Our Wedding & Function Facility

Over the winter and early spring we've been very busy in the cellar door and gardens building a wedding ceremony/event section overlooking "Lago di Lusso", constructing a large hothouse and surrounds to propagate and ripen all our own herbs and vegetables (courtesy of a great range of heirloom Italian and French seeds we've sourced) and improving substantially the winery space to cater for up to 120 people. If you're thinking of celebrating an anniversary or even getting married, please remember that di Lusso Estate members can use reward points for a function, and benefit from the membership 10% discount!

A Seasonal Report, Upcoming Events & October Specials

It's been too long since my last post but now I can fill you in on all thats new at the di Lusso Estate.

Mudgee has experienced its best winter rainfall for at least a decade, and there is plenty of evidence everywhere one looks at di Lusso and throughout Mudgee!

With exception of one frost "event" in late September, our vineyard is looking good – with budburst well and truly over. Olives adore good winter rainfall, and are looking their best for some time. With flowers beginning to form everywhere, we just hope that we don't experience the hot November winds that were so damaging last season. Our figs – being smarter than either grapes or olives (just), are greening steadily now.

This weekend, di Lusso Estate will be at the Mudgee Food and Wine Fair. Don't miss out Sunday 17th October at the International College of Management in Manly ("Saint Pats" to the locals).

Commencing at 10am, visitors can meet wine makers and staff of most of Mudgee's leading wine producers at that beautiful location. The food part of our business – Cucina di Lusso – will also be there, having been chosen to provide a "Mudgee Regional Tasting Plate" comprising produce from our region. We'll offer tasting plates of either Mudgee lamb from Botobolar or incredible organic beef sausages from Tinja Organics, each served with regional vegetables, Mudgee baked sourdough bread, di Lusso fig pastes and vinaigrette, and High Valley cow's feta.

Bring a rug and some water, a sun hat and Sunday newspaper, and head on down (or up!) to Manly for the day. We'll help to make it worth your while with a few SPECIAL OFFERS to both current Comune Members and those joining on the day!

Further down the track, we'll once again be staging our Australia Day Season of Italian Cinema – from Wednesday 26th January to Saturday 29th. Further details will be provided closer to the date.

Specials in October are:

Mudgee Wine and Food Fair at Manly - Membership attracts a 50% discount on our Regional Tasting Plate, a 15% discount on wine (normally 10%).

Visitors to Mudgee in December and January - Qualify for a free course (pizza or a la carte) with every case purchased, plus 15% (normally 10%) discount on our products.

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Visit our website: www.dilusso.com.au

The Essence of Italian Food and Wine

I'm quite sometimes asked define the difference between Italian varietal wine and other wines. Sometime ago I wrote the following piece; it at least provides AN answer (that makes some sense to a non-Italian like myself!)

To a large extent, the uniqueness of Italian varietal wine stems from two unique features..
Firstly, until 150 years ago, what we today call Italy was a multitude of separate kingdoms, dukedoms, regions, sub-regions, cities and villages. (And even now, the country is quite fiercely tribal!). Trade between these was sporadic; interrupted by ‘turf’, and made difficult by geography and by dialect. Communities guarded jealously their own produce – including wine styles and food styles– from their neighbours. And they are never tired of extolling the virtues of their own above all others!
And secondly, Italians, more than almost any country on earth, enjoy lots of wine with their food. At the same time, they prefer food to wine by some distance. As many Italian’s would put it, “the chief purpose of wine is to make our favourite dishes taste even better!”
So Italian varietal white wine styles tend (there are always exceptions, but not too many) to be simple, unoaked, and acid-crisp from using early-picked fruit. Red wines styles are made so as not to overwhelm food - they are mostly medium or even light bodied, savoury (rather than fruit-driven, to match the Italian’s love for savoury meat and vegetable dishes) and made with good acid firmness. And almost all wines are light in alcohol, so as not to distract the consumer from the main game – food!
So in Piedmont for example – where many regional dishes have a Francophone richness (the Savoy connection), favourite red wines like Barbera and Dolcetto are a combination of uncommon fruitiness and relatively high acidity– perfect to match ‘sweeter’ cooking tastes and to cut through those béarnaise sauces and quite fatty bollito misto (mixed meat) dishes.
A good example of the coming together of ‘local knowledge’ and allowing wine to support food, not compete with it.
There’s a saying in Italy…”Don’t try and outsmart the village sommelier!” Why bother?

Believe it or not....Valentine's Day is Italian?

Way back in history, when Rome was in its infancy, there was a society of pagan priests called the Lupercalia. Each year, on February 14, the Luperci priests gathered on the Palantine at the cave of Lupercal (where Romulus and Remus were nurtured by wolves).

Fast forward to 270AD, to the reign of Claudius the Cruel. Claudius, when having some difficulty finding enough willing soldiers to fight his wars, ordered that no marriages should be celebrated and that all engagements should be broken off immediately.

Valentine, a very popular local Roman priest, refused to obey the edict; instead, he carried out ceremonies in secret.

For his disobedience, Valentine was cast into gaol by Claudius, where he died. His huge band of supporters were devastated, vowing never to forget his courage.

Many centuries later, and while the memory of St Valentine was still fresh, the authorities simply slotted in Valentine’s Day into the spot – 14th February – where the Luperci (now extinct) used to celebrate their movement.

Sounds true...?

A Tango First for Mudgee!

There's something about the Argentines that Australia admires. They're passionate sportsmen and women - and give us a real run for our money in tennis and rugby, and increasingly in wine!
But in Mudgee from Saturday 27th March to Monday 29th, all competitive instincts will be put aside as Tangofestcomes to town!
Tangofest is a yearly annual Tango Festival that continues to gain momentum from its origins five years ago in Buenos Aires. To open the event on Saturday night, Prince Hill Winery will resound to Tango in the Vines with a dinner and Tango exhibition. Then on Sunday and Monday there will be a series of milongas, workshops and practicas to enable us to enhance our latin skills (or start from scratch, perhaps?).
Di Lusso is very proud to be a sponsor of the event. A beautiful dance and a beautiful (latin!) country deserves our support ....and your attendance!!
For details, have a look at the Tangofest website.. and take it from there!

www.tangofest.com.au/News/2010News1.html

The di Lusso Wine and Food Channel