From Piedmont to Perth: Linea Retta is making its mark

This Western Australian has found time for a fruitful Italian side hustle, and we’ve got three of the best drops for you to try.

Larry Cherubino and Giorgio Rivetti of Linea Retta in WA.

There’s a circuit of more than 1000km cutting through the vineyards of southwest Western Australia that should be known as the “Cherubino Loop”. In a winemaking career tipping into a fourth decade, Larry Cherubino has racked up more miles than anyone through viticulture’s furthest frontier. He chews bitumen like a two-pack a day smoker who’s just switched to nicotine gum. He has vineyards in Margaret River and Frankland River, and is part way through bringing a recently bought winery up to his exacting standards. He has a restaurant in Margaret River, a wine bar in Perth, consults to one of the country’s most significant winemaking families, and rides the parenting tornado with three teenage sons.

Cherubino and Rivetti at work.

The wines share a common thread of sensitive winemaking that puts food-friendliness upfront.

Yet, with all that going on, he still finds time for a side hustle. Linea Retta (“In a direct line”) is Cherubino’s collaboration with Giorgio Rivetti, the celebrated winemaker behind the La Spinetta label in Piedmont. It’s a meeting of minds and fusing of passions, delivering a tidy collection of six wines from Piedmont, Tuscany and Sicily, each defined by the vineyard-first philosophy that drives them both.

Sicily provides an effusive carricante from the black volcanic soils of Mt Etna, while Tuscany delivers vermentino as well as the pale, savoury sangiovese the two winemakers shape into a tight, savoury rosato. The shared obsession with Piedmont delivers not only crunchy cortese from Gavi and typically fragrant and lithe nebbiolo from Langhe but, intriguingly, brings to Australian shores one of the few examples of the once close to extinction timorasso variety. The wines share a common thread of sensitive winemaking that puts food-friendliness upfront. The project is still in its infancy but its output has both men excited about the future. It looks like Larry Cherubino has a few more miles to clock up yet.

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From Italy with Love

wine bottkes for twam apruil 27

LINEA RETTA GAVI DOCG 2021, $43

25-year-old cortese vines sourced from a vineyard sitting at 250m in the gentle hills of Gavi. Winemaking kept simple to allow the fruit to shine. Restrained and savoury. Preserved lemons, green almonds, parmesan rind. Deftly deployed palate weight and the first signs of bottle aged richness emerging. 92 points

LINEA RETTA COLLI TORTONESI DOC TIMORASSO 2021, $60

Until recently timorasso hovered on the edge of extinction, down to less than a handful of hectares hanging on in Piedmont’s eastern extremities. It’s stepping back from the brink, and wines like this show you why. There’s some wildness and funk here, aromas of hay, preserved lemon, Salada biscuits and wild honey. A fabulously energetic acid line. 95 points

LINEA RETTA LANGHE DOC NEBBIOLO 2020, $58

From the Starderi vineyard on the slopes outside Nieve. Aged in old French oak for a sensibly modest 12 months. Black cherries, Dutch licorice, dried rose, fennel seed, chinotto. Sinewy and svelte, high-tensile acidity and very fine, expansive and gently drying tannins. Delivers approachability without sacrificing nebbiolo’s disciplined disposition. 94 points