9.5% - 11.8% whites from Penedes, the Basque country, England, France and Germany.

Westwell's Ortega Orange Wine from Sussex. 11.5%

We have often said that light wines are difficult to come by these days. Times are changing fortunately. The tendancy is towards lower alcohol but there are still plenty of 14% white wines which we find difficult to understand.

To be clear, we're not looking for watery or neutral wines although some of these can be refreshing. We actually prefer something aromatic - something to tickle the taste buds and we have been heartened to see that those characteristics don't depend on alcohol content.

Penedes

Thanks mainly to Spanish whites from Penedes available from the great Catalonian on and off-line merchant Grau (Liqores Grau, Palafrugell/www.grauonline.es) but also to others, not least English winemakers, here are more lower alcohol whites than you could shake a stick at - and that's not including Riesling!

We are arranging our list in ascending order of alcoholic content as a protest against all those who think it more important to mention the service temperature, the food and wine matchng', the soil types etc. Do they do that intentionally or do they forget to state this crucial piece of information?

We should admit walking by shelves of Penedes wines in wine shops without a flicker of interest. This was entirely due to ignorance and lack of curiosity.

Writing in the 1990s, the great Spanish wine expert John Radford was able to relegate the type of wines we are talking about here as 'everyday whites...[from] "the big three" Catalan varieties (Macabeo, Xarel-lo and Parellada) while referring to Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc, Gewurtztrameiner and Riesling as 'the most delicate grapes.' He does however speculate that 'more than 120 varieties are native to Catalonia: any of them could suddenly find a new lease of life...'

Could that be what has happened now, 22 or 23 years on? We found many of the following wines absolutely outstanding. In particular Xarel-lo stands out with Parellada perhaps not really showing huge potential but the winemakers of Penedes can really make successful blends and we predict many such wines as these will fetch higher prices in future. At the moment they are terrific bargains.

9.5%

Celler Credo's Volaina is 100% Parellada. Perhaps not the pick of the bunch but unobjectionable and particularly low in alcohol.

Kerner is an interesting crossing between Trollinger and Riesling (August Herold, 1929). It can be rather alcoholic, especially when grown in the Alto Adige but we like the Kerner from Worcestershire made by Astley Vineyard and called 'Veritas.' We were once told by the winemaker that Kerner is very high maintainance.

This Spatlese version at 9.5% is probably sweet. Mal sehen.

10.5%

Sumarroca's Blanc de Blancs is a blend of Muscat, Macabeo, Parellada and Xarelo.

Xarel-Lo in purezza. This had a hint of the 'natural' about it with plenty of taste. The aging on lees was palpable. Outstanding. 13,00€.

Made from Moscatel (50%), Macabeo (30%) and Parellada (20%). Attractive perfume bottle! In other years the Abv. may vary.


11%

An English Chardonnay from Henners, a mainly sparkling wine producer from East Sussex, not far from Herstmonceaux. The estate now belongs to Boutinot. This wine is beautiful and delicate and makes you think there is just as much validity in this lighter style as the most luscious Bourgogne or New World.

Chardonnay, Xarel-Lo, Macabeo and Moscatell.

As it says on the label, Macabeu and Parellada. O si sic omnes.

Familia Gramona's Gessami has some interesting English on the back label;

Run along the beach, peeled knees, friends, lovers, family. The smell of the garden of grandparent's house. Gessami, a wine of memories and joys. A wine to love the wine.

The grapes are Sauvignon Blanc, Muscat, Gewürztraminer.

Gessami is Catalan for Jasmin.

'Look' is made from Xarel-Lo, Moscatel de Frontignan, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Macabeu.

Xarel-Lo

Txakoli or Chakoli is the name of a type of wine from the Basque country in Spain. It can be made from different grape varieties, This wine is a blend of Hondarribi Beltza - a red grape (Beltza means black in Basque) and Hondarribi Zuri (Zuri means 'white'). The name of the winery is Txakoli Akarregi Txiki. Getariako Txakolina is the D.O. Getaria is the main town. 

  There are Txakolis also from Biscay, Cantabria, Alava and Burgos. Apart from the two Hondarribis,
other grapes are also permitted include Bordeleza Zuria (Folle Blanche), Izkiriota Ttipia (Petit Manseng), Izkiriota (Gros Manseng) and Courbu. Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Riesling are also authorised.

Historically another light red variety called Oilar Begi ("chicken eye") was also used. This variety had almost become extinct but is making a slow comeback.

And here is a picture of a bottle of Txakoli Oilar Begi DO Bizkaiko.We just have to find this wine whatever the Abv!

95% of Txakolis are white but there are also rose and red Txakolis and even a (white) late harvest Txakoli.

Txomin Etxaniz's is a blend of Hondarribi Beltza and Hondarribi Zuri. 

Hondarribi Zuri in purezza.

And now for something completely different. A Gevrey Chambertin Aligote at 11%. Rather oaky but OK all the same.

11.5%

An English Chasselas? Why not?

An Orange wine in fact but what is an Orange wine? Only a white wine with long skin contact. We couldn't resist this one from Ortega, one of our favourite grapes grown in the UK.

We don't know of any other Orange wine made from this aromatic variety.

Parellada and Muscat de Frontignan.

Xarel-Lo and Macabeu

Ever since a delicious Grenache Blanc by Amphorae at the Santa Katarina restaurant in Tel Aviv last year we have been wondering where this wonderful grape has been all our lives. Probably to often hidden in blends  We were glad to find these two at 11.5%. ('Tuets' meaning you are in Catalan was priced at 11,01€)

Grenache Blanc is often quite high in alcohol. At 11.5%, this one lacked nothing that the 13.5% examples had to offer except a thick head the morning after perhaps? Delicious. A bit more expensive than the others at 16,52€.

Xarel-Lo. How about that label? The winery is Marti Serda. 9,66€

Parellada, Macabeo, Xarel.lo. Macabeu is also known as Viura by the way.

Macabeu, Parellada, Xarel·lo.

Straight Macabeu. Macabeu is actually the Catalan for Macabeo.

Xarel·lo and Moscatell. If you look up Moscatel or Moscatell in 'Wine Grapes' it says 'see Muscat.' Muscat is known as Moscatel in Spain and Portugal.

Xarel-Lo and Macabeu

Moscatell and Xarel-Lo

Parellada. Why Honeymoon? Maybe because it's on the sweet side?

Xarel-Lo as it says.

Incrocio Manzoni, would you believe?

Looking at the main grape varieties employed in these Penedes whites, it's remarkable how almost each wine manages a unique permutation. Leaving aside Garnatxa Blanca and Incrocio Manzoni, there are 7 varieties in play. Out of 25 wines only 5 manage to have the same blend as another.

The native varieties are Macabeu, Parellada and Xarel-Lo with international varieties Chardonnay, Gewurtztraminer, Moscatel (or Muscat de Frontignon) and Sauvignon Blanc.

The most common of these wines is a straight Xarel-Lo; 4 in number. The only others which duplicate the blend with one each are Macabeo/Xarel-Lo, Macabeo/Xarel-Lo/Parellada and Moscatel/Xarel-Lo.

Independent these Penedes producers!

From Sachsen, not Catalunya. This is an old favourite. N/A UK it is worth importing from a merchant in Germany such as perbaccowein.de of Hanover who are very pleasant to deal with as well as efficient. Their shipping charges are very low indeed and the wine arrives without delay.

We love Elbling. It's not just an alternative to Riesling thank you very much.

Scheurebe from Franken. Interessant!

Vernaza Zinesa. This is a curious one. The name may be dialect for Vernaccia Cinese. In any case Vernaza Zinesa is, according to XtrWine - the merchant from whom we bought it - a synonym for Biancaccia bianca., Vernaccia a foglia glabra, Vernazza minore e gentile, Pavana bianca., Bianca cinese, Cenese, Vernaccia o Vernanzina del Vicentino.

D'Agata has an answer to what all this might mean but you have to go to his entry on Bianchetta Treviggiana to get the story because of the above only Pavana has a separate entry in his 'Native Wine Grapes of Italy.'

Bianchetta is one of many Italian natives named on the basis of skin color, which means there are many unrelated "Bianchetta" varieties all over Italy that have only a pale hue in common. To furthe complicate matters, Bianchetta Trevigiana has always been known under a variety of other names, including Bianca Gentile di Fonzaso, Biancara, Bianchetta, Bianchetta Gentile, Pavana Bianca and Pignola Bianca. Other names were used only in specific areas: Senese in Breganze, Vernanzina in the Colli Berici, Vernassina in the Colli Eugeanei and vernaccia, Vernazza or Vernaccia Trentina in the Trentino and Alto Adige regions. This is because local farmers were always convinced their grape was different than that of others. We know today that many of these synonyms are wrong, as they refer to varieties such as Pavana which are distinct from Bianchetta Trevigiana.


We think we are in the same ball park as Vernaza Zinesa here.

11.8%

What was this? A 100% Muscadelle from Genissac, just south of Libourne - technically in the Entre Deux Mers region. We had come across Muscadelle in Boreaux whites of course. It tended to get a mention after Sauvignon and Semillon and it seems we had never taken a closer look at it, assuming it was a local name for one of the meny Muscats. Wrong. Muscadelle isn't related to Muscat at all. It's a stand-alone variety found only in Bordeaux. This was the first example of a Muscadelle in purezza we had ever seen and we were glad we saw it, bought it and most importantly tasted it. It is on the off-dry side but floral rather than sweet. It doesn't taste like a Muscat. It is really rather good and deserves to be a great deal better known. We loved the ironic name. Or maybe 'Nobody's Perfect' wasn't ironic, encapsulating people's attitude to the grape rather than the grape itself.

Not on the same page.

Slotovino - A plea for Diversity in Wine. That's the slogan. That's our mission. For ten years we have been taking delight in finding, tasting and suggesting rare and rarer grape varieties in order to make a contribution to diversity in wine. What was wrong in that? We thought things were going in that direction. Indeed with the publication of so many great books including 'Wine Grapes' by Jancis Robinson, Julia Harding and Jose Vouillamoz, 'Native Wine Grapes of Italy' by Ian D'Agata, 'Jura Wine' and 'Wines of the French Alps, Savoie Bugey and beyond' by Wink Lorch, 'Natural Wine' (Isabelle Legeron), Amber Revolution (Simon J. Woolf) and really a lot of others, we thought things were going our way.

An article by James Lawrence in today's 'Winesearcher - 'The week in wine' gives an insight into the real world to which we had been blind all this time.

No safety in numbers for wine grapes.

Diversity is everything in wine, according to the intelligentsia, but it doesn't pay wineries' bills.

Conventional wisdom tells us never to put all our eggs in one basket. The wine industry suggests otherwise.

...diversity in wine terms is a bad idea. At best, it is an indulgence of the trade, at worst it may lead to commercial suicide. It is also patronizing. Do consumers really need to be told that they should be expanding their palates? What justifies the imperative to continually proselytize the esoteric? (our emphasis)


...there is  a lucrative opportunity in giving consumers more of what they want, particularly at higher price points. With the premiumization narrative going into overdrive, there is surely more sense in marketing expensive versions of Malbec and Sauvignon, rather than pushing Bonarda or Marlborough Verdelho.  

...However, let's step outside the bubble of funky grape varieties and hipster-friendly wine lists for one second. The vast majority of the industries' key employers – responsible for maintaining the livelihoods of many millions of families – rely on mass retail. They're operating in a fiercely competitive arena...Now is not the time to be embracing the esoteric, hoping consumers will take a punt on the obscure. 

The trade won't survive and prosper by pushing the weird and wonderful; it will stay in business by delivering familiar tropes – hopefully at higher price points.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens

As Mark Twain reportedly said: "Don't put all your eggs in one basket is all wrong. I tell you: put all your eggs in one basket, and then watch that basket."

Lawrence also writes

'According to The International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV), Cabernet Sauvignon - excluding table grapes – is still the world's most popular variety. Merlot occupies the second spot, followed by Tempranillo. The 13 most popular grapes are planted on a third of the vine area of the world, according to OIV.'

Ian D'Agata wrote previously;

'Statistics are for losers.'

and on investigating a particularly obscure variety,

'I cannot begin to say how happy I am to have contributed to clearing the cobwebs of time from Roussin de Morgex. In fact, I consider this to be one of the highest points reached in my life devoted to wine....'

D'Agata's passion on the subject is the result of an entirely different outlook on wine not to say attitude to life. We have always been struck by the conservatism of the wine world. We have had to accept that most people see wine only as generic - almost a condiment. They have no interest to know anything about it other than if it is white or red (and probably how much it costs).

The so-called wine -lover is likely to be much more excercised by the country of origin (we've even heard it said that 'wine is by definition French'), in the narrowest terms the region (probably Bordeaux or Burgundy), how many points it has and again how much it costs.

It is still a mystery to us why the vast majority of the market falls into these two categories. It seems as though they have given up on the sheer complexity of wine and grab a the most convenient life-raft and cling to it for evermore. We even have a friend who having discovered a wine he likes, wants to drink only that wine for evermore.

Things are improving, no doubt about it but Lawrence is still able to refer to less familiar grape varieties as commercial suicide.

We're obviously not on the same page.

PS. Mark Twain/Samuel Langhorne Clemens also wrote 

There are no standards of taste in wine... Each man's own taste is the standard, and a majority vote cannot decide for him or in any slightest degree affect the supremacy of his own standard.

Very much on our page.

 

£5.99 Chambourcin 1998 Reserve, Cassegrain, Hastings River, NSW

 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.

Marvel of marvels - hot from Chile.

Hot from Chile, bottles of Korta Wines' Grosse Merille

The world is truly connected even in the midst of a pandemic. As reported in our post of a few days ago, April 2nd we made the discovery of a grape called Grosse Mérille from a report in 'Decanter.' With little else to do during the Coronavirus lockdown we went to work with the idea of somehow finding a bottle. At that stage we were just along for the ride not believing for a moment that we could land a sample of this wine from our laptop in London. There appeared to be no winemerchants stocking it outside Chile and Chile was a long way away.

Our first idea was to contact the producer, Korta Wines of the comune of Sagrada Familia in Maule of which it is written:


Among the different Chilean valleys, Sagrada Familia Valley (part of Curicó Valley), located in the parallel 35° South and approximately 200 kilometers south of the capital of Chile, Santiago, has a mild Mediterranean climate, with very defined seasons, with hot Summers, mildly cold Winters and the transitional seasons of Spring and Autumn.

Rains concentrate in Winter time, with an average rainfall of 600mm per year and a daily thermical oscillation of 15° Celcius. The valley has good ventilation conditions, with preeminence of cold winds coming from the Pacific Ocean that cool the Spring and Summer evenings.

It is one of the five places in the world, where these perfect conditions are found, allowing the optimal phenological maturity of the grapes.

We didn't expect a reply because the harvest just took place last month so this is the busiest time of year. Also we sent our query as to where we could locate this Grosse Mérille to an info address on the Korta website and we are used to such communications going 'in die Hosen' as the Germans so aptly put it.

The kindly and efficient Francisco Korta

Imagine our surprise as they say when we received an answer from Francisco Korta himself by return. Francisco immediately indicated his willingness not only to send us some Grosse Mérille but also to help edit our post for which we were very grateful.

We were dubious about buying a bottle or two and having them shipped all the way to London. The costs would almost certainly be prohibitive and we really didn't want to put our new friend to any trouble. Nonetheless he was quite insistant and asked for our address. We supplied this hoping to get an estimate for the shipping but a couple of days passed without any news.

We thought that would be the end of the matter and then there was an 08.00 ring at the doorbell and there was a box containing the two bottles.

Marvel of marvels indeed. Gratefully we sent Francisco a message telling him of the safe arrival of the wine and asking again for an invoice.

By return, Francisco wrote  'Don´t worry, this wine is like a son... It´s a gift for you. You must drink it like a whites wines, low temperature.

Alistair Cooper MW's review of Korta's Grosse Merille in Decanter.

As soon as we can try this wine which we expect to be as good as the revue in 'Decanter' we will include it in our next tasting - whenever that will be. It may not be a great time to do anything but we have proved that the world is still interconnected and in the midst of catastrophic disturbance wonders can still happen. They are so much more to be treasured than ever.

Grosse Mérille - a story with a happy end.

Decanter

Our detective story began with a thumbnail review in Decanter's South America 2020 guide by Alistair Cooper MW. The mention of Grosse Mérille was the first we had ever heard of this variety and a great surprise in the context of wines from Chile.

Maybe it shouldn't have been such a surprise. After all it was only a short time ago that we had been writing about Casa Silva's 'Romano' which is said to be none other than the César variety from Bourgogne.

Nevertheless we got 'Wine Grapes' down from the shelf as we always do and looked up Grosse Mérille. there is an entry on 'Mérille' and Petite Mérille is mentioned as a variety commonly mistaken for Mérille but no mention of Grosse Mérille.

Pierre Galet's 'Dictionnaire Encyclopedique des Cepages' was as ever out next stop. Again there is no entry under Grosse Mérille but under Mérille we learn that there is a Mérille grosse. Worryingly there is also an indication that Mérille is a synonym for Cinsaut. Cinsaut is widely planted in Chile.

Next stop, Google. Here we found an article on the W.I.P. (Wine Independent Press) site which was both illuminating and convincing.

First of all, Grosse Mérille was more commonly known as Gros Verdot previously. Back to 'Wine Grapes.' Gros Verdot' we learn is not only no relation to Petit Verdot but has been banned from planting in the Gironde since 1946 even though it was an important variety in the 19th century.

It is said to have been an important ingredient in a  Bordeaux wine named Comte de Queyries after the Queyries quay along the Gironde in Bordeaux and has all but disappeared now.

As with César and of course Carmenere, Bordeaux loss has been Chile's gain. In Chile it has become known as Verdot Chileno or just Verdot. Gros Verdot/Grosse Mérille/Verdot Chileno/Verdot survives there having been brought with other varieties in the 19th century. It was also taken to California where it tends to be confused with Cabernet Pfeffer. We hope the latter apercu will not keep Slotovino readers awake at night.

Philippo Pszczolkowski, left and Francisco Korta.

Back to W.I.P, the story of how Francisco Korta of the Korta winery enlisted the collaboration of Philippo Pszczolkowski (Ps-chol-kovski) a distiguished faculty member of the department of Fruit Culture and Enology of the Pontificia Universidad de Chile. Pszczolkowski had recommended Verdot Chileno to Konta having carried out rigorous researches on it to prove its integrity as a stand-alone variety (unrelated to Mérille) and having also traced its lineage as an import from its home in France by molecular studies by INIA (Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias, Chile) together with INRA (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Vassal Collection, Marseillan France).

Philippo was very conscious of the limited number of vinifera varieties planted in Chile and saw the decline of Verdot Chileno as something to be combatted. Francisco took on the challenge and planted 2.5 ha. After various trials and errors he found a method of vinification which best suited the variety and chose to call it Grosse Mérille rather than Verdot Chileno, Verdot or Gros Verdot in order to avoid any misunderstanding with Petit Verdot. A sound decision.

Sadly, Korta Seleccion Especial Grosse Mérille, appellation Sagrada Familia, Curico 2017 is only available in Chile. We have plenty of time to plot how to get our hands on a bottle while continuing to self-isolate.

PS. Not to be outdone, our friends from Casa Silva - the makers of Romano/César - have made their own Grosse Mérille, also N/A UK.