13%
White
Biancolella. Mostly found on Ischia and mostly under 13%. Biancolella is an adorable variety. If we had any time for the term 'noble' Biancolella would qualify but we don't.
Favorita. It's a long time ago that we tried Favorita. We'll give it another try. It's aleays good to have your prejudices confirmed and even better to have them overturned.
Pecorello (not Pecorino).First spied at the airport duty free shop at Lamezia Terme. We weren't sure about the name Pecorello but we bought this wine by Ippolito anyway and we were glad we did. Happy also to have the opportunity of re-aquiring this wine. It's rare to find a Pecorello in purezza. We're ahead of D'Agata on that one.
Rossetto (aka Roscetto). Another grape we'd never heard of. D'Agata only found two versions which were so different from eachother he writes that he'd be lying if he told us what a Rossetto wine was really supposed to taste like. This one by Falesco he says is very rich and textured.
And amazingly here's another Rossetto. It's not the same as the normal cliche about two busses coming along at the same time after waiting for hours; this is on a par with two No. 46 busses arriving at once. Out of these two, only the Falesco (above) is mentioned by D'Agata. Please note we have turned a blind eye to Lucedilago's 12.5% alcohol in this 13% zone just so the two Rossettos can keep eachother company.
Vugava. We've often remarked at the difficulty winemakers have of putting the name of their grapes on their labels. This can be for the following reasons;
1. The grape is not permitted in their area and they don't want to draw attention to it.
2. The grape is one so obscure they fear people will have a negative response so they don't want to draw attention to it.
3. As in France, they are not allowed to mention the grape variety on the label so much as they would like to do so they can't draw attention to it.
We find this annoying for obvious reasons but this wine's label achieves a new extreme in the urge not to impart information.
There are indentations, white on white and black on black but they are indeciferable even if we brushed up our Croat.
This is a pity because the white grape Vugava is not only interesting but is said to be a 'High-quality, aromatic variety found on the Croatian island of Vis.' ('Wine Grapes').
We've had the pleasure of having been to Vis and seen a vineyard there. Whether the vines were Vugava or otherwise we don't know. Vis is not large so this must be rare indeed. We would have thought that was something to announce boldly.
Begleri. Better not to ask how we came by this bottle of Begleri from the island of Ikaria.
OK, now we have your attention it was a consolation prize from a wine merchant who had failed to deliver another rare grape variety wine we had ordered and paid for. They gave us the choice of waiting until the original wine came in or this bottle of Begleri - a grape we had dimly heard of but never encountered; super obscure we thought. We became even more excited when we failed to find an entry for Begleri in Lazarakis's 'the Wines of Greece.' Excitement was barely controllable.
Next - 'Wine Grapes' and disappointment. Under Begleri it says 'See Thrapsathiri.' Still, the bottle was complimentary and came by special delivery by a chap who might have been the CEO with the (unrapped) bottle in his hand. We've had Thrapsathiri before. It didn't exactly bowl us over. 'Wine Grapes' tells us that Thrapsathiri is grown mainly in the Southern Aegean and it is in the Northern Aegean that it is called Begleri. Ikaria is in the middle but would seem to belong to the Northern group for wine purposes. Maybe it will taste different?
Thrapsa by the way means 'lots of' (Thrapsathiri is high yielding).
Red
Franconia. Zorzettig is a prominent producer in Venezia Friuli Giulia. We had the pleasure of meeting Alan Gaddi of Zorzettig at last year's London International Wine Fair and were amazed - as was Alan - that we had the Rauscedo no-spray hybrid 'Soreli' in common. Zorzettig is obviously a forward-looking outfit because they also make a wine from the Franconia grape variety. We sort of knew that Fanconia was nothing but Blaufrankisch (aka Lemberger) but it is not listed in the index of 'Wine Grapes.'
Lasina. Ante Sladic's labels are the epitome of what labels should be - obsucre varieties or not. If we could understand Croat we would be even better informed to be sure but with our handy 'Wine Grapes' we can discover that Lasina is 'A rare variety still cultivated in some parts of the Sjeverna Dalmacija (Northern Dalmacia) wine region of Croatia. It is little known because it is mostly used in blends.' Just up our street.
Prёmetta. 'A red wine that looks like a rose and tastes like one too.' (D'Agata). The diairesis on the e of Prёmetta is there as a nod towards pronouncing the word 'Primetta' which is what most Italians call this wine. Just to make things even more complicated, the official name is Prie Rouge but D'Agata says that on his 13 or 14 annual visits to the Valle D'Aosta not once has anyone used this name.
Prёmetta is also used as a table grape.
13.3%
Red
Darnekusa or Drnekusa. A red grape frim Hvar. We have already encountered Drnekusa in Jo Ahearne's 'Rosina' (see our previous post). Rosina is only 11%. Plancic's is 2.3% higher. The comparison will be interesting.
'Wine Grapes' doesn't have a whole lot to say about Drnekusa apart from the fact it is rare.
13.5%
White
Chardonnay. 'Slotovino' is obviously an ABC blog but we have mentioned Chardonnay a couple of times before just to show how broadminded we are.
Putting aside the undisputed fact that Chardonnay in Bourgogne makes the world's greatest white wines, we have mentioned that we like Chardonnay from Jura and England in a lighter, more pungent style.
This Cotes du Jura Chardonnay Vieilles Vignes from Lidl is neither light nor pungent. We bought two bottles years ago when Lidl was making one of its periodic releases of interesting wines (there was also a Poulsard). The first bottle was rather awful we thought. It really didn't have much to recommend it.
This one, with a further couple of years bottle age was divine however, with a golden roundness to it. Quite the equal of many a good Burgundy. It just shows as we have said before that wine is a living thing and each bottle is a time capsule delivering a different result depending on goodness knows how many different factors.
Keknyelu. Meaning 'Blue Stalk,' Keknyelu comes from Badasconyi in the northern part of Lake Balaton in Western Hungary. We hadn't been impressed by Balaton wines in the old communist days.
We remembered one wine that managed to be both light and having the aroma of the low grade petrol found in the Eastern block. So this Keknyelu lay untouched on a shelf for many a year eliciting pangs of guilt every time we passed it by. Finally taking pity on it we opened it recently and our surprise and pleasure couldn't have been greater.
Keknyelu plantings have doubled since the turn of the century but were still only 41 ha. in 2009. There are problems growing Keknyelu due to poor fertilisation apparently and yields are also poor and unreliable. Thanks to Szeremley for persevering though. This wine was exactly as the generic description by 'Wine Grapes;' "full-bodied, high-acid but fresh and highly fragrant..." There follows the comment that they benefit from some time in bottle. So we were doing something right by ignoring it all that time and being reminded of petrol fumes.
Red
Nero D'Avola with small amounts of Surra (Frappato), Pignateddu (Perricone), Nzolia (Insolia), Muscatedda (Moscatell) and Niuriruossu (Grosso Nero).
We wrote previously about our visit to Riofavara near Ispica in Sicily last year. This wine is delicious. We are not huge fans of Nero D'Avola per se although we have enjoyed some bottles including 'Siclys' by Armosa.
Riofavara's Nero D'Avola only has small quantities of the above named native varieties but we fancy they have made a big difference. The mouth feel is stupendously soft and the taste just the epitomy of loveliness.
Sirica. Sirica! Sirica! Where have you been all our lives? The answer is Campania since Pliny the Elder wrote about in in 75 BC making Sirica one of the oldest-known varieties in Italy (D'Agata).
The story of its being saved from extinction by the Feudi di San Gregorio estate in Taurasi near Avellino is one of those heart warming, nay life-enhancing events whereby an entire variety is brought back to life from 4 vines of 250 - 280 years of age. We had never heard about it but can't wait to try it now. We hope you will too and thereby ensure Sirica's full recovery.
14%
White
As we saw in the previous post, Skrlet comes from Croatia and the name is said to be a corruption of the German 'scharlach' = scarlet - in this case because of the red spots on the grape skins, remeniscent of scarlet fever. That should gain this variety a lot of friends, don't you think?
Our Ilovckak Skrlet was 12.5% . This one by Kosovec, a rather whopping 14%. We'll see if the high alcohol compromises the grape's character.
14.5%
Red
Nieddera (85%) and Caddiu (15%. D'Agata hails Contini as the best producer of Nieddera 'who deserves great credit and everyone's admiration for essentially saving the variety from extinction.' It's worth reading D'Agata's entry on Nieddera in full to get an idea of the complexity of identifying these kinds of grapes - what entry isn't in this great book?
The small amount of Caddiu also precipitates a quick check on that even rarer grape. D'Agata ends his entry on Caddiu by writing 'I have yet to taste a pure Caddiu wine, but of course, I'd like to.'
So should we.
15%
Red
Vradiano. the back label reads; 'A former forgotten variety from Northern Evia. Vradiano is revived thanks to the cultivation by the cultivation and winemaking efforts of the people in the Vriniotis Winery.' Another heartwarming story. Vradiano is not mentioned in The Wines of Greece (Lazarakis), 'Wine Grapes' or even D'Agata (only joking). Galet has an entry of course in which we learn that Vradyano or Vradiano aka Vradinia or Bordiano is authorised in Thessaly, Central Greece and on the island of Euboea (Evia) which is where this wine comes from. Galet adds 'Vin rouge ayant un bon bouquet.'
We hope the whacking 15% alcohol doesn't hide this bon bouquet too much. We'll report in the fullness of time.
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