Did you know?

 

 

Women buy more wine than men

Spain has a larger vineyard area than any other country

Vimto is the Ramedan beverage of choice in India

Sultaniye is the world's most widely planted white skinned variety. 'Only rarely used for wine fortunately,' (Wine Grapes). Sultaniye is also known as Kishmish and Thompson's Seedless (!).

Finland now has an Urban Winery.

Before Veuve Pommery developed dry Champagne for the English market, all Champagne was sweet. 

There are 11 wine producing vineyards within the centre of Paris (i.e. those parts of Metropolitan Paris with an Arondissement number).

A funny thing happened on our way to the hotel.

 

On the way back to our hotel in Rome we decided to drop in to the aptly named Stravinsky Bar at the Hotel de Russie. Stravinsky was a whisky drinker (sometimes known as Strawhisky) so the name seemed apt. 

The Hotel de Russie is so-called not out of affection for Vladimir Putin but after members of the Imperial family and other Russian aristocrats, artists and writers who used to stay there. Strangely the original name of the hotel was Hotel de Russie et des Isles Britanniques.

Stravinsky, Picasso, Diaghilev and even Mahler were also guests there.

So with high expectations we sat down at a table and contemplated ordering a glass of wine for Mrs. Slotovino and whisky, preferably Chivas Regal for ourselves in honour of Igor S, a devoted Chivas fan.

The bar was empty apart from us and the young bar-tender. The drinks list was old and much thumbed; understandable with the extraordinarily high prices. We decided it wasn't going to be worth the detour and got up to leave.

On the way out a devilish plan occurred to us. We thought we would test the callow youth at the bar and so we asked him with false ignorance why the bar was called the Stravinsky Bar. 

He was racking his brains when a metaphorical light went on over his head. 

'After the famous painter' he confidently told us.

Ancient Rome

 

Caravaggio, self portrait as sick Bacchus.

Somehow our visit to Rome over a year ago never got written up even though it was so interesting and enjoyable. Ancient history indeed but you can go there and find that nothing has changed. Eternal indeed.

Let's start with our search for what wine the Romans drink. Researching the internet we found a Vino Sfuso store offering 20 different wines on tap. That was way more than any of the other Vino Sfuso shops we had found anywhere else so we took a taxi to the address, Via Mauri 1. 

Arriving there, no sign of the shop 'La Cantinetta,' We are no strangers to trying to find a shop that turns out to be some online operation working out of a flat in some apartment block, so at first that's what came to mind. We called the number and a lady answered;

La Cantinetta, buongiorno.

Siamo a Via Mauro 1 ma non vediamo il negozio.

After some to-ing and fro-ing it emerged La Cantinetta - and the signora - were in Varese, not Rome.

Another Slotovino disaster!

But we were not to be put off and immediately triggered plan B. This time we were in the right city and even at the right address for ,Vini Sfusi di Qualita,' one of several outlets of this name. It was closed of course.

On to another market.

Success at last. There was Gustavino 

and Azienda Agricola San Giovanni.

At Gustavino we counted some 18 varieties;

Chardonnay

Gewurtztraminer

Greco

Muller Thurgau

Ottonese (Bombino)

Passerina

Pecorino

Pinot Bianco

Prosecco

Riesling

Sauvignon Blanc

and something called Vino Bianco Verriccino*. 

Cesanese

Merlot

Montepulciano

Pinot Nero

Primitivo

Shiraz

*Can anyone tell us what Vino Bianco Verriccino is? Verriccino comes up with Verdicchio on Google but nowhere is that actually stated as a synonym. There is no town in Italy called Verriccino. The Bianco di Olevano found also in this shop refers to Olevano, a town in Lazio and not a grape.

Over at A.A. San Giovanni, a smaller selection but still interesting;

Falanghina

Vermentino

Aglianico

Cesanese

Nero di Troia

Sangiovese

these Vino Sfuso shops maintain the local varieties while casting their nets a bit further than those in Venice for example. How wonderful to find local produce maintained as is still the case all over Italy.

Puntarelle were in season

Romanesco of course.

Cesanese is the red grape of Rome. We have recognised its potential previously but something was missing. Maybe Jamie Wolff of Chambers Street Wines (NY) has put his finger on this;

Cesanese is the most important red grape in Lazio (the region around Rome). Cesanese was the house wine in many Roman trattorias in the 1970s and 1980s; it could be pretty crude, but we have fond memories of lively wines that went perfectly with carbonara and saltimbocca. We’ve tasted many recent attempts to revive and "improve" Cesanese that were over-extracted, over-oaked, international-style wines that negated all that was interesting and distinctive about the grape. But now there are quite a few fine examples out there, and our faith is restored: Cesanese actually can make wonderful, vivid and vivacious wine. Cesanese isn’t (or shouldn’t be) deeply colored, it isn’t a heavy wine, and the best examples have bright fruit and spicy / peppery aromatics which persist on the palate. For what might be a useful reference: in some ways Cesanese reminds us of Pineau d’Aunis, with similar weight and structure and good complexity and persistence at a relatively young age.

Plenty of Cesanese in the supermarkets.

And this being Italy, there was another contender for local hero; Nero Buono. D'Agata calls it 'an up and coming variety' and also

'Nero Buono is one of Italy's least-known native grape varieties, but as is often the case, one that has a lot to say...the fact is that Nero Buono ...can be the source of excellent, midweight red wines.'

Winesearcher Pro gives only two sources of Nero Buono wines currently available in the UK.

Bellone is in our view the white hero of Lazio. You can find it in some of the better versions of Frascati. Bellone does somewhat better than Nero Buono in Winesearcher with 8 listings.

On to historic Trimani (1821) 

There is always something to buy at Trimani. This time an 11.5% Bardolino. It was very good too.

If Trimani then Enoteca Costantini was obligatory.

The 'fratelli' at Costantini assured us that Granazza was a rare grape variety. We passed on this because we weren't sure if we believed them and also because the bottle was not cheap.  

Reunited with our reference books we discovered that Granazza is a synonym for Vernaccia di Orestano, itself a relatively rare grape variety from Sardegna. It is an ancient variety with a torrid back story involving all sorts of other local and non-localVernaccias to which it is unrelated. D'Agata writes that Contini's Antico Gregori is not just the best Vernaccia di Orestanos but one of Italy's greatest wines. So maybe not a let-down after all.

Our best drink on this Roman holiday? The hot chocolate at the Pasticceria d'Angelo. Every bit as good as it looks.

Abv - enemy of grape typicity.

 

Referring to our Abv hobby-horse (increasing alcohol decreases the typicity of the grape) we found the following two comments recently.

The first ecapsulates our thoughts perfectly;

We’ve tasted many recent attempts to revive and "improve" Cesanese that were over-extracted, over-oaked, international-style wines that negated all that was interesting and distinctive about the grape.

 Jamie Wolff, Chambers St. Wines' newsletter.

The second;

"While for the ABV of each wine, that is more related to the vintage and to the phenolic maturity of the grape. Some grapes need to reach a certain sugar/alcohol level in order to have the right balance. This is to say that often low alcohol level is not necessary a positive factor, as well as the high alcohol can ruin easily the wine.

We strive to always find wines that...have a perfect balance expressing the grape and the location, therefore what we offer is what we believe are the perfect expression of those."

A UK wine merchant.

The 'right balance' throws the field open to a great deal more subjectivity than just preserving what is interesting and distinctive about the grape surely? We all know what any particular grape should taste like, don't we?

Others know a lot more than we do. It would be interesting to hear if the above makes sense to any of those persons.

Australia Trade Tasting, 24.1.23

 

 

 

Another 'long ago but not forgotten' tasting. a year-and-a-quarter ago this one. Apologies. 

Just to be clear, once again we went to this Australia Trade Tasting not expecting to find rare grape varieties but to find ones unexpected in Australia.

At first we thought we might have found something truly rare. A bottle of a white wine whose grape was named Savarro which in turn was described on the back label as 'an ancient, green-skinned, tight-bunched variety.'

Searching feverishly, hopes high, we discovered Savarro was a pseudonym for Savagnin. A bit cheeky we thought. Then we remembered that there had been a problem with Savagnin in Australia not so long ago. Who better to describe what happened than Darby Higgs, author of the Australian 'Vinodiversity' book/blog and good friend of Slotovino;

"Until very recently Savagnin was not known to be used commercially in Australia. Since 2009 it has been known that the vineyards in Australia which thought they were planting Albarino were in fact planting Savagnin.

The wines are still excellent, it's just that the wine needs to be marketed under a new name.  

Apparently propagation material from Spain via France labelled as "Albarino" was in fact "Savagnin". This material was used by vine nurseries to supply all of the vineyards who planted it in the early 2000s. By the end of that decade DNA analysis had revealed the mistake."

Maybe the producers, Soumah had wanted to take revenge on the importers of 'Albarino'?

Darby Higgs goes on to say this was not the first time such mis-labelling of vines has occurred. He points to Carmenere being delivered to Chile as Merlot and in Australia people planting Carnelian when they thought it was Sangiovese. Also, Gros Manseng for Petit Manseng - a shocking one, that.

There was this Petit Manseng by Symphonia. We assume this really was Petit Manseng. 

Otherwise there was the first Australian Assyrtiko we had ever seen.

Ditto, an Arinto. What next?

Brown Brothers, non-alcoholic Moscato and Cienna, that's what.

 

Not obscure in the slightest was Pike's Riesling. We note it here because we like it very much.

Good show!

Spain in your glass, February 2023. False friends and rarities

 

 

Horticultural Halls, London

 

Our write-up of 'Spain in a glass' breaks records for lateness for which we apologise. The fact that we're writing it now, over a year since it took place is a token of its merit.

Yet again there were hidden gems to be discovered. Spain doesn't trumpet these so it's for us to do so.

Along the way there were quite a few 'false friends.' Familiar grapes such as Graciano named after a synonym - in that case Merenzao.

Here they are:

 

False Friends

It's easy to get caught out. We regard it as a professional risk so it's good to be aware since wine merchants often don't know or try to palm you off with something purporting to be unique whan it is just a common variety such as Tintilla de Rota/Graciano.

 

Rufete Blanco = Verdejo Sorrano (itself a rarity).

Merenzao = Trousseau

 

 

Tintilla de Rota = Graciano

 

 

Listan Blanco = Palomino Fino

 

 

Brujidera = Marufo

Tardana = Planta Nova 

Tortozon = Planta Nova

 

Trincadeira Preta = Trincadeira 

 

Tinto Velasco = (sometimes) Alicante Henri Bouschet

Rarities

At 'Spain in a glass' there were some genuine rarities: 

Marmajuelo

 

Vidadillo (almost extinct)

 

Moravia Agria