AARON and Alison Mercer's brand has made a fascinating element of alternative variety wines and it's now ventured further into uncharted waters by releasing a picpoul - a white dubbed the great gift to oysters.
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The $30 Mercer 2023 Picpoul Blanc comes from NSW vines at the O'Dea family's Windowrie vineyard at Cowra and is one of two other small plantings in South Australia at McLaren Vale and Adelaide Hills.
There's a remarkable story behind the Cowra picpoul, pronounced pik pol, and dates back to 2008 when Steve Feletti of the Moonlight Flat Oysters company at Batemans Bay went on a trip to France.
When visiting the tiny Mediterranean oyster village of Bouzigues on the coast of the Languedoc wine region, Steve discovered picpoul blanc wines and was immediately captivated.
"Two things struck me about the picpoul," Steve recalls, "first, it was a perfect sensory match with oysters and second, it appeared that no one in Australia's fine dining scene was aware of the variety."
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Grown since medieval times, the grape's French plantings were small-scale, totalling only 1455 hectares, but Steve Feletti asked French Pinet area grape grower Guy Bascou for vine cuttings to take back to Australia. Bascou obliged, providing wet newspaper-wrapped cuttings that Steve brought home and into quarantine for two years.
At the end of quarantine, which an excited Steve described as "like the birth of another child" the Feletti Borrowed Cuttings company formed a partnership with Jason O'Dea of the Cowra Windowrie vineyard to plant in 2013 the 1000 vines propagated from the French cuttings.
These made their first commercial wine in 2017, and now the Borrowed Cuttings, Windowrie Organic Wines and the Hunter-based Mercer, Saddler's Creek and Horner brands produce picpoul.
These five picpoul pioneers have formed Picpouliers of NSW group, which launched this week at a lunch at the Longshore Restaurant at Chippendale.
With a 2022 Hilltops Malbec, 2022 Orange Barbera Nouveau, 2023 Hunter Valley Vermentino and 2022 Hilltops Tempranillo Joven, the inaugural Mercer 2023 Picpoul Blanc is among a batch of current-release alternate variety wines at mercerwines.com.au and a pop-up cellar door in Wine House at Pokolbin.
Aaron, a graduate of Newcastle University Bachelor of Environmental Science and a University of Adelaide postgraduate oenology degree, is a veteran of 17 Hunter vintages, three in the US and one each in France, Canada and Germany.
WINE REVIEWS
'LIP-STING' REFRESHMENT
PRICE: $30
FOOD MATCH: oysters natural with black caviar
AGEING: four years
RATING: 4.5 stars
THE Mercer 2023 Picpoul Blanc certainly is a perfect match for oysters. In France the wines are called piquepoul, meaning "lip stinger" for their acidity, and this Aussie version has green-tinted straw hues, ginger blossom scents and crisp, zingy lime front-palate flavour. The middle palate displays Granny Smith apple, pear and gooseberry elements and the finish refreshes with mineral acidity.
FLAVOURSOME FULL MONTE
PRICE: $32
FOOD MATCH: veal saltimbocca
AGEING: six years
RATING: 5 stars
WITH 14% alcohol and glowing deep purple in the glass, the Mercer 2022 Montepulciano comes from a grape native to the Central Italian regions of Abruzzo and Marche. This one, from the NSW Central Ranges, has scents of raspberries and herbs and vibrant boysenberry front-palate flavour. The middle palate features Satsuma plum, bramble jelly, spice and savoury oak and a finish of minty tannins.
VIVACIOUS VERMENTINO
PRICE: $30
FOOD MATCH: Vietnamese spring rolls
AGEING: four years
RATING: 4.5 stars
THIS Mercer 2023 Vermentino is from a Corsican and Sardinian-origin variety to which Hunter vignerons have taken a shine and this wine is from the former Rosemount Roxburgh vineyard at Denman. The wine is light gold and has grassy scents and zesty kiwifruit front-palate flavour. The middle palate introduces lychee, lemongrass, nashi pear and gunmetal elements and the finish has steely acid.
