Always worth it.

 

 

 

 

 

We are very fortunate in London. There is a plethora of wine fairs and shows one of which is the 'Borsa Vini' tasting promoted by the Italian Trade Agency, on this occasion at the impressive IET (  of Engineering and Technology)building, Savoy Place, London.    

Some tastings are better than others and in this case the event struggled to be outstanding. However as we have said before, these events are 'Always worth it' because the subject of Wine is so vast that somehow we invariably find something of interest and there was no exception to this here.

 

 

 

Our first 'discovery' was bumping into Jonathan Rodwell. We had been trying to meet since 2021 when he made contact thanls to a mutual friend Paolo Addis and this blog. There occurred a near miss at the Oxford Wine Festival one year but in the event neither of us could make it. 

Jonathan is an immensely well qualified ampelographer, He has served as head of Vineyard Establisment at Vinescapes and Director of Viticulture and Winemaking for Devonian Coast Wineries – Nova Scotia’s largest grape grower and wine producer. He began his career in the Loire Valley in 1977 and since has worked internationally both in consulting roles as well as managing and developing wine estates – this has predominantly been in France, California and Italy but also with consulting roles with the European Bank of Development in Kyrgyzstan as well as the “British Know How Fund” in the Ukraine. He has also worked harvests as a “flying winemaker” in Slovenia, Romania, Moldova and Chile. He holds degrees from London University, the University of California at Davis and the Bocconi Business School, Milan. 

Jonathan told us he plans to go to Sardinia next and be involved in the fascinating scene there. He is truly a rare grape connoisseur and enthusiast. He told us he grows Marquette and L'Acadie Blanc in pots on his balcony. It really is a privilegs to be in touch with him.

 In terms of new grape varieties, Borsa Vini Italiani had one that was new to us: 'Ervi.' 

 

 

Ervi is a crossing of Barbera and Croatina. We have mixed feelings about these two varieties, loving Croatina but not understanding the popularity of Barbera. We immediately thought of the DOC 'Gutturnio' which is a blend of these two varieties. Gutturnio is not something we have warmed to in the past. Why spoil Croatina by mixing in Barbera? Also we always think of Victor Hazan who dismissed Gutturnio because he found the name ugly. He was not wrong although Gutturnio has its fans. We always remember the winelist at the historic Barca Restaurant in Castel San Giovanni, Lombardia which was a hymne to Gutturnio with about 20 different bottles of the stuff.

 

 

Ervi is an attempt not to make Gutturnio but to take the best characteristics of both grapes. It was obtained by Mario Fregoni in 1977. He was a professor at the Universita Cattolica di Piacenza at that time. In the Colli Piacentini apparently Barbera doesn't always ripen fully and the local Croatina suffers from irregular production. Initially nearly 650 vines of the crossing were cultivated. After 11 years, vine number 108 was selected as the best giving the original name of Fregoni 108. 

Later the name Ervi was chosen because it incorporated the first letters of the name of someone who had been instrumental in the early stages of the study - Ernesto Vigevani. By chance, Ervi is also the word for wine in Aramaic.

Ca Fontani's Ervi was a very pleasant wine with a character of its own, not reminiscent either of Barbera, Croatina or Gutturnio if you ask us. Never mind, we'll settle for pleasant. 

 

 

  

 Elsewhere in the forest. a stand-out wine was Sacco's Bombino Bianco. What a great grape Bombino is! 

 

 

 

  

Further on a surprise indeed: a blend of Fleurtai and Johanniter. An unusual combination to be sure but successful. 

 

 

 Cantina Biologica Le Carezze even make a sparkling version. Nice. 

 We noticed that the same producer made a wine from Palava, a grape we had only ever encountered in the Czech Republic. The friendly Alihan Eksel, sales director told us Palava originated in Croatia but we read that it was obtained in 1953 by one Josef Veverka in Moravia from Mueller-Thuergau and Gewurztraminer. Never mind, it makes a good dessert wine as well as dry table wine. Good to know.

 

 So even if not all wines were great or especially interesting there were enough to make our visit worth it, especially with the pportunity to meet Jonathan Rodwell thrown in.

Winemaking 2025

One of the excitements of winemaking is that every year is different. That was certainly the case in 2024 when we made no wine at all from home-grown grapes. In 2025 thanks to the hot weather and ensuing hosepipe ban we have probably lost most of the newly planted vines which we had gone to great lengths to procure (hoping to fill every gap). So we made a decision to do everything in the simplest possible way.

Simplest possible meant no hydraulic press and no de-stemmer. The reason for the former is obviously because being hydraaulic, a hosepipe would have been needed and in the case of the de-stemmer, it would have been almost impossible to clean it without a strong water jet. 

So we were reduced to the most basic peasant winemaking. It was actually quite exciting to see if leaving the stalks on and hand-pressing would make much of a difference. It actually didn't. Maybe the results would have been otherwise? We will never know but in the event we were quite delighted with how things turned out.

We made 12 bottlings and 11 micro-vinifications.

 

The bottling was of our 2024 Trebbiano which unexpectedly evolved into a dessert wine.We're not sure how this unintended result came about.Perhaps it was because we had held back the pressing for a week or so and the grapes may have dried out a bit.

In any event, the resulting wine took a year to clarify hence the bottling at the same time as our 2025 winemaking.  The resulting wine wasn't bad at all.

The following were the micro-vinifcations; 

 

1. Rondo

This is a bit disappointing so far. Not one of the best British Rondos. Somewhat green and grassy.

 

2. Regent.

We last made Regent in 2023. This may turn out a little better. This year we should try to leave Regent grapes longer even at the risk of losing them to the birds. 

 

3. Red Field Blend. 

 

 

4. Cabernet Noir (aka Cabaret Noir) from the left block

Better than expected. These vines are coming on slowly but nicely and the grapes are not as minuscule as in 2023. Consequentially the wine is lighter and fruitier. 

 

 

5. Fidelio

We picked later and the evolution was different from anything we had seen before. It was much slower and then we got what looked like a full Malolactic fermentation. The taste is also different of course. The wine is fuller-bodied than in 2023. It could be quite exciting to see how this develops.

 

6. Souvignier Gris

We left this in contact with the skins for a week. The colour is a very beautiful dark pink reflecting the skins. In 2023, we obtained a lovely golden colour. To the taste, this year's wine is rather assertive and stringent. We had a bit of a sore head after drinking it. We'll see if a bit of 'elevage' helps. You never know.

7. Solaris

In 2023 we failed to do enough summer pruning and picked too early. The wine has been relegated to the kitchen cupboard for cooking. This year was much more successful.

 

8. Solaris Orange

We left some of the grapes to macerate for a while and have obtained quite a nice orange wine. Only two bottles produced however.

 

9. Gli Altri.

White field blend including Calardis Blanc and Soreli in the main.

While harvesting the rest of the white grapes - we call them 'Gli altri' - we kept seeing mysterios vines with small berry bunches we realised were for the first time Soreli. We planted this ages ago and the vines didn't seem to be doing anything. They were also not at all vigorous and looked decidedly weak. Never a grape was to be seen so on picking Gli altri we were surprised to find these grapes in quite some quantity. There was also our much more vigorous Calardis Blanc and old remnants of rather unsuccessful plantings of Helios, Orion, Phoenix and whatnot.

The juice from these grapes fermented slowly but nicely and there was quite a lot of it. When it came to tasting the result was - how can we put it - disgusting. We though of throwing the whole lot down the kitchen sink but stopped short, retaining half just in case. As has happened before, that wine turned out quite differently and is altogether drinkable. Maybe it was a mistake to jettison half but in fact we have too much wine in general and are struggling to reduce our 'inventory.'

 

10. Moscato. 

Grapes bought in from Leon Fruits of Cerignola, (Foggia) Puglia thanks to Uva da Vino of London N19, aka C & M Watermelon Imports Ltd.

These were as we thought the only bought-in grapes this year. We has liked working with Moscato a few years back and this time used a special yeast to ensure a dry version. This was the first time we had used a commercial yeast other than when a stopped-fermantation had needed it. The action was impressive with an immediate and dramatic fermentation, We are very happy with the result. 

 

11. Moscato Orange.

Again we thought to macerate some of the Moscato grapes in order to produce a Moscato Orange. The wine is very orange indeed. A shade on the mouth-puckering side but nice if you like that sort of thing.

 

12. White and Red blend

A cheeky one this. We had some red and some white left over so we carefully blended them together. The result is not bad at all. We read that this 'promiscuous' blending is becoming 'a thing.' So we have to be up there in the vanguard.

 

13. Cornita/Cornisa/Cornitza. 

We mentioned Cornita in our post of December 19th. The tale of how we came to be making wine from this exceptionally rare and little known Romanian grape variety (out of Moldova) is very exciting. It came about thanks to a post on our winemaking What's App group from a person called Liviu in mid-September. In answer to someone else's question Liviu mentioned that his beautiful red grapes were Called Cornisa and came from Moldova.

We contacted Liviu who is a very collaborative and nice person and he offered to import some of these grapes for us. Apparently mini-vans ply between Moldova and the UK on a weekly basis and so it was that about a month later we collected 6 boxes of Cornisa from Liviu and pressed it immediately.

The grapes were clean and healthy showing no sign of the delay or the journey. After a short maceration, winemaking was a breeze with easy fermentation which nonetheless went on for rather longer than anything else. At the end, 3 months later we were disappointed that the lovely fruity and fresh quality we had tasted during the fermentation process seemed to have gone and what was left was just a rather rough and primitive wine or so we thought. We reckoned that the reason was due to the fact we had done only one racking so we racked the wine again. The residue and the fermenter itself didn't smell very nice at all. Were we b***ered? 

We siphoned 3 bottles-worth of the last remaining wine in the fermenter, the wine containing quite a few lees. A couple of weeks later having stood these bottles upright to allow the sediment to settle, we tried the remaining clear wine at the top of the bottle and marvellous to say, the wine was everything we had hoped it would be during the early stages of the fermentation.

'On ne sait jamais avec ces choses.' *

*Memorable words uttered by the gnarly old Maitre des Chaix at Chateau Lascombes when he announced that they had made a wine from the disastrous 1963 vintage.

 

 

Slotovino awards 2024 and 2025

 

 

 

The last Slotovino Awards post (the 2023 Awards) was published on February 1st, 2024 with apologies for lateness. Now two years have passed without the red carpet having been rolled out so it is with great pleasure that we have arranged a ceremony combining the calendar years 2024 and 2025 together in a much more rigorous format in order to let attendees get an early night.

 

2024

 

Wine personality of the year:                Cati Ribot

 

 

Best Single Grape Promoter:                Antigua Casa de la Guardia, Malaga (Moscatel).

 

Best National Representative body:      Wines of Ukraine 

 

Best Wine Show:                                    the Vineyard and Winery Show, Maidstone, Kent 

 

Best Champagne:                                   Penfolds/Thienot Champagne

 

Best White Wine discovery:                  Jointly awarded to Shabo Telti Kuruk Reserve 2022, Celler                                                                       Tomas Al Tal BlancTortosi and Reine Mataossu.

 

Best Red Wine discovery:                      Cati Ribot Escursac 

 

 

 

2025

 

Wine personality of the year:               Nayan Gowda

 

Surprise of the year                               Bolivian Wine

Unexpected Wine Destination:             Ryedale Vineyard, Yorkshire

 

 

Unexpected Vine Destination                Columbi Park, Freiburg-im-Breisgau

 

 

Unexpected Award for Slotovino          Bexley Homebrew Festival Best Red (Primitivo) and Best in                                                                     Show.    

 

 

Most interesting Grape Discovery:       Orleans Gelb

 

Best Sparkling Wine                              Harrow and Hope Blanc de Noir 100% Pinot Meunier.

 

 

Best White Wine                                    Tetramythos Sideritis

 

Best Red Wine                                        Mesquida Mora Gorgollassa

 

Special Award                                         Bosue Brandy       

 

All the above have been documented in our blog  apart from this British (Cornish) Brandy so for further information, please consult the relevant posts.

British Apple Brandy is quite well known - deservedly so, but we haven't come across indiginous grape brandy before and this one from the Bosue Vineyard is really outstanding. If the French can now make good whiskey then why can't UK brandy also be good?

 

 

 

Bolivian wine, Drapers Arms, Barnsbury. August 19th.

 

An old and good friend Charles ('Scum') Taylor lives most of the time in Spain these days but has contacts all over the world when it comes to wine. Back in August this year he invited us to a Bolivian wine tasting to be held at the Drapers Arms in Barnsbury, London.

Yokich at the 2022 London Wine Festival

Bolivian wine? That seemed novel. Yet a niggling memory suggested maybe not. After a very long time indeed and a trawl through the photos on our mobile we made the connection to a conversation at the 2022 London Wine Fair where we met a representative of the Bolivian producer Yokich. 

 

 

Patricia Mendoza of Yokich was on hand for this tasting despite having just given birth a week previously. We were honoured.

Jancis Robinson has described Bolivia as 'one of the most remote, challenging and intriguing wine regions in the world.' Purple Pages have given these wines scores of 16, 16.5 and 17. Impressive.

Nayan Gowda himself.

Charles had mentioned the name Nayan Gowda but it was only once we had arrived at the Drapers Arms that we began to understand his role in the procedings.

Nayan is a candidate for 'the most extraordinary person you have ever met.' He is actually the maker of most of he wines on show. He began his 'stint' in the Cinti valley and thereabouts in 2000. Deciding to move on only this year, that makes his time in Bolivia probably the longest he has ever stayed in one place. On his own admission he gets bored easily which explains his amazing CV.

Nayan, one of the friendliest and most affable people in wine.

It goes something like this:

Born in Sheffield. Indian heritage

University of Sheffield

Numerous jobs includuing as Chef at The Ivy, charitable work, John Armit, J.P. Morgan

2002-6 Studied Oenology at Adelaide

2007 Pikes Cellar Hand. Baron von Twickel, Szekszard, Kendermann, Pfalz.

2009 Brancott Estate

2010 Crimea

2011 Chateau Karakemer, Kazakhstan

Winemaker without Portfolio consulting. Dubbed 'The Indiana Jones of Winemaking.'

Present: Winemaker without Portfolio consulting at Vinosity, London.

Vines trained up trees are a feature in the Cinti Valley.

Winemaking in Bolivia was started 500 years ago with the Spanish invasion and conquest. 

Our tasting consisted of wines made by Yokich and by Nayan from the Cinti Valley and also from Tarija where around 70% of Bolivian vines are situated.

As if all this wasn't truly amazing, we are happy to report that the wines themselves were fascinatingly original. Not a surprise as some unique grape varieties are a hallmark of winemaking especially in the Cinti Valley, These include the unique Vischoqueña, whch is grown nowhere else, and is a cross between Criolla Negra and Muscat of Alexandria. There is also the extremely rare Ribier Noir, originally from the Rhone valley and various Criollas alonside Muscat a petits grains, Moscatel, Sangiovese, Tannat, Tempranillo, Barbera, Cabernet Sauvignon and other international varieties.

The wines made by Nayan are called 'Jardin Oculto.' Other wines go under the name Alma Oculto and Magnus, These are also from Cinti and are made by friends of Nayan.

 

1. Casa Solum. Ribier, 'Cultura Liquda' Petnat tinto. Tarija. 2025. 12.4%

2. Jardin Oculto Vischoqueña Blanc de Noir,  2023. Cinti. 12.1%

3. Bodega Yokich Muscat a petits grains. White wine from 300 year old vines. Largest collection of            clones in South America. Five generations of women have worked in the winery. Cinti Valley. 2023.        13%

4. Bodega Yokich Imporena. Cepa Centenaria. White. Cinti Valley. 2023. 14.5%

5. Jardin Oculto. Roselo. Finca San Roque. Last grapes to be harvested. Criolla field blend. Rose.                Single  Vineyard. Vinyas Viejas. Cinti Valley 2024. 

6. Negra Criolla. Finca Molle Pampa, Red. Single Vineyard. Vinyas Viejas. This Criolla has its origins in Southern Spain. The plants were imported as seeds. Cinti Valley. 2023. 13.5%

7. Jardin Oculto. Negra Criolla. Red. Finca San Roque. Cinti Valley. Single Vineyard. Vinas Viejas. 2022, 14%

8.  Jardin Oculto. Criolla. Single Vineyard. Vinas Viejas. Red. Finca Los Membrillos Cinti Valley.               2023. 13%

9. Jardin Oculto. Tannat Nouveau. Red. Tarija. 2024. 11.5%

10. Bodegas Yokich 'Misionera.' Cepa Centenaria.' Red. Mission/Negra Criolla with 5% Syrah and                Cabernet Sauvignon. Predominantly from arboreal vines between 100 and 300 years old. Cinti                Valley 2021. 11.5%.

11. Alma Oculta Cabernet Sauvignon, Cinti Valley. 2023. 15%

12. Magnus Sangiovese Reserva Limitada. Red. Tarija. 13.1%

13. Kohlberg. Icono Tempranillo. Red. Tarija. 2017. 14.5%  This bottle was kindly provided by Charles Taylor.

14. Bodega Yokich. Eden Noble Botrytis, White. Moscatel. Cinti Valley. 2015. 12.7%