Are Offbeat White Grapes Worth Your Money 720p

As a salesperson for Unicozello, I spend a lot of my time out on the road talking about alternate varieties. Usually it'll be something like Fiano. This week we've got six other white alternate varietal wines that are, I think, probably made in Australia because it wouldn't make sense to call them alternative if they were from the places that they're meant to be from. So in theory, this is gonna be a cakewalk. We're gonna absolutely nail this or my next pay review is gonna be a struggle because they're gonna realize that I actually don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to alternative white varietals. So prayers up for you, boy. Let's see how we go tasting these six alternate whites. Welcome to Bottle Shop. My name's Henry. Let's get drinking. We have alternate reality white pack. So we're gonna taste through this pack and see what the boys and team have put together over there. Wine number one. Generic white wine sort of color to it in the sense that it does have color to it. It's filtered. Oh, this one here, man, it's got a cool sort of almost like reductive riesling note. It's kind of lime zest and like white flowers. Smells really cool. This kind of smells like, like a compact coupe. The seats thereof from like, I don't know, 2012, 13. Like it's been driven a little bit. It's not brand new. It hasn't got new car smell. Very yummy. Very full. I say it's oily. It's kind of got a little bit more oiliness than I would have anticipated. Fresh, salty, high acid, easy drinking. I'm going Vermentino. If you like your sour lemon based lollies, you're going to be into this sort of wine. So here I would probably drop around about $32 a bottle and I'd buy six to 12. I feel it's in that sort of Vermentino-y kind of vibe. Lean, fresh, vibrant. And for 25 odd bucks, I'd buy three. Not bad. Oily fish and chips, that'd be absolutely ripping with. I would say that that's probably going to be around the $40 mark. I'll have six of those. It's a very pleasant wine. Pretty delicate, man. Very elegant wine here. Very elegant. Oh, lovely. Again, like a savory, leasy kind of thing as well. Smells like a woman who'd break my heart. If you've ever tried much Friulano, I imagine you've grabbed that flavor. It's sort of, it can be quite like tropical, but then you've kind of quietened it right down. You've really toned it right down. It's operating at like two out of 10. And then you've just made it pristine and elegant at the same time. Very cool. Very cool example. Really fresh. It's like jasmine, lemongrassy, vibrancy. I really love this. This is cool. It doesn't smell like spray deodorant. It smells like perfume or cologne. So pretty and fun. Slight amount of florals, slight amount of spice over here. This is a really good wine. Yum. I love this chalkiness that's going on here. Really crispy, like a perfect green apple that's ready to be crunched into. Yeah. Like lemon pithy, little bit of pineapple. Where would I want to be drinking that? It's not like that really puckering acid that makes it go like straight up Clare Valley Riesling fire sort of stuff. I'd say that's 55 and I'll have another six of those. Light bodied and like crispy as well. I like this a little bit more than the first one. I'm on six. I'm happy to pay 28 bucks for this. I would hope it comes in at about 25 to 28. Wow. It's a really good wine. Wine number three is Golden. Lovely and golden. Interesting. Cool color. Gold's entered the chat. Line that up with that. Very expensive. Definitely not fake gold ring that I'm always wearing. Same sort of color. Oh, wow. It smells like dill pickles. Oaky dill pickle. Yeah. It's got this lovely like varnishy, you know, fine grain wood oiliness to it. It's a faint, a faint little hint of urinal cake on the nose for that one. This style of wine, it's actually really good. Like the oak is, the oak is really cool here. And I think actually the oak kind of makes it really cool. Outside of that, I think it would be a little bit lean, a little bit insipid. Lovely kind of like orange oil. Slightly creamy, but this is a nice little phenolic grip there as well. Savory food, begging for cheese, some kind of stinky cheese, some kind of like, you know, aged soft cheese or something like that would be awesome. Maybe that's where the urinal cake thing's coming from. There's much more mouth feel with that than the first two wines. So this is getting into that more textural style of white wine. So I'm going to say that that's going to be a bargain at 35 bucks. And so we'll go another six. Would go 32 bucks a You could convince me. You could decant this into a bottle of like really old Merceau and convince me that it's really, really old Merceau. I think it's a pretty cool fun wine. I'm going like Northern Italian, like Robola Gialla. And I think this is great. I paid $32 and I bought three. This is a bit of a ripper. Really, really cool. Back into, it's probably between. It's not quite golden. It's also not pale. It's got like a little bit of color. Simple, pale and lean and fresh. Oh, fun. Okay. Reductive. A little bit farty. A little hint of reduction. Oh, reductive. Oh, it's immediately screaming Savignon to me. There's one thing about reduction that I think freaks people out is everything that's reductive must be bad. And like, yeah, but Chablis exists. So what up? You know, St. Joseph exists, but what up? There are some great varieties that handle reduction. I think really, really well in its stride. And Fianna was definitely one of those. It's closer to Chardonnay than it is to Riesling on the nose. Yum, yum, yum, yum. Salty, fresh acidity is like looking really, really cool. And great, great acidity there as well. I think this is a beautiful little Savignon. Cheesy, like tasty cheddar sort of vibe. It's not a style of wine that I particularly reach for. I tend to like things to either be like a little bit sharper, cleaner and refreshing. Yummy. A bit of heat, not too sure on the waxiness, but it definitely has an oiliness to it. So I'm going to, I'm written down Fianna. Really lovely, slight, like a under-ripe pear tannin. I am all about it. I'd only pay like 38 bucks and I'm 35, 38, and I'd buy 12. I'd absolutely buy 12. This is, this is my favorite wine so far quite comfortably. I think this is delicious. I'll only have three of them. I reckon that'll be 55 bucks though. Therefore, it's probably come from somewhere that it's hard to get here. So it's going to cost a little bit more money. 28 to 32 and 12. I like reduction in textural white. Wine number five is golden again, orange wine. Yeah. It's like on the, you see them in hospitals when you've been in there for a little while and it's like the color chart of how hydrated you are based on your little excursions to the bathroom. That's almost a whole Barocca. Yum. I really like this. Yeah. Oxidative kind of character there as well. But skin contact, it's quite pulpy. It reminds me of, like mum's a massive gardener. It's really sweet. She's always really excited about the new flowers that are in her garden. And she'll bring me one that I've never heard of and be like, smell this. And it's like, smells really nice. And she's like, you could sound genuine next time. I'm like, it does smell nice. I just, burnt rubber, reduction, like burnout, reduction. This doesn't strike me as being like stupidly appealing unless at an elevated price point. And there's like complexity on the palate that I'm looking forward to be able to carry that aroma. That's a fruit juice box. Oh, yum. And great acidity too. Oh, spicy. Cool. Cool. Like a degree of complexity here, a degree of maturation here. All of these things are like ticking a lot of boxes. Quite scrumptious. That's cool. Reminds me of like pub squashy sort of energy like that. A wine that focuses on being tasty. It's not something that I would necessarily go with food. If anything, it might be with a cheese board, just like a little pre-game or pre-meal snack type deal. I'm a bit non-committal for price point. So I'm going to go like 28 bucks and I $35 and I'd buy six. It's got the fun kind of like tropical cocktail kind of energy to it. I think that's just such a blast. I love it. Good stuff. 38 bucks. And I reckon that's my favorite of the bunch so far. Back the truck up. Let's get a Daz. And then wine number six is a pale white wine yet again. Reminds me of Freeliner. Reminds me a little bit of some types of like high-toned Albariños as well. Grenache Blanc maybe. That smells fun. That smells like off-dry-ish Riesling to a certain degree. It's got this lovely kind of fresh vanilla yogurt character to it. It's very refreshing. When should you drink this? All the time. Yummy wine. Very broad, lower acidity, very appealing, very fun. Oh, that's delicious. I'm going to go with Aligote. I forget what the French word for this is, but where they serve you little bits of basically vegetables to dip into other ----. That stuff. That's what this reminds me of. Smells like weather-resistant wine, this one. It's in the Pinot Gris Riesling space, but probably not quite as pointy as some of those wines. It's a more relaxed version of it. $30. Optimistically, give me six of them. It's got this kind of great mid-palate fleshiness. It reminds me of some Aligotes that I've tried, and I love this vanilla yogurt kind of character that's running through. I'd happily pay $32 and I would buy 12 of this. I really like these. $35 and like six bottles. Cheers. Really high-quality wines, and these ones are going to be bargains, and I think they show that really, really well. In terms of going through these and saying interesting things, I'm just throwing out that some of them smell like tasty cheese. Can't wait to find out what they are, who's making them, and what the fellas think of them. Oh, we're recording. Cool. Right. Sorry. Hi, everyone. How are we doing? We are drinking alternative white varietals today. Fellas, you got any shouts on these? I really didn't even bother going too much into varietals. I guessed five out of six varieties. Okay. Gut feeling is that these are Aussie wines being made with alternate styles? Maybe. Most of them. I would assume so, because then if it's like if it's- It's from the original place. If it's the original place, then is it alternative? Yeah, it's like do you call Chinese food Chinese food in China? No, it's just food sort of thing, so it wouldn't be alternative if you're having a Portuguese variety in Portugal. I reckon they're Aussie. Start with wine number one, I reckon. For me, there was something about this that smelled a little bit like honey crumpets. Don't know where that came from. Lees. A bit of lees. I can smell the crumpets, less so the honey. It was a little bit reductive on opening when I had a gander at it. Yeah, no, I think it's a reductively handled white wine. I think it's fermented very like inoxidated, like in inox vessels, like, you know, very neutral, reductive, you know, dry white. That I enjoy drinking. It's brain rot white. Brain rot white. Yeah, where it's just like it just puts your brain at neutral. It's like not the most thinky wine. It's just drinky wine. Drinky, no thinky. I'd have it with fish and chips. 100% exactly what I said. Vermentino. I don't think it's honey crumpets, but I was going to pay 40 bucks for it and I wanted six. I had 32 and I, you know what? This is new for me for Vermentino, six to 12. Okay. I was three for 25. Three for 25. All right, so we're all lower on the price point. Wine number one, that is $30. That is Vermentino, guys. Very nicely done. From Watervale, out in the Clare Valley. Very yummy. John O'Connor, working with the family vineyard and the alternatives on that, making some really good, affordable, easy drinking stuff with his partner, Megan. Yeah, in the right price point and that's very doable. Wine number two. Same thing, but I think just a little bit more interesting to me. I really like this. Oh, I've just seen you've written down Pickpool on that. That's a really good idea. That's a good shout too. It's a really good idea. I said of this wine that it's not the sort of wine that I'd expect to find in a pub because I think this is a little bit above pub wine, but it's also not in fine dining restaurants, so this is like commercial theater where they do like Disney stage productions. This might be on the bar. Yeah, that's where I'd kind of see it, but I really liked this wine. I drink a lot of this. I love that refreshment. It's really, really delicious. I think Pickpool's an exceptional shout. I think that's probably what it is. If this isn't my favorite, there's only one other that would be. 12 and 26. I loved it. Cool. I was 6 and 28. I ended up spending more money than you guys. I was 6 and 55. I hope this is relatively cool. That's strong. That's a strong showing. Again, I was going on the fact that you're at the theater. That is Grenache Gris from McLaren for 24 bucks. **** me. I mean, that's a challenging guess. I think we have had this before as well, and it's done pretty well. Grenache Gris, man, coming up in Australia in a big way. It's coming up globally. It's definitely globally relevant. It's one of those wines that can handle oak really well. This is a much more hyper lean example, but I would buy. I would buy again. So this is not Grenache Blanc. No. No. It's not Grenache Noir. It's Grenache Gris. Right. Yeah. Another one of those great mutations of one thing. Excellent. Fantastic. Much like Pinot, there's many mutations of the one variety. Yeah. Or the one species, rather. This is definitely one of those. Sense. I'll put that in my little black book to be able to identify it perfectly next time. Wine number three here. Yeah, it's pretty fun. I like this. Good fun, little textural, interesting little thing. It's not my favorite wine, but I had a good time with it. What do you got? Dill pickle. Oaked dill pickle. Did you say oaked dill pickle? Yeah, like when you grab dill pickles. So you fill the barrel with pickle, Brian, and put a whole bunch of cucumbers in that barrel. Yes. That's what you got right here. Oaked dill pickle. We should do that. It sounds good. We should do that. And I remember 6 to 12, I loved it. I thought it was so cool. I thought it was really scrumptious. That's ******* hilarious. I'm okay with this. I see the dill. I don't see the pickle, but I see the dill. It's like the dill brine thing and then the oak. Yeah. The oak element here I thought was really interesting. Dill is a really good note to pick up there. That's great. Warm origin, whites, textural thing, 6 for 35. I was 3 for 32, ribolla gialla. Oh, good shout. 6 to 12 for 32. I did never shout on variety. It's Ravensworth. Ravensworth. This is Gruner. The tumba rumba, Gruner Veltina. Veltina, I know. Yeah, no, interesting. Interesting. I haven't seen tumba rumba Gruner. Not done in this style either. Doesn't look particularly Grunery. Not overly, no. Very oxidated, very textural. It's cool. I like it. Wine number 4. This was my wine of the wine. Fiano. I went Fiano. I went Sabanian. Oh yeah, good. Good shout. Good shout. Sometimes white wines do this to me. I thought this smelled really cheesy. Like there was this... 100%. Yeah, no, there's like this cheese rind, reductive, cashew nut. Yeah, cashew nut's a really good shout. When I say reduction and cashews, I think Sabanian generally. That's my kind of like... So I don't know if it's going to be Sabanian, but that's my punt. But I really love this one. The cashew nut is so specific. Like it's so... It is. That's exactly what it is, you know. Very well done. Yeah, I said... Genuinely, when I was tasting this, I was like, it kind of smells like tasty cheese. And like, I really like salty peanuts and I really like creamy macadamias, but like bland cashews don't do heaps for me. So I ended up with three, but I thought it was going to be a little bit more expensive. I said $3.55. Hey, look, my mum sells nuts for a living now. So $12, $12.35. Good for the industry too. It's good for the industry. Big fan, big fan. Costs us, that's $38. Aligote. You know what's really annoying? Is that I made an Aligote call and it's not this wine. That's really upsetting. That sucks. Barney Flanders, I believe, is the winemaker here. Excellent producer out of the Mornington and making some really exciting stuff. This is one of the, I think now one of the country's great Aligotes based on what I've tasted so far. So when they came up with the concept for this label, so the label's got this cutout here and then it has a circle on the back, but they had to put the barcode on it at some point. So the circle doesn't line up with the hole. I don't like that. That's my only issue with that. Left of centre producer, man. Like, you know, let them do. But yeah, cool. Wine number five. This is my pick of the bunch actually. I can see that. Yeah, it's a good tropical party. I like it. It's like lemon squash from the pub. I enjoyed it. Not as much as I enjoyed everything else. I enjoyed all of these. Maybe a bit oxidised. Yeah. Not as oxidised, I don't get all that, but I mean like oxidised, the wine like starting to pinnacle on the back end of the palate. I didn't guess variety, but yeah, I love that kind of just papaya, pineapple, passion fruit, pulpy kind of orange oily thing. I really enjoyed this. I think it's delicious. Yeah, tropical punch. Magic number, 38 bucks. I was 35 and six. I wanted a dozen. 28 and three. 28 and three, dozen, six. I don't know, around the mark. A bit of Brash Higgins work here, mate. A bit of Shenan. Shenan. Yeah, there you go. Quite a few days on skins before being impressed with the ferment while Bara worked the village for one year. That makes complete sense looking at the wine, doesn't it? Check the packaging though, like it's pretty sexy. It's pretty sexy. That's very fun. There's a bit of like, Nana's picking a crud about that, but she's kind of nostalgic. We're talking about Shenan. It's an interesting thing. But yeah, Brash does a really good job with it. For 33 bucks, I think that's a good buy. Fun bit of sediment flying around the bottom as well. Wine number six. Is this your Aligoté call? This was my Aligoté call. Makes so much sense, dude. I really love the use of oak here. I think what's nice is that a lot of these alternative varieties, you don't see much oak use. I think there's this thing with like these alternates that it's like most of them end up coming from Italy or Spain and everyone thinks about them as unoaked and makes these really simple, lean, fresh whites. I like that there is use of Malo, use of oak and things like that to build texture. And I think the wine is really lovely. And so that's why I went Aligoté. Unless there's two Aligotés in the same pack, I really doubt. If it's not Aligoté, our historic punting has led us down the path of Grenache Blanc. Which is where I went to with this. If we've got a Grenache Green and Grenache Blanc in one lineup, poor my Lord. I went with Refreshing Easy White. So pretty comfortable with that as a guess. I could drink that all day. That's so yum. That is like day drinking session white wine. Oh yeah, 100%. So broad as well. Just mouth-filling. Drink, don't think. Six for 30. 12 for 32. Six for 35. $28. That is Fiano. Wow. Beautiful. Really good stuff. That's the best I've seen this wine. That is a very impressive wine. That is a beautiful take on Fiano. I can see the identity now as well, but the texture is beautiful here. Alex Girard, one of the absolute lords of Fiano in Australia. Ex-Coriol, so therefore ex-god of Fiano. Well, it's the continual god of Fiano that carries from winery to winery. But Coriol is godfather of the variety in the country. And this guy was there from the get-go. Amazing. This is the best. You're correct. This is the best I've ever seen this. Speaking of best of. I'm going Aligote from Garagiste. I really love that one. That was my favourite. I had 12 of that as well. You weren't. You were at three. Three, yeah. You offered 55 bucks, so you got some value. Yeah, and revisiting it, I do like a little bit more on first taste. But you guys also, both of you, like that Grenache Gris. That was your wine to line up, and that was one of Henry's favourites. I was big on the Grenache Gris, 12. I was six. Yeah, I spent 55 bucks on it. So we've got 12, 6, 6 for this. Yeah. 12, 6, 6 for this. 24, 27. I was 12 on that one as well. Yeah, 12, 6, 6. Done, done. I'm happy with that, dude. Honestly, looking at it again, it's super fun. 12, 6, 6. Ah, yeah. 24, 24, 24 plus three. We're wine people, not calculators. We really had to split the hair on that one. Yeah, no, but I think we loved them all. You know what's fantastic, ladies and gentlemen? You can buy this pack right now on Diff'rent Drop. Absolutely can. And also, finally, a bit of Aligoté that we really get around. Yeah, absolutely. Stoked. Champion Aligoté that it came through and won the lineup. That's great. Cheers, guys. Peace. We're back from Diff'rent Drop. We'll see you next week. Bye-bye.