RAW London - reduced but still good

180 Strand, London

RAW has now mushroomed to New York and Berlin so it was perhaps not surprising that its London fair semed a tad smaller than we remembered it. The venue was the Store Studios, 180 Strand for the 2017 show, home to London Fashion Week.

The Truman Brewery in Brick Lane had been the home of RAW in London up to now and the Store Studios has less natural daylight. The inside tables this time were not as easy to see. Perhaps that is why it was more difficult to negotiate.

The usual crowd of predominanlty young and cool people were back. How different from the old buffers and codgers who attend non-organic wine fairs. You can see where the future lies.

Even the winemakers are getting younger. Here was our friend David Morris from Ancre Hill once again.

We have written about this interesting Welsh winery before in this Blog. This time we were able to taste their Orange wine for the first time in addition to their Triomphe and get some advice on how long to leave Triomphe in a carbonic maceration (30 days). Amazing.

The next rarity was almost as surprising, a grape called Devin from Slovakia. The parents of devin are Gwurztraminer and Fruehroter Veltliner. Czechs and Slovaks are very keen on their own crossings and for a good reason - USP.

Attention: 14%

charming chap from the Magula Family

Devin is a most promising grape from this outing at least.

Not far from Magula (no, it's not a typo for Malaga) we found our old friend Marco Marrocco of Palazzo Tronconi, Lazio

The good news was that his 'Donnico,' a red from a grape called Ulivella was on great form. Soft and silky. This was really marvellous. Those of you with hawk eyes may notice that on the label is written Olivella. Marco assures us that Ulivella is the real name and that the authorities have made a spelling mistake. Turning to D'Agata the situation emerges as one of the more classic oenological  entanglements, so much so that even D'Agata expresses bewilderment at one point. The entry (pp 378 - 379 in his book 'Native Wine Grapes of Italy') is well worth reading.

Almost next door to Marco was Podere Pradarolo from Reggio Emilia. As well as a Croatina (we're always looking out for a good Croatina) they had brought their rare Termarina Nera again as they did in 2014.

The small bottle on the far right is labeled 'Il Canto del Cio' Solera and is a rare bottling of Termarina Nera in purezza. D'Agata writes 'I do think it is very exciting that an estate (Pradarolo) has decided to take up making wine from this variety. We can hope that more will follow suit soon.'

Our thoughts entirely.