our way through their range of wines.

The range of whites and reds is beautiful, but the star of the show is the Arneis, which turns out to be one of the world's rarest wines in the world!

As noted in the picture above, 'Arneis' means little bugger or rascal in Italian, and it's called this for a good reason. It is genetically predisposed to being is a very temperamental type of grape to grow - the conditions have to be just right, and its perfect picking time cannot be predicted. Tertini is one of around only 20 vineyards in Australia (and one of around 60 internationally) that produces Arneis. And thank goodness! Because the little bugger is difficult to produce, the Italians almost gave up on it in the 50s and 60s when there were only 2 or 3 known wineries still producing Arneis. Recently, however, a resurgence of interest in new varieties has saved Arneis from almost extinction.

This wine is delightful - light on the palate and beautifully crisp... it is so very easy to drink. Heck - I'm no wine buff so I lack the lingo to articulate how nice this wine is, but I will say that it's one of the nicest wines I've tried in a long time :) I'd say it's an ideal drop to accompany a light summer lunch or picnic. The 2009 Reserve is around $35 and the 2009 Barrel Fermented Reserve is $40. You can purchase Arneis at the Tertine Wines cellar door or via Tertini's website.

The little rascal's multi-award winning cousins, the Rieslings, are also worth a mention. The 2005 Riesling is a multi-award winning wine including a gold medal winner at the Tri Nations Wine Challenge. The 2008 Riesling is definitely a rising star too. It was very recently awarded a gold medal in the 2010 NSW Wine Awards and has also be honoured through its inclusion in the Top 40 NSW Wines list.
After trying the wines, Robert gives us a sneak peak behind the scenes of the winery and we see where the barrels are stored and where the processing takes place.

I think this is a label to keep an eye on, especially if reviews of experts like James Halliday are anything to go by.. Apart from the Arneis, Tertini's lovely Rieslings and Pinot Noirs are available at a number of boutique retailers in Sydney, including:

• Glebe Liquor
• Camperdown Cellars, Darlinghurst
• Lugarno Cellars
• Abbotsford Cellars

Tertini Wines Cellar Door
Kells Creek Rd (off Wombeyan Caves Rd)
Mittagong NSW
(07) 4878 5213
http://www.tertiniwines.com.au/