Back in Venice

 

Who would have thought it? The big news on our trip to Venice this year was, or so we thought, just how good, no - great Groppello can be. We had previously written;  "altough always liking Groppello it hadn't exactly bowled us over." At the Autoctona fair in Bolzano years ago a version by Marsadri had given us cause to re-evaluate that opinion and at the Trattoria 'Alla Frasca' in Venice, Pradelli's Groppello really hit the spot. So much so that we bought a bottle back on London but sadly this turned out to be the 'Holiday wine syndrome' not leaving the same impression. Maybe it was a different vintage or maybe this wine 'doesn't travel' - a phrase you never hear these days.

If you want to avoid a nasty headache, best not to read D'Agata on Groppello. The subject is so complicated it brings my mother-in-law's expression 'Es geht ein Rauch im Kopf' to mind. Our original hesitation to acclaim Groppello in general is understandable in the light of the fact there are 22 accessions of this family of grapes so you would be lucky to find a good one every time.

The first night at the excellent Pizza place on the Zattere we had chosen a bottle of Mueller-Thurgau just so as not to dring Pinot Grigio or Chardonnay. 

What was this? Another upsetting of our prejudices. Ai Galli, 'Societa Agricola Semplice' have made a deliciously refreshing wine from this grape which in the wrong hands...

Prominent Luganas in a Decanter tasting

We also re-discovered Lugana in a big way. 

In our post as early as 28th September 2010, we discussed the Lugana grape variety Turbiana - a historic name derived from 'Trebbiano.' Recent research has identified Turbiana as a biotype of Verdicchio. D'Agata begins his torrid analysis of Verdicchio with the claim that 'Verdicchio is arguably Italy's greatest native white grape variety.' 

Although Lugana is widespread it is not particularly prominent in wine circles. We tried to buy some back in London but shops tend to have Soave and Gavi in stock ahead of Lugana. which is a pity - not the natural oder of things.

Chioggia: a couple of canals plus motor traffic.

Venice is inexhaustible as we always say, This time we decided to go around a bit, visiting other islands, Mazzorbo, Burano and even going to Chioggia. On that last subject, don't! It is fly-blown with only a couple of canals plus motor traffic.

Mazzorbo however is even more of a delight than when we visited some years back. There is a really lovely restaurant called 'Trattoria alla Maddalena' so no need to go to the expensive 'Venissa,; A stroll through the Venissa vineyard is free of charge and it is lovely to see the Dorona vines reaching maturity as well as the vegetable gardens also planted within the walls. There is now a bridge over to Burano which makes the visit especially worthwhile.

Can you spot the vines?

The view from the Trattoria Maddalena is of another vineyard. What  grows there? Perhaps the Dorona found in Venetian supermarkets?

In 'downtown Venice' We discovered an excellent wine shop and restaurant called Amarone. 

An Englishman in Venice

With offers of Wine Shipping in English Amarone is clearly aimed at the tourist but that doesn't prevent it from being a serious wine shop. The affable Englishman whose name we forget really knew his stuff and reports from the restaurant are positive indeed.

No discussion of wine shops in Venice is complete without mention of the many Vino-Sfuso places.

Difficult to see from this photo but there is an item named 'Primula' on the board. We asked what this could be - a new grape variety? No, the new name for 'Prosecco spento' or 'flat' Prosecco. 

Conad's uber-discrete shopfront on the Zattere

Finally to Conad on the Zattere who have a very decent selection of Venetian and other wines. 

Remembering that Raboso used to be the favourite red wine of Venice we bought two different bottles by the excellent producer, Cescon. Their Rabosos do vary but that is down to the vintage, naturally.

We love Ribolla Gialla: when it's good, it's very, very good but when it's not, it's no good at all. Hopefully Cescon will have waved its magic wand over this bottling.

'Prephilloxera'

On the same shelf we spied an interesting bottle from Tenuta San Francesco (Campania) 'Prephilloxera.' This turns out to be from old Tintore grapes which have avoided the plague. We didn't buy this @ E. 65.

and for our last bottle, it had to be Lugana of course.

Buying Spanish wine the hard way

Begur is a lovely town 2 hours north of Barcelona where well-to-do Barceloneses (or Barceonins in Catalan) have their second homes and dear friends from London have their holiday home. We are even invited practically on a regular basis. Slotovino readers might have noticed posts about our many visits to the famous Grau, one of the world's largest and greatest wine warehouses. 

You might say he who is tired of Grau is tired of life but on our last visit to Begur we thought why not order wine from elsewhere in Spain and get it delivered to said holiday home? Grau has almost everything but not quite.

Hardly expecting our friens to stay in to receive packages we chose the option to click and collect, 

The first package was from Portugal actually. Four bottles of Fundacao Oriente's Ramisco (Colares). We chose to have it delivered nearer to a sort of corner shop in Palafrugell. It took no less than 4 visits to obtain it. Not the way we wanted to spend the holiday.

The package from Vinyas d'Empremta also had a bit of a journey. We were supposed to pick it up from a restaurant nearby called Toc al Mar. Sandra or Pere would know about it.

Of course when we got there there was no sign of Sandra and Pere didn't know anything about it but after some rumaging in an outbuilding the box was found.

We had enjoyed Vinyas d'Empremta's Sucamulla so much we wanted to have another bottle of that and to see what else this interesting Catalan producer was making. 

So we ordered one each of

Rabassa - Macabeu, Pansera, Picapoll, Malvasia. 'Skin contact wine from century-old vines.

Rusc - Torbato

Curull - Sumoll, Mando. Bartrol, Garrut, Garsenc.

Corsai - Sumoll

Biot - Sumoll, Bartrol, Mando.

Sucamulla - Sumoll, Mando, Garrut, Bartrol.

When the box was opened there was a second bottle of Rabassa but no Rusc. Gerard of Vinyas d'Empremta explained they had run out of Rusc and so just added this second Rabassa. This was a pity because we had especially been looking forward to Rusc which consists of 100% Torbat. 

This Torbat is not the same as the Italian Torbato or even the Spanish Trobat. It is actually an old variety that has been brought back in the area of Vinyas d'Empremts, Bages-Bergueda. Some say it may be a type of Malvasia. Not many are working with Torbat but Gerard really loves it. We are going to have to wait until next year to try it.

There can't be many who haven't has similar experiences with parcels or worse. It might have been no different if we had had these wines sent to us in the UK, just more expensive. Perhaps the best way to buy wine is from a retail shop but then the bottle you want might be out of stock.

An apocalyptic evening

 

On June 25th 2025 we were to meet friends in Montpanasse. Arriving early we called in to the Cave des Papilles in Rue Daguerre, an old favourite. There we met a friendly 'mec' who responded to our request for something from a rare grape variety with a bottle of white wine at around E.29 if memory serves. Memory doesn't serve to identify the grape 6 months later but suffice it to say that subsequently we discovered that the bottle did not contain the variety the mec had said it did.

The purchase had been put in a paper bag which was to play a part in the disatrous events following ourotherwise extremely pleasant dinner with our friends at a restaurant around the corner. On leaving the restaurant we saw it had begun to rain. They headed off home and we walked to the boulevard to find a taxi. By the time we got to the corner the heavans and opened and an incredible storm had hit with a deluge and wind still remembered to this day. Running here and there traversing the boulevard multiple times chasing taxis, the bottom of the paper bag burst and the bottle fell out and smashed on the pavement,

Normally we might have cleared up the broken glass but mayhem had sent branches of trees crashing to the ground and various street furniture and rubbish was skittering about the place so we just plowed on until soaked to the skin we found a kindly taxi driver who didn't mind his back seat getting wet to take us home.

This is not he first time we have lost a bottle of wine through the bottom of a paper bag in the wet. 

Not such a great evening after all.

Cornita-Cornisa-Cornitza

 

 

Cornita

2025

Obscure Romanian variety from Călăraș,

Southern Moldova, Cornita is also known as

Cornitza and Cornisa. Kindly supplied by

our new friend and winemaker Liviu Rosu.

Vinified by Slotovino, Last Cottage, Fawley, Bucks

 

 

Liviu's cave

 

 

Berlin re-visited

 

These four bottles were all we could find of interest in Berlin on this occasion. They are (from left to right) a favourite of ours Schloss Proschwitz Elbling, a Trollinger, a Portugieser and a Dornfelder Pet Nat.

It seemed hard to find a good winemerchant in Berlin. In big cities the winedepartments in supermarkets don't always have the space that we found at REWE in Freiburg im Breisgau for example. The grand old KaDeWe was best. Nice people too. 

We already drank the Portugieser which was excellent. Why is this grape looked down on and hard to find? In Beethoven's time it was perhaps the main red variety. 

Trollinger (aka Schiava/Vernatsch/Black Hamburgh) is hard to find outside Baden-Wuerttemburg we don't know why. Dornfelder is more ubiquitous which it should be. We are definite fans. 

Schloss Proschwitz is a leading producer from Meissen (Sachsen). You wouldn't know it's not far from Berlin such is the difficulty in finding it there. We have sung the praises of their Elbling before in these pages. Elbling has the same parentage as Riesling but is completely different. It is said to date back to Roman times and was the most common white variety in Germany before the 20th century. It is at home in the Mosel but This one from Meissen is adorable. 

More Cornish Vineyards

 

There are fewer vineyards in Cornwall than you might imagine. We've said that before but it's still a surprise given that parts of Cornwall are sub-tropical or so they say.

On our most recent visit we tracked down two vineyards we hadn't visited before, one on the North coast with a Newquay postcode and one nearer the south near St. Austell.

 

The Atlantic Vineyard was closed when we found it. It was planted only in 2022 and there have been difficulties getting it going apparently. Plantings include Divico, Pinotin, Solaris, Muscaris, Johanniter 'among others.' 

From these they have made a 'light white' called Hidden Valley, a 'fruity dry white' called Beachcomer and a full bodied red called 'Sundowner,' We hope to be able to try these wines one day.

Bosue means House of Ewe in Cornish

 

Liz and Paul Sibley

 

Liz and Paul Sibley gave up their prestigious professions to buy the farm in the '80s. They have planted Rondo, Regent, Solaris, Johanniter, Phoenix and Orion. As you can see the vineyard is immaculately kept. They have some cutting edged winemaking equipment and make a range of delicious sparkling and still wines.

 

This Regent Rose was one of those wines that was so delicious it got drunk before we could get the camera out to capture its lovely colour.

 

Liz and Paul are really lovely people and despite not having an appointment they received us royally and gave us sparkling and still wine to taste. Paul also maked a Brandy. Out of sheer euphoria we bought a bottle together with the Regent Rose. It wasn't cheap but we were very glad we did - it is a truly fine brandy. Highly recommended.

An interesting Australian - Prieto Picudo/Graciano/Afrochiero/Tinta Barocca/Mencia!

 

A blend of Prieto Picudo/Graciano/Afrochiero/Tinta Barocca and Mencia from Australia (Riverland).

That's something you don't see often in Australia or even in the Southern Hemisphere. Some of these varieties may have been planted to make Port style wines but Prieto Picudo? That's hard enough to find in Spain!

The wine was delicious too.