Oliver's Taranga introduces International Fiano Day to shine a spotlight on this flavourful and versatile Italian grape

Two decades after she first planted the variety in Oliver's Taranga's McLaren Vale vineyard, winemaker Corrina Wright is gearing up to celebrate the inaugural International Fiano Day on October 17. 

“We thought it was time to talk about fiano a bit more,” she says about her decision to create the day. “There are now more than 70 producers in Australia making fiano, we’re seeing it more in bottle-shops, there’s more demand. We said, ‘let’s all get together and talk about it as one’.”

Corrina Wright is also known as the Queen of Fiano.

Fiano, a white grape from Southern Italy, was first imported by the CSIRO in 1978. Mark Lloyd planted the country’s first fiano vines from this material at Coriole in 2001, and in 2005, both Coriole and Chalmers released varietal fianos – the latter from the VCR3 clone which Chalmers had imported directly from Italy. 

Around the same time, Corrina began looking for a white variety to plant at Oliver’s Taranga. “We’d tried chardonnay, but it ripens too early in McLaren Vale – it gets a bit tropical, and the acid falls out – it’s hard to make a fine wine from it,” she says. When Chalmers offered her some fiano, she jumped.

“It’s drought tolerant, heat tolerant, holds onto its acidity, it has nice thick skins – it ticks all the boxes,” she says. Two hectares were planted in 2004; today, there’s around 10ha, which accounts for approximately 10 per cent of the Taranga property’s total plantings.

“As a wine, it gives a level of generosity, texture and food-friendliness that consumers are looking for,” she adds. “I think it’s going to be the wine of summer."

Oliver's Taranga produce an Estate Fiano, the Anfore Fiano, and The Hunt For Mrs Oliver Sparkling Fiano.

Although Oliver’s Taranga wasn’t the first to plant or produce fiano in Australia, Corrina has become known as its greatest champion. She produces fiano in three different styles, including the Anfore, which, inspired by the textural expressions from Campania, is aged in terracotta and bottled unfined and unfiltered, and a sparkling fiano called The Hunt for Mrs Oliver. A tiny amount of this is held back and aged for an additional seven years on lees before release.

“I never thought I’d be able to make a sparkling wine in McLaren Vale,” she says. “The natural acidity is just crazy.”

While awareness of and demand for fiano has been steadily increasing over the past 20 years (“In South Australia, you’d be hard pressed not to find a fiano on a wine list these days”), Corrina predicts an “explosion is about to happen”.

“I give it five years until it’s no longer considered an alternative variety,” she says. “There’s already a fiano section at Dan Murphy’s – that’s when you know you’ve made it.”

To learn more about Fiano Day and the related Fiano Festa, visit the Oliver’s Taranga website.