It’s amazing how much flavour good winemakers can extract from white grapes without recourse to oak if the site is special and yields are kept low. This wonderful Pecorino (nothing to do with the cheese of the same name) from Federico Faraone’s Collepietro vineyard has lovely pear and apple flavours, racy acidity, some skin tannins from cryo-maceration and appealing texture from ageing on fermentation lees. Fresh, intense and full of character.
White Varietal: Pecorino
2013 Collefrisio, Vignaquadra, Abruzzo
( £13.50, 13.5%, Dvine Cellars )An impressive Pecorino from the Frisa hills of the Abruzzo, this shows that you don’t need wine to make a tasty white. Peachy and just off-dry, it’s got bags of flavour, bright acidity and a taut, minerally finish.
2011 Contesa Pecorino, Colline Pescaresi, Umbria
( £8.95, 13%, The Wine Society )A delicious, great value white from Umbria, with fresh, almost savoury fruit notes, crisp minerality and a hint of grape skin bitterness on the finish. A white wine that works best with food, possibly even with the cheese of the same name.