T. Wright Fine Wine and Spirit Merchant of Horwich, Bolton (just twenty minutes outside Manchester), has been established as a fine wine merchant since 1896. How do we know that? Well, it is thanks to Coronavirus.
Plans to visit New York at the end of March had of coure to be cancelled and with them, a project to visit a vineyard or two in New Jersey. New Jersey? Why not? There are now vineyards in every US state and naturally enough, some have their own peculiarity. For us, the salient characteristic of New Jersey wine was the unusual number of vineyards growing Chambourcin. 'Wine Grapes' tells us that Chambourcin is a complex hybrid obtained after 1945 by Joannes Seyve by crossing Seyve-Villard 12-417 with Chancellor... It was named after the Lieu-dit Chambourcin in the village of Bouge-Chambalud in Isere where Seyve owned an experimental vineyard. It was first commercialised in 1963 and was used to breed Regent.
'Wine Grapes' heads the entry on Chambourcin 'French humidity-tolerant hybrid popular in the US and Australia but on the decline in its homeland.'
Indeed we had enjoyed some Australian Chambourcins previously. The version by Tamburlaine comes to mind. We were very much looking forward to visiting a Chambourcin-growing vineyard in New Jersey and coming home with a bottle or two. There are Chambourcin producers in Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania too. Like New South Wales, humid areas on or not far from coasts.
Following the inevitable cancellation of the trip we set about looking for a bottle in the UK and that is precisely what we found at T. Wright Fine Wine and Spirit of Horwich. Their website had this New South Wales Chambourcin 1998 for sale at £5.99. Winesearcher had no other entry for a non-sparkling red (as opposed to Rose) Chambourcin in the UK.
We immediately bagged this bottle. What could we lose? We opened it soon after its arrival and were absolutely delighted. Chambourcin has a very marked character which we love. It is no less individual that Pinotage for example. This bottle had lasted since 1998 with no ill effects. For the price it must have been the bargain of the century.
Attempts to buy another bottle (just one) failed. Clearly this really had been the last one left not only in the cellars of T. Wright but probably in the whole country.*
The fact it was a 22-year old vintage and was being sold off for what was probably its original price says something about people's fear of the unknown or at least lack of curiosity. In this case that is a great pity even if we were the winners.
The back label said;
The entire production of the 1998 Reserve Chambourcin was selected from 100% Bio-Dynamically grown and hand-picked grapes sourced from Le Clos Francois vineyard in the Hastings River region of New South Wales. The 1998 Chambourcin is a wine we are proud to give the 'Reserve' status. This wine is deep in crimson colour. with the bouquet showing intense dark cherry and plum characters, on a rich oak background.
The palate has an intense berry fruit and an impressive depth of ripe fruit falvours. The Tannins are fine and soft, providing the structure to allow the wine to age for many years.
This wine has excellent cellaring potential, 5 - 7 years. A perfect accompaniment with lamb, beef or venison.
Enjoy this wine in moderation.
From the House of Cassegrain.
Certified Demeter Bio-Dynamic. Resrach Institute Powelltown 3797.
Darby Higgs in his essential Blog 'Vinodiversity' writes;
Chambourcin is perhaps the most successful of the French Hybrids and is certainly the most widely used in Australia.
The area planted to Chambourcin is declining in France, but it is widely grown in Eastern United States and Canada.
Chambourcin wines are deeply coloured and fruity, but tend to finish short. The 'foxy' flavour common to American Vitis varieties and hybrids can be detected in some, but not all, Australian Chambourcin wines.
Although its major use is for red wines, some producers use the variety for sparkling reds and rose wines. It is also used successfully for port style wines.
There follows a list of 47 Australian wineries who make Chambourcin.
 |
| John Cassegrain, pioneer of Chambourcin with his sons. |
Our bottle comes from Cassegrain Wines.
 |
| Could this be the Chambourcin vineyard at Cassegrain? |
John Cassegrain was the first to grow and produce Chambourcin wine commercially in Australia. The Cassegrain website has it;
'Located in the Hastings River region, Cassegrain Wines enjoys a temperate maritime climate and is widely renowned as the first winery to grow and produce Chambourcin commercially in Australia.
The original vineyard was planted in 1980, and with a keen interest in new and emerging regions, Cassegrain have since evolved to operate as a multi-regional producer. Fruit is now sourced from across NSW including Orange, Rylstone, Tumbarumba, New England, Cowra and the Hunter Valley.'
In New Jersey, we had planned to visit a Chambourcin producer such as Belleview, Tomasello, Four JG, Silver Decoy or Heritage Station most of which were not too far from New York City. Others include:
Chaddsford Winery
Coda Rosso Winery (Chambourcin Rose)
Hopewell Valley Vineyards
Laurita Winery
Ventimiglia Vineyard
Weingarten Vineyards
and
Turdo ('the only vineyard and winery in the state of NJ to be run 100% on solar energy!')
* On re-visiting Winesearcher Pro, we noticed that in amongst the D'Arenberg Peppermint Paddock Sparkling Chambourcin (obviously a good seller) and the Strickerhof Chambourcin Rose (Trentino/Alto Adige) - quite popular) there is one entry from Winebuyers.com for Strickerhof's Chambourcin Red. At £18.70 we'll wait 'till T. Wright imports more Cassegrain at £5.99.
No comments:
Post a Comment