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.