An eruption of vinous joy

published 12 September 2014

2010 Ronc di Vico, Vicorosso,Colli Orientali del Friuli, Italy(£16.95, Vagabond, 020-7381 1717,www.vagabondwines.co.uk).

This wine is half-price. I am not supposed to divulge this, but you need to know that the following words are written about a wine which should cost over £30. There is no space here to explain why so just roll with it.

I tasted this wine with Sooper and Dog (those in the know will identify this elite wine agency) in late July. The stock is now in the UK so I can unburden myself of my incendiary knowledge. Prepare yourself for an eruption of vinous joy vicorosso is a merlot from a small, organically farmed, very cool, grand cru' site in Friuli.

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The inky colour, gob-smacking flavour intensity and staggering length remind me of top quality pomerols, snooty super-Tuscans and rare Napa merlots. I am not joking when I write these lofty comparisons.

In addition, this is a more perfectly balanced merlot than any bottle I have tasted from the southern hemisphere.

Insane as this sounds (I went back to the wine a hundred times to check I wasn't losing my marbles), this is a landmark wine at a loopy price. It will also age well for a further four or five years on account of its mind-blowingly classy tannins. I must go and lie down now.

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year (www.matthewjukes.com).

Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’. He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner.

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy. His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.