Absolutely stunning find!

 

Discoveries often come when least expected.

We had ordered a bottle of South African Chenin Blanc from The Wine Society following a recommendation. Wishing to get a handle on this grape whose charms had never resonated with us the way they do with seemingly everyone else we fleshed out the order with a few attractive-looking bottles. The whole order looked like this:

The Society's Exhibition Chenin Blanc, Western Cape 2022 £14.50

Escosés Volante Albilla Sobre Lías, Manchuela 2024 SP21331•  1 Bottle £10.50

Vanguardist La Petite Vanguard 'Corsair' Riverland 2023 AU27011•  1 Bottle £12.95

The Winery of Good Hope Full Berry Pinotage Coastal 2023 SA22161•  1 Bottle £9.95

Encosta da Vinha Branco, Dão 2023 PW11261•  1 Bottle £8.50

Alpha Zeta Corvina 2024 IT43081•  1 Bottle £8.50

It wouldn't really matter if there were no good wines among these. The prices were truly modest and we always needing cooking wine.

The Chenin Blanc was opened first of course and did nothing to resolve our problems with this grape. Nice enough but not enough nice as we say. 

We next tried the rare Albilla. 'Wine Grapes' informs us that Albilla is also Albillo. However there are different Albillo/Albillas. Ours seems to be the Albillo de Albacete; a rare variety not to be confused with other Albillas. 

Albilla, a locally treasured variety found only around the village of Villamalea in Manchuela, thrives in dry, warm climates due to its natural drought resistance. This dry-farmed wine gains added texture from time spent on its lees and you can expect mineral-driven citrus aromas that lead to a beautifully pithy, saline texture on the palate. Winemaker Norrel Robertson once again showcases his exceptional talent for crafting extraordinary and unconventional wines from overlooked vineyards, reviving and renewing the magic of Spanish wine.    

NB. Villamalea is 56 Km from Albacete.                             

The Society's notes continue with this:

          El Escocés Volante

Literally translated as ‘the flying Scotsman’, El Escocés Volante is the brainchild of Spanish resident and Scottish winemaker Norrel Robertson MW. He learned working from the cellar up, including placements in Chianti, Portugal, Australia, France and Chile, eventually completing a postgraduate viticulture and oenology course at Lincoln University in Christchurch, New Zealand, graduating with distinction.

Norrel produces wines from across some of Spain's more obscure wine regions: his speciality is Garnacha, in particular from Calatayud, but he also makes excellent wines in Galicia, Murcia and Andalucía.             

All very fascinating and right up our street. The wine however was curious. Salty was the watchword. Interesting but not something we plan to repeat. So when we selected the Vanguardist from Riverland we had no great expectations. True this wine ticked so many boxes: Interesting blend? You bet: Prieto Picudo, Graciano, Alfrochero, Tinta Barocca and Mencia? That sounded like a list of all our favourite Iberian varieties.  Also the Abv was spot on at 12.4% and the provenance Riverland, Australia couldn't have been more interesting. So why the low expectation? Maybe that was down to quite so many positive indicators? Also the only similar Australian wine we had drunk was again Nice Enough but not Enough Nice: Koerner's 'Cinque' - a blend of Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz (Tempranillo), Aragonez (Trincandeira) and Castelao. We don't do tasting notes because everyone's taste is different but this 'La Petite Vanguard Le Corsair' was fabulously outstanding not least because you could taste the Prieto Picudo, one of our most-adored grape varieties and one which is not only very rare to find but not always good when you do. Anything over about 13% robs Prieto Picudo of its perfume and results just in a homogenous vinous beverage which could be anything. At £12.95 this wine is one of the bargains of the century. If we had any storage space, we would have ordered a dozen bottles straight off.  With a wine so enjoyable we struggle with the hierarchy dictated by the wine world. If we enjoy drinking this wine more than a Bordeaux 1st growth, who is to say we are wrong and the establishment is right?  Who are the wonderful people behind this wine? They are Michael J. Corbett and his fiancee Claire Hannagan. Michael has made over 30 vintages spread over 4 countries and 13 regions. As well as having a career as an Architectural Building Designer Claire is hands-on in the vineyard and winery. Unconventionally, Michael and Claire also have a partnership with their great friends Alexandra and Edouard Morriset Latour in Burgundy.  Based in Beaune, they take charge of the Export Management and distribution Vanguardist wines throughout the world. These include a Pommard and a Fleurie as well as those made in Australia: a Roussanne, a Riesling, a Rose from Grenache and Syrah and reds from Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault and Mourvedre from Polish Hill, Clare Valley Blewett Springs, Barmera and Riverland.  In a way, the Vanguardist is the equivalent of Forlorn Hope. No greater compliment can be paid.

Real Italian Wine and Food at the Horticultural Halls, London.

 

Lindley Hall looking so lovely in the sunshine.

We were looking forward to this. Italian food and wine with a talk by Walter Speller. 

We signed up good and early and put it in the diary. 

Arriving in good time at Vincent Square, we paid for 3 hours parking and sauntered over to the familiar building.

"How can I help you sir?"

"The Real Italian Wine and Food event."

 "That was yesterday."

Not Slotovino's finest hour.

Our disastrous 2024.

 

We always say our winemaking hobby helps us understand the challenges real winemakers face every year. It's something like taking up the violin making you appreciate what Heifetz achieved all the more sharply. People who rubbish the efforts of winemakers from the lofty position of the tasting table could have a bit more sympathy for the poor winemakers who might have struggled with unimaginable difficulties just to score a 15 in any given year.

 

 Who could have imagined that one of the many problems we had to contend with in 2024 was Wallabies?

 Here's a vine they took a liking to.

 

 And then there was the inexplicable and sudden demise of the odd vine.

The previous year we had been blessed with a bumper crop of nicely ripened grapes. In 2024, the weather was atrocious with far too much rain, far to little sun and warmth.

 

Nevertheless, the grapes tried their best even if they never ripened.

 

                                                              The pheasant takes aim

 

and launches himself at a bunch of grapes.

That didn't stop the pheasants and possibly pigeons and wasps gorging themselves to the ruination of our crop.

 

 

So quite simply we made no wine from our own grapes that year. Being only a hobby, we didn't face financial ruin as professionals would have. 

Earlier in the year and in common with those professionals we had been looking to the long term by filling the gaps in the vineyard with new plantings.

Bare cutting of Nero grape variety. No rootstock.

We always try to grow some vines from cuttings but that too can be a disappointing business. An exception was this Nero, a Hungarian variety. The 'Wines of Hungary' website has this to say about it;

The origins of the variety are connected with the names of József Csizmazia and László Bereznai, who crossed Seyve Villard 12375 sel with Gárdonyi Géza. The former is also known as Eger 2, while the latter was created from Menoire (formerly known as Medoc Noir) and Csabagyöngye. Nero was submitted for variety recognition in 1984, becoming an authorised variety in Hungary in 1993 as well as in Switzerland and the European Union in the 1990s.
 

Rondo grown on SO4 rootstock

We have 2 roows of Rondo. Previously not only had we looked down on Rondo - someone once said it was only good for adding colour - we had never even thought of vinifying it separately. There was never enough anyway until 2023 when we did make a Rondo in purezza and had been delighted with the result. Not only that, we had drunk excellent Rondos from Hebron and White Castle vineyards in Wales.

So we decided to plant more Rondo in the gaps.

Muscaris also on SO4

For the gaps in the white block, we plumped for Muscaris following excellent experiences drinking that.

 

We also planted 2 dessert grape vines with the intention of making acanopy over the terrace one day. For this we couldn't resist a new Hungarian variety called Fanny. According to the 'Promesse de fleurs' website;

"Fanny is an interspecific hybrid obtained in 1970 by József Csizmazia, a Hungarian breeder, by crossing the Villard Blanc variety, obtained in the Drôme region, with a hybrid itself resulting from the crossbreeding of (Teli Muskotaly x Olimpia). Fanny contains genes from 3 vine species: Vitis berlandieri, an American vine that provided phylloxera-resistant rootstocks, Vitis rupestris, another American species, and Vitis vinifera, our "classic" grapevine."

That József Csizmazia hadn't crossed our path before but suddenly here he was again. Fanny is available from all good garden centres.

SITT Spring Tasting 2025

 

This was a good SITT tasting if rare and obscure grape varieties were what you were after. Strangely enough, we were.

Here's the list: 

Breslava

Dunaj

Telti-Kuruk

Albarin

Criolla Blanca

Moscatel Rosa

Jampal

 

  

According to the notice, Breslava (the historical name of Bratislava by the way) is a Slovakian cross between Chasselas Rose, Gewurtztraminer and something called Santa Maria d'Alcantara (a white berried variety of unknown origen. 'Wine Grapes' ).

It is a white grape making wine evoking Mango, Lychee and Grapefruit.

 

Dunaj we have come across before.

Colour Red. The notice attests to its Cherry and Dark Chocolate falvours. It is another Slovakian cross. This time between Muscat Bouschet, Blaufraenkisch and St. Laurent. Muscat Bouschet was obtained in 1857 by Pierre Bouschet by crossing Muscat Fleur d'Oranger with Petit Bouschet.

 

As if two new discoveries side-by-side wasn't enough, nearby we came across our favourite Ukranian wine, Shabo's Telti-Kuruk Reserve. A world class wine. A major discovery, one we have been trying to get our hands on by all means. 

Not much is known about Telti-Kuruk. It doesn't appear in 'Wine Grapes.' The name is apparently Turkish although the grape is said by one source to be Armenian and everyone else to be a native Ukranian variety. Pierre Galet doesn't mention Armenia but writes that it is grown in Moldova as well as Ukraine in the regions of Odesa (where Shabo is situated) and Kherson. He states that Telti-Kuruk is a table grape and is used for sparkling wine - not something we had heard of previously.

 

Adam Lever, South West Area Manager of Novel wines was the representative. Thanks to him and his colleagues we had been able to buy this wine from their shop in Bristol back in February this year. You could too!

Next was Albarin, not Albarino. Scope for confusion doesn't stop there. Albarin has also been confused with Albillo, Elbling and Gouais Blanc in that all three have the synonym Blanco Verdin, and Savagnin Blanc due to mis-labelling or mis-identification in Mision Biologica de Galicia's collection.

Albillo is floral and spicy. A discovery indeed.

Matias Morcos's 'Naranja' is not made with Orangetraube. It is an Orange Wine made with Moscatel Rosa. This is a great variety, perhaps not that rare but one that should be more familiar.

 

Criolla Blanca. Could it be one of the many red Criollas (there are about 50 of them) vinified white or is this a rare white version? It is not mentioned in 'Wine Grapes' and is unknown to Galet.More research is required. Meanwhile we just had to reproduce the text on the back label if you can't read it in the photo above:

"Some things from the past should be cherished forever,some re-breathed and re-invented. Light and time trapped between old walls,. The courtyards, the verandas, our Grandmothers; beauty in tiny detail. The sounds that declare the silence. Peace. Those who walked before us at a calmer pace, bequeathed to us another way of living. La Cayetans celebrates the sun's heritageon the vines, and together we continue to write the history of the land." 

Now we know. 

This gentleman is Kevin Hart, Director of 79 North Road Ltd. He is the kindest man in the wine business. He's a rare connoisseur too. He is the only person in the UK to stock Manz's Dona Fatima Jampal. If that is not sufficient he sent us a bottle for a tasting free of charge! We are eternally grateful not just for the absence of invoice but for championing this ultra-rare variety.

Manz Wines. Dona Fatima. Jampal. Lisboa 2022. 13%

Former Brazilian soccer player André Manz bought an abandoned vineyard in Cheleiros, Portugal to make wine for himself and his friends. A commercial project was far from his ambitions at the time. On the first visit to the vineyard with an oenologist and agronomist, 200 vines of a variety were discovered which nobody was able to identify… with the help of technicians from the Instituto da Vinha e do Vinho (Vine and Wine Institute) the variety’s name was identified: Jampal.

“It is an autochthonous Portuguese variety, characteristic here in the region, but it was abandoned because it was not profitable… very sensitive, it requires a more expensive pruning and produces little quantity… we might as well have just bet on the reds and forget about it” but he persisted and produced the only monovarietal bottling of so far. There were 34 ha. in Portugal in 2016.

 

 

The 2024 Vineyard and Winery show

 

 

 

Yes, it was the truly wonderful Vineyard and Winery Show once again in November last year at the Kent Showground near Maidstone, UK.

 

 

As ever there were several different shows under the one roof. First off we were amazed and delighted to find 'PIWI including new varieties from Italy.' These were from our friends at the Vivai Cooperativi Rauscedo - the worls largest and possibly greatest vine nursery.

 

Hello Soreli and Fleurtai! Our choice for planting. See this Blog. No grapes yet but we live in hope. Delcious wines. Soreli is making headway all over including the most unexpected places (the urban vineyard at Bercy, Paris). Fleurtai and Soreli have the same parents of which one is (Tocai) Friulano.

 

Then there was Volturnis (red from Pinot Noir).

 

Kersus, White from Pinot Blanc.

 

Iskra. White, also from Pinot Blanc.

And Pinot Kors. Red from Pinot Noir.

 

 On a nearby table the first evidence of the UK Divico craze. News about this has been coming drip by drip but Divico has now become a big 'thing' here on evidence found at the show. It tastes very good indeed. We had planted 6 Divico vines a few years ago having acquired them at great expense from Switzerland. They all promptly died. Now we have ordered 25 Divico vines to fill gaps in the vineyard. We'll report in a few years time.

 

Further on, yet more Divico.

Visitors are not only interested in resistant and rare grape varieties strange to say. There are always a myriad of products on show from giant vineyard machinery to chemical products to trellising equipment, vineyard contractors and much more.

Back to our particular interest, from the Pfalz, two Sauvignacs. Sauvignac also seems to be a 'thing.' Even the Wine Society ahd a Sauvignac from Chateau Thieuly, Bordeaux. the Bordelais have been experimenting with varieties that can deal with the new climactic conditions brought about by climate change.

The Vineyard and Winery show is a great place to discover these new trends. Sauvignac is a crossing of Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and a resistant partner obtained by the great Swiss private grape breeder Valentin Blattner.

 Next, the very promising PIWI variety Rinot. We have enjoyed this previously thanks to Rebschule Freytag who once again was present at the show.

 

The Pfalz seems to be a hotspot for PIWI wines. Perhaps it is no coincidence that Rebschule Freytag is a Pfalz institution, Here was a Cabernet Blanc, also a Blattner variety. Our jury is out on Cabernet Blanc. We have tasted some that were better than others but nothing to suggest an 'Aha moment.'

  

Talking about Cabernet Blanc, we note that they have not been obliged to change the name to Cabaret Blanc.

 A Cabernet Noir from Kent. No Cabarets there.

  

We don't do Chardonnay much but here was another Crouch Valley 13 - percenter. Essex was only recently discovered as the leading UK wine-growing area. It is surprising it took so long. It just reinforces the dictum that 75% of UK vineyards are probably in the wrong place. People used to plant vines at the properties they already owned, To be sure studies of soil and aspect were made but without the centuries of winegrowing experience in established countries, we are still discovering where our best terroirs lie.

 

  

 

Crows Lane Estate's 'Trouble every day' Black Book Pinot Noir is another 13% Essex wine. The grapes are vinified at the London urban winery in Battersea.

 

There were a couple of 'Structured tastings', One by Matthew Jukes who is a show institution and another by an Australian.  

The Jukes crowd heard Matthew wax exceeding rapturous about an English Gewuerztraminer among others.