Slotovino awards 2012/13

We understand dear Slotovino reader that the suspense has become unbearable so herewith our 2012/13 awards. You all know the rules; no previous winners are eligible. Awards may change, with different categories in different years to suit the field.

Wine Personality of the year

Jon Wurdeman

In our blog of 16th May this year on the Real Wine Fair, we wrote the following on Mr. Wurdeman;

(He is an) inexhaustable promotor not only of his wines, 'Pheasant's Tears' but also those of his colleagues. Mr. Wurdeman is an American from Virginia whose story is so picaresque that at the age of 35, it could fill at least one novel. He studied Polyphony and Painting and has a fascination for Georgia, so much so that he moved there, married a Georgian girl and has become Mr. Georgian Wine in no time at all. He speaks of all the different families who have made wine through thick and thin over centuries whom he has now encouraged one by one to make a go of it commercially.
 

Winemaker of the year

Oszkar Maurer

Oskar who? Well, so impressed were we with what this modest diffident Hungarian has done with Kadarka that we predict he will go down in history with those who have rescued heritage varieties and brought them to a wider audience. Kadarka doesn't need to be rescued perhaps - it is grown to a fair extent in Hungary and even Romania but it has never bowled us over and we suspect not many others either. Oszkar Maurer though specialises in this grape and has made truly delicious wines from it. So much so that we think there will be no justice if he isn't immedtately recognised as Mr. Kadarka and is snapped up by agencies and importers all over the world. This surely is what Hungarian wine has been waiting for. Their USP is of course Tokay but what they needed was something to offer in dry, still table wine that's not an international grape bomb from Villanyi, lovely though tose can be. If this isn't it, we would like to know what is! Gratulálok

Here's the example from Romania spotted at the London International Wine Fair, (not tasted). Just to prove Kadarka/Cadarca is not miniscule in its production.

 
Red wine of the year

Forlorn Hope 'Suspiro del moro' Alverelhao


Thanks to Andrew Jefford, Matthew Rorick's "Forlorn Hope" winery was already on out radar but when we spotted this beauty on our hotel restarant we couldn't resist. Nothing prepared us for the sheer gorgeousness of this wine from Alverelhao - a grape somehow familiar but never tasted on its own.

2011/12                    Thierry Navarre Ribeyrenc
2010/11                    Casetta
2009/10                    Tocai Rosso
2008/09                    Vernaccia Nera (actually the runner up to what we thought was 'Francisi' - the grape
                                 of Santa Ne. We later discovered Santa Ne is a blend albeit of rare varieties).   

White Wine of the year

Polvanera Minutolo

Don't take it just from us; Minutolo was the star of a tasting we attended which included unfamiliar varieties from the Mediterranean called "South". Everyone loved it and so do we. Minutolo is not that rare in Puglia but in spite of that being our favourite Italian province we had not come across it before. Thanks to Astor Wines of New York for the introduction.

2011/12                     Malvasia
2010/11                    Kerner as in Astley Vineyards 'Veritas'
2009/10                    Torrontes as in Cinco Tierras Cafayate, Salta
2008/09                    Vilana

Rose wine of the Year

J-F.Ganevat - 'Rien que du fruit'.

We stumbled across this at Les Caves du Pantheon in Paris and were very glad we did. It is recognisably Jura and recognisably Vin Naturel. What more could one wish for?

Our problem with Rose has always been to find wines with personality. This has it in tonnes.


201/12                     Grisard's Rose de Mondeuse
2010/11                    Strohmeier Blauer Wildbacher Rose (Austria)
2009/10                    Ackerman Sparkling Cabernet Franc (Loire)
2008/09                    Vitkin Israel Journey Rose.

Light wine of the year (new category)

Bedell - First Crush merlot, North Fork, Long Island

Light wines are surprisingly difficult to find and often patronisingly named; glug, slurp, swig and worst of all 'vin de soif' (as if wine was the thing to quench a real thirst). Can we be forgetting that most wine was lighter even in the recent past? Look how Bordeaux has been creeping up in alcohol. The rather ostracised Bordeaux Clairet has been suggested as representing what  a great deal of Bordeaux might have resembled centuries ago and Gemischte Satz. is held up as what every man, woman and child drank in Mozart's Vienna.

Of the lighter wines we found this year, Bedell's First Crush was a good as any and coming from a relatively obscure area we have chosen it to recognise diversity of region as well as grape variety.

Special award for the rescue of an endangered variety 

Joint winners A.A. Longanesi Daniele and A.A. La Sabbiona

One of the pleasures of our researches into the by-ways of the wine world is meeting competitors who are also friends and colleagues. An excellent example of this came at Vinitaly where our joint winners, neighbours from Ravenna were showing their extraordinary wines side by side and as can be seeen from our snaps, in a collaborative way.

They both produce 'Famoso', an obsucre local grape but each has another speciality, La Sabbiona has Savignon Rosso also called Centesimino and Longanesi has, well Longanesi; the only recognised grape variety we know to be named officially after the person who has discovered it as opposed to a person creating it (as with Manzoni, Muller-Thurgau etc).

For the entertaining back stories, see our blog on Vinitaly. All these wines are simply beautiful.

Winemerchant of the year (London)

259 Hackney Road

Remember the good audition/bad audition scene in 'Mulholland Drive'? 259 Hackney Road is the Wine Merchant equivalent of the former. Run by impossibly nice Parisians and specialising in the most rarified and exquisite Vins Naturels from the Jura and the Loire/Loir, the shop elevates Hackney to a 'vaut le voyage' destination for wine. Hackney already has other fantastic facilities such as the E5 Bakehouse, Colombia Market and so forth. Estate agents must be rubbing their hands.

2011/12                    Highbury Vintners
2010/11                    Harlequin
2009/10                    Artisan & Vine jointly with Bertrand and Nicholas
2008/09                    Caves de Pyrene jointly with Zelas



Winemerchant of the year (rest of world)

Vinoteca La Cartuja, Marbella

We were enchanted by Julio and his enthusiasm in this unexpected venue for a model wine shop. Julio is one of those rare persons who will start giving you a discount as soon as he sees you love wine and even, in our case press a free bottle of wine on you just because he wants you to love it as he does.

La Cartuja is also very enterprising with a very interesting programme of events, sampling machines, proper tasting tables and a long dining table as thoughtful facilities to promote the enjoyment and knowledge of wine.

2011/12                    Ricerca Vini, Milano
2010/11                    Chambers Street Wines, New York
2009/10                    Caves des Pupilles jointly with Caves Auge, both of Paris
2008/09                    Astor (New York) jointly with Per Bacco of Milano.


Supermarket of the year

Sainsburys - for still stocking the McWilliams derived Taste the difference Hunter Valley Semillon 2006.

2011/12                     Marks and Spencer
2010/11                     No award
2009/10                    Whole Foods
2008/09                    No award

Best Airport Duty Free

Not awarded

2011/12                     Cristoforo Colombo, Genova
010/11                       Vino Volo, various US airports
2009/10                    Lavinia, Malaga
2008/09                    Schwechat, Vienna, runner up Marco Polo, Venezia

Worst Airport Duty Free

Most of the airport Duty Frees we have visited, especially Valencia where in spite of having a dedicated shop for local specialities has a poor showing of wines from the region. A missed opportunity.

2011/12                    Milan Malpensa
2010/11                    Vasteras
2009/10                    Lyon
2008/09                    Berlin Tegel

Most surprising Wine discovery

Forlorn Hope's L'ultimo suspiro del moro' Californian Alverelhao at the Brasserie of the Standard Hotel in New York.See Best Red Wine above.

Well we never said a wine could'nt be awarded a prize in two separate categories; not only was this wine from an obscure grape variety and magnificently made but amazingly on a hotel restaurant winelist, that of The Standard Hotel, New York. Look for this wine on Winesearcher.Pro and there are only two merchants in the world to offer it, both in California! Only six merchants sell Forlorn Hope wines of any description according to Wine Searcher and all those are in the USA.

So our surprise may hopefully be understood.

2011/12                    Chenancon in le Touquet
2010/11                    Biddenden Gribble Ridge Dornfelder (England)


Most interesting wine trend

Emerging regions are making good progress with for example Brazil, New York and Virginia with their own large stands at the London International Wine Fair creating lively interest, Turkey packing them in for a seminar on their grapes and wines and much more.

2011/12                    New bottling materials including Paper
2010/11                    Improvement in Sparkling wines the world over
2009/10                   Orange Wine

Prediction for 13/14

Supermarkets will continue to play it safe and become ever less interesting while independents specialise more and more to provide interest. One thinks of 259 Hackney Road with its Natural Wine from the Jura and Loire, Vini Italiani etc. seemingly prospering while supermarkets tread water.

2011/12                    The Chinsese will buy up ever more Old World wine proction facilities and properties.
2010/11                    The Fine Wine bubble will burst
2009/10                    Ever more Branding
2008/09                    Lower alcohol

Best Restaurant winelist

Caravan, Kings Cross, London. Wine list not available online. You will be going there in any case if you are in London. Check it out and tell us if we are wrong!

2011/12                    Ristorante Nouvelle Vague, Genova
2010/11                    Cafe Muzio, New York
2009/10                    Locanda Locatelli, London
2008/09                    Gramercy Tavern, New York

Best Sommelier

We have to give this to the nice chap also at the River Cafe whom we challenged (wrongly) over whether Nuragus was just the ancient name for Sardinia and not a grape.  He modestly disappeared and returned with the bible, aka 'Wine Grapes'. Collapse of stout party. Victory for truth and education.

2011/12                    Not Awarded
2010/11                    Laure Patry, Pollen St. Social Club, London
2009/10                    Frank, L'Antico, Kings Road, London
2008/09                    Waterside Inn, Bray, England.
 

Best kept wine secret

Bobal in its lighter style. We love the more obscure by-ways of Spanish wine but they are stubbornly difficult to root out. Even the less obscure varieties such as Bobal are submerged in rich and heavy examples when actually the genius of this grape lies for us in the lighter examples. Everyone in Spain will tell you their wines are muscular and high in alcohol because Spain is a sunny country, but excuse us; what about Greece, Georgia and others where the wines still tend to be 13% and under.

We don't have much experience of the lighter Bobal but what we have read about this and tasted in a humble Tapas bar in Requena this year is a revelation.

2011/12                    Georgian Wines
2010/11                    Trentino
2009/10                    Savoie
2008/09                    New York State


Best English Sparkling

Wistan's Sugrue Brut

Desmond Sugrue (a charming Irishman) was responsible for great vintages at Nytimber and has extensive international experience in Pomerol among other places so when Wistan gave him the chance of making his own Sparkling wine it is no surprise it has been a big success.

Best English Red

Biddenden's Gamay

Earlier re-incarnations of this have been thin but those we have bought this year from The Wine Pantry have been just lovely, pipping our former favourite Gribble Ridge Dornfelder to the post.

2011/12                     Bolney Pinot Noir

Best English White

Stopham Estate Pinot Blanc

We were not quite enthusiastic enough in our initial report on this interesting and unusual wine saying that its chief mnarit was that it doesn't taste like an English wine. The fact that the memory has lingered has suggested this as our winner for best English white this year although there have been others perhaps just as good such as Gusbourne's Guinevere - a tad more expensive than our Pinot Blanc and less fascinating being Chardonnay.


2011/12                     Biddenden Gribble Ridge Ortega

Best publication 2012/13

'Wine Grapes' of course.

Frieze New York, not just an Art Fair

In New York primarily for the 2nd Frieze New York Art Fair but with Vineous side-effects.

At the Fair itself we spotted something intriguing at the St. Ambroeus restaurant, a Rosato from Lucca. Now we have watched the wines of Lucca progress over abut 35 years of visits to the Versilia and they have gone from being available just from local shops to getting into the supermarkets and finally making it abroad but this was the first time we have seen anything in a context such as this.

Otherwise put, with all the pink wine in the world to choose from the good people of St. Ambroeus seem to have decided on one from Lucca. Quite something.

 Planning to spend some time in the Lucca area this summer, we decided to contact the winemaker, Matteo Giustiniani of Tenuta Sardi Giustiniani just to see if he accepts visitors (he does, most graciously). There resulted a really interesting correspondence in which we learned that Sr. Giustiniani is planting experimental varieties at the Tenuta. In his own words; "a particular clone of Moscato d'Amburgo that we call Moscato nero. The Sangiovese ronco is a very old vineyard in which one we have a particular clone of Sangiovese and a variety of Lucca called Buonamico. The Buonamico and the Moscato nero give wines for all days, with rich aromas. However, The Colorino nero gives structured and very spicy wines. In our vineyards we gave a lot of Ciliegiolo grapes that we use for our Rosé wine, and a particular clone of Vermentino." Art Fairs can be fascinating for all kinds of reasons.

We couldn't be in New York without calling in on Chambers St. Wines and there we picked up two rarities; Champagne Nature, Beaufort Coteaux Champenois Blanc and Beaufort 1989 Coteaux Champenois Ambonnay Rouge, i.e.Champagne nature, i.e. without bubbles) as a present for a very special person old enough to remember when Champagne Nature was more easily available.

We also took a chance on a bottle of Trepat from Josep Foraster and as it turned out we were very happy we did. Trepat is a red grape  from Montblanc, DO Conca de Barberà. The first Festa del Trepat was held in 2010 in Barberà de la Conca. Trepat is used as a constituent of Cava. This wine was a rare example of a light wine from Spain, low in alcohol. There are such wines but you have to seek them out very assiduously indeed. Bobal is another example although Big Bobals are made.We would like to admit Trepat to the Slotovino Hall of Fame.


On a mission to find specific wines we had the pleasure in discovering Flatiron Wines and Spirits in Manhattan and Heights Chateau in Brooklyn.

At Flatiron there were several wines of great interest.

A 100% Cimixia (Scimiscia) from Portofino

as well as a blend of Bosco, Vermentino and Alabarola from the Cinque Terre. They also had more or less the whole range of Clos Ouvert, the interesting Chilean wines made by Frenchmen using Pais and other varieties from very old vines vinified naturally which is unusual in that country.

At first we got a bit excited by the name Huasa but this is just a synonym for Pais. The other wines from Clos Ouvert included  their Secano Primavera (Pais, Carignan, Cinsault and Cabernet Franc), Vino Puro, and Loncomilla (both 100% Carmenere).

We were there to pick up a bottle of Ponce's Buena Pinta Moravia Agria/Garnacha blend, unavailable in the UK since the sad disappearance of Green and Blue.

 but couldn't help noticing a bottle of red Colares (Ramisco), perhaps the only one in America (North or South). Chambers St. have white Colares Arenae Malvasia. We had no interest in this until we found out Colares Malvasia is a distinct variety.

An even more extraordinary moment occurred at Heights Chateau, Atlantic Avenue in lovely Brooklyn.

Here dear Slotovino reader we actually stmbled on a bottle of Enantio. That's right, the wine grape formerly known as Lambrusco a foglia frastagliato, now called Enantio. It comes from Castello di Avio, Trentino and for years, yes years, we have been opening our gambits with floor walkers in wine shops by asking if they haven't by any chance got any Enantio (they never had).

Sadly unbounded joy subsequently turned to disappointment on tasting Enantio. It just goes to prove that rarity is sometimes deserved even if we have uncovered many gems on our voyages of discovery.

As if to prove the point, we alighted on just such a gem on the winelist at our hotel restaurant. Unlikely as this sounds, this was the undisputed highlight of our visit: Forlorn Hope's 2012 Suspiro del Moro Silvaspoons Vineyard Alta Mesa ALVARELHAO by our new hero, Matthew Rorick. Alvarelhao was a name which rang a bell. Maybe we had encountered it in Portuguese blends, maybe with characteristic Slotovino attention to detail we had misread it for Alvarinho. Forlorn Hope also rang a bell thanks to Andrew Jefford who had kindly tipped us off about this extraordinary operation in Napa. We will cover Forlorn Hope with the detail it deserves one day but in the meanwhile, the following description by Karen Ulrich lifted from T. Edward Wines website (we hope we will be forgiven) could not be better;

"The Forlorn Hope wines are the result of a project devoted to displaying the wealth of California's viticultural potential -- as well as championing varieties less common. Taken as a departure from the stereotypical Californian product, the Rare Creatures of the Forlorn Hope display what is possible when great care is taken in combining soil type, climate/site, and variety to produce wines which require no manipulation."

We were well aware that all kinds of interesting varieties are grown in California and had always wondered what happened to them since you never encountered any on the shelves of wine shops. Could they all be shoved into Jug Wine blends? 

Here are some of the Californian grapes which Matthew Rorick has sourced from various parts of the state.

Chenin Blanc
Gewurztraminer
Piquepoul
Ribolla Gialla
Semillon
Torrontes
Trousseau Gris
Valdiguie
Verdelho

Alvarelhao
Barbera
PetiteSirah
Petit Verdot
St. Laurent
Sangiovese
Syrah
Tinta Amarela
Tinta Cao
Tinta Nacional
Tinta Roriz

There are two quotes from Matthew Rorick which appeal to us greatly;

"Just being wierd isn't enough. It's got to be the right variety on the right soil".

and on his website under 'Wine Elaboration'

"All Forlorn Hope wines are produced from winegrapes. That's it."

Emerging regions

Georgia is arguably the oldest wine producing country in the world and many represented here at the Landmark Hotel have been in the business for milennia so and emerging has more to do with our consciosness rather than their being new to wine production.

As well as Georgia, here represented by Bagrationi sparkling wine and named after the great general of the Napoleonic wars

was Lebanon with a Ksara made from 50% Arinarnoa and 50% Cabernet Sauvignon. Arinarnoa is a crossing of Merlot and Petit Verdot. We have tracked down a 100% Arinarnoa from Domaine  Isle St. Pierre (Vin de Pays des Bouches du Rhone) and will report on that eventually.

and some fascinating wines from the Canary Islands which proved quite a magnet.

Madeira and the Canary Islands were extremely important in the history of wine in America because they were the last ports of call before sailing ships crossed the ocean. Wine from there presumably had less time to spoil that that taken on at the beginning of the voyage. The largest single component of Thomas Jefferson's cellar was Madeira, not Bordeaux.

Mmmmm.

In praise of Henderson Wines, Edinburgh

We have been fans of Hendersons from a previous visit to Edinburgh so were pleased to see that they have doubled in size since then, opening a 2nd shop in the West End on the other side of the city.

The day we returned to the original Morningside establishment we were fortunate enough to meet the boss with one of his main suppliers.

Independent wines for independent minds

On the previous occasion we had visited we found a sparkling Australian Pinot Meslier - not something you see very often. We rightly gave them our first award in the Slotovino 2011/12 "Best Wine Merchant Outside London" category, newly created for them.

On this occasion we were delighted to see they had enlarged their Hungarian selection to make something of a feature of these wines - not something you see very often either. 

with some nice Austrians next door;

Why do we like this shop so much? There is always something of interest. That's all.