Pineapple Chilli Chicken Wings

Serves: 4 Prep: 15 mins Cook: 50 minutes Pair: 2022 Estate Verdelho

To celebrate the release of our 2022 Estate Verdelho we created this cracking chicken wing recipe. The touch of heat from the wings is soothed by the luscious tropical fruit characteristics of our 2022 Estate Verdelho.

Ingredients
40-48 chicken winglets
2 tbsp oil

Rub
1 tbsp salt
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp brown sugar

Sauce
425g tinned pineapple & juice
1 tbsp ketchup
2 tsp chilli flakes
120g white sugar
120ml cider vinegar
1 tbsp lime
1 tbsp cornflour

Garnish
Sesame seeds
Coriander
Spring onion – sliced
Lime wedges

Instructions

Sauce
1. Blend the pineapple and juices into a puree
2. Add to a saucepan along with sugar, chilli, vinegar and ketchup
3. Bring to a simmer and simmer for 5 minutes
4. Stir in the lime juice
5. Mix cornflour with 2 tbsp cold water and stir into the sauce, continue simmering for 2 minutes
6. Split the sauce into 2 containers

Wings
1. Toss the wings in oil
2. Add all rub ingredients together and toss the wings in it – leave to marinate for 30mins or overnight if time permits
3. Heat the oven to 150c and place wings on a wire rack
4. Cook for 15mins and then baste with the sauce and cook for a further 15mins
5. Turn the wings over, baste and cook for a further 15mins
6. Remove from the oven and toss in the remaining sauce
7. Sprinkle garnish on and pour yourself (another) glass of verdelho!

Tips & Tricks

• If you are short on time, just toss the wings in the rub and cook.
• The longer you marinate them the more flavour they take on board
• Splitting the sauce in 2 containers means cross-contaminaton won’t occur
• Add more chilli flakes to take the heat of the wings to another level
• Using a wire rack helps the air circulate & cooks the wings evenly

Essential Tools

• Chef knives
• Chopping board
• Large mixing bowl
• Ziplock bag
• Measuring/weighing utensils
• Small food processor
• Wire rack & baking tray
• Pastry brush

Wines that would also pair perfectly with this recipe include:

If you know anything about De Iuliis, you’ll know we’re all about making exceptional wines that everyone can enjoy. To stay true to this motto, we have various ranges incorporating different styles and price points, so you can easily find a wine that suits your tastes and budget. And because every bottle of De Iuliis wine promises to be packed full of good grapes and plenty of love and care, you’ll be in good hands no matter where you land.

The Estate Range

Our Estate Range wines are bottles that are ready to enjoy right now, no planning required. These modern takes on Hunter Valley classics are easy-drinking drops and perfect for a midweek pour. All the Estate Range wines are made with our signature state-of-the-art techniques and first-rate grapes, making them great value wines and a solid, dependable choice to always have on hand.

The line-up includes semillon, verdelho, chardonnay, rosé, shiraz, and cabernet sauvignon. Unfamiliar with verdelho? Then we highly recommend getting acquainted. Our take is fruit-driven, dry and full of rich, tropical characters of pineapple and passionfruit, making it an excellent accompaniment to your favourite spicy Asian food. For red lovers, the Estate Shiraz is as powerful as it is subtle, with a soft texture and flavours of ripe plums and blackberries. It’s a well-balanced wine sitting between medium and full bodied, perfect for a backyard barbecue.

Special Release Series

Think of our Special Release wines as where we really let our creative juices flow. They’re an opportunity to experiment and try new things; one-off, handcrafted wines that are unlikely to be repeated, so if something grabs your eye, best make it yours before you miss out. These wines are predominantly available from our winery, but there is a small amount allocated to the online shop.

A great example of a Special Release wine is the 2021 Sangiovese. After a long fascination with this celebrated Italian varietal, we decided to attempt our own version of the classic with an Australian spin. Aromas of bright cherries, and the palate is long with a crisp line of acid on the finish. A true food wine, it’s screaming to be paired with pasta or braised meats.

The Single Vineyard Range

Our Single Vineyard wines are a great chance to dive deeper into the unique qualities of Hunter Valley terroir. We only produce these in stellar growing seasons, so you know you’re getting a true representation of a varietal in its prime. These bottles are produced in small quantities and make for an excellent choice if you’re wanting a wine worthy of a special occasion at an affordable price point. 

Of our recent favourite Single Vineyard wines, the 2016 Aged Release Semillon is a definite stand out. Made using minimal intervention and cold-temperature fermentation in stainless steel, it’s a complex and balanced wine displaying subtle hints of toast and honey coupled with fresh lemon and lime characters, and one that will continue to improve for years to come.

Limited Release Collection

These wines are the cream of the crop; the award winners and cellar stars. Each bottle is handcrafted and individually numbered, with less than 250 cases of each wine produced. They’re iconic Hunter Valley wines showcasing the best fruit from the most exceptional vintages.

Limited Release highlights include our 2005 Charlie Shiraz – named for Mike’s grandfather, a passionate red drinker – which was made from old vines using traditional methods, and the 2018 Limited Release Chardonnay, produced by blending some of our best barrels to achieve an elegant, complex wine.

So, what range jumps out to you? Head to our online shop to browse the current vintages.

Harvesting

Grapes for our white wines are both hand and machine harvested. Hand-picking is gentle on the fruit and preserves the integrity of the bunches. Machine harvesting crushes the fruit slightly, breaking the skin of the grapes and releasing more phenolic material into the juice.

Preparing

White varieties are either destemmed before pressing or grapes are tipped directly into the press for whole bunch pressing. At De Iuliis we whole-bunch press our Semillon as the stalks provide drainage and preserve fruit purity. Chardonnay, Verdelho and Pecorino are all destemmed to allow light maceration with the skins, adding texture to the palate.

Pressing

Grapes are pressed using either our basket press or our pneumatic bag press. The pneumatic bag press uses an inflatable balloon-like bag to squeeze the grapes and extract the juice. The basket press uses pressure to give a very gentle extraction and we use it for our best parcels of Chardonnay.

Settling

After pressing the juice is settled in a cold tank to remove any suspended grape solids from the clear juice. Different varieties are fermented with different amounts of solids in the ferment. Semillon ferments will always have crystal clear juice to retain purity as opposed to Chardonnay where cloudy juice with a higher solids content will enhance the wine style.

Adding Yeast

Yeast converts sugars found naturally in grapes into alcohol, CO2 and heat. At De Iuliis we utilise ‘wild’ fermentation as well as inoculated ferments with cultured yeasts. Wild ferments are naturally occurring ferments started by the yeasts from the grape skins that arrive from the vineyard. They offer unique properties specific to the winery and the terroir of the vineyard. Cultured yeast ferments allow more control over the ferment and allow us to produce consistent wines year after year.

Fermentation

It takes between 7 and 14 days to ferment white wine. The wines are kept cool during ferment to preserve the delicate floral aromas and stop the yeasts from racing too quickly through ferment.

Blending

At this stage, the wines have been maturing both in tank and barrel and building depth and complexity. The winemaking team goes through a batch classification and barrel selection process to create single variety blends – this is how our Limited Release Chardonnay and Single Vineyard Semillon is made.

Clarification

To ensure our wines are protected from microbial spoilage and look beautiful in your glass we filter them with a crossflow membrane filter before they head off for bottling.

Bottling

It’s time to send our wines off to the bottling line! You’ll soon get to enjoy them.