Parlour Wine Review: Parlour ‘Castizo Blanco’ and Parlour ‘Castizo Rojo’.

The warm and inviting atmosphere of Parlour Wine Room will transport you back to another era – as one would expect of a Victorian parlour- and is great any time of the day, its sun drenched balcony is a must for these warm spring evenings. The new spring menu at Parlour Wine Room will put you in a quandary. Everything sounds delicious, and will be if you can decide! Accompanying the wonderful tapas menu is the ever changing wine list with a fabulous selection of some of the finest wines and sparklings the ACT, regional Australia and the international community offer, with many available by the glass, so it's worth asking for advice from the well trained bar staff.

The newest additions to this 140 strong list are Parlour’s own Parlour ‘Castizo Blanco’, an 07 verdehlo sauvignon blanc, and Parlour ‘Castizo Rojo’, an 06 cabernet shiraz, both wines have been hand crafted exclusively for Parlour by esteemed young wine maker Ben Potts at his Langhorne Creek winery.

For the ‘Castizo Blanco’ Ben has carefully blended a selection of Verdelho and Sauvignon Blanc grapes to produce a rather modern style of verdelho with nice ripe fruit and tropical aromas, the wine also has a quite minerally palate with good depth of flavour and a nice acid balance.

When combining the Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz grapes to produce the ‘Castizo Rojo’, Ben was able to use French oak barrel matured grapes from the 2006 vintage. This has allowed Ben to create a wine ready to drink now, but one which will also live for a few years to come. Red and purple in colour the ‘Castizo Rojo’ has a fruit driven nose with black fruit palate and a round soft tannin.

Try Parlour’s ‘Castizo Blanco’ and ‘Castizo Rojo’ at Parlour Wine Room:

Glass: $7.5

Bottle: $30

Recommended accompanying dish with the ‘Castizo Blanco’:

Calamares a la Plancha – Fresh flat-grilled calamari, sea salt, lemon juice, oregano, chipotle romesco $14.

Recommended accompanying dish with the ‘Castizo Rojo’:

Spain Choi Bao – Sautéed scallop, Morton Bay bug, chorizo, chilli, almonds, descaro de tomatl $15.

Parlour Wine Room, on the new Kendall Lane, is open:

Tuesday to Friday 11am – till late

Saturday and Sunday 12noon – till late