The week’s best wine: drinking a fabulous red atop a volcanic crater in Iceland
CityAM’s wine columnist Libby Brodie on the best wine to buy this week, and where she’s been drinking it
I have written before about how dating someone “outdoorsy” has revealed that, although I love the great outdoors, I am more of an “outsidey” person. When the Significant Other suggested an Icelandic minibreak and booked a remote cabin in that vast white wilderness, I imagined relaxing in our private sauna with snowy views and drinking wine in our hot tub. Both of these things happened, though at -14 degrees and with only four hours of sunlight a day, the steam from the tub froze to ice in our hair and the wine turned to slushies in the glass.
It was remarkably beautiful, an other-worldly landscape that for a few hours blazed bright orange in the low-slung brilliant sun. Having driven past a volcanic crater on our way to the cabin we thought we might explore it one afternoon, but my other half was somewhat dismayed at my outdoor attire. To be fair, they are the flattest shoes I own, but apparently my heeled London leather boots and cashmere coat were not the norm for a below-zero hike.
This week’s best wine: Naked Wines’ Tornesi Brunello di Montalcino as the perfect reward after a (very) challenging hike
Arriving at the site, I did note that I was the only person not in severe cold-weather walking gear, but I was game, and damned if I would admit defeat straight off the bat. Besides, I was armed with a bottle of Tornesi Brunello di Montalcino 2019 (Naked Wines £42.99 Angel Price £27.99) one of my absolute favourite wines and a rich, warming red that I thought would do better for the spirits than any Kendall mint cake. I shall admit, there were some hairy moments as I climbed up and around the icy slopes. At one time I had to clamber up on hands and feet like a Gollum of winter, clinging to tiny peaks of rock that had managed to break the surface of the ice.
Another time, traversing a slant on which I had witnessed those in actual walking boots slip, I yanked a length of rope hanging loosely from a fence and used it to brace my weight against the cliff edge and lever myself down. About midway I noticed an Italian tourist had stopped and was filming me. Despite my cross looks in his direction, he continued to point his phone at me until I had reached the naked Libby’s Diary bottom plateau at which point he cried out “Bravo!!
Do not let the ice beat you!!”. I wonder which social media platform I am currently featuring on right now with my makeshift abseil. Yes, I was overtaken by pensioners in crampons and there were moments I had to use the Significant Other as a physical foothold, but I am nothing if not determined and I made it to the crest, without breaking my neck or the bottle, as the sunlight shot across the horizon, making the snow glitter and outlining the pine trees below us in a fiery red.
Yes, we may have been there for sunrise but during Icelandic winter that is still noon, so we found some rocks and opened the delicious Brunello di Montalcino as our reward. One of Italy’s most special styles of wine, it must be aged a minimum of five years with at least two developing in barrel, producing a silky richness of dark fruit cosying up to luxurious truffle notes. It warmed me down to my near frozen toes and was exquisite at every sip – most definitely worth the wait and worthy of the view.
Was the walk risky? Potentially. Did I at times look ridiculous? Almost definitely – but my personal takeaway here is that whatever challenges one faces, armed with a good bottle of wine and some determination, they are surmountable. Even in heels.
A NAKED PAIRING: Katie Jones All Good Things Picpoul Sur Lie 2022 x A snowy landscape
I SHALL admit it was the name that drew me to this bottle first. I know, I know, never judge a book by its cover or a bottle by its label, but we all do, don’t we? At the turn of the year “All Good Things” seemed like a hopeful promise for 2025, so I packed this bottle of Katie Jones All Good Things Picpoul Sur Lie 2020 (Naked Wines £18.99 Angel Price £11.99) for our Icelandic trip and I am so glad I did. Winemaker Katie Jones wanted to prove that the fresh, saline, easily quaffable Picpoul, one of the oldest grown grapes in France, could create magic – and she succeeded with this generously rounded wine aged on the lees.
There is still that fresh edge to this typically brisk white, like a winter breeze off the snow, but it glides into something richer, more elegant, with plump white fleshed fruit and honeyed notes. This wine finds the balance between crisp and comforting, making it an ideal winter white. I opened this bottle while sinking into a bubbling hot tub, as the sun began to set on the horizon and the inky blue of a long dark night crept in. A superb example of doing things a little differently, to everyone’s benefit. If this wine was a promise, then the whole moment felt like a promise kept.