Atze’s Corner ‘The Mob’ 2017 Montepulciano

Have you tried a red wine made from Montepulciano lately? Montepulciano is an Italian red wine grape that typically produces a medium-bodied style red wine full of flavours of plums, cherries and spices. It is also known to make a very ‘pizza-friendly’ red wine. So definitely my kind of tipple!

Montepulciano is the 2nd most widely planted red grape in Italy after Sangiovese. It’s also worth noting that there is a town in Italy called Montepulciano, and the wine ‘Vino Nobile di Montepulciano’ is in fact made from Sangiovese not Montepulciano.

Here in Australia, if you see Montepulciano on an Australian-made red wine, it’s got to be made from the Monetpulciano grape variety though. Like this 2017 ‘The Mob’ Atze’s Corner Montepulciano from the Barossa Valley.

A big thank you to Atze’s Corner and the Wine Marketing Hub for sending over this sample for us to try. Especially because this is a pretty special wine.

In fact, only 250 dozen bottles were made of this wine which will cellar up until 2030! The name ‘The Mob’ comes from the group of sheep who the winery affectionately named ‘The Mob’ who squeezed through a hole in the vineyard fence and nearly ravished the whole plot of vines in their first year. However, three years later, the first crop of grapes to come from these sturdy vines were second to none. So maybe Atze’s Corner owe some thanks to The Mob 😉

The wine spends 16 months in 3rd and 4th fill mix of French and American oak barrique (225 litre) barrels to give subtle hints of oak and soften out the raw tannins.

So what did we think of The Mob’s work? After an hour in the decanter, here’s what we jotted down:

It’s a juicy dark cherry/black currant colour in the glass. Nice and deep. On the nose it’s got vibrant spiced berries, vanilla custard and dark chocolate with almonds. It smells so good! While in the mouth black plums and currants come through with hints of coffee and a nice mouth-puckering finish. Another slice of pizza and glass please!

This wine was sent to me direct from the Wine Marketing Hub as a sample, I was under no obligation to post about it.

All opinions are based on my own taste buds. Wine is subjective & always evolving, so make sure you drink what you enjoy!