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.