Sam Underdown loves Italian varieties, and has a real focus on them with his SAMU wine label. He loves introducing people to unusual varieties, and Lagrein (originally from Alto Adige in the north-west of Italy) fits this bill perfectly! It displays a vibrant purple-red colour with flavours of dark fruits of black cherry to black plum. There's a lovely blueberry character as well. The palate is velvety with a well-balanced finish to make this a cracking red! Great stuff.

Here at The Wine Gallery, we’re deeply passionate (in case you hadn’t already realised) about new Australian wine. We’re also more than a little fond of the produce of Italy… so when we discover a winery which brings classic and lesser-known Italian grape varietals to Aussie soils, we get really rather excited. Imagine our faces, then, when we heard about Samu Wines - a South Australia winery dedicated to exploring the potential of Italian grapes in their stunning vineyards, and one which has already won scores of fans as a result of their gorgeous releases. Head vintner Sam really knows his stuff, too; after spending years travelling around Europe as a younger man, he settled for a while in Italy where he worked alongside some of the winemaking greats of the country, picking up many of the skills and insights he’s so successfully implemented back home. Despite being heavily influenced by the wineries of Sicily, Puglia, Piedmont and elsewhere in Italy, Samu is no copycat operation. Quite the opposite, in fact. This unique Aussie winery isn’t about trying to replicate Italian wines (why bother, when the real deal is so good and so readily available?), it’s about seeing what those ancient grape varietals are capable of when grown beneath our Antipodean sun, and in the complex soils of South Australia. Ask any Samu fan, and they’ll tell you that Sam and his team are producing wines which add new colour and variation to the Australian wine scene, and provide the perfect marriage between the Old World and the New. By blending together the refinement and traditions of Italian winemaking, and the innovation, experimentation, and expression-based approach of SA vintners, Samu have come up with something very special indeed… and we’re sure you’ll agree!