FUSING tradition and innovation has placed Brian Freeman close to the cutting edge of Australian wine. PAUL SELLARS reports

It was a brilliant piece of lateral thinking that has produced one of Australia's most exciting new wines.

In 1999, at his vineyard at Prunevale, near Young in southern NSW, Brian Freeman planted two varieties common in north-east Italy but almost unheard of in Australia.

The former Charles Sturt University wine science professor believed rondinella and corvina were ideally suited to the cool growing conditions of the Hilltops wine region.

Brian didn't want to be just another producer of shiraz.

Instead, he wanted to make something inspired by the wines those varieties are often used to make, yet also distinctly Australian.

Amarone della Valpolicella is the official denomination for wines from a part of the north-east Italian region of the Veneto made from air-dried rondinella, corvina and molinara grapes.

The grapes are typically laid out on racks and dried for three to four months in lofts or special drying chambers before fermentation.

Drying the fruit concentrates its sugars, acids and flavours and modifies its tannins, helping to produce a rich, powerful and distinctive wine.

Rather than copying the Italian drying method, however, Brian took advantage of the fact he lived in Australia's prune capital, and instead borrowed his neighbour's prune dehydrator.

The result is the Freeman Secco Rondinella Corvina, a wine that has captured the industry's imagination for using "Italian traditions but with an Australian twist".

Brian began using the name Secco, which means "dry" in Italian, for the wine from the 2004 vintage, to reflect its savoury character.

"Initially the idea (behind the wine) came from a tasting of Italian wines we put on at the university," Brian said.

"It was the structure and the savoury characteristics of the wines that sort of triggered it."

Brian said the key to understanding what he had tried to achieve with the wine could be found in its tannin structure.

Tannins are a complex group of compounds found in the skins, seeds and stalks of grapes that give wine much of its structure and ageworthiness.

Italian wines, which have become a major focus of Australian winemakers in the past decade, are often said to harmonise perfectly with food because of their firm tannins and savoury character.

Brian said one of the reasons for making the wine was his fascination with tannins and the way the drying process changed them.

"What really interests me is the development of the tannin structure," he said.

"The drying not only concentrates the fruit, but causes the tannin structure to change. "There is a lot of tannin but no bitterness, no green tannins."

Brian said he chose not to dry his fruit in the traditional Italian method because of the risk of it being infected by the mould botrytis cinerea.

He said using the dehydrator gave him virtually complete control over temperature and humidity.

Brian also didn't want to make the wine too radical a departure from what Australian consumers were used to, so opted to dry only about 10 per cent of the fruit.

"I deliberately set out not to make to it too different to Australian wine," he said.

"It's why we only dry a portion of the fruit so that the wine still retains some fresh fruit flavour."

After the grapes are harvested, the portion to be dried is taken next door and loaded on to trays stacked one on top of the other on small trucks.

The trucks are pushed into the dehydrator where the fruit spends five to seven days at about 40C.

After the fruit is reduced to about 25 per cent of its previous weight, it's removed from the dehydrator and taken to the Freeman winery.

It is then placed at the bottom of fermenters and covered with fresh rondinella and corvina grapes for fermentation to begin.

Brian said there were challenges in marketing a wine made from varieties unheard of by most Australian consumers.

But the challenge has been aided by the wine being championed by the wine media and influential sommeliers since its first release in 2002.

It also captured more attention last year when the 2004 Secco won Best Mature Dry Red at the NSW Wine Awards.

"We have had really positive support from the trade - sommeliers know the wine and they really like it," Brian said. "The majority of people who taste it really enjoy it. So we are building up a loyal following already in a very short time."

There are currently two other wines in the Freeman range - a white and a ros - that also break new ground.

The Freeman Fortuna Pinot Gris Plus is also Italian inspired, this time by the multi-varietal whites from the Alto Adige and Friuli regions.

Its chief component is pinot gris but includes four other varieties which each contribute something intrinsic to the blend.

"The pinot gris gives it savoury and pear-like flavours, riesling gives us the acid component and the chardonnay is barrel fermented to give it richness and fullness," Brian said.

"The sauvignon blanc gives it more zest on the finish and the aleatico, which is only a very small portion, brings tannin."

Brian also makes a bone-dry and savoury ros from rondinella called Rondo.

He said Australian consumers had become more adventurous and prepared to look beyond just shiraz, cabernet and chardonnay.

"Things have come a long way in terms of what is accepted," he said.

"We're certainly very pleased with the quality of the wines, the issue is getting something different understood.

"But we are a long-term project and we are certainly getting there."