2022 Chalmers Aglianico Col Fondo

The Chalmers family imported the first Aglianico vines into Australia back in 2001, and produced a first Col Fondo wine in 2019. 100% Aglianico grown on the Chalmers vineyard. The soils are of basalt, shale, sandstone, dolerite, quartz and limestone at an elevation of 210-225m. The must was fermented with indigenous yeast in old barriques. The wine was tiraged after five months and is not disgorged, meaning that the lees remain in the bottle. This vegan-friendly was made with no additions apart from a pinch of sulphur.

In colour it is a bit like the Chalmers Rosato, the 2022 is more intense in colour purely due to vintage conditions.  2021 was picked early when physiological ripeness was achieve whereas 2022 was a lot cooler so hung out there for another 3-4 weeks.  In turn the skins were a bit thicker, and a more intense colour was extracted during pressing.

When first cracked open, there’s definitely a healthy amount of reductive funky lees, when this blows off it shows all that lovely wild strawberry, rhubarb and pink grapefruit notes.  The palate is all Aglianico, savoury, elegant persistent grippy texture, bright driving acid line and a bit like what the 2021 was showing last week at the trade days, that freeze dried raspberry crunch.  Given what the 2022 vintage gave us, it certainly shows a slightly more serious aspect with still plenty of fun and joy to be had. – Chalmers Family