Israel: You don't have to be high

In Israel recently, we found it as good a filter as any to look out for wines with modest alcohol levels. This was no more difficult than at Vinitaly which was a surprise, given Israel's climate. A short drive-by of Tel-Aviv's wine merchants produced the following:

11.5%

12%

12.5%

The shops included Eliasi in Tel-Aviv and the Wine Boutique in Jaffa.

At Eliasi, Marcelo from Buenos Aires (left) was our knowledgeable guide. Here we looked for Dovev Segal's Argaman and thought we had found it but due to the label being in Hebrew, failed to realise what we had was just a Cabernet Sauvignon. Still, we guess that will be headline news: "Slotovino buys a Cabernet Sauvignon"

It was written plainly on the back as you can see but our excitement at finding as we thought a bottle of the fascinating Argaman of this producer was such that we didn't check the back label. 

We found a bottle of this rare wine later in New York at Gotham Wines.

 

There is a great deal of Israeli wine in New York of course but we were lucky to find this.

Israeli Wine shelves at Gotham Wines of New York

We have heard that Segal will not be making any more of it which is a pity as Argaman could be called the unique Israeli grape and the method of vinifying it is interesting in itself (fermenting on Merlot skins).

Other bottles from different sources which took our fancy included this Italian blend including Sangiovese and Barbera,

an 85% Cabernet Franc / 15% Merlot blend from Tulip (I say, steady on Slotovino, another Cab?)

and a Carignan from 100 year old vines which we also heard will not be made again as the Yaffo winery has moved from this address.

The Wine Boutique in Jaffa is a new venture, just 3 months old when we visited. It stocks exclusively Kosher wines. We didn't buy there but liked the look of the place. Chico was helpful too; we wish him good luck.

Jordan: Be good to your bad side.

Jordan is both dry and wet: many restaurants do not serve alcohol but some do. Hotels do, at least the international ones. In Amman we found a liqor store with an appropriate slogan in the window: "Be good to your bad side" which sums up the schizophrenic attitude to alcohol in this surprisingly affluent and tolerant land.

We had the impression Jordanian wine is nearer to California in character with bold flavours. Lebanon comes into the French ambit, so Jordan rather resembles Israel and indeed there are tantalising cross-border resonances with Israeli-(formerly Jordanian) West Bank collaborations both above and below the radar and Jordanian vineyards in places mentioned in the bible.

One of these is Mount Nebo from which Moses looked out over the land of Israel. He was not allowed to set foot there of course so Mt. Nebo is as far as he got. From Mt. Nebo we saw wines made from Perlette (a table grape) and Chardonnay,

Chenin Blanc and Rousanne

Emperor (another table grape once popular in California) and Shiraz

Merlot and Sangiovese,

 Verdicchio and Pinot Grigio,

Tempranillo,

 Viognier,

Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc,

 and Sangiovese. Quite a wide choice.

We only tasted the Saint George Sangiovese and a couple of whites (a Sauvignon and a Chardonnay), so cannot say anything about the others but their very existence was a pleasant surprise to us,

Wine is nothing new here though as we discovered in Little Petra. Here were cellars carved as everything else is out of the rock.

A ceiling with mosaics including the unmistakable figure of a bacchic cherub playing the Pan Pipes. The Nabateans embraced Roman civilisation and Petra was one of the staging posts with trade coming from China on the Silk route to the Mediterranean through Gaza and other ports all the way to Northern Europe. Clearly wine was one of the commodities making its way along parts of this route.

A tip in case you are planning a trip to Petra; don't miss Little Petra. It has everything Petra has without the animals (horses and camels mainly), hucksters and crowds. It is also free whereas Petra's entrance fee is 50 Smackeroos with no reductions for students or young people such as us.

A vine in the garden of the National Art Museum, Amman

In this oasis of peace and culture it was difficult to think that Syria was just next door with Iraq on the Eastern side.

Back in London we found Syrian rather than Jordanian wine at Troubadour in the Old Brompton Road. Amazing! Apparently, according to the wonderful Atilio, it is good too!

Wine Fair at Verona, VINITALY

We promised to refer to it in capital letters just to remind readers that VINITALY is gi-normous but we think you might have received the message. The statistics we gave last year will do for 2014 even if the fair was a bit bigger or smaller. The only obvious change was the catalogue which has been reduced from nearly 1,000 pages to 230 without apparent loss.

Last year we made the mistake of arriving unprepared. This year we set ourselves some goals and gave ourselves twice the amount of time to achieve them. The result, to borrow a recent metaphor was that whereas last year we found the haystack, this year we discovered some needles.

The topics which interested us were mainly to do with our quest for lighter red wines, one of the most difficult types to find especially in Northern climes. Our menu was as follows. An asterisk accompanies those which we were able successfully to tick off the list;

Ancelotta
Bardolino*
Bianco d'Alessano*
Catalanesco*
Croatina/Bonarda*
Cinque Terre
Fiano Minutolo*
Fumin
Gallestro
Garfagnana wines
Georgian wines
Grignolino
Malbec/Malbech/Malbeck
Nero Buono di Cori
Nuragus
Ortrugo
Piedirosso/Pere' e Palummo*
Petite Arvine
Portugieser
Raboso
Rossese*
Russian wines
Schiava/Vernatsch*
Schioppettino
Sciascinoso
Torbato*
Uva Rara
+ any rare grape varieties we might discover along the way

As you see, there were more failures than successes and yet we were pleased to have made so many good discoveries. We hadn't reckoned with the inordinate time it would take just to find a good Bardolino or Tai Rosso for instance. That obviously left less time for other items on the agenda. Some of these could be dealt with rapidly: Torbato and Catalanesca really are made by only one producer each (Sella e Mosca and Cantina Olivella respectively) whose wines we already knew and have reported here. Or else we couldn't find a good example of what we were looking for; Malbec for example. We adore Italian Malbec or Malbech or Malbeck and ever-contrary, we think it reaches its finest expression in Italy rather than France or Argentina but on this occasion we came away empty-handed.

So in order not to appear a 'specialist in failure' here is our list of successful finds.

Bonarda/Croatina

After searching almost without hope we came across Picchioni's lovely Bonarda - even without the help of the girl in the body stocking advertising 'The best of Oltrepo'.

Bardolino

As we have reported, Bardolino seems to be in crisis. So many have been fessed-up they have lost their original character. Here were two that kept the faith. One by Villabella (above)

and the other by Monteci.

The Monteci stand was nicely done, too.

Fiano Minutolo

Li Veli is a nice Puglian producer making Fiano Minutolo (always good), Verdeca and Susumaniello among others. They say Fiano Minutolo has become suddenly so popular that more is in circulation than is possible to be grown on the known acreage of Minutolo vines.

Bianco D'Alessano

Yes, there was even a Bianco D'Alessano in purezza to be found. We had enjoyed the Australian version (from Salena Estate, Riverlands - a gift from Darby Higgs) so much that we had included an Italian original on our list. If truth be told, the Aussie version was better but full marks to I Pastni for producing this example in purezza. Bianco d'Alessano likes it hot and Riverlands is hotter than Puglia it seems.

Rossese

Liguria had a really smart stand complete with fantastic Sommelier who knew his stuff and was unfailingly courteous and quick off the mark even when besieged by crowds of eager tasters. He must have had experience with the interval crowd in a Theatre bar.

After quite a lot of sampling we found the perfect Rossese. This nice light one by Az. Agr. Bruna. Some Rosseses have ideas above their station. Not this one. Simplicity is sometimes the rarest attribute and should be cherished.

Tai Rosso

Another bee in our bonnet is Tai Rosso. Unsung and we think neglected, a good Tocai Rosso, sorry - Tai Rosso is a welcome addition to the small number of light red styles we patronise even if only to bring some balance with the preponderance of  heavier ones. Ian d'Agata ('Native Wine Grapes of Italy') is fascinating on the subject of whether Tai Rosso is or is not the Cannonau of Sardinia and indeed whether Cannonau is identical to Grenache. In an exhaustive analysis he concludes that "it is more correct toconsider Tocai Rosso a biotype of Cannonau, since it has adapted over the decades to a completely different environment (Veneto instead of Sardinia)."

Frappato

One of our greatest pleasures in recent years has been to extricate Frappato from Cerasuolo di Vittoria (where it is blended with the darker Nero d'Avola) and concentrate on the lighter examples. This leads to what is to our mind the perfect expression of  this variety and further swells the ranks of lighter reds. We had discovered Santa Tresa a few years ago and were delighted to see this is now quite widely available. Our dicovery of the Frappati of Cantine Paolini constitute just such a moment.

Catalanesca

We have admired Catalanesca ever since stumbling across this example in Enoteca Lucantoni in Rome. As mentioned above, Cantine Olivella are the only producers so it was a pleasure to meet the maker and taste the wine again; surely one of Italy's greatest white varieties.

Piedirosso/Per'e'Palummo

Not as light as Tai Rosso or Frappato, Piedirosso nonetheless flourishes in the examples which are lighter in alcohol and this one from Ischia by Tommasone was particularly appealing.

Grauvernatsch/Schiava Grigio and Edelvernatsch/Schiava Gentile

These two Schiavas are from different grapes of the same family. Proving that what you hate might be one day what you love (whereas indifference is much more intractable) we have come to love Schiava/Vernatsch in a way we couldn't have predicted. Maybe it is just an example of that other maxim; anything is good that is done well. Whatever the case, these two Schiavas were well done and count as our final discoveries from Vinitaly 2014.

Odessky Cherny/Odessa Black

In the International pavilion we were drawn to this Ukrainian producer from the Odessa region. Vinitaly took place not long after Putin's land grab of Crimea and the good people of Koblevo were understandably apprehensive. They asked rather poignantly what we thought of the prospects for Ukrainian wine at the moment and we chose to assure them that this could me a good time for them with the spotlight on their country and maximum sympathy in the West. That was our answer. We hope it comes true.

One of the components of one of their blends was Odessky Cherny. Used as a teinturier or on its own it brings dark fruit flavours to a variety of wine styles including Sweet, Semi-Sweet and Fortified as well as Dry Table Wine. It is a crossing between Alicante Bouschet and Cabernet Sauvignon. We had a taste of the wine but although pleasantly drinkable it didn't have any particular character that would have led us to have an opinion about Odessa Black.

Silly season

Vinitaly has its silly side too and in town, someone from Mazzorbo seems to have persuaded some clothes boutiques to put some Dorona in the window. At nearly E.100 for a 50cl. bottle, maybe window dressing is now the main purpose of this product?