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A Quick Trip To Malta and a Few Rare Grape Sightings
Have you been to Malta?
I have not, but hey, this is a wine blog, remember? As I like to say, “Have wine, will travel” – we can get a tiny bit of Maltese experience with the help of Maltese wine.
I honestly don’t remember why was I searching for a Maltese wine, but let’s try to figure it out. I call myself a “collector of experiences”, and I like seld-made challenges. On this very blog, I have this table that lists all (probably “most” is a better word) of the winemaking countries in the world, and I’m always on the lookout for ways to add checkmarks to that table. I added a few new places this year, and I guess while I was at it, I decided to see what wines from what countries I might be able to find. Malta came up during the search, and I found the website called Malta Products which offers food and crafts from Malta, and also wine.
As I was looking through the available wines, to my delight, I realized that I could kill two birds with one stone. Not only can I put a checkmark next to the Malta name, but I can also advance my rare grapes hunt as I found wines made from the two new indigenous grapes.
Long story short, I selected two inexpensive wines, one made with the local white grape called Girgentina – 2022 La Torre Girgentina Maltese Islands IGT. The second wine was a red blend containing another indigenous grape – Ġellewża – 2022 La Torre Ġellewża – Shiraz Maltese Islands IGT. The shipping was surprisingly reasonable, so I guess I spent a total of around $50 including shipping directly from Malta.
The wines showed up about 2 weeks later, but when I opened the box I found that instead of Ġellewża – Shiraz I got a bottle of Italian Cabernet Sauvignon from the same producer (La Torre). Considering how inexpensive the wine was, I decided that I would just let it be. On second thought, I decided to at least write to Malta Products customer service and let them know that they sent me the wrong bottle. After I sent them a picture of the wine I received, they apologized and said that they would fix it. I was not expecting anything more than a credit on the card, but instead, about a week later, the proper bottle showed up. It is easy to get cynical in the world we live in today, but then every once in a while we encounter people who actually take pride in the service they provide. If you ever feel like you want to visit Malta via Malta Products, you have my full, unquestionable endorsement.
I finally had an opportunity to try the wines at some point. Girgentina was excellent, bright, round, vibrant and delicious from the get-go. When I took a first sip of Ġellewża – Shiraz, I decided that it’s okay not to like every wine – it was not good [at all]. Not spoiled, but really not drinkable. About an hour later the wine transformed, and while it didn’t become magical, it became light, herbaceous, drinkable red, perfect for a hot summer day. While not a new grape or a place, the 2021 La Torre Cabernet Sauvignon Veneto IGT was simple and quaffable.
That was my quick trip to Malta and the addition of the two rare grapes.
As I’m trying to complete my Hexavin journey and reach that 600 grapes mark, the going doesn’t get any easier (expectedly, but I’m allowed to lament, am I). Or maybe I just like to complain, and it is not that difficult. There is a lot of work done around the world to bring back ancient grapes, to create new wines with a lot of pedigree and heritage, hundreds and hundreds of years of heritage. There are also new grapes, such as Solaris I just wrote about that help grape maniacs geeks move forward. Either way, here are more grapes I’m adding to the collection:
Moschomavro – NV Tsantali Rosé d’Estelle Greece – considering the non-vintage designation, I expected that it would fare worse, but it was drinkable.
Tămâioasă Românească – 2020 Domenile Tohani Tămâioasă Românească DOC Romania – you know that when you you are looking for a princess you might have to kiss a lot of frogs? This was one of them. Horrible.
Busuioacă de Bohotin – 2020 Domain Tohani Busuioacă de Bohotin semi-sweet wine Dealu Mare Region Romania – another surprise. While semi-sweet, the sweetness was nicely restrained and the wine was very tasty.
Krstač – 2019 Plantaže Crnogorski Krstač Montenegro – outstanidng. This was a delicious white wine in its own right. Crispy, focused, delicious.
The next four grapes were picked up last year at the Hudson Valley Wine and Spirits competition last year, where I was one of the judges. These are some interesting grapes, including the hybrid which doesn’t even have the name, only the numbers…
NY81.0315.17 – 2021 Weis Vineyards Perle Finger Lakes
Valvin Muscat – 2021 Milea Estate Vineyard Proceedo Hudson Valley
Regent – 2020 Milea Estate Vineyard Blaufrankish Hudson Valley
Obelin Noir – 2019 Christopher Jacobs Winery Deep Roots New York
Trebbiano Abruzzese – 2022 Masciarelli Trebbiano Abruzzo DOC – this was my recent discovery while working on the Masciarelly post – it appears that Trebbiano Abruzzese is different from the other types of Trebbiano and it is local only to the Abruzzo area…
Timorasso – 2018 Vietti Timorasso Derthona Colli Tortonesi DOC – it appears that this grape was already accounted for as part of Giribaldi Cento Uve, so no additional count. The wine, however, was a sheer disappointment – undrinkable.
Albilla – 2022 Bodegas Ponce Manchuela DO – this was delicious wine, fresh and vibrant.
All in all, I’m increasing my grape count by 11, and now I’m within the last 10 push before reaching the 600 milestone. I have an easy way of solving this – using clones. I can add 20 clones of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon, all well documented on their usage. Should I do this? I’m not sure, but it is good to have options.
What are the wine artifacts you like to collect?
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…
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!
Spotting Rare Grapes
It’s being a while since I talked about new additions to my “grape collection”. No, I didn’t stop looking for the new grapes (I think this will go on forever), I just couldn’t get around posting about the new grape discoveries.
Actually, one of the “pushers” for this post to come out was the fact that subject of Wine Century Club became very popular in my close “blogosphere”, the blogs I’m reading on more or less the regular basis. Oliver of The Wine Getter just crossed his first hundred grapes – here is the post where he explains what makes him going with the Wine Century Club. Here is account of another blogger, GourmetVicariously – she is undertaking the Wine Century Challenge in Australia, and you follow check on her progress here.
So for my own update, I finally submitted my Quattro application, and I’m inching little by little closer to the Pentavini status. As I didn’t post on this subject for a while, today’s update includes 22 grapes, a lot of them came through after the VinItaly and Gambero Rosso tastings I recently attended. Below you will see some pictures of the wine labels, and the names of the grapes and the wines follow right after. Another challenge for me will be to update my grapes of the world table, but I will worry about it later. This same table might be a good resource for you in terms of searching of the new wines and the grapes. Also, if you are using Pinterest, please make sure to check the Wine Centurions shared pinboard, and feel free to join in and start contributing the rare grapes information. Also, if we are talking about resources for the aspiring Wine Centurions, here is the link to all the Wine Century Club posts in this blog, hope you will find it helpful.
Here are the labels:
And the grapes:
Groslot – Sparkling Brut Rose Bouvet ‘Excellence’ NV Bouvet-Ladubay
Carricante – 2010 Planeta Carricante, Sicilia IGT, Italy
Le Crescent – Boyden Valley Winery Cowtipper, Vermont
Rougeon – Palaia Joyful Pink, Hudson Valley, New York
Prensal – 2010 Binigrau Nounat Vi de la Terra Mallorca, Spain
Marquette – 2010 Lincoln Park Vineyard Maquette, Vermont
Turbiana – 2009 Lugana Superiore Il Rintocco
Malvasia di Candia Aromatica – 2011 Lusenti C.P. Malvasia Frizzante Emiliana
Caberlot – 2009 Podere Il Carnasciale Caberlot
Trebbiano Spoletino – 2010 Tabarrini Adarmando
Verdiso – Bisol Prosecco di Valdobbiadene Brut Jeio NV
Cesanese di Affile – 2010 Casale della Ioria Cesanese del Piglio Camponovo
Malvasia Puntinata – 2011 L’Olivella Frascati Superiore Racemo
Bellone – L’Olivella Frascati Superiore Racemo
Cesanese – 2008 L’Olivella Lazio Rosso “>”
Durello – Lessini Durello DOC Spumante 36 Mesi
Lambrusca di Sorbara – 2011 Chiarli 1860 Lambrusco di Sorbara del Fondatore
Lambrusca Grasparossa – 2011 Chiarli 1860 Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro Vign. Enrico Cialdini
Ginestra – 2010 Marisa Cuomo Costa d’Amalfi Furore Bianco Fiorduva
Fenile – 2010 Marisa Cuomo Costa d’Amalfi Furore Bianco Fiorduva
Ripoli – 2010 Marisa Cuomo Costa d’Amalfi Furore Bianco Fiorduva
Perricone – 2010 Firriato Ribeca, Sicily
If you are not going through the Wine Century club challenge yet, you should really consider doing that, and if you are already living through your obsession – good luck in your journey and remember to have fun! 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 |
Wine Century Club 7th Anniversary – Celebrating Grape Geeks Around The World
As you already know from my previous post, last Saturday grape geeks all over the world celebrated 7th Anniversary of the Wine Century Club. Based on the current count, total of 179 different grape varieties were tasted by people participated in the festivities. This number can and will be adjusted based on some people reporting at the later time. You can find detailed report here.
Celebrating this kind of events needs a company (how many bottles can I open otherwise?), so I was lucky enough to be invited to the friends’ house for dinner, so we had an opportunity to drink a few bottles of wine. In no particular order, here are some notes for the wines we tried.
Let me start with 2004 Heretat Mont-Rubi Durona from Spain (13.5% ABV) – I got this wine from Wine Till Sold Out, and I really wanted to try it for a while, especially due to the fact that I never had one of the grapes in this wine, Sumoll. This red wine is a blend of 30% Sumoll, 20% Cariñena, 20% Garnacha, 20% Syrah and 10% Merlot. It had a very interesting herbal nose of sage and may be some oregano ( lightly hinted), and some nice red fruit on the palate, medium body, well balanced with pronounced tannins – I think it can still age for a while. Drinkability – 7+.
To tell you the truth, we actually started dinner from this light and simple NV Rosati Prosecco DOC (11% ABV) – it was rather a typical Prosecco, soft and round on the palate, with good acidity, drinkable but not exiting or thought provoking (Drinkability: 7-). This wine was of course made out of Prosecco grapes, which are also known as Glera.
What can be better on a hot summer day than … yes, you are correct – Rose? Not much. Rose as a category is a perfect summer wine, enough refreshing but also having a substance which some of the white wines are lacking. This 2011 Sauska Villanyi Rose from Hungary (12.5% ABV) is a blend of 35% Blaufrankisch, 30% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Syrah and 7% Pinot Noir. This wine had lots of cranberries both on the nose and the palate, medium body, very refreshing acidity – yes, just perfect match for the summer day. Drinkability: 7+
The next wine was 2009 Calina Cabernet Sauvignon, Valle del Maule, Chile (13.5% ABV). This wine was somewhat typical of Cabernet Savignon, with the green notes and hint of black currant. It was soft and drinkable, however after being open for a while, the wine developed quite a bit of sweetness, which is definitely not the best characteristic in my book of wines. Drinkability: 7-
Last, but not least was 2008 Tohani Domain Princiar Tamaioasa Romaneasca, Romania (11.5% ABV). To tell you the truth, I bought this wine just for the new grape, Tamaioasa Romaneasca, as in a lot of cases sweet wine of unknown pedigree are cloyingly sweet. This wine was definitely a great surprise – hint of white peaches on the nose, fresh and delicious white fruit on the palate, good acidity, very balanced – definitely great wine for the money ($11.99). Drinkability: 8-.
We also had NV Ramos Pinto Collector port, which was outstanding – reasonably (not overly) sweet with the hint of smokiness – definitely a very good port. The reason I don’t mention it in the same way as all other wines is that I was unable to find the exact grape composition for this wine, outside of the statement that indigenous Portuguese grape varieties had being used.
This is it for now, folks. 12 different grapes, 2 new grapes for my grape count (Sumoll and Tamaioasa Romaneasca). Journey continues – hop on! Cheers!
Start Your Grape Adventure Today – Wine Century Club Turns 7!
Any of you who followed this blog for a some time probably noticed a substantial number of posts on the subject of unusual grapes (and you probably even noticed a Grape Count right on top of the blog page, which currently stands – for a while, I have to admit – at 372.
I caught this bug, called Wine Century Club some time in 2008 by looking through someone’s web site. The name “century” actually has nothing to do with time – in order to become a member of a club you are supposed to try 100 grapes ( not independently – any kinds of blends are totally fine) – this is where the “century” is coming into a play, and then download and fill up an application marking the grapes you tasted, and then submit filled application back to the club. Club operates totally on the honor system – nobody will be asking for a proof of you actually having those grapes and wines – however, rumor has it that if you will lie in your application, your palate will be cursed forever…
I submitted my application at the end of 2008, and then in January 2009 I received my membership certificate. At that time there were 529 members in the club and there was only one single level of membership. Today, the club has 1,158 members and 5 levels of membership (there is an addition of Doppel, Treble, Quattro and Pentavini levels which are awarded after trying 200, 300, 400 and 500 different grapes, respectively).
What makes me so excited about the Wine Century Club? In a few words, it is sense of discovery, adventure and experience. You discover new tastes, you look for new wines. Sometimes, you get to play a grape detective. Is this grape indigenous? Is this another name for the same grape, like Tempranillo and Tinto Fino, for instance? Or sometimes it is simply “what are the grapes in this wine? I don’t read in this language…”. And then you get to experience new wines, educate your palate a little more, and extend your sense of taste – all in all, there is a lot of “good” in this simple grape hunt.
Tomorrow, June 9th, club members around the world will be celebrating 7th Anniversary. You can ( and should!) join the celebration too. All it takes is going to the wine store and asking for the bottle of wine made out the most unusual grape you never heard of before. And – voila, you get to experience new wine – and may be you will be even like it!
You might even decide to join the club – in this case, you can find a lot of helpful information at the Membership page of the Wine Century Club. Feel free to also use my table which lists all the grapes and many of the relevant wines I have tried to the date.
If you are already a member, join the celebration tomorrow. If you are not the member yet, join the celebration first, and then you can become a member. And whatever you do, have fun with your wines! Cheers!
Last Bottle Sign Up ($10 credit)
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