Andrea Bocelli brings Bocelli Family Wines to Australia
As far as celebrity wine launches go, this one was a low-key, family affair.
The Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli arrived early on Monday for his Melbourne wine lunch to launch Bocelli Family Wines, choosing to sit outside O'Connell's Hotel in South Melbourne taking in the sun and some antipasti with wife, Veronica, and young daughter, Virginia, before lunch.
He sipped still mineral water, no lemon. A glass of his family's Bocelli non-vintage prosecco was played with, held up to take in the aroma but not drunk. He rarely drinks when touring, he explained. But it was his birthday, he turned 56, so the odd sip of his Poggioncino 2011 sangiovese blend was taken later.
The man does enjoy his wine. He made that clear.
"I am very serious," he said, during one of his breaks during the lunch in which he sought refuge outside from the high noise levels of the invited crowd. Highly sensitive to sound, he confided that Melburnians were so much louder than his Sydney guests last week.
"First of all I love wine. Unfortunately, I can't drink it often but when I do, I drink very, very well."
The Bocellis have a long history with the grape. The family vineyard in Tuscany at Lajatico, 50 kilometres south-west of Florence, has been producing wine for almost three centuries and today Bocelli's younger brother Alberto and his wife, Cinzia, take care of its day-to-day running. Bocelli lived on the vineyard until he was 35. Today he lives closer to the sea at Forte dei Marmi. "It's good for my lungs."
With the death of his father, Alessandro, in 2000, the decision was made to lift wine quality, which is possibly why the family is now branching out to export into the US, China and now Australia. A new cellar is also about to be built.
"I don't produce wine for money. I produce for passion. I produce wines for the memory of my father," the tenor said. "He was proud of what he produced."
Hence, the flagship wine in the Bocelli portfolio is dedicated to Alessandro: "Terre di Sandro."
It is clearly the most serious, a charming 100 per cent sangiovese from the 2011 vintage with firm structure, boasting the scent of flowers and the flavours of the earth.
The Bocelli wine range is surprisingly extensive. Wines are made from the family estate as well as with a small group of partners. The non-vintage prosecco is made with the Trevisiol family in the Veneto region and plays up the grape's natural vivacious citrus qualities but comes with a high-ish level of residual sugar producing a wine with texture and great drinkability. Another sparkling non-vintage brut rose offers a drier contrast with delicate, red berries to the fore.
A 2013 sangiovese is a sweet, lolly bliss bomb of a wine with confection and fruits and no oak whatsoever. It is a wine made to please the broadest possible audience.
You'll have to search for the vintage on the front label of the Poggioncino sangiovese blend (with canaiolo, malvasia bianca and colorino grapes) but it's there, hiding on the back label. It's 2011. I'm told labeling will be updated and made clearer for Australian drinkers. The Poggioncino offers a step up in flavour, complexity and structure to the sangiovese with dark, dense earth, blackcurrant pastille and dried herbs and black cherry.
Most wines are estimated to sell for $20-$30 a bottle when an Australian wine importer is established. The Terre di Sandro will be $40-$50.
Andrea Bocelli will be meeting with prospective Australian importers in Melbourne today.