A perfect white for the summer

Matthew Jukes' pick this week is a desperately beautiful Greco di Tufo made by one of the star wineries in the region.

Matthew Jukes
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published
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2015 Feudi di San Gregorio, Greco di Tufo, Campania, Italy (£19.99, Wimbledon Wine Cellar, 020-8540 9979; £15.95, Hailsham Wine Cellars, 01323-441212; WineDirect.co.uk).

There is something about the summer which, no matter where I am in the world, makes me want to grab a few bottles of white wine from the Amalfi Coast in southern Italy. Campanian whites, made from fiano, falanghina and also greco, possess a unique quality that is not found in wines from anywhere else in the world.

These white grapes are all exotically but discreetly perfumed like a moment of exquisite scent caught on a breeze. Stone fruit notes and wild herb and flower aromatics permeate your senses, but this initial exuberance is cut with dramatic, focused minerality. Dry, refreshing and stern, it is this knicker-snapping acidity that makes these wines so attractive on a sweltering summer's day.

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I venture that this character is borne from the volcanic soils in which these vines are planted. Most are on their own rootstocks as opposed to being grafted, because the dreaded Phylloxera parasite cannot survive in these conditions. This seems to mainline volcanic tension into these thrillingly alluring wines.

My pick this week is a desperately beautiful Greco di Tufo made by one of the star wineries in the region it is sure to satiate all of your mid-summer desires in one ice-cold sip.

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

Matthew Jukes
Matthew Jukes

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.

 

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