Winemaker: Craig Stansborough
A delicious blend of Aglianico (64%), Montepulciano (31%) & Primitivo (5%) from the Barossa Valley.
Harmonica is dark and dangerous, but with a hidden soft side. Aglianico is an acid-retentive variety originally from Campania and is sometimes referred to as the Barolo of the South. It’s intensely savoury with an earthy, tarry quality which with Barossa sunshine and inclusion of the other varieties reveals a rich, smiling disposition. For Harmonica we have teamed up with another great Barossa winemaker, Craig Stansborough, who many will know from his Purple Hands label, and a long tenure as chief winemaker for Grant Burge. During many visits to fermentAsian as a customer, Craig and I enjoyed many conversations and discovered a shared respect for expressive, balanced wines and a love of restraint. Working on this project together has only increased my respect for his craft and attention to detail. I hope that it is the first of many collaborations!
When the great movie director Sergio Leone teamed with composer Ennio Morricone, the results were always remarkable. Few would disagree that the music written for Leone’s ‘The Good, The Bad and the Ugly’ has provided the definitive sound of the Spaghetti Western.
Morricone’s score for ‘Once Upon a Time in the West’ is altogether greater and more complex with leitmotivs provided for each of the main protagonists.
Charles Bronson plays ‘the man with the harmonica’. The haunting sound of his instrument is the first music we hear after a lengthy introduction, during which the only sound is generated by a slowly rotating rusty windmill, as several gunslingers wait for a train to arrive at a remote station.
In keeping with my use of musical references in the names of each of the Otherness Wines, the name ‘Harmonica’ pays homage to a composer whose music has always delighted me. It also seemed strangely appropriate to link winemaking in the wild west of the Barossa, using Italian grape varieties, with Spaghetti Westerns, where an Italian director and composer fermented a distinctive cinematic art that helped redefine the western genre.
93 Points
“A blend of aglianico, montepulciano and primitivo. Small batch wines from Grant Dickson, who many will remember from Rockford days. Big, chewy, dark and mouth-filling red with good bite and freshness on its side. Dark cherry, new leather, cola scents with whiffs of minty herbs. To taste, more dark cherry, some stewed plum, crushed rock minerally tannin profile bringing big chomps of grippiness and a cool, minty finish. A sumptuous, fuller flavoured red of great joy and ease of drinking”. – Mike Bennie, The WINEFRONT
93 Points
Dave Brookes, Halliday Wine Companion 2024
