Grape Quest Continues
Treble Journey finished, destination reached – 301. Do I simply stop or do I leave the port for the next destination – Quattro? 400 different grapes to be experienced in some form?
Yes, I have to honestly admit that I enjoyed that Treble journey. I happened to discover real gems along the way, such as Nielucciu, Grolleau, Grignolino, Pigato, Pugnitello, Romorantin and many others. What now?
As it often happens with me, I decided not to decide. I don’t want to set my mind on the “quattro journey”, as level of obsession will go again ( as it was with Treble) really high. At the same time, the need to look for “what is actually inside of that bottle, may be it is a new grape?” became really ingrained into the DNA, and nothing I can do about it.
The decision is to take it as it goes. I’m not going to spend hours on internet, looking for the grapes I need to try to advance to the next level. At the same time, I’m going to keep paying attention to “what’s inside”, and continue counting the new grapes. To reflect that, “Treble count” on the front page is now “Grape Count”, and it will keep ticking.
And to make an early advance, I was quite lucky (thanks to my friend Zak) to attend a big wine tasting event (one of the posts in the near future will be raving about amazing wines we tried), so the grape counter is advancing by 8 – here is the list:
Gamay Saint Romaine: 2010 Domaine Robert Serol Cote Roannaise Rose “Cabochard”
Tressalier: 2009 Domaine Nebout SAt. Pourcain Blanc Tressalier des Graviers
Mondeuse: 2008 Roger Labbe Mondeuse
Colorino (Tintoretto): 2010 Terenzuola Rosato “Merla Rosa”
Albana: 2009 Fattoria Zerbina Albana di Romagna Secco “AS”
Vespolina, Uva Rara: 2004 Vallana Boca
Prugnolo Gentile: 2006 La Spinetta Il Gentile di Casanova
I’m looking forward continuing this journey – and of course, I will report along the way on all discoveries. Let’s go…
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Talk-A-Vino 
Dear Anatoli,
I am very happy to read that you reached the 300 grape variety landmark. It is an impressive achievement! I am about to collect a few more of those Swiss rare ones to bring you on one of my next trips to the US, but that won’t get you much closer to 400! But, if you are up for the journey, you should talk to our common friend Roberto, who is very knowlegeable about all those rare and locally grown Italian grapes!
It is interesting that you tasted Mondeuse recently. I actually had the pleasure of tasting a bottle of Mondeuse from Aigle, Switzerland a few weeks back and that was a very pleasant and surprising experience.
Santé,
Patrick
Patrick, thank you very much for your comment and your help achieving that status. As you can imagine, every grape counts, so little by little, and with your help, I will get there. I’m practically at 315 grapes right now, so I have only 85 left 🙂
Cheers,
Anatoli