Giving Thanks

We tried to field American wine for Thanksgiving but despite having many bottles scattered all over the house we only had two native US wines in our inventory (shame!). One of these was a Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay from Costco gifted by a well-meaning relative (a favourite of his so fair enough). Sorry to be patronising but our blog is devoted to everything other than Californian Chardonnay so this is the first post in almost 500 to feature such a wine. Our focus group (OK, our guests) preferred white over red and surprisingly for us snapped up the Kendall-Jackson faster than any other.

Widening the definition of American, we dug out some Argentinian, Chilean and a Canadian wine.


Whites

Andaluna 1300 Torrontes 2018 (12%)
Bouchon, Pais Salvaje (11.5%)
Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay (13.5%)

12%

Another hit was the Andeluna Torrontes - perfect expression of this interesting grape (thanks to the low alcohol we reckon).

A word on the Pais Salvaje. Bouchon make a red Pais Salvaje as well as this white one and we're not sure if this is a white mutation of the red Pais or the red grape vinified white. Pais is Listan Prieto originally from the Canary Islands, also called the Mission grape.

Like Asprinio in Italy this Pais Salvaje grows up trees and anything else it can latch on to up to 5 meters high and has to be picked using immensely tall ladders. This is what is called a Wild Vineyard. The yield is low because the grapes have never been cultivated by man. The point of interest here is that it is related to Torrontes, both being spontaneous crosssings involving Pais and hence the only naturally occurring vinifera grapes in the Americas. This was also our first 2019 wine.

11.5%

Reds

Recoleta Criolla Grande (13%)
Norman Hardie Pint Noir, Niagara Peninsula VQA 2016. (11,5%)
Heitz Grignolino (13.5%)
Casa Silva Romano (Cesar?), Colchagua. (14%)

Norman Hardie's Niagara Pinot Noir was the big news here: as good as any we had had from Ontario. Indeed we are in good company; Jancis Robison writes of Norman Hardie wines that they are 'absolutely, utterly, profoundly delicious' and a guest wrote 'As for the Canadian wine - an eye-opener.'

We have mentioned the Casa Silva Romano already in this blog so thanks to the interesting back story, we had great hopes for this bottle.

We have never experienced such a transformation between opening and leaving the wine to breathe. At first we wondered why anyone would bother to transport such a repellent beverage all the way from Chile. A few hours later, the result was amazing. A luscious wine with plenty of character.  It was a reminder that wine is a living thing which can blossom in an extraordinary way given air contact.

Jancis Robinson writes 'Argentina's most common vine (in both senses) and makes huge quantities of deep-coloured white or light pink wine which is rarely exported except as a very minor constituent in a blend' but this was a red wine. The word common was still appropriate at least in this case.

Mueller-Thurgau/Semillon/Riesling

11.5%

We began the evening with a bottle of Sokol Blosser's 'Evolution' Mueller-Thurgau/Semillon/Riesling from Oregon and despite its unlikely grape combination, it's good.

Now for Xmas.