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Rare Grapes, Obscure Tasting
What is your take on wines made from rare, unknown grapes? I can tell you about mine – I love them.
I have two reasons for that. Well, it might be even just one, but with two sides, I guess. First, I’m a wine geek. As a wine geek, I love tasting each and every type and style of wine, made from whatever grapes they are. I’m willing to taste absolutely any wine at least once. After the opinion is formed, this might be the first and the last time, but nevertheless, I’m willing to try anything.
The second reason is that I’m not only a geek, I’m also a collector. I like collecting experiences. As such, for example, I keep track of the US states and world countries I had a chance to taste the wine from. And I keep track of grapes I ever tasted, after being bitten by The Wine Century Club‘s bug. If you are reading this blog on a PC, look to the right side of the screen, and you will see “grape count” – this is the number of grapes I have tasted to date (if you are reading on the phone, just scroll down). With my goal of reaching 600 grapes, I can only increase the current count further by finding rare, obscure, unknown grapes to taste.
When I got an invitation to attend the Wines of Crete trade tasting, the key words which made me say “yes” was exactly that – “rare grapes” – there were lots of grapes mentioned in the invitation, and I didn’t recognize at least a half of them, so the opportunity to taste new grapes (and increase the count) was definitely enticing.
I have to tell you upfront – this was the most peculiar trade tasting I have ever attended. Being only an advanced amateur, if this makes any sense, I attend maybe about 10 trade tastings in a good year, so I wouldn’t pretend that “I’ve seen them all”. Nevertheless, I have a frame of reference for successful and unsuccessful wine tastings, for sure in my personal book – so when I tell you that this was the most peculiar one, I mean it. Let’s talk about it.
First, notwithstanding of any peculiarity, we need to acknowledge the wines of Crete. Any time a passionate wine lover has an encounter with a region that has a deep wine history, it creates an emotional response, almost awe. The wine history doesn’t go much deeper than it is on Crete – Crete, the largest island in Greece and 5th largest in Europe is the cradle of European winemaking, having its winemaking history spanning more than 4,000 years, going well beyond 1,500 BC.
Crete represents the first real wine culture in Europe. There is evidence of wine presses (first in Europe from about 1,600 BC), pressed grapes and stems, clay pots and amphorae. The wine was produced commercially, and it was praised by many poets. Shortly after the beginning of the first millennium, Crete became famous for producing sweet wine from sundried grapes, Vinum Passum. Crete wines reached Switzerland, France and Italy, and so did the cuttings of the Cretan vines.
From the 14th to 17th centuries, Crete became famous for producing sweet wines from Malvasia grapes (interesting tidbit: American Journal of Enology & Viticulture registered 49 different varieties of the Malvasia grape). Malvasia vines made it to Italy during the same timeframe.
Cretan winemaking history is not all warm and fuzzy. For almost 200 years Crete was under Turkish occupation, and wine production was truly minimized, mostly for family consumption only. Then at the beginning of the 20th century, immigrants brought Sultanina grapes to Crete – a.k.a. Thompson Seedless – not the grape you want to use in wine production. In 1972, Crete experienced the invasion of Phylloxera.
The rebirth of Cretan winemaking started in the 1990s, and today young winemakers continue looking for their own path, often using indigenous grapes to their advantage.
There are 4 mountain systems on Crete, the island of 160 miles long and about 40 miles wide. The majority of the vineyards on Crete are located on the mountain slopes, at altitudes from 800 to 3,000 ft. Mountains play an important role in protecting vineyards from the hot winds coming from Africa. The climate is warm Mediterranean with annual rainfall between 250 and 900 mm.
There are about 10,000 acres of vineyards on Crete, which are spread between 6 Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) and 7 Protected Denomination of Origin (PDO) winemaking regions. There are 36 wineries on Crete, producing about 4 million bottles of wine annually. There are 11 indigenous grape varieties growing on Crete (White: Vilana, Vidiano, Dafne, Thrapsathiri, Malvasia di Candia, Muscat of Spina, Plyto and Red: Kotsifali, Liatico, Mandilari/Mandilaria, Romeiko), as well as international varieties. And as I already told you before, these indigenous grapes were the main attraction for me.
Okay, so now I shared with you almost everything I learned about the rich history of the wines of Crete – let’s talk about the peculiar part.
Upon arrival at the tasting, I got a booklet listing all the wines which we would be tasting. The booklet was organized by grapes – but interestingly enough, the description of the wines didn’t include any producer names – just vintage, variety(ies), ABV, style of wine, and maturation notes. I never saw anything like that at any of the tastings – unless you maybe run a blind tasting, but never mind.
Next, we proceeded with the masterclass, where we learned about all the history and present day, and had an opportunity to taste 11 wines. While poured, all of the wine bottles were hidden inside the black pouches. In the presentation, there were no producer names mentioned – only grapes and regions were presented.
As we learned, this was not an oversight. As the event was sponsored by the European Union, it was the requirement not to mention the wine producers in the masterclass and in the tasting, so the producers not present at the tasting wouldn’t get upset.
I’ll let this sink in for a moment.
Think about it.
Now, let me ask you – how stupid, unbelievably stupid is it? [I guess this is what happens when lawyers run the business – I didn’t have to say it, but this is my blog, so I can].
I’m a blogger, and I’m only interested in education and tasting some obscure grapes. But let’s say you work at a restaurant. You taste the wine, you like it, and you would like to start offering it at your restaurant – but officially, you are not allowed to know the name of the wine you just tasted. Say what??? What is the point of this tasting? With this “blind tasting” move, you brilliantly hurt everyone – those who sent their wines for the tasting, and those who have not.
Okay, let’s get back to masterclass tasting.
First, we tasted 6 white wines, made from Vilana, Vidiano, Thrapsathiri, and Assyrtiko. Thrapsathiri was a new grape for me, the rest I had tasted before. I don’t believe I liked any of the white wines, unfortunately…
Wine #1 – Vilana grape
Acidic, lean, food-craving
Good
Wine #2 – Vidiano
sweet nose, acidic finish, interesting
Wine #3 – Vidiano
interesting, kind of flat, oily nose, reminiscent of Retsina
Wine #4 – Thrapsathiri
interesting, herbaceous, cut through acidity. Very acidic finish
Wine #5 – Assyrtiko
Smoke, almost moldy on the nose
Corked?
Wine #6 – Vidiano (oak aged)
Plump, oily, full-bodied, crispy finish
Next were 5 reds, made from Liatico, Kotsifali, Mandelaria, and Romeiko. Again, one new grape here – Romeiko. Wine #10 was strange but drinkable. I really loved the Romeiko wine, but this was somewhat of a curveball red wine – it was actually made in the “orange wine” style. Still, this was my favorite wine from the masterclass tasting.
Wine #7 – Liatico 2022
interesting nose, sweet oak
super-tart, tannic, lacks fruit, tart finish
Wine #8 – Liatico/Kotsifali 2016
smoke on the nose, smoke on the palate, insane acidity
Volatile acidity?
Wine #9 – 60% Kotsifali, 40% Mandelaria, 2015
Raisins on the nose, oak, tertiary aromas
flat, tannic, ohhh
Wine #10 – 60% Kotsifali, 40% Syrah, French/American oak aging, 2017
Brett? Spoiled egg level
This is actually drinkable, a little flat on fruit, but good overall
Wine #11 – Romeiko, red grape made as an orange wine
Excellent, delicious, good balance, harmonious, good fruit and acidity, fresh
We managed to convince the staff to show us the wines we tasted, at least some of them, so you can see some of the wines we tasted in the picture above.
Main room tasting had its own issues – it appears that due to some issues with the customs, instead of 64 wines only about 15 were present in the tasting. All black bagged, unfortunately. I tasted another grape I never had before – Plyto, and the wine was quite pleasant, but this is all I can tell you.
There you have it, my friends. For me personally, this was not a waste of time, as I managed to pick up three new grapes I never tasted before. But in the large schema of things, this was a wasteful tasting – and it is sad. The effort was put into organizing it, but would it really help to advance the Wines of Crete in the US – I doubt so very much.
I really hope my next wine tasting will fare better…
Drinking With Purpose
Drinking with purpose.
Okay, so what are we talking about here?
First of all, we are talking about wine. Usually, we drink wine for pleasure. Of course, sometimes people drink just for the buzz, to forget, to relax – there are many reasons why people use alcohol, but wine (I hope) stands a bit apart from the rest of the alcohol. Wine helps us to converse with friends, create memories, enhance our food experiences and simply derive pleasure from the simple moment of existence. Then what is this purpose I’m talking about?
Wine is the product of passion. At least this is how we, wine lovers, want to see it. Wine also enables passion. Not even passion, but passions. It solicits passions. Wine is surrounded by desire, obsession, exclusivity, mysticism, glamor, science, greed, mystery, art, and devotion, it evokes all of these and many other feelings and emotions. Wine allows everyone to find their own passion.
One such passion is collecting. Yes, some people are collecting the wine. In a lot of cases, they simply do this to feel superior to others, as they have something which other people want but can’t have. We can leave this aside, as this is a boring aspect of wine. Collecting unopened bottles is not the only thing to collect around wines.
The wine offers lots of artifacts. People collect unique bottles. People collect unique labels (hundreds of thousands of different wines are produced every year around the world – and many labels can change every year – think of an endless potential here). People collect champagne and sparkling wine bottle caps – this hobby even has an official name, placomusophilia. Peope collect corks and screwtops. I collect grapes and experiences.
Many, many, years ago I came across The Wine Century Club. No, you don’t have to be 100 years old or drink 100 years old wines. It is all about grapes. Anyone who tasted 100 different grapes (obviously, in wines) – don’t have to be individual grapes, blends are totally fine – is welcome to apply to become a member of the club. The application is honor-based (well, if you lie, your palate would be cursed forever – who would want to risk that), and you get the certificate sometime after you submit the application. Tasting the first 100 grapes was relatively easy. By the time I was done with the first 100, the club was already offering the 200 grapes level (Doppel), then 300 (Treble), 400 (Quattro), 500 (Pentavini), and now even 600 (Hexavin).
After I passed the 100 grapes level, hunting for the new grapes became an obsession, which I thoroughly documented on this very blog. I had friends reaching out and asking if I already had such and such grape. I spent countless hours looking for the grape information online, trying to figure out what grapes went into this particular wine from this particular vintage. Hunting down new grapes became drinking with purpose. I didn’t care if I would like the new wine or not – if it had the grapes I didn’t taste before, that was all I needed.
As I mentioned before, I collect not only grapes but also experiences. Wines are made in all of the 50 states in the USA. Wines are made at least in 60 countries around the world, maybe more. I have a personal goal to experience (read: taste) wines of all 50 states. I also would love to taste wines made in all the different countries around the world.
This is how I collect the grapes and experiences. And this is how drinking with purpose happens. A wine from the new state or a country – yes, please! The wine with new grapes? Yes, pretty please!
Recently, I managed to find a few wines with grapes I never had before. Not only that but one of the wines was made in the region which was new to me, so the two proverbial birds were killed with one stone – err, bottle. Here are the quick notes on these wines:
First, two wines from Eastern Europe. I never had the wines of Bosnia and Herzegovina, so this was a new country I was able to add to the list. Both wines were tasty, and Tikveš Belo was probably my favorite wine out of these 4. New grapes are marked in bold:
2015 Čitluk Winery Blatina Bosnia & Herzegovina (13% ABV, 100% Blatina)
Brickish red
Plums, dried fruits, medium intensity
Sour cherries, soft, round, medium body, good acidity, soft tannins
7+, not sure how it was stored. It is still nice, simple, and easy to drink, but probably on the decline.
8, on the second day. Interesting transformation – tertiary aromas are gone, plums, cherries and sage on the palate, nice, round, pleasant.
2020 Tikveš Belo Special Selection North Macedonia (11.5% ABV, Smederevka, Riesling, Marsanne, Roussanne)
A light greenish hue
A hint of gunflint, Whitestone fruit, medium intensity but very confident nose
Lemon, a hint of grass, salivating acidity.
8, this is a beautiful food wine, will compliment a wide range of foods.
It is my second time drinking Armenian wines. I was really looking forward to Yacoubian-Hobbs white, but the wines ended up being a disappointment. The Armenian red was quite drinkable. In any case, when you drink with a purpose, you don’t complain.
2018 Yacoubian-Hobbs Dry White Wine Aghavnadzor Vayots Dzor Armenia (14% ABV, blend of Voskehat, Khatuni, Qrdi, Garan Demak)
Golden color
Stewed fruit on the nose
The palate had some stewed plums, it was overwhelming and had no acidity. The wine was devoid of balance.
N/R, Maybe a bad bottle? Cork broke while I was opening the wine using a standard waiter corkscrew. But the wine didn’t seem oxidized, maybe heat damage?
2019 VinArdi Estate Blend Dry Red Wine Armenia (13.5% ABV, 40% Areni, 35% Haghtanak, 25% Milagh)
Dark Ruby red
Wild berries on the nose
Wild berries, dried herbs, medium+ body, good structure, good acidity, excellent balance.
8-, easy to drink
Now you know all about my wine obsessions. And I get to increase the counter you see on the top of the page from 561 to 567. Little by little…
By the way, there is no stopping in sight. While I’m trying to close on 600, there are people in The Wine Century Club discussing the 800 mark. Talk about obsessions… Enjoy your wine. Cheers!
Pleasures of the Obscure – New Discoveries
If you follow this blog for some time, you might (or might not) know that I identify as an obsessed wine geek. There is definitely more than one trait that would allow such an identification, so the particular one I want to talk about here is the love of obscure grapes.
I was bitten by The Wine Century Club bug more than 15 years ago, and since then I’m on the quest to seek the most unusual wines made from the most obscure grapes. The Wine Century Club offers to wine lovers a very simple proposition – for every 100 different grapes you taste, you get to the next level in the club. With more than 1,300 grapes used in wine production today, this shouldn’t be very difficult, shouldn’t it? Yet, of course, it is, as an absolute majority of the wines readily available today in the supermarkets, wine stores, and even from the wineries direct, are made from 50–60 mainstream grapes – the rest requires quite a bit of work of procuring as most of the wines made out of the rare grapes are produced in minuscule quantities and not sold anywhere outside of the immediate area of production.
So if finding those rare and unusual wines is that difficult, why bother you may ask? I can give you a few reasons. One – I can simply tell you that I tried 555 grapes at the time of writing this post, so it kind of “mine is bigger than yours” type of reason. Yep, lame. Let’s leave it.
The better reason is the fact that every bottle of wine made from grapes one never heard of before is an opportunity to experience great pleasure. The grape is unknown, so we have no expectations whatsoever. While drinking Cabernet Sauvignon, that simple little piece of information – the name of the grape you are well familiar with – has a tremendous effect on how you perceive the wine. The level of pleasure will depend on how well the particular wine matches your expectations. It might be the best ever for you in the blind tasting, but in the non-blind setting, you are instantly influenced by your prior experience and thus your level of pleasure is limited by your expectations.
When you pour yourself a glass of Bobal, Trepat, or Hondarrabi Zuri, you are presented with a blank canvas – you can draw any conclusions you want. You will decide if you like the wine not in comparison but simply based on what is in your glass and if it gives you pleasure, or not. Simple, straightforward, easy.
Here, let me share with you my latest encounter with obscure grapes.
Let’s start with the white wine – 2017 Paşaeli Yapincak Thrace Turkey (12% ABV, 100% Yapincak). Yapincak is a native variety of Şarköy – Tekirdağ region in Northern Turkey. The grapes for this wine, produced by Paşaeli winery in Turkey, come from the single vineyard located at about 500 feet elevation, 35 years old vines. Upon opening the wine showed some oxidative notes, I even thought it might be gone already. A few hours later, it cleared up, and presented itself as a medium to full-bodied wine, with fresh lemon and a touch of honey notes, crisp, fresh, easy to drink. This can be a food wine, but it doesn’t have to be, quite enjoyable on its own. (Drinkability: 8-/8)
My rare red wine was really a special experience, as it brought back really special memories. I got this 2014 Agricola Vallecamonica Somnium Vino Rosso (12.5% ABV, 100% Ciass Negher) 4 years ago, during a press trip to the beautiful region of Franciacorta. As we were the guests of the Franciacorta consortium, we were mainly focusing on the Franciacorta sparkling wines. During one of our lunches, I noticed this wine and had to bring it home, albeit only one bottle. This wine is made out of the ancient grape called Ciass Negher in the local dialect, used in the winemaking by the Romans about 2,000 years ago, and resuscitated by Alex Belingheri in his vineyards at Agricola Vallecamonica.
This wine was absolutely unique – as you would expect considering its rare pedigree. I perceived this wine as something in a middle between Pinot Noir and Chianti/Sangiovese. A touch of Pinot Noir’s sweetness, smoke, and violets, with the undertones of leather and tobacco, and a little funk. Each sip was begging for another – easy to drink, perfectly balanced, and delightful. If this would be my everyday wine, I would be perfectly happy about it. (Drinkability: 8+)
Here you are, my friends. The wine pleasures are everywhere – you just need to look for them.
Pleasures of Obscure: Enjoying the Journey
Many moons ago I got bit by the bug of collecting the … grape experiences. Back in 2007 or so, I discovered The Wine Century Club. The word “century” here is used for its exact meaning – a 100. In order to become a member of the Wine Century Club, one has to fill up the application and specify how many grape varieties he or she had tried – as soon as you hit the 100, you can send the application to the designated email address, and your membership certificate will be mailed to you.
The club works on the complete honor system, but there is a legend that if you will lie on your application, your palate will be cursed forever – I don’t know if anyone tried to play the system, but I definitely don’t want my palate to be cursed, so I never tried.
When I started this blog back in 2010, I was at the 200 grapes level – so-called Doppel. I carefully documented my journey to the 300 mark (a Treble Member) under the category of Treble Journey. Since that time I managed to reach the 500 level (called Pentavini) back in February of 2016 (exactly 4 years ago) – and this was the last post on the subject of The Wine Century Club – however, I continued documenting my “rare grape” discoveries throughout the posts (that is yet another category in here), and I still hope to reach the 600 mark (called Hexavini) in my lifetime, even though the process became considerably slower at this point. There are more than 1,300 grapes used in the winemaking today, but it doesn’t mean that wines made out of those grapes are readily available, easy to find, and inexpensive.
While reaching the highest possible number of grapes tasted is the goal, my main joy is in the journey itself. There are multiple fun aspects of that journey. First, you get to drink unique and different wines. When taking a sip of Kharkuna or Prunelart, you have no preconceived notions. You can’t say “ohh, it doesn’t taste like Cabernet”, because it is not Cabernet. You now have to decide if you like or don’t like this specific wine in your glass – you have nothing to compare it to and be disappointed by comparison (“ohh, this $30 Cabernet tastes like crap compared to $20 bottle I had last week”) – you have to make a simple, binary decision – 1. I like it. 2. I don’t like it.
Secondly, you get to play a part of the wine sleuth – you need to find information about the grape, you need to find out if Ull de Liebre is a new grape for you, or if it is simply another name for Tempranillo, and you need to verify and compare your sources – lots and lots of fun, I’m telling you.
Ultimately, the list of grapes you tasted is yours and only yours, and you have to make some decisions – for example, will you count clones or not? Is Sangiovese Grosso the same as Sangiovese? Is Ink de Toro identical to Tempranillo, or should it be considered a different grape? What are you going to do about all of the Pinot Noir clones, which many producers, especially the ones in Oregon, love to tell you about? The journey of every grape geek is unique and different – and fun.
As I mentioned before, my last post on the subject of The Wine Century Club was 4 years ago. At that time, my “grape count” which you can see on the top of the blog, was standing at 518. During these four years, I managed to add another 37 varieties, now reaching the 555 total.
Here is another interesting tidbit for you. Only a month ago, I managed to finally complete the original (!) Wine Century Club table, by adding Arvine Grosso (original table, which you can find on the top of the page here, had 184 varieties listed and had both Arvine and Petite Arvine) to the roster, so this was one of the triggers to this post.
I’m honestly not a hurry, I really enjoy this journey. I have another 3-4 wines made out of unique grape varieties, waiting to be open. Will I ever reach 600? I can’t tell. But I can tell you that I’m thoroughly enjoying each and every rare grape encounter – yes, you can call me a grape geek.
In case you are wondering, below is a full list of all 37 new rare grapes added to the collection over the past 4 years. Have you ever been bitten by the grape bug? Cheers!
500! Now Official
As many of you know, I got the bug of The Wine Century Club for the endless quest to try wines made from as many different grapes as possible – yes, you can call me a grape geek, I don’t have an issue with that.
Back in August of last year I wrote a post about reaching the 500 grapes milestone and submitting my application for Pentavini level at The Wine Century club. Two days ago, I got a suspiciously promising envelope in the mail, and there it was:
Well, it is nice to get an acknowledgement for your geekiness in the form of this cool paper; it also reinforces desire to continue the quest. You can see my grape count in the right column of this blog page – yes, I got a long way to go to get to the next level, but it is a fun journey. At this point, The Wine Century Club doesn’t have a designation for the 600 grapes level – but it doesn’t make the process any less fun.
To look at things seriously, this is nothing more than a form of an adult fun, just another way to collect the experiences. There is no need to congratulate with this achievement, really. But I will be happy to be a source of encouragement for all the grape aficionados out there; if you want to leave comment, tell me about your own journey in the Wine Century Club quest, no matter how many grapes you tried so far. Grape geeks, rejoice! Cheers!
500!
Here we are – another post about stats, right??? Before you click away, can I ask for a minute to explain myself? 500 has nothing to do with views, followers or any other blog statistics, no, not at all. These 500 has a bit more interesting meaning (dare I suggest so). It is actually not even 500 but 517 to be precise (but I think 500 looks cool in the title), and if you didn’t guessed it yet, I’m talking about the grape counter which appears in the right column of this blog, and it is also related to The Wine Century Club.
This post is well overdue – I submitted my Pentavini application back in March (didn’t hear anything yet). I was planning to write a few more posts explaining in greater detail how I finally got to cross the 500 grapes boundary before I would write this very post. One post was supposed to be about a great Hungarian wine tasting last June (2014) where I picked up 5 new grapes – that post never happened, unfortunately.
Finally I gave up on trying to catch up on all the “shoulda, coulda”, and moved right to this post.
When I started the Wine Century Club journey about 8 years ago, I couldn’t even imagine that I will get hooked on it so well; even when I crossed 300 grapes mark, I didn’t see it possible to get to the 500. Nevertheless, here I am, at 517, and I’m sure there will be more.
I know that many of my readers are participating in The Wine Century Club. For those of you who are not familiar with the concept, you can find all information here. The Wine Century Club is a free and open “self-guiding” group of “grape enthusiasts” (yes, you call us geeks) – people who obsess themselves with looking for and tasting as many grapes as possible – and of course having fun while doing that.
The grape hunting becomes an obsession when you scour the back label, producer web site and everything else possible on Internet to find information about the grapes used to make that bottle of wine. Once you figure out the grapes (if you are lucky enough to do it for the given wine and given vintage), your job is not done – you still have to figure out if you didn’t have already the same grape under a different name (simple example – Grenache and Garnacha), or may be this is still the same grape, only with a slightly different spelling. Once all the checks pass successfully, you can add the grape to you collection.
Today it is a lot easier to “collect the grapes”, compare to the time when I just started with the Century Club. Information is more readily available, and also there are lots more grapes which were almost extinct, but now reborn, replanted and becoming tasty differentiators for the winemakers. And more often than not, these obscure wines are a pleasure to drink. They often offer surprising depth of flavor and nuances which make this grape journey really a pleasant experience. I had wines made from Pigato, Pugnitello, Coda di Volpe, Bobal, Trepat, Listan Negro and many others, and they were delicious – what else do you need from a bottle of wine?
If you will get hooked on this Wine Century geekiness, you should know that there are some shortcuts you can take. Well, there is one shortcut which is legal – Giribaldi Cento Uve wine from Piedmont in Italy, which is made out of 152 varietals (though 50% of grapes in that wine are Nebbiolo, and the other 51% comprise 151 varietals) – however, you need to have at least the first level (100 grapes) to make this shortcut legal. I did took it, and you can read about it here.
Second shortcut exists, but it is illegal (The Wine Century Club rules prohibit using of it). Another Italian wine, Vino Della Pace Cantina Produttori Cormòns Vino Blanco, is made out of the whopping 855 varietals. This wine is produced from the experimental vineyard called The Vineyard of the World, where all those 855 (or more) varietals are growing together. Most of the information about this wine is available only in Italian, but if interested, search for it by the name, you will be able to find some bits and pieces (here is one reference for you). If you are curious to see the list of grapes, I got it for you here – you can count on your own. I have a bottle of this wine, but as usual, I don’t know what would be the right moment to open it (hopeless, I know).
Last piece of advice in case you will embrace this fun journey or you are already in, but stumbling: pay attention. Yes, pay attention to the back labels and wine descriptions. During recent Provence tasting I found out that there is a grape called Tibouren which is very often used in Provence Rosé – I would guess that I had it before, but never paid attention to. Another example – Turley Petite Sirah Library Vineyard. This particular wine is a treasure trove for the grape hunters. Here are the grapes which can be found in that bottle: Red – Petite Syrah, Peloursin, Cinsault, Syrah, Mission, Alicante Bouschet, Grand Noir, Carignan, Grenache, and Zinfandel; White – Muscat Alexandria, Muscadelle, Burger, and Green Hungarian. 14 different grapes in one bottle of wine, and many of them are very rare – not bad for a bottle of wine. And by the way, Turley Petite Sirah Library Vineyard is one delicious wine.
In case you might find it helpful, I recently updated the page which contains information about all the grapes I tried for The Wine Century journey, together with the names of the wines which I had. I have to admit that there are still 3 grapes from the original table (the one which I downloaded when I just started with the Wine Century Club) which I still was unable to try – Arvine Grosso, Irsai Oliver and Plavac Mali – they are extremely hard to find in the US. Well, the journey is not over…
What can I leave you with? Go get a bottle of wine made from the grapes which you never had before – there is a good chance you will enjoy it. The grape journey is one of the most fun journeys you can take – let’s drink to the never ending pleasures of discovery! Cheers!
Just Arrived…
When I saw a big sturdy envelope yesterday in the mail, my first thought was “is that the…” – and yes, it was – my Quatro certificate from The Wine Century Club!
Wine Century Clun Quattro Certificate
Yes, I know that I tasted over 400 grapes, but somehow getting this piece of paper felt very good. And while I was thinking about the next level, the coveted 500, or Pentavini as it is called in The Wine Century Club, I didn’t feel encouraged – now I do. Thus you should expect to see more posts about obscure grapes and wines on this pages. But this is what makes it fun!
Join The Wine Century Club and start your journey now – you can thank me later! Cheers!
Study of Grapes, 152 at a Time
How do you experience 152 grape varieties, all at the same time? Easy. You get a bottle of Giribaldi Cento Uve wine and … voilà!
As you probably know, I’m an enthusiastic member of the Wine Century Club – a virtual club dedicated to the grape adventures. I already talked too many times about virtues of the Wine Century Club, thus I’m not going to bore you with those details again. Instead, let me focus on only one, dare I say it, sacred bottle of wine – 2005 Giribaldi Cento Uve Langhe DOC.
What makes this wine “sacred”? It is made out of 50% Nebbiolo and the other 50% containing additional 151 (!) varieties, so it can really help you to advance in the quest for higher levels of The Wine Century Club membership (except that it doesn’t count towards the first level of membership with 100 varieties). The wine is almost impossible to find in US – except one wine shop in Colorado which actually carries it (if you are interested, the wine is available from The Vineyard Wine Shop, 303-355-8324). When I called the store to order this wine, gentleman who answered the phone, Matt, said that he is quite convinced that they don’t have any wine under such name – after checking his computer, he was surprised more than me by actually finding it. At $60 + $20 for the shipping, this was definitely worth the experience.
Interestingly enough, finding this wine and drinking it was the easiest part – the tough (seriously tough) part was figuring out what grapes I already tasted and what grapes I can actually add to my list. As this is one of the coolest parts of Wine Century Club membership ( figuring out what is what in the grape world), let me explain it with appropriate level of details.
To begin with, the web site for this wine states that it contains 152 varieties. The list of grapes is nowhere to be found on the winemaker’s web site. The only place on internet where you can find the list is at the Indian Wine Academy. Well, list is a list, you say, right? Yes, but not precisely. As I need to properly account for all the grapes I already tasted, I need to go through that list very carefully, line by line. As soon as I started going through the list, I noticed duplications (same grapes listed twice, like Gamay, for instance) – I called it a red flag and decided that the right thing to do is to contact Giribaldi, the winemaker. After 2 or 3 of my e-mails went unanswered, I decided that it is a time to … get an audience support? No, call a friend! And as I happened to have a good friend in Italy, Corrado, I asked him to help me to get to the correct list. This was not easy, but after a few conversations with the winery, he was able to get full description of the wine, including the list of grapes.
Yay? Nope. The list of grapes was … identical to the one published on the site of the Indian Wine Academy! Fine. From here on, I had to figure it out myself. I converted the list to the Excel file, and sorted it alphabetically. Then I had to figure out how to get from 156 varieties listed to the 152 which we know this wine has. It later downed on me that 156 varieties include Nebbiolo and 4 Nebbiolo clones , therefore if we will take all 5 Nebbiolo varieties from consideration we will get to the target number of 151. Whew. Tired of me yet? No? Let’s continue.
Next step was to remove obvious duplicates, then go through the list again. For every grape I didn’t know, I used Internet resources to verify that such a grape exists (i.e., referenced at least once on one or more sites). Here is the good list of references in case you ever need to conduct a search on grape etymology (Italian grapes, if you will):
After all the cleanup, removing duplicates, fixing the spelling and checking the references, I got to the final list of 138 grapes (don’t ask me where the 14 went – let’s keep it a grape mystery), out of which I was unable to find any references for the grape called Michele Pagliari – therefore I’m keeping it on the list, but not counting towards the new grapes. In case you want to see a transition here is an excel file for you – note that is has multiple spreadsheets inside starting from full list. Here is the list of those final 138 grapes.
Legend: letter N next to the grape stands for Nero (red), B is for Bianche (white), Rs is for Rose. Showing in Bold are the grapes which I count as new grapes for my grape count.
| Aglianico N | Michele Pagliari N |
| Albarola N | Montepulciano N |
| Albarossa N | Moscato bianco B |
| Aleatico N. | Moscato giallo B |
| Alicante Bouschet N | Moscato nero di Acqui N |
| Ancellotta N. | Moscato Rosa Rs |
| Arneis B | Muller Thurgau B |
| Avanà N | Nascetta B |
| Avarengo N | Nebbiolo N. |
| Baco Nero N | Nebbiolo ( Bolla) N |
| Barbera bianca B. | Nebbiolo ( Rosè) N |
| Barbera N. | Nebbiolo (Lampia) N |
| Becuet N. | Nebbiolo (Michet)N |
| Bianchetta Tevigiano B | Negrette N |
| Bianchetta Veronese B | Neretta cuneese N. |
| Bombino Bianco B | Neretto di Bairo N |
| Bombino Nero N | Nero Buono N |
| Bonarda Piemontese N | Nero d’Ala N |
| Bosco Nero N | Nero d’Avola N |
| Brachetto N. | Neyret N |
| Bracciola N | Pampanuto N |
| Brunello N | Pecorino N |
| Bussanello B | Pelaverga (di Pagno) N |
| Cabernet Franc N | Pelaverga N |
| Cabernet Sauvignon N | Pelaverga piccolo N |
| Canaiolo B. | Petit Arvine N |
| Canina N | Petit Verdot N |
| Cannonau N | Pigato B |
| Carica l’Asino N | Pignola Nera N |
| Carignano N | Pinot bianco B |
| Catarratto comune B | Pinot Grigio G |
| Catarratto Nero N | Pinot Nero N |
| Chardonnay B. | Plassa N |
| Chatus N | Pollera 1 N |
| Ciliegiolo N. | Portugieser N |
| Colorino Nero N | Primitivo N |
| Cornalin | Prosecco B |
| Cornarea N | Quagliano N |
| Cortese B | Raboso Veronese N |
| Corvina Nera N | Rebo Nero N |
| Croatina N | Refosco da Peduncolo Rosso N |
| Crovassa N | Riesling B |
| Dolcetto N | Riesling italico B |
| Doux d’Henry N | Riesling Renano B |
| Durasa N | Rossese bianco B |
| Durasca (Dolcetto di Boca) N | Rossese N |
| Enantio N | Ruché N |
| Erbaluce B | Sangiovese N |
| Favorita B | Sauvignon Blanc B |
| Franconia N (Blaufränkisch) | Schiava Gentile N |
| Freisa di Chieri N | Schiava grossa N |
| Freisa di Nizza N | Schiava N |
| Gamay N. | Sylvaner Verde B |
| Gargiulo N | Syrah N |
| Grechetto N | Teroldego Nero N |
| Grignolino N | Timorasso B |
| Grillo B | Tocai Friulano B |
| Incrocio Manzoni N | Tocai Rosso N |
| Lambrusca di Alessandria N | Torbato B |
| Lambrusco Maestri N | Traminer aromatico Rs |
| Lumassina N | Trebbiano Toscano B |
| Maiolica N | Uva di Troia N |
| Malvasia di Casorzo N | Uva rara N |
| Malvasia di Schierano N | Uvalino N |
| Malvasia Istriana N | Veltlimer Fruhrot N |
| Malvasia nera lunga N | Verduzzo Trevigiano B |
| Manzoni bianco B | Vermentino B |
| Marzemino N | Vespolina N |
| Merlot N | Zweigelt N |
301!
Can you guess from the title alone what this post will be all about? If you are not new to this blog, I’m sure you got it figured out, and if you didn’t spend much time here before, you can check this post, it will give you a hint. Yes, you got it right – I got to 300 different grapes, and now can officially apply for the Treble level at the Wine Century club! For anyone interested in seeing the copy of that application, you can find it here: Application_WineCentury_Treble.
This “Treble Journey” was interesting. It required complete focus: entering the wine store, you are on the mission. You are not looking for a nice bottle of reasonably priced Cabernet Sauvignon – instead, you are looking for the wine from the most obscure place (of course it is also located in the corner of the store you’ve never been to before), hoping it is made out of grape you didn’t try yet.
Reaching this 300 grapes level was big and often simply a communal effort. My friend Patrick was finding and bringing wines from Switzerland. My friend Zak, owner of Cost Less Wines and Liquors, was going after all of his suppliers asking for rare grape recommendations. I had to spend a lot of time trying to find unusual wines on the budget, sometimes bringing them from across the country or halfway from across the world (for instance, Emerald Riesling, which grows only in Israel). A lot of time went also into “grape research”, making sure that grape is unique or at least an officially recognized clone, and not just a different name for the grape already accounted for.
Anyway, here I am. 301. The grapes which helped to cross into the treble world were Findling (swiss clone of Muller-Thurgau), Coda di Volpe (Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio), Pigato, and Pugnitello:
Both Findling and Lacryma Christi were nice wines (which is not always the rule when you are going after rare grapes), but the great thing was that Treble Journey finished in style, thanks to Pigato and Pugnitello wines. This 2009 Punta Crena Pigato Vigneto Ca da Rena from Liguria in Italy was one of the very best white wines I ever had – full body, great balance of fruit and acidity, with fruit taking back seat and letting polished roundness to shine – outstanding (Drinkability: 9). And 2006 San Felice Pugnitello from Tuscany was also outstanding, earthy and pungent, very balanced with a long finish (Drinkability: 9-).
Well, the Treble Journey is over. Am I done with this [tedious] process of grape discoveries? I don’t think so. The next level is called Quattro, and it requires… yep, 400 grapes! Anyone cares to join? Let’s go!
Treble Journey: On The Finishing Line, #293 – #297
300. Getting closer and closer. It is amazing what dedication and focus can do – fine, yes, we learned that in school, the trick is to practice that “dedication and focus” thing.
When I restarted this crazy “grape quest” in May of 2010, I had no idea that I will be able to move from about 210 grapes to almost 300 in 7 month. But it’s actually happening – after this report, I will be 3 grapes away from 300. And those 3 additional wines (grapes) are simply waiting for its moment, quietly resting in the cellar. Looking back, yes, I had to use some clones, but in any case I was able to advance here without use of a secret weapon, the wine with 152 grape varieties in it!
Last big group of new grapes was largely based on varieties from Georgia. This latest group consists of 3 grapes from Italy, one from Hungary and one from Israel. Another interesting detail is that 4 out of 5 are part of the main application table – I really hope that main table will be complete one day!
So the new grapes are:
Schiava – 2009 Elena Walch Schiava Alto Adige DOC, Italy – nice soft red wine, medium body, has a little gaminess.
Ruche – 2005 La Mondianese Ruche di Castagnole Monferrato DOC, Italy – Nice, gamey wine, very earthy and well balanced.
Erbaluce – 2008 La Torrazza Erbaluce di Caluso DOC, Italy – very acidic while cold, and showing some fruit when warms up, but not very distinguishable overall
Portugieser – 2008 Gere Villany Portugieser, Hungary – Again, gamey wine, very tight initially. Opened up after two days, became quite drinkable. Will beneft from a few years in the cellar.
Emerald Riesling – 2009 Teperberg Terra Emerald Riesling, Israel. It is not the fiurst time I write about Teperberg wines. This Emerald Riesling was a bit sharp on the edges and a bit dryer than you would expect from “semi-dry white wine”, but it was drinkable nevertheless.
The Treble Journey is nearing it’s finishing line. Will there be a Quattro Journey? Well, you will be the first to know…
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