Rkatsiteli

My Sesame Street approach to this voyage of discovery has lead us this week to Georgia and apart from a few sip & spit tastings at various wine events I have never really spent any time with the wines from that country. This is something of an omission given that vines are known to have been cultivated in Georgia for over five thousand years. Some claim that Rkatsiteli was the first vine planted by Noah once his socks had dried out after his boating holiday. I thought he docked in what is now Turkey so there may be a gap in that story, but as I can't find any reference anywhere in Genesis we will leave it there.


Week R (2014) Chateau Mukhrani Rkatsiteli. 2012. M&S £9.49.

On opening the wine and pouring it revealed itself as a bright, clear medium intensity lemon yellow that looked shiny and fresh. On the nose it was rather lacking and not at all intensely aromatic.

I was expecting a similar performance on the palate but was surprised by hit of fresh fruit and floral flavours that were immediate and quite intense. But almost as soon as they arrived, they vanished leaving an unexpected watery sensation. This made the wine feel a bit thin, but at 13% abv it isn't, really.

The makers suggest it has honeysuckle and fennel tones with fresh ginger and Chinese five spice, but I didn't find those to be prominent so I will be charitable and blame my post Christmas cold.

It was enjoyable and easy to drink, had a good, if short-lived flavour, and was perfectly well made, it's just that it doesn't stand out in any particular way.

So not one for the regular list, but good to have tasted it.

We will stay in Georgia next week and see whether the experience we have had with a white grape is repeated or contradicted with a red.

Quinta do Noval

Whilst I think that during my research I found a red wine grape beginning with Q, or at least one that has a synonym beginning with Q, I can't relocate the reference and, therefore, the chance of locating a bottle of wine made from it is extremely unlikely. Perhaps next year.

So, for the third Q running, I am relying on the Portuguese name for a wine growing estate being 'quinta' and have selected a wine based on its producer rather than its grape


Week Q (2014) Quinta do Noval 10 year old Tawny Port. Waitrose £20.99

I am not at all disappointed with having to resort to this method of selection for at least two reasons. Firstly, Portugal produces a wide variety of wine styles from an even wider variety of grapes, many of which are not grown elsewhere, and the standard is usually pretty good especially at the price.

Secondly, this week it will be Christmas and what better reason, should any reason at all be required, do I need to justify the purchase of a decent bottle of Port?

I love Port but don't drink it as often as I would like. But then I love whiskey, beer and of course wine. I am fond of  white bread, cheese, sausages and the occasional elephant's leg sandwich (doner kebab) so, as I also quite like not being dead, I am unlikely to increase my Port consumption to address this problem. I suppose I could cut down on some of my other peccadilloes but I've seen Sophie's choice and don't think that's a good way forward.

Port is a fascinating subject. I would argue that if you want to understand the general topic of wines and spirits you could learn a huge proportion of what there is to know from understanding Port alone. From the environmental factors affecting the management of the vineyards, through selection of varieties to be used, to the distillation of the spirit used to fortify the wine and the maturation and blending of the final product, it is all there. As is the regulation and control, the history and the politics, and the economics.

This particular style of Port, an aged Tawny, is made by blending wines that have spent an average of 10 years maturing in oak before being bottled.This contrasts with other styles which may all grapes from a single year, vintage, which matures in the bottle, or late bottled vintage where grapes from a single year mature in oak for longer, or a number of others which underline my point about understanding Port to understand wine.

Being a tawny this wine is paler in colour than the least expensive Ruby styles and has some brown tones, most visible at the rim. It smells of burnt toffee and cinnamon and on tasting these aromas are followed with a warming Christmas pudding fruitiness that feels thick and sweet. The finish is long and soothing. Like almost all Port it has nearly 20% abv, so it is best sipped and savoured, as any other approach is likely to leave bumps on your head.

An excellent choice which has been well received by those who have shared this bottle. Merry Christmas.

Pecorino

I have always had a fondness for sheep. I think it started when, as a teenager, I became a keen hill walker and often found myself with sheep for company on various dales, fells and other names used to describe what the English like to claim as mountains.

I have also had a long term fondness for cheese, as you may already know if you have read the 'we have both kinds' page above, however, in the great Venn diagram of my life these two fondnesses are not together in the intersection. That is, I don't usually care for sheep's milk cheese or, in fact, cheese made from anything other than cow's milk.

I had encountered Pecorino as a cheese made from sheep's milk (specifically ewe's milk as the alternative really doesn't bear thinking about) long before I discovered the grape of the same name and am very glad I didn't allow my opinion of the former suppress my curiosity about the latter.

Week P (2014) Umani Ronchi Pecorino, Tierre di Chieti, IGT. 2013. M&S £10

Apparently the grape is so named because there is a long tradition of sheep farming in the Marche region of Eastern Italy where this variety has its historic home and the sheep, for whom the Italian name is 'percora', would amble through the vineyards and eat the fruit. Hence this becoming 'the sheep's grape', or similar.

Although the Marche is the historic home for Pecorino the grapes used here were grown in the adjoining region of Abruzzo on mixed clay and sand soils. Once picked, they are gently pressed and fermented in temperature controlled stainless steel for 10 - 15 days, before resting on their lees (dead yeast cells) for 4 months.

To keep the fresh fruitiness the wine does not undergo malolactic fermentation, which would soften the feel but diminish its juicy acidity.

It is a medium lemon colour with lovely stone fruit, peachy/mango flavours and a good finish that has a gentle spicy kick. At 12.5% abv it is well balanced and refreshing and great with food or alone.

 It seems that Pecorino was under threat of extinction until being rediscoverd over the last decade, or, so and is now proving popular and rightly so, in my opinion. Aside from this dry version it is also made in spumante and even passito styles, the latter being a sweet wine made from partially dried grapes, which is something of an Italian speciality.

I hold to the idea that variety is the spice of life and that this warrants investigation across a broad range of topics (I have elsewhere mentioned cheese, bread, beer, etc), but some years ago this belief lead to me gaining a reputation for standing aside from the main flock because I had a poster on my office wall depicting many, if not all, of the breeds of sheep found in the British Isles. If anyone was sufficiently interested to ask why they would be invited to glance through the accompanying book which not only replicated pictures from the poster, but also gave a great depth of information of what each breed could offer the farmer. Fascinating stuff.

Okozgozu

The law of unintended consequences appears to be quite active in my alphabet driven exploration of the wines of the world, in that the answer to the question 'where can I find a wine made from an obscure and interesting grape variety beginning with this week's letter?', is, with increasing regularity, the M&S Simply Food in Tring and, consequently, I am a regular visitor.

How it is a small branch of a nationwide chain should carry such a wide and varied range I don't really understand. In our great capital, where I continue to be afflicted with a real job, there are a number of M&S stores within striking distance, at least one of which is spread over four floors, but none has anything like the variety that can be found in my little backwater of a home town. Well played the local management, I assume.

Week O (2014) Sevilen Okuzgozu. M&S £10.

If I knew how I would put an umlaut over each of the vowels in the variety's name and that would make look even more exotic. The name itself translates to 'Ox eye', and I can't explain why, but it may be because it has the largest berries of any Turkish variety and, perhaps, it is a size related reference. The colour seems wrong for anyone's eyes even if we are in Christmas party season and the view in the morning mirror isn't always appealing.

Anyway, onto more pertinent matters. Dark ruby with purple hints, this is a medium body run of the mill red wine, that is easy enough to drink and has nothing to make me complain about it. Damned by feint praise? Yes, I am afraid so.

It is dry, reasonably fruity, has acidity that stops it being dull, 13% abv, and 'slightly medium' tannins. Sadly,the most interesting thing about it is the name and I'm not saying that to be unkind, it's just that at £10 a bottle it is up against lots of competition.

The grapes themselves come from the mountainous Elazig region of Eastern Turkey, where it is grown in the steep sided valleys in the upper reaches of the mighty Euphrates river. The estate comprises 160 ha and is farmed by the third generation of a family whose business was initiated in the 1940's by an immigrant from Bulgaria who started with only four hectares. So the winery is a success story and they now produce 35 different wines under three ranges. In time I will explore more of Sevilen's output, especially as they have some great names, but for now I will be lead wherever else the alphabet and, quite probably the wine buyer for my local M&S, takes me.

Nasik

Wine grapes, generally speaking, grow in two bands around the Earth between 30 and 50 degrees North or South of the equator. Anywhere outside of these bands is either too hot or too cold. At least, that's the common wisdom. It is certainly mostly true, but our voyage of discovery this week leads us to challenge that wisdom.

Nasik is not a grape variety, but a city in the Indian state of Maharashtra and it lies a mere 20 degrees North of the equator and that puts it below the Tropic of Cancer. So no grapes here, M'Lud. How then is it that here we have:

Week N (2014) Jewel of Nasik Sauvignon Blanc. M&S £7.00

It seems that Nasik (or Nashik, as it can also be spelled), the 'wine capital of India' has 74 wineries of which 36 are said to be 'world class' (the criteria are not specified). It is a city where, aside from the obvious hi-tech industries, fruit and veg make up a good portion of the ctiy's economy, so the climate must be amenable.

It is not a region you would call cool climate, with an average monthly low temperature if 17 degrees and an average monthly high of 30, but with the monsoon there is no shortage of rainfall at 690mm which is well over the required minimum. In fact it is rather too much at that time of year and harvest must be delayed until January to avoid the crop being spolied and bloated.

M&S have teamed up with Sula Vineyards, who started growing wine grapes (table grapes had been grown for many years) in the 1990s after a Silicon Valley engineer, Rajeev Samant, realised that the climate of his family estate had much in common with parts of Spain, Australia and California, to produce three wines aimed at the UK market. The red is a Tempranillo, the Rose a Zinfandel and this white is Sauvignon Blanc. Sula also produce several other varieties in total volumes well into the millions of litres from three sites totalling 1,800 acres.Who knew?


This wine is very pale and almost colourless, with some pale lemon yellow notes. It has very obvious Sauvignon Blanc flavours of gooseberry / elderflower (according to your preference) but is very simple. It has good acidity that went rather well with the salmon and prawn curry.

It won't replace any number of New Zealand SBs which are usually available for the same price, but it was interesting to try an Indian wine with sufficiently pleasing, if unspectacular results, that I expect the other two varieties in the range will get their turn in due course.

Just to throw in a vaguely interesting and almost associated fact, according to the Hindu epic legend of Lord Rama, the seventh avatar of Vishnu, Nasik got its name from an episode in which his brother cut off a woman's nose. I don't know why he did, but in Sanskrit the word for nose is 'Nasika' and it was picked because of that. 

Malbec

What I didn't know about Argentina until recently is exactly how big a country it is. I knew it was famous for the Tango, for gauchos and beef, but I didn't know that in the space of two weeks, if you are prepared to take six internal flights, you can see glaciers and condors at one end of the country and enormous waterfalls in sub-tropical jungles with Toucans, monkeys and even humming birds at the other.

I did know that in between the two there are a great number of vineyards and wineries producing a variety of wines from a variety of grapes. I didn't expect, but did enjoy some Pinot Noir from northern Patagonia whereas I did expect and also enjoyed the Malbecs of Mendoza, the signature wines of Argentina.

The One and I visited two wineries in the Lujan de Cuyo sub-region of Mendoza which sits a short drive to the East of the Andean foothills and to the South of the city itself. The first was very hi-tech and shiny producing good, if fairly uninspiring wines but the second much more appealing and where I found:

Week M (2014) Clos De Chacras, Gran Estirpe 2010. AR$ 261 (~£19.49) from the cellar door.

Clos de Chacras is a family run winery with an interesting history. The family originated in the Italian speaking parts of Switzerland and in 1883 Bautista Geronimo Gargantini moved to Argentina where he stated making a living as a livestock trader and meat marketeer. He was sufficiently successful that he raised enough capital to enter the wine trade, with subsequent generations following on, including his son who in 1948 made the first traditional method sparkling wine in Argentina.

Some time later the winery was sold, only to be reacquired by the founder's great-granddaughter  and her husband in 1987. They re-established and modernised production from 2003 and now produce a range of eight wines.

The Gran Estirpe is their top range of two wines. One is a blend of Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merolt, but this is 100% Malbec and made from grapes grown in another but distinct nearby sub-region: Maipu.

It packs quite a punch, having 14.5% abv as this is a hot continental region and the grapes have plenty of sunshine to help them fully ripen and produce lots of sugar which then gets fermented to generate this high alcohol level.

It has been matured for 18 months in a mixture of first use French and American oak barrels, which we were shown as we were guided round the winery. Each barrel was marked not only with the type of oak, but the flavour characteristics each barrel could be expected to provide to the finished wine, such as 'complex', 'intense', or 'sweet'. Wines from these barrels are blended together to give the final result the winemaker is wanting and then bottled and released for sale after a further period of maturation in the bottle.

The deep ruby colour and obvious legs give a clue as to what to expect a little later. The nose is appealing, with black fruits and vanilla leading the charge. The mouthfeel is full and soft with well integrated tannins and gentle acidity. It is slightly warming, but full of fruit, and has a long finish where the oak and fruit gradually disappear together.

This bottle survived four flights in my suitcase and I am very happy that it did. The wine is sadly unavailable in the UK so it may be some time before I get to taste it again and I am less happy about that!

Lugana

At the Southern end of Lake Garda, just near the borders of the two Italian regions of Lombardia and Veneto, lies the town of Lugana. It is a reportedly beautiful area which attracts many visitors and is the centre of a small 'DOC' wine region devoted to the production of quality white wines,

The grape concerned is known as Turbiana or, alternatively, Trebbiano di Lugana which sounds like it should be the same as other Trebbianos grown in other parts of Italy. But this is Italy and we should not be surprised that there is no connection!

Week L (2014) Ca' Lojera, Lugana DOC 2013. Vinoteca Farringdon. £15.95

I will cut to the chase. I liked this very much. It had good lively aromas of citrus fruits and sweet melon which follow through into the palate. It is full bodied and smoothly refreshing. There is something of a fruit salad about it and I would say either nectarines or clementines are in the finish. The 13% abv is well integrated with the fruit and there is juicy acidity.

Lugana is a small area of around 1,300ha from which is produced ~12 million bottles annually, and that sounds a lot until you consider that Bordeaux knocks out about 800 million in the same time.

It is upsetting that in reading about this wine I came across a campaign using the hashtag #SaveLugana, because there is a scheme proposing to build a high speed railway right through the middle of the region. The original plan, hatched some twenty years ago, was to build a line to connect Lisbon to Kiev, but now appears to be limited to connecting Venice to Milan. Either way, if it goes ahead it will destroy up to one third of this area.

The area is already under consideration as a potential UNESCO world heritage site and those dependent on the local tourist industry are hoping this will add weight to the campaign. The campaigners believe that the proposed route need be shifted as little as 400 metres to use the existing line between Brescia and Verona, for a nine km stretch to avoid the possible destruction, but add four minutes to the improved journey time.

Why do I care? Well, partly that having just discovered this wine which I like I am disappointed to have stumbled upon a challenge to its future success, but more because it is a parallel to what is proposed should happen to the Chilterns to enable those desperate to get out of Birmingham and into London (or vice versa, which is even more puzzling) to do so with insufficient time to enjoy a decent breakfast which is, after all, one of the more compelling reasons to travel by train.

There are sensitive alternatives available to solve the problem of more quickly moving the people in A to B and the people in B to A (see Douglas Adams on the futility of by-passes; the same logic applies) and any of those should be selected in both of these cases, however, perhaps if all of the people in such a tearing hurry stopped off on the banks of Lake Garda and enjoyed both the view and a glass of wine they might find that there are better ways to live and we call all leave things as they are.

The petition to register support unfortunately closed on 27th November, but use of the #SaveLugana may still draw attention.

Kalecik Karasi

Three K's for the price of one leads me back to Turkey for this week's wine. I say 'back' as if I am a frequent visitor, but in fact I have been there only once and that was nearly four decades ago when my parents were generous enough to fund my second trip outside the UK, the first having been a day trip across the channel to Calais. The second trip, which included my 16th birthday, was described to my parents as an educational cruise and in many ways it was. There were around two thousand teenagers visiting six countries in the Eastern Mediterranean over the course of two weeks, on a ship that was later used as a floating hospital during the Falklands conflict, and calling into the last but one port of Antalya about 150 miles South West of where this week's wine was made. There were no vineyard tours on that trip but I am not sure I would have appreciated the idea at the time in any case.

Week K (2014) Anfora, Trio, 2012. M&S £8.00.

I first tried KK, as it is known for ease of pronunciation, at the London International Wine Fair in 2010 and I don't think I have tasted it again since.

Coming from Western Turkey in the Region of Denizli the grapes for this wine grow high on a continental limestone plateau where the combination of daytime heat and cooler nights suits the various grapes grown here.

Trio is, unsurprisingly, a blend of three varieties: Shiraz and Kalecik Karasi contributing 40% each, with Cabernet Sauvignon providing the remaining 20%.

As such it is a combination of the local speciality and two widely traveled international varieties that crop up everywhere and has characteristics that reflect the blend.

It is a medium intensity red wine, easy to drink but better with a meal than without (I know this because I sampled the first glass or so whilst cooking the lunch that accompanied the rest) and is a good every day red.

It has the blackcurrant flavours from both the Cabernet and Shiraz, a slightly spicy note, which I assume is the Shiraz, and moderate smooth tannins which the bottle notes claim are typical of KK.

It is another of those 'medium everything' wines, except for the alcohol of 13.5% but this doesn't really make itself felt. It is not expensive and not disappointing but won't make it to the mental list of crowd pleasers that I rely on when entertaining.

The front label has a little square golden icon at the top and centre bearing the name Pamukkale. This is a town in the region famous for hot springs and white walled hills that give the town its name. Pamukkale means 'cotton castle' because the spring waters are rich in calcium and a beautiful sedimentary rock, travertine, has built up over countless years to provide a landscape that has led to the area being listed as a world heritage site. The wine may not be sufficient reason to visit on its own, but I'd be happy to drink it there if I was ever fortunate enough to visit, even if this time I had to pay my own way,

Jurancon Sec

This week I have been reminded that there is some truth in the saying 'less is more'. I have always been quite drawn to the concept since spending some of my working life as a data analyst in a team of the same. Many people hear the term data analyst and assume it means something similar to 'statistician', and it may do in some cases, but not mine. I was the type of data analyst who spent far longer than is healthy thinking about the nature of things and how best they should be represented in computer systems. My conceptual heroes were William of Ockham, famous for his razor which he used to dispense with unnecessary logical complexity, and Plato, who would have been pleased I am sure, as at the time I viewed my work as being a twentieth century realisation of his theory of forms. Now I think I was overpaid for being a pretentious waste of space and that the collective noun for data analysts is definitely 'a surplus'.

The reminder this week comes not from ontological debate but from reading that of the two varieties of the Manseng grape, Gros Manseng is considered the lesser,whilst Petit Manseng the greater. The little one is famous for its use in the production of sweet wines of some reknown, but the Gros version more often used in dry wines.

Week J (2014) Lapeyre, Jurancon Sec. 2012. No.2 Pound Street. £13.

Made with 100% Gros Manseng this is a highly flavoured dry white wine from South West France, about 300m up in the foothills of the Pyrenees.

It is the kind of wine that makes its presence felt as soon as the cork is pulled from the bottle and the aromas whizz up the nostrils. It is deeply coloured golden lemon yellow and aromas and colour both being strong are in balance.

I was initially quite taken aback by the intensity of the flavours, having over the last year encountered so many white wines that fall into the 'crisp green apples' category. This one is more knock-ya-head-off-with-a-grapefruit, backed up by some herbaceous notes and what I think might be minerality. I say think because I have read much in the recent wine press about whether 'minerality' is a meaningful wine descriptor or not, but most contributors appear to agree that a wine that has a suggestion of wet stones somewhere in its profile fits the bill. I think this does.

It is full bodied, but only 12% abv and has some oak character. Given the intensity of all of its characteristics it is no surprise that it has a long finish, with the citrus tones lasting longest.

The maker Jean-Bernard Larrieu is the third generation of the family to manage the vineyard bought by his grandfather in 1920. The business involved cattle and strawberries for many years and in 1985 the winery was built. Over the next few years the winery became the focus and the last of the strawberries were picked in 1988 and three years later the cattle business ended. They now have 17ha of vines, farmed organically, and all of the work from vineyard to bottle is undertaken by the family-based team and there is co-operation with other small producers in the locality, so there is much to be admired in their overall approach.

It is, perhaps, not a wine that is going to appeal to everyone and, in truth, I am unlikely to buy it again, but it is good to find a white wine that is so distinctive and different from any that I have tasted before.

Irpinia

We started this exercise with a red wine from Campania made from Aglianico on Week A (2013) and now, due to the difficulty in sourcing wines made with red grapes whose names start with an I, we have returned.

This week's selection qualifies as it comes from Irpinia, an Italian region within Campania around the town of Avellino, where amongst other things, Aglianico is grown and wine made from it.


Week I (2014) Terredora Aglianico, Irpinia, IGT, 2011. Uncorked £12.95.

The Aglianico we had last year was half the price of this one and the difference really shows.

Rather than being produced in a co-op, and there's nothing wrong with that, this one is produced in Terredora's winery in Montefusco, opened in 1994, where they process only grapes from there own vineyards.

There is a balance of wood and stainless steel used for ageing and the wine does have a corresponding balance of fruity freshness and the softer and more interesting complexity that is the intention behind the use of oak.

Although this is easy to drink it is moderately full-bodied, has soft tannins, 13% abv. and fills a very enjoyable glass. Or two.

It is a deep ruby colour with a hint of purple, has good aromas of fragrant red fruit, and a finish that includes some spicy warmth.

The back label suggests that it might be enjoyed with some sliced beff. Try as I might, I could not find any beff, so settled for a traditional Sunday roast with pork, parsnips, potatoes and few other things that irritatingly refuse to alliterate.

As I write this I am raising a glass to my oldest friend who has just entered his seventh decade on Earth. Cheers, my friend, keep it up.

Huxelrebe

This week there is, unusually, some evidence of order in my universe and I sense Dionysus at my shoulder. Earlier this week I watched Professor Brian Cox waxing lyrical on how all of creation is explicable by maths and how absolutely everything is inevitable. Well, perhaps, Brian, but I'm not convinced. In fact, I think there is something a little sinister about a softly spoken Manchunian pop star turned professional star gazer morphing into a philosopher on our TV screens and implying that there's no room, or need, in all that exists for anything but his god; physics (with a bit of chemistry thrown in).

It could be that my 1976 Chemistry (with Physics) GCE knowledge was, at that time, a little under-developed and is now a little out of date, especially when considered in the context of the unclassified grading that I achieved (one of three, now who's the academic?), but I can't see how science explains this. One year ago, on Week H (2013), I selected a white grape variety used to make a delicious sweet wine. On that same weekend I played my only 18 hole round of golf of the year. Well this year, without any intent on my part, both of those things have happened again. Maths? Physics? I don't think so, Brian. No, I think the spirit of Dionysus, god of wine and winemaking, fertility, theatre, religious ecstasy and, the clincher, ritual madness has carefully orchestrated events to lead me here. Although just like Brian, I can't say why.

Week H (2014) Darting Estate, Huxelrebe Beerenauslese, 2011. M&S £19 for 50cl.

This is a luscious, sweet dessert wine that is very high in residual sugar and low in alcohol. The bottle seems to be a little confused over exactly how low, as the front label claims 8% whereas the back is more modest at 7.5%

The flavours of this bright lemony-golden wine are intense and range from honeyed raisins to deep citrus orange oil and peaches. There is sufficient acidity to cut through the slightly syrupy feel and this is helped by gentle chilling.

The finish is long and reminds me of a tarte tatin, if that's not too pretentious.

This is the second time I have selected a wine from the Darting Estate. The first was a light dry Riesling (Week D (2013)) and very different from this. Both wines are rated under the German quality system as 'Qualitatswein mit Pradikat' (QmP) where the P gives an indication of the level of ripeness the grapes have achieved prior to harvest. The pradikat in this case is the word 'beerenauslese', which to be understood can be broken down into two parts. The second part (we'll come back to the first) 'auslese' is on its own a pradikat, or category, and means 'selected'. The auslese category of wines are those that have been picked later in the season and have reached a greater ripeness, have a higher sugar content and have been selected rather than picked along with the rest. These wines will usually be sweet.  The first part 'beeren' means 'berries' or individual grapes and this time bunches or even individual berries  have been selected very late in the season, usually because they have been affected by botryitis cinera or, as us non-Latin speakers know it, noble rot. This helps to explain why any beerenauslese is unlikley to be cheap.

The pradikats are applied to levels of grape ripeness across a number of varieties. This wine is made from the variety Huxelrebe and the fruit was grown in the Forster Schnepfenflug vineyard in the region of Pfalz.
The grape's name is another opportunity to deconstruct the German language. Sticking to a successful formula we will look at the second part of the name first. 'Rebe' translates to 'vine'. Simples. Huxel, on the other hand doesn't really translate to anything as it is the name of the man after whom this grape has been named.

Huxelrebe is a grape variety created in 1927 by Dr Georg Scheu, the director of grape breeding (no. really) at Alzey. This begs the question why is this new rebe (vine) not known as Scheurebe? There is an obvious answer. Any director of grape breeding worthy of the title will probably have bred successfully more that once. Georg already had an eponymous grape, so the honour this time was bestowed upon the man responsible for this new variety's cultivation and popularistaion, Fritz Huxel. The crossing itself was between Chasselas, popular in Switzerland, and Courtiller Musque, itself a crossing developed in the Loire valley near Saumur.

This particular bottle was shared with a Swiss friend, who knew the correct way to pronounce some of those long German words on the bottle, The One, who asked if we could buy some more for Christmas, and her mother who gave the final verdict: 'delicious'.

Oh, and the golf? Kind of you to ask. I'm still rubbish, but I scored very nearly four times as many points as last year and didn't have to buy more new clubs.

Gamay

It fills me with more than a little horror to note that I have been commuting into the Great Wen in pursuit of an honest wage for more than three decades. Our capital has changed in many ways over the years both physically, as old buildings have been torn down and replaced and in some cases torn down and replaced again, and in habit. In the 1980's, the decade of yuppy excess (I wasn't one), the pubs shut after lunch and compelled those in need of fortification to survive the afternoon either to join a private club or to take a bottle back to the office. The latter was generally frowned upon, so I joined an indoor golf club which benefited my handicap by not one stroke, but did provide a convenient conference facility (bar) for essential post-prandial negotiations. In these more enlightened times this is not necessary as the inns of the city are no longer constrained by first world war legislation. Perversely, the removal of the restrictions also seems to have coincided with a cultural shift away from Bacchus being invited to the business lunch and today mineral water is more often consumed and followed with nothing stronger than a double espresso.

In those earlier more liberal times there was an event to be enjoyed on the third Thursday in November each year known as the Beaujolais Nouveau  Breakfast. This was the day when wine from the most southern outpost of Burgundy and made from recently picked and vinified Gamay grapes, was released for sale and provoked a race to get it to the early morning tables of restaurants and bars around the world. Especially London. It would be wrong to say that this was generally bad wine, but a lot of it was produced with more of an eye on the calendar than on the quality of the product.

I expect it is possible still to wash down a plate of black pudding with a glass of red wine, but I don't where and, even if I did want to, it is a few weeks ahead of this year's release date, now formally set as 15th November each year, so this week we will have a Beaujolais, but not a 'noveau'.

Week G (2014) Louis Jadot, Beaujolais Village, Combe Aux Jacques, 2012. Tesco £10.99.

Gamay is the grape of Beaujolais, as it has been since the late 14th century, and now grows in more than 99% of the region's 54,000+ acres of vineyards. It does grow elsewhere, notably in the Loire valley, but it is here where it has no red competition.

As with the rest of Burgundy, there is a hierarchy of wine quality ratings based on where exactly the grapes are grown. The lowest rating is for wines labelled simply as 'Beaujolais' and this can be made from grapes harvested from any of those 50k acres anywhere in the region. At the other end of the scale there are ten 'cru' villages where the best examples are produced. These wines are labelled not as Beaujolais, but with the name of the village from which the fruit was sourced. Fleurie being a well known example.

In the middle sits the appellation 'Beaujolais Villages', meaning that all of the grapes come form vineyards within the ten cru villages, but not from a single one. That is, the fruit is sourced from more than one cru village.

In the case of this wine, produced by one of the great houses whose output covers all the sub-regions of Burgundy, maison Louis Jadot, most of the fruit is from the village of Regnie.

The wine is a medium ruby red colour, with aromas of red fruits and pear drops. It has moderate acidity, 12.5% abv and is smooth fresh tasting and easy to drink, either with food or alone.

The soft feel of the wine and the characteristic pear-drop aroma come, in part, from a wine-making technique traditionally used in this area with the wonderful sounding name of semi-carbonic maceration. This involves picking whole bunches of grapes and putting them into stainless steel vats, where  the weight of the grapes towards the top cause the berries lower down to burst and release some juice. This begins to ferment on contact with the natural yeasts growing on the skins and produces both alcohol and carbon dioxide. The gas, which is heavier than air, fills the gaps between the bunches and as its volume increases, rises up the tank pushing out any oxygen, such that the fruit at the top begins to ferment inside the unbroken fruit.

The result is a well made and pleasant wine and far better than many drinkers would expect, especially those first introduced to Beaujolais in the late 20th century on a third Thursday in November. 

Falanghina - Fiano

And Greco, but that doesn't begin with F.

There was a wine famous during the days of the Roman empire for being the best available called Falernian. It was much praised by Horace, a poet with a passion for hexameters, iambic verse and presumably a party and also appears in ancient graffiti on the ruined walls of Pompeii. It is not, sadly, available in the current era, however, it is believed that Falernian may have been based on the grape Falanghina, which is.

This week we have a wine made from an equal blend of Falanghina and two other Italian varieties from Campania, in the South-West of the country: Fiano and Greco.

Week F (2104) Triade, Bianco della Campania IGT, 2013. Waitrose £6.69

This is a bright, medium intensity lemon yellow wine with aromas of tropical fruit that reached my nose as soon as I had persuaded the faulty screwcap to relinquish its unnecessarily persistent hold on the bottle. Poor perforations meant that the entire cap and collar closure preferred to swivel around the neck of the bottle rather than agree a separation for my benefit. I was concerned that I would find the seal had been inadequate and that the wine would have been spoiled by oxidation and taken on a cheap sherry taste due to exposure to the air. The immediacy of the fruit aromas settled that fear.

The inviting fresh scent follows through on the palate where the dry wine has a pleasing, easy to drink blend of citrus, peach and pineapple accompanied by a zippy acidity, hints of vanilla and slightly oily feel. It is 12.5% abv.

It has a smoothness not universal among Italian whites and certainly not among Italian whites at this bargain price. It has much more flavour and indeed complexity than your average supermarket Pinot Grigio, even if the supermarket in question is never knowingly undersold (do they still say that?). Makes you wonder how this can be produced at the price point.

I can't explain the economics, but the producers, Orion Wines, work across many regions of Italy with growers and wine-makers to produce around thirty wines adhering to their simple philosophy to 'produce the best and most interesting wines possible at fair prices'. Can't argue with that.

In the case of Tirade Bianco della Camania this means harvesting the grapes late and then each of the three varieties is vinified independently, 80% in steel and 20% in oak,  and then blended to produce the final wine. This doesn't sound like the cheapest production approach so it would appear that their expressed philosophy is more than a marketing slogan.

A definite find and an addition to the regular purchase list.

Espadeiro

I feel that I am on something of a roll having found a white D last week and a red E this, two tasks I failed on last year. For the white I had to stretch the budget quite a long way, but this week we are back in comfortable financial territory.

I found the supplier through Wine Searcher and at first glance it is a deli in East London (North London? where's the boundary?) but seems to be the hub of something much more interesting. Have a look at Portuguese Conspiracy to see what I mean.

Rather like week R (2014) the red grape I have selected this week is best known for its use in the production of pink wines. Espadeiro is a native of the cool climate region of Northern Portugal most famous for the white wines of Vinho Verde, of which we have sampled a couple on our journey to date. This then is the third visit to Vinho Verde, but this time we are in the pink.

Week E (2014) Arca Nova Rose, Vinho Verde DOC 2013. Portuguese Conspiracy £10.50

I doubt that this is an interesting observation, certainly not useful, but the first thing that I noticed when opening the wine was how small the cork was. I reckon it was a good centimeter shorter than the average. Is this because the wine is intended to be drunk young? Is it a new, more efficient type of cork? Is it just saving cost? I doubt it is the last of these as the bottle was quite substantial compared to some. Probably none of the above, and I am sorry to have mentioned it.

There's no doubting that this a rose wine. It is a beautifully vivid pink, the colour of fresh strawberry juice. On pouring into the glass you get the little spritzy bubbles typical of the region's produce which make the wine not so much sparkling as prickly and exciting.

It is off-dry, but a long way from the sickly sweet pinks beloved of young ladies, and it has the aromas and flavours to match the expectations that may have been set by the colour. Fresh red summer fruits and nicely balanced acidity.

At 11.5% abv and with that appealing spritz this would make a great wine for a warm summer evening, or perhaps a lazy afternoon picnic.

Vinho Verde is despite its reputation for white wines (the name itself means 'green wine') produces a wide range of styles. The producer of this range, Arca Nova, is Quinta das Arcas who make one other range in Vinho Verde and two more in Alentejo, which is a warmer region further south. They also produce cheese, olive oil and Brandy.

I really like this week's selection and am suitably intrigued by the idea of the Conspiracy that I think I will be exploring further.

Dona Blanca

Having failed this time last year, Week D (2013) to find a white wine made with a grape variety starting with 'D', I allowed my heart to rule my head and paid rather more than usual (twice?) to observe the pointless rules of my equally pointless game.

Last week as I was in the area I popped in to Fortnum & Mason to see if they might have something a little unusual beginning with D from, perhaps Greece or Bulgaria (Debina or Dimiat, respectively). I told the sales assistant what I was looking for and she got quite excited. F&M don't stock wines from her home land but she thanked me for taking an interest in the wines from Bulgaria and directed me to a shop in Bayswater that might help. It didn't, so in the spirit of never going back, I continued round the Circle Line to South Ken and went to The Sampler. I had seen on their website that they had just started to stock something that would qualify this week. I was beginning to think that the tubes fares would total more than the cost of the wine, so that's how we have arrived at:

Week D (2104) La Vizcaina, La Del Vivo, Bierzo. 2011. The Sampler £34.20.

This wine is made by Raul Perez who is considered a rising star of Spanish wine-making and comes from his Valtuille winery, part of the Bierzo DO, situated in North West Spain.

It is made with an interesting blend of varieties: 80% Dona Blanca, 10% Godello, 10% Palomino.

The first of these has been grown across the Minho river in Portugal for years and has long been a component of white Port. It seems that white Port is suffering a dip in its popularity and the growers of Dona Blanca (or Dona Branco, in Portugal) are now turning to producing dry table wines.

The second of these, Godello, is a more widely known grape of the region and makes very respected and increasingly fashionable wines.

Palomino has something in common with Dona Blanca in that it also features prominently in the production of another fortified wine from the Iberian peninsular; Sherry.

Our wine is unfortified, dry and intensely flavoured with apple and stone fruit tones. There are also signs of oak ageing, especially in the lengthy finish. It is a deep almost golden, lemon yellow colour which come from the grapes thick skins.

Full bodied and flavoursome it is the fruit and 13.5% alcohol that are nicely balanced, but it also has sufficient acidity to make the mouth water.

I don't know if this is a small production wine, but suspect that may be the case. If so, that may explain why the small print on the side of the label, where the information made compulsory by the EU has been squeezed, describes the contents of the bottle as 'red Spanish wine! 

Cabernet Franc

The One gave me a present, on the occasion of our fourth wedding anniversary, of a silver wine bottle stopper engraved on the top with the words 'Life is a Cabernet'. (The connection being that four years' marital bliss is traditionally celebrated with a gift associated in some way to fruit and flowers.) It's a nice play on words and a nice thought, but is also a conundrum. Which Cabernet?

I would suggest that, generally, when most people hear 'Cabernet' they expect that it is an abbreviation for 'Cabernet Sauvignon', the world-dominating red grape from Bordeaux. But this week we are tasting not that vinous globe-trotter but one of its parents.

As with most living things Cabernet Sauvignon has two parents, but what is something of a surprise is that while the parent providing the first name is a red variety, the surname comes from a well known and equally world-dominating white grape, Sauvignon Blanc. Which one was the pushy parent, I wonder?

But enough the spouse and precocious progeny, step forward the red parent, take your place under the spotlight and give us a song.

Week C (2014) Santa Rita '120' Cabernet Franc, 2013. Majestic £8.99.

Cabernet Franc, like its famous daughter, is one of classic Bordeaux grapes. Easier to ripen and more tolerant of lesser vineyard sites it now continues to play its part in the recipe for Claret alongside CS, Merlot, Petit Verdot and very occasionally, Malbec. But like Malbec, which emigrated to Argentina, it has found more success away from the family farm. In the case of Cabernet Franc is has moved successfully to the Loire valley and also further afield to various new world sites.

This week's choice comes from the Santa Rita vineyards of Chile's Central Valley.

It is a soft, fruity, easy drinking red wine, with flavours of red fruits (did someone say Raspberry?) and it has a smooth texture with silky tannins and well-balanced acidity. It has 13.5% abv, but this is not too noticeable and certainly couldn't be criticised for being 'hot' (a winey term for too alcoholic). There is a floral quality that I like and a flavour that I recognise as Cabernet Franc but can't describe anymore helpfully than that. Sorry.

I tasted this over a couple of evenings and it retained its freshness overnight and had possibly opened up a little (became more flavoursome) by the return visit.

The brand '120' is a reference to a bit of history from the struggle for Chilean independence in the early part of the 19th C, when following a hard day's struggle a band of 120 patriots took refuge in the estate's cellars. As with Week E (2013) and Week H (2014) we again find an historical link between red wine, courage and heroic behaviour. That's enough encouragement for me and I will do what I can to ensure I don't risk letting the side down, should the time come, by not having put in the necessary preparation.

Boal

I don't like to boast about it, but I went to Oxford. The city of dreaming spires where great academics throughout the centuries have discovered, invented and written things that have changed the world. Yes, I went there, too. In fact, I went there more than once, most recently with some good friends just this last weekend.

Whilst there we relived some of the magical student days that I never had, playing bridge and croquet, eating and drinking and generally messing about on the river. During the last of these I discovered a previously un-researched  law of fluid dynamics, involving a punt, a beer bottle and a low bridge. I also discovered that while the English don't have a direct equivalent of the German word schadenfreude they do have a capacity for it.

An accidental discovery involving boats also played an important role in the development of the fortified wines from the island of Madeira, referred to these days as 'Madeira'. More of that later, but those wines are made from a handful of grapes varieties one of which is Boal. Hence:

Week B (2014) Barbeito Boal 5 year Old Reserva Madeira NV. Uncorked £13.85 50cl.

The accidental discovery concerning Madeira wine was that, contrary to the usual wine keeping advice which recommends storage in a dark, constantly cool environment and avoiding unnecessary movement, these wines would actually improve through rough treatment. Specifically, as far back as the late 18th C wines would be fortified with grape spirit to make them stable, in the same way that Port was treated before shipment to England, stored in barrels and taken on ships to be sold in the new world. The unsold portion would remain on the ship and make the return trip to Madeira still in the hot and rolling conditions of the ship's hold. The makers noticed that the wine that had been put through this unfortunate experience actually tasted better than the same wines that had sat in the warehouses on shore for the same period.

This discovery lead to a unique process that involves heating the wine at the start of its maturation through one of three methods. The first involves stainless steel tanks and a heating coil, the second deploys steam heated storage rooms and the third uses warehouses heated only by natural sunshine. Each successive method is more expensive and time consuming, so it generally follows that the better wines are produced through the last of these which is called 'canteiro'.

Our bottle contains a blend of canteiro aged wines, at least five years old. It is made with 100% Boal. Other varieties are used giving increasing degrees of sweetness and this 'reserva' has 88 gm/l of residual sugar making it medium sweet.

It is a beautiful golden tawny colour and looks bright and inviting. It has aromas of burnt toffee and baked apple and tastes of caramel, bitter marmalade underpinned by the nuttiness of oxidation.

I have had just the one small glass (really) and found it very moreish, mouth-watering and very lengthy. It has  a gently warming 18% abv. and makes an appetising alternative to both Port and sweet sherry. I could become a fan.

Agiorgitiko

Happy New Year!

Yes, fellow travelers, we have made it once round the year and twice round the alphabet. We started our tour of discovery on 1st September 2013 and have reached the start of lap 2 on 31st August 2014. We have tasted 26 red wines and 26 whites (one of the reds was actually a rose, but the grapes were red), mostly varietals, but with a few blends, so our target of 52 wines in 52 weeks has been met.

So, off we go again.

St George got about a bit. Slaying dragons all over the place it would seem. He is the patron saint of 20 countries, 24 cities and the Scouts. Both Christian and Muslim traditions venerate him, and he is pressed into service by organisations assisting sufferers of leprosy, plague, herpes and syphilis. Way to go, Georgie.

The Australians have a bank named after him and I expect he would have been pleased by that, but I like to think such a great man would have been far more excited to know that in Greece he has an eponymous wine grape.

Week A (2014) Tetramythos Agiorgitiko 2012. Vinoteca Farringdon £10.75.

If it needs spelling out (and it is a Greek word, so it probably does) Agiorgitiko means St.George. It is one of the two most widely planted red grapes is Greece, the other being Xinomavro that we tasted three weeks ago in week X (2014), and the wine that is made from it in the Nemea region is sometimes referred to as 'the blood of Hercules', so it would appear to have more than one heroic connection.

Agiorgitiko can make wines across a variety of styles, but this one is a medium intensity ruby colour with simple fruity aromas of red fruits and not much else. It has 13% abv and low acidity. It is pleasant and easy to drink, but not spectacular. The tannins are subtle and most noticeable 'in the finish', after it has been swallowed, where they leave a slightly green or unripe flavour which is a little bitter.

It is an organic wine, produced in a winery built ten years ago near the northern coast of the Peloponnese region of southern Greece, where a range of eight wines are made in different styles. My impression is that this one is designed to be drunk young, although I think it could be kept for a few years without the expectation of it developing into anything more than it is when it is bottled. Oak is used a the winery for some of their output, after fermentation in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks, but there is no hint that the Agiorgitiko has spent any time in barrel.

Of the two recently tasted Greek wines I would have to award this on the runner-up position as the Xinomavro had been a pleasant surprise, where as this is just pleasant. It also costs 25p more.

Zweigelt

If I offered you a Rotburger you may well be a little cautious about accepting my generosity. If I followed that up by telling you not to worry because it was created in a lab in 1922 by a man, no, a professor, named Friedrich, you may not be any less certain.

But you should accept my offer. Friedrich (Felix to his friends) was indeed a professor, in an Austrian institute, and it is said that he did rather well through his association with a certain movement that came to prominence in the 1930's and rather less well after 1945, but by accepting that we can't choose everything about our circumstances we can concentrate on his real contribution to the www (not t'internet, the wonderful world of wine) and know that Rotburger is the name first given to a grape variety he created through crossing two existing varieties.

He created Rotburger by crossing Blaufrankisch and St.Laurent, two grapes that we have encountered before in weeks E (2013) where the former, also known as Kekfrankos, appeared in Egri Bikaver, and S (2014) where the latter was a varietal. Over fifty years after he did this his efforts were posthumously acknowledged by the grape being renamed in his honour. Zweigelt being his surname.

Week Z (2014) Zweigelt 2011, by Christoph Edelbauer. Newcomer Wines £22.90.

Each of the grape's parents were selected to provide their progeny with specific characteristics. Blaufrankisch is late ripening, tannic and spicy, whereas St.Laurent is dark skinned and highly aromatic. The combination must be considered successful as Zweigelt is now Austria's most widely planted variety.

This wine is an intense ruby colour and has fruit-driven flavours of blackcurrants and plums with a gentle spicy finish. The tannins are round and soft, which may have been enhanced by it having been double-decanted from bottle to jug and back again and there is ample acidity to balance the 13.5% alcohol. There is a fruit sweetness to this otherwise dry red wine.

I am slightly surprised by how full and rich this is, but that probably reveals more about my level of ignorance regarding red Austrian wines than how closely the contents of this bottle represent the type generally.

The maker, Christoph Edelbauer has been making wine in the Kamp valley of Austria for eleven years, according to austrianwine.com , which if they have their facts correct is impressive when you read he is now only 34. Or am I getting old?

This is another week where I like the wine and I also like the presentation. There isn't a huge amount of information on the bottle, especially for a non-German speaker like me, but the pseudo-handwritten label is reminiscent of how The One presents her homegrown apple juice and that appeals to me.

There is a particularly enjoyable German word on the reverse that I would love to be able to use if I ever play Scrabble again (yes, thank you, I know it would be against the rules) which has seventeen letters: Erzeugerabfullung. This is the local word meaning 'estate bottled' telling us that the entire process from vine to bottle took place on the producer's premises. No 20,000 litre shipping bags used here, even if the bottle was sold to me from a container.

This is the second bottle we have opened from the Austrian shop-in-a-container in Shoreditch and, so far, they have a 100% approval rating, even if the prices do represent their limited production volumes.

Yalumba

Earlier in the week I made my annual pilgrimage to the Great British Beer Festival at Olympia.This is the same venue that in May hosted the London Wine Fair and the two events do share some features and yet are very different.

The LWF is a trade only event, that is free to visit for those who have a strong enough link to the business of wine to qualify, whereas the GBBF is open to anyone with £10 to spend. (£8 if you, like me, are a CAMRA member.) Once through the doors at the LWF producers are keen to share their wines and provide samples to anyone holding a glass (which they will find for you if you have left yours in a safe place). At the GBBF the visitor can buy or rent a glass and then fill it with beer samples (buy only) in three sizes, a third, a half or a full pint. One noticeable difference is that there are no spittoons provided at 'Britain's Biggest Pub'. Maybe because the event is aimed at the consumer rather than the trade or, more likely, because no-one is expected to spit out a sample they have paid for. Conversely, there were no pork scratchings or 20" bratwurst at the Wine Fair.

The greatest similarity that struck me as I swirled, sniffed, sipped and swallowed a range of milds, bitters, porters and others at a leisurely pace, was the huge variety of styles on offer and the efforts the producers need to make if they wish their output to fare well in comparison to all of their available competitors. It seems that tasting notes are now as commonplace in the world of beer as they have been for a long time in the world of wine. That and the awarding of medals. Is this a short cut to help those to whom all notes sound the same? Maybe, as the awarding of the title of 'Champion Beer of Britain' to Timothy Taylor's Boltmaker generated an impressive queue to the corner of stand B18, where it could be tasted. The long queue appeared to me to be made up of people who looked like they had put lots of effort into understanding beer, and will doubtless have their own favourites, yet they still want to know what the judges say 'excellent' tastes like.

I have yet to progress beyond the rank of 'associate judge' at any competition, but an example of what I think tastes excellent is:

Week Y (2014) is Yalumba Organic Viognier 2012. £9.49 Waitrose.

Any followers of my game (see 52 Weeks : 52 Wines) will notice I have again bent the rules and selected this week's wine not on grape variety, but by the producer. Yalumba hold the claim to being Australia's oldest family-run winery, having started producing wines in 1849. Their excellent website says 'we planted vines which grew into a family tree'. Their marketeers should be pleased to hear that I rather like that. The originator of this family tree was an English brewer named Samuel Smith (no, not that one, this one came from Dorset) so it seems my visits to Olympia have one more connection.

Yalumba produce a great variety of wines and that allowed me to select one of my favourite grape varieties; Viognier. The variety is known best, historically, as the premier white grape grown in the Northern Rhone valley and used to produce the whites of Condrieu and, as a minor blending partner, Cote Rotie and other great reds from the region.

This wine is fresh, intensely flavoured and full-bodied. It has 13.5% abv and almost no residual sugar (0.5g/l) so it is bone dry, but the combination of the fruits and possibly influenced by the high alcohol content it still has a perceived sweetness. The flavours are of warm stone fruits, with floral tones and a gentle spicy kick. It has a long and pleasing finish, leaving an apricot and light honey flavour as it fades away calling to be tasted again. At least, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

My opinion is that this is very good value for money and that I will buy this again. A much more compelling endorsement is offered by The One's mother who, at the age of 94 and claiming that the years have robbed her of the ability to taste anything, is still very capable of spotting a good thing when it passes her way. 'This is nice', she said, so I must be right.

Xinomavro

Acid black may sound like the name of a 1970's prog-rock band but it also a literal translation of the name of the Greek grape, Xinomavro. It is not grown anywhere else so this is a good wine to be trying on our journey of discovery.


Week X (2014) Thymiopoulos Xinomavro, Noussa. 2012. M&S £10.50

It is a medium intensity, bright ruby colour and smells of plums and raspberries with some lightly spicy bits.

Many people liken Xinomavro to either Burgundy or Barolo and I can see the comparison, which surprises me. Partly because I am still doubtful about my own palate and partly, I have shamefully to admit, that I expected this to be a bit rough. Prejudice; never a good thing. Mea culpa.

At 14% abv it is quite weighty, but it has good acidity and smooth tannins too, making it likely to be capable of ageing well and me regret that I opened it only two years after the grapes were picked. There is an obvious resolution to this problem and as I do seem to visit this particular supplier regularly perhaps I can 'lay one down' as rude schoolboys and genuine wine people might say.

There is a profile of the grower, Apostolos Thymiopoulos, on the Wine Society's site which explains his adherence to biodynamics and what the French would call Lutte Raisonnee, the practice of using natural remedies to pest control such as guinea fowl to combat locusts rather than chemical sprays. Based on the contents of this one bottle it would seem that the extra care taken in the production of his wines is rewarded by the results.

The back label recommends drinking this with a rich beef stew, but I chose to open it alongside a lamb kleftiko and enjoyed both very much. Having read about the grape variety I was curious to find out more about kleftiko. I am glad I did as the name has its root in history with a 'kleft' being a Greek bandit and the name being particularly used to describe an independence fighter, either from the Turks in the 15th C, or from the war of independence between 1821-8. You see? Wine can be a great educational facilitator. Yes, it can.

Weissburgunder

At the northern end of the City of London, in Shoreditch, there is a man selling Austrian wines from a container. I don't mean he is pouring it out of a carton but that his shop is a shipping container. You might think this is a little unusual, and I would agree, but the shop is one of the outlets at a 'pop up shopping mall' called Boxpark. The idea of a pop up shopping mall is difficult to understand until you visit and discover that it is a very hip concept in an increasingly hip part of London. Not my natural territory by any measure.

Newcomer Wines specialise in small scale Austrian wine producers and claim to be leading a revolution and shaking up the old fashioned view of wine by selling the wines from 'producers with great stories and cool labels'.

Week W (2014) is 'WB' Weissburgunder by Ewald Zweytick, 2012. Newcomer Wines £14.90

Weissburgunder is another grape with a range of international synonyms. In France it is Pinot Blanc, some Austrians know it as Klevner. In Hungary it is Feher Burgundi and Rulandske Bile in the Czech Republic. I have to say that the Czech name would be a lot more appealing if I could work out how to put an acute accent over the last 'e'.

Although a white grape it is a mutation of Pinot Noir and, as the Germanic name suggests, can be found in Burgundy (as well as Champagne and Alsace) where it has been confused with Chardonnay. Further confusion occurs the USA where a lot of vines called Pinot Blanc are actually Melon de Bourgogne, the Loire grape responsible for Muscadet. So this one could give the Italians a run for their money.

It is a rich lemon yellow, with the suggestion of a green hint (or was that a reflection of the kitchen worktop?) and an aroma of ripe melon.and the inevitable crisp green apples. On the palate it is slightly oily and mouth-filling, smooth and fruity. It is 13.5% abv and this balances the acidity very nicely. It is not unlike a white Burgundy and, if it wasn't for the fact that Majestic knock out a decent Macon Village for 60% of the price, this could become a regular purchase. 

Vespolina

There is a very pleasant small town in Buckinghamshire, not far from where the nation's prime ministers like to play lords (or lady) of the manor to entertain dignitaries and despots from overseas, called Wendover.

At the top of the hill the High Street becomes Pound Street and, at No.2, you will find No.2 Pound Street. This is a wine shop and delicatessen that carries and interesting range of wines, selected directly from the producers, and and equally interesting range of cheeses from the UK. There are a few tables and a small counter / bar at which a coffee or the contents of the shop can be enjoyed and there are always a few bottles of wine for tasting. The black pudding scotch egg I bought for lunch was quite remarkable.

V is a tricky customer for red grape varieties and I was giving up hope of finding anything either based on or even using Vespolina until I was draining the last of the coffee and I spotted:


Week V (2014) 'Uvaggio', Proprieta Sperino, Coste della Sesia Rosso, DOC. 2010. No 2 Pound Street £24.50

As with last week's Ugni Blanc, the grape of the week, Vespolina, is a minor blending partner and not a solo performer. In fact it represents only 15% of the blend, as does Croatina, leaving the 70% lead role to be played by Nebbiolo.

In week D (2014) I described the three red stars of Piedmont: Nebbiolo, Barbera and Dolcetto, and didn't even know, at that point, Vespolina is also grown in Piedmont.

Its name suggests it might be a fuel used to power the scooters favoured by the Mods in the 1960's (and since), but it has nothing to do with wasps even if nobody knows where the name really originates. The grape is found mostly around Gattinara and is related to Nebbiolo and a number of other regional varieties. This is Italy and so it also has a long list of pseudonyms which I am not going to list, you will be pleased to read.

Nebbiolo is one of the world's great grapes, producing wines with complex aromas and flavours, but it needs a bit of time to develop and for the tannins to integrate with the fruits and alcohol. In this bottle the roles played by both Vespolina and Croatina is to provide a balancing softness to the overall blend. At only four years old a varietal Nebbiolo, such as a Barolo or Barbaresco, would be needing a little longer to reach its best or, quite possibly, to be drinkable.

Here we have a bright, medium intensity ruby coloured wine with aromas and flavous of cherry and plum. The tannins are smooth and balance well with the lively acidity. It is dry, but not mouth-puckeringly so, having only 1.6 g/ltr of residual sugar and at 13% abv it is not too heavy. Even at this young age it is already very drinkable and this suggests that the producer's decision to blend the three varities, together with the wine spending 18 months in variously sized and aged oak vessels, has had the desired results.

Ugni Blanc

Ugni Blanc has more names than God and crops up all over the place to be used for all styles of wine. In France it is a major component in the production of both Cognac and industrial alcohol, not that there is any other connection between these two products.

This week it appears as the co-vinified junior partner of Colombard, another grape that contributes to the production of Brandy, in a regional wine from Gascony. Co-vinified simply mean the grapes all ferment together, rather than being blended together after they have become wine.


Week U (2014) is Charte d'Assemblage, Cotes de Gascogne, IGP. 2012. Waitrose £8.49

Zippy appears up front in Waitrose's own tasting notes and I assume this not a reference to the long running children's tv series of the early 1970's - early 1990's, but a subtle warning that this is unlikely to be a soft, buttery white Burgundy style wine.

It is under a screw cap and this is usually an indication that wine is intended to be drunk when it is still young and fresh. I don't anticipate any problems in satisfying that expectation.

Over a game of Cribbage, won by the better team by pegging out just in time (what's that?), I discovered that zippy is a fair description. Not to be confused with sharply acidic, but certainly as bright and lively as the banter about 'two for doing it' and 'one for his knob'. (What?).

Pale lemon yellow, in colour, medium intensity aromas of citrus and stone fruits, with a hint of tropical fruit, or at least ripe peaches on the palate. Good finish and at 11.5% made a very acceptable summer evening drink. We had it after a NZ Sauvignon Blanc and it wasn't too jarring a change but perhaps a little softer.

There are many good wines of a similar style available around this price point, so it will have to compete with equally well made 'everyday wines' to get into the shopping trolley and, sadly, that probably means I am more likely to buy it if Waitrose trick me into thinking it's a bargain. (No foul pay implied, that's just how the world works.)

Tannat

Either way you look at it Tannat is still tannaT. It's the little things like that, that make life enjoyable, for me at least. But wordplay aside, Tannat is not generally known for being whimsical. In fact, it is more famed for being something of a tough customer.

Tannat and tannin are close, both phonetically and physically. The grape has a reputation for producing wines with prominent and sometimes harsh tannins and this has been handled in a number of different ways by winemakers seeking to tame the beast. Blending with other varieties is common and ageing can mellow the juice, but one technique now widely used in Bordeaux and elsewhere was first developed by a vigneron in Madiran, Patrick DuCournau, in 1991, specifically to make Tannat more approachable. That technique, micro-oxygenation, involves pumping controlled amounts of oxygen through the fermenting must, or sometimes maturing wine, in quantities and for durations of the producers choosing. Either over or under done, oxygenation can lead to faulty wine with various off-flavours but the technique is now well understood after a near quarter century of use and producers who know their onions can avoid their wines smelling like them.

Week T (2014) is Reserve Des Tuguets, Madiran. 2010. £11.99 Tesco.

It is at the purple end of ruby and not particularly pronounced in aromas. What is there is dark, brambly, blackberry type fruits with a hint of oak ageing.

On the palate the same fruits come through, with a bit more blackcurrant. There is a fair bit of tannin and it is reasonably smooth, but still quite astringent. The tannins for which Tannat is famous have been tamed by blending with two red Cabernet grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. The latter of these is grown extensively in the Loire valley and it gives a light, aromatic style of red wine and so is well matched with the harder edged Tannat.

At 13% abv it is fairly typical of modern wines and the alcohol is well integrated with the primary fruit flavours. The finish is a little bitter and has some earthy, rustic (a popular term when describing Madiran) flavours.

This bottle sports a sticker proclaiming a bronze award at the Decanter Wine Awards and I wouldn't disagree with that, but at £11.99 it is competing with a number of wines that are more immediately enjoyable. This is pleasant, but the earthy tones, for my taste, take the edge off the whole experience. It is good, well made and could not be described accurately as bland, but will not feature on my regular buys list.

Although Madiran is the French home of Tannat it is now considered to be the national variety of Uruguay, following its introduction by settlers from the Basque country. Those of you who have been following the football World Cup may enjoy the idea of a wine known for its bite being held in such high regard in that part of the world. Those who haven't may need to Google 'Suarez'.

Semillon

In this experiment to use the alphabet as our guide in a journey of discovery through the world of wine, we have encountered Botryitis Cinerea previously. Week H (2013) featured Harslevelu, one of the great Hungarian grapes used in the production of Tokaji. In that case, the process of making the sweet version of the wine is quite complicated and involves taking the grapes affected by 'Noble Rot' (the welcome results of the work of the fungus Botrytis Cinerea which is not to be confused with 'Grey Rot', its unwelcome stable mate) and grinding them into a paste to be added to wine fermented to dry. This week we have a more straightforward dessert wine.

Week S (2014) is De Bortoli, Hermits Hill, Botrytis Semillon, Riverina, NSW. 2009
Marks & Spencer £8.49 37.5cl.

This wine is made for M&S by the De Bortoli winery with nobly rotted Semillon grapes grown in Riverina. This is an area of New South Wales, towards the border with Victoria, where the Murray and Murrumbidgee rivers provide the irrigation to enable diverse forms of agriculture to flourish, including viticulture.

The climate in Riverina is one of long warm days with heavy morning dews and occasional showers and this is exactly what our friendly fungus enjoys. De Bortoli also produce 'Noble One', in Riverina, another dessert wine made from botryitis affected Semillon grapes that has regularly won awards at competitions all over the world and, whilst this week's wine is not this, there are some strong similarities.

The wine is a golden lemony colour and is lusciously sweet, without being too sticky. The flavours have the typical complexity of a botryitised wine, with peaches, pineapples, warm citrus and ripe melon leading the fruits, developing into caramel and barley sugar notes. It is only 11% abv, so not too heavy at the end of a meal.


We drank it chilled with a zesty orange sponge pudding and this worked well.

Semillon is something of a signature grape for Australia, especially the Hunter Valley, also in New South Wales, where the combination of heat and humidity suits the development of Noble Rot. But it is also one of the classic Bordeaux grapes being, with Sauvignon Blanc, a major contributor to the region's white wines of Graves and Entre-duex-Mers. And it is a major component of another of the world's greatest sweet wines from that part of France: Sauternes, which itself has cousins in Barsac, Monbazillac (in the nearby Dordogne) and elsewhere.

Would I add this week's wine to the regular list? Yup. De Bortoli's Noble One is about two and half times the price and this is a very acceptable, enjoyable and economical alternative.

Rondo

In the pleasant Chilterns countryside to the North East of Berkhamsted, home to Radio 4's Ed Reardon and claimant to being the place where William the Bastard, or Conqueror as it is believed he preferred to be known, accepted the surrender of the English, lies a small hamlet called Frithsden. It has a pub, the Alford Arms, lots of trees, some beautiful but hideously expensive houses, more trees and a vineyard.

The five acre vineyard was originally planted in 1971, grubbed up in 2001 and then replanted by the current owners in 2006. There are around 6,000 vines of three varieties, one of which begins with an 'R' and so was a shoe-in as this week's wine.

Week R (2014) is Frithsden Vines Rose, 2013. £11.50 from the cellar door at Frithsden Vineyard.


It is made from 100% Rondo and grown, vinified, bottled, sold and sometimes drunk on the premises.

Most, almost all, 'quality' wine made in the EU comes from the vine species 'Vitis Vinifera'. But although Rondo is a variety registered as a vinifera variety it has, in fact, been bred (engineered?) using some genes from Vitis Amurensis that help it to cope with cold winters such as we have in England.

It is a hardy little grape, previously known as GM6494 before being christened Rondo, with good disease resistance but can, however, suffer from powdery mildew if the conditions are unfortunate.

It produces small berries whose unusually red flesh helps in producing a vivid pink wine. Most grapes have clear flesh and the juice they contain has no real colour. The colour of red and rose wines generally comes from the pigments (anthocyanins, don't you know) contained in their skins. This is also true of Rondo, but the pink flesh is an added benefit.


It is a deep pink, has a light fruity aroma of strawberry and raspberry, tastes much the same and a little hubba bubba hint. At only 10% abv it is not heavy, but it does have enough acidity to make it quite mouth-watering, and enough sweetness to prevent it from feeling thin. There are not really noticeable tannins and the pleasure comes from the fresh fruitiness, which stays on the palate for a reasonable time. If you don't like rose then this is not the wine that will make you change your mind, but if you already enjoy the pinks of Southern France then you would be unlikely to send this back.

The label on the bottle identifies the contents as 'Wine of England' and this is a meaningful term. It is possible to find wines labelled 'British Wine' and it may be tempting to think of these terms as synonymous, but they aren't. By way of explanation let's consider Andy Murray, the plucky British tennis player who this week has dispatched three week one opponents at Wimbledon without dropping a set. He is British, but not English. It is true that he achieved maturity in England by winning both the Olympics in 2012 and Wimbledon in 2013 and that all of England's tennis fans share in the joy of his success as he is British and so are they. But he was born and raised in Scotland and so he cannot, and I understand does not want to, be called English. So it is with wine. British wine can be produced in England, but it can be done using grapes born and raised anywhere in the world. English Wine, or Wine of England, can only be called such if the grapes used in its production were grown in England.

People select and buy wines for all kinds of reasons. In England it tends to be heavily influenced by price, branding and supermarket offers, although there are signs that this is may be slowly changing towards increased interest and understanding, and I suspect small producers like Frithsden Vineyard have to rely on both a great deal of effort and, possibly, a romantic notion that the contents of the bottle somehow embody the spirit of the place from which they came. I want them to do well and I want the wine to be good in its own right, so good luck to them. Seriously.