Specialist Importers Trade Tasting (SITT) 2019, Horticultural Halls, London

SITT has been going for a good while now. It's small compared to some other shows and we only had a whistle-stop tour but it proved once again that there's always something of interest where wine is concerned even if your criteria are as wierd as ours.

So first things first. Here was a Hungarian wine made from what 'Wine Grapes' calls a 'Recent Hungarian cross of uncertain parentage yet to establish a track record.' 

Right up our street.

 Even the producer, Pfneiszl is coy about naming the variety. The back label says 'Who am I?'

I am a true Hungarian. I was bred by Ferenc Kiraly in 1951. My wines are fine fresh and fruitywith flowery aromas. The grape bunches I grow are sweet and ripe from mid-August - early September, My crop is small but rich in flavours. I am all the happier that I have my place in the winery of Birgit and Katrin Pfneiszl. So who am I?

And here's another tip: A sip is worth a thousand words. Cheers!

Give up? Of course you do. The variety is Zefir. Supposedly a cross between Harslevelu and Leanyka it has been proven to be something else - no one knows what.

Pfneiszl sisters Birgit and Katrin

Now none of this would be of much interest if the wine was no good but it is very good indeed and the Specialist Importer here, Wines of Hungary UK are to be commended for their choice. We hope to be able to buy this wine in the UK soon but in the meantime it is available from our friends at Natura Vinoteka, Sopron.

After leaving the show we started a search into what we might have missed and there were indeed wines that would have repaid  spending longer there. This Doral from Alpine Wines for example. Doral is a Swiss cross between Chasseles (of course) and Chardonnay. Obvious perhaps but we're not sure we have ever come across this before.

On our way round something of great interest on the Raymond Reynolds table caught our eye.

What was this? A Colares Ramisco we had never heard of? Yes indeed. Might this mean the seemingly inexorable extinction of the Ramisco vineyards in Colares could be reversed? We sincerely hope so.

Casal Santa Maria is a property in Colares on the Sintra Hill with vineyards right from the cliff edge over the Atlantic (The Westernmost European vineyard as their website says) up to more sheltered parts where they grow their red wine grapes including Pinot Noir, Touriga Nacional, Touriga Francesa and Merlot.

We're not sure where their Ramisco is planted but they say it is sheltered by the traditional stone walls.

The Baron with great grandsons

The Casal Santa Maria vineyard ceased production for most of the 20th century but Baron Bodo von Bruemmer, a Swiss banker of Estonian heritage bought the property in 1961 (the Casal is one of the few structures to have survived the 1755 earthquake) and after 30 years of raising Arab horses decided at the age of 96 to revive the vineyard. Described as Colares's both youngest and oldest grower, he died in 2016 aged 105.

So the list of Colares Ramisco growers now seems to be

Arenae
Casal Santa Maria
Colares Chitas
Fundacao Oriente
Monte Cascas
Quinta das Vinhas de Areia
Viuva Gomez

Some of these go in and out of focus as it were but that may be because vintages are released erratically.

We should mention Dynamic Vines since we've come across them before. We're always on the lookout for a Jurancon sec at a modest alcohol level. At 12% this one is perfect.

As we've found before, wine events can be places for bumping into old friends. Here was John Thorne previously of Salena Estates and now with Portal, Dingwall and Norris, a long established wine merchant whose original operation morphed into Diageo no less.

John's picks included this a-typical Beaujolais from the highst vineyard in Fleurie which tasted like no other we had drunk before. No better, no worse but decidedly different.

and a promising blend of Bourboulenc 40%, Roussanne 20%, Vermentino 15%, Picpoul 25% at 12.5% alcohol.

Pretty good for a 30-minute tour d'horizon.