Grilled salmon, dhal, aged hard cheeses

Serve from the fridge or ice bucket

A tale as old as time, women in wine baby! Matilde Poggi’s first harvest, on her family-owned 15th-century farmhouse, happened in 1984. She worked tirelessly at a time when large, quantity-driven firms and cooperatives dominated local production. Rather than following the masses, Matilde chose to concentrate on quality, revamping her vineyards to better express the area’s native grapes. Today, she is one of Italy’s most respected producers, and, in 2013 was elected President of the Federazione Italiana Vignaioli Indipendenti (Italian Federation of Independent Grape Growers or FIVI). More recently, she became the first Italian and first female president of the European equivalent, the European Confederation of Independent Winegrowers (CEVI).

Matilde has three daughters, to whom she’d like to pass on Le Fraghe one day (but we’re volunteering in case her girls don’t want it – wanna come?).

Matilde’s farming & winemaking is certified organic and super low intervention – to the point that it’s often only Matilde herself working on the farm & in the cellar. Her work at FIVI and CEVI, as the voice of small independent wine producers, is invaluable.

Italy isn’t exactly famous for its rosé, but Matilde takes her Chiaretto (chiaro = pale) very seriously. She uses a method called Saignée for this one – which means a portion of the pink juice is poured off from the red wine fermentation, to give a pink wine. This also results in a more concentrated red wine (more concentrated because the remaining fermentation has a higher solid-to-liquid ratio).

Place: Cavaion Veronese, Veneto, Italy
Grape: Corvina, Rondinella
Style: Plucky lil’ pink
Ingredients: Grapes, Bentonite + SO2 (being certified organic in Italy, she's only allowed to use half the sulphur that other producers are allowed. Matilde uses about half of that)

This baby loves food, especially on the spicy spectrum – from gentle curries through to Sichuan

Cool as a cucumber

Hubby to the ‘H’ in pH, is but one of many monikers for Thinus Krüger – cowboy, maverick, rock star are just a few of the others. Big hair, big moustache, big ideas and big adventures are the hallmarks of his pioneering project, named after a Norwegian ship that attempted to sail to both the North & South Poles. He’s headed to the edges of the winemaking map to find what vineyards lie over the next horizon, resulting in audacious and unusual wines that make the world feel like the good place it should be.

It’s a weirdo white because a) it’s non-vintage (usually a blend of 2 vintages) – which is pretty unusual for this kind of wine; b) It includes a bit of Chenel which is a crossing of Chenin and Trebbiano created in South Africa that pretty much nobody but Thinus thinks is cool and c) it’s from a vineyard where only 3 people produce grapes!

Place: Citrusdal Mountain, South Africa
Grape: Palomino, Chenel and Muscat
Style: Weirder white
Ingredients: Grapes and a pinch of SO2

Freshly caught shellfish and beachside BBQs

Chill, chill, chill!

Dynamo-duo, Pauline and Hanneke (pH – see?) are friends first and foremost, but they also make some pretty sensational wines – Paulette for Paulus Wine Co. and Hanneke for AA Badenhorst. On the side, they team up to make magic under their Vino pH label. They’re championing underdog grapes and making them into some of the coolest wines to come out of South Africa at the moment.

You know we love a forgotten grape – and Palomino as a dry white wine sure ticks that box! Rescued from being distilled away into brandy, pH has given this baby a new lease on life.

Place: Swartland, South Africa
Grape: Palomino
Style: Sassy and saline
Ingredients: Grapes + as little sulphur as possible

Ossobuco, smoked duck, fireplaces

Room temp, if your room is no warmer than 20 degrees celsius. Otherwise, chuck it in the fridge and remove roughly 1.5 hours before dins.

The story of Ottomani began with four friends who grew up together and turned a dream into reality. Not that far off from us girls at Crushed!

They graduated from the University of Florence with Oenology (that’s the science of wine) degrees and chose to separate for a while to get some exposure working in real wineries. With a few years of experience and some real savoir-faire in their back pockets, the boys came back together and purchased a farm of their own. In 2006, Ottomani was born with indigenous grape preservation and sustainability sowed into its mission statement.

They’re organic and biodynamic, they hand-harvest everything and don’t irrigate their vines. They’re working hard to preserve the biodiversity of the region by propagating traditional indigenous varieties like Ciliegiolo, Bonamico and Malvasi Nera (also known as Uva Rara – the rare grape). The wines are unfiltered & unfined.

The boys now all live together on their 100% self-sustaining farm! Everything they need, they grow, build or generate themselves or source within a radius of 20 kilometres.

Place: Chianti, Tuscany, Italy
Grape: Sangiovese, Canaiolo, Ciliegiolo, Bonamico, Malvasia Nera
Style: Chianti with pedigree
Ingredients: Grapes + just a very, very little bit of SO2

Pork belly, crab crostini, mac & cheese

Cold, please – and open it in the sink, it tends to get a little wild!

Being called the people that started the international story of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc is no mean feat! Started by Jane and Ernie Hunter before Marlborough was much more than farmland, Hunter’s has been winning all the awards since their first vintage. Despite Ernie’s tragic death just five years after their first vintage, the winery is still owned by the Hunter family and under the guidance of the indomitable Jane, continues to thrive.

It’s so dang refreshing – it’s been called the IPA of the wine world. Offshoot is a project pioneered by the second generation of the Hunter family, who are fast making their mark!

Place: Marlborough, New Zealand
Grape: Sauvignon Blanc
Style: Racy and refreshing
Ingredients: Grapes and minimal sulphur

Mild curries and Thai food

To really see what this one is about, take it out of the fridge and crack the crown cap about 10 minutes before serving or just lose the ice bucket.

“A dope-smoking political anarchist meets an upstanding young goody-goody sportsman at a mutual friends 21st” – 35 years and 3 kids later, they are the family behind Luddite Wines. After a few years abroad, Niels and Penny returned to South Africa and found their plot of land in Bot River. Niels had a definite plan as to how he wanted to make wine and Penny knew that she wanted to farm as “green” as possible. Everything had to be about the wine. No intervention, no shortcuts and staying true to only bottling what, hand on heart was the best.

This little babe of a blend includes Chenin, Viognier and ‘Fumé Blanc’ – which is just a fancy way of referring to the style in which the Sauvignon Blanc is made - partly on skins and partly in barrel. Not one for doing anything just for the sake of being fancy, winemaker Niels’ rationale here is that he just can’t bring himself to put the varietal on one of his labels.

Place: Cape South Coast, South Africa
Grape: Chenin Blanc, Viognier, Sauvignon Blanc
Style: Rich but racy
Ingredients: Grapes + a splash of sulphur (as little as possible!)