First wine-related article I’ve seen by someone other than Asimov. Good read and good points IMO.
I think there is a club of people who have tried 100 varieties? I don’t belong, but I qualify and look forward to keep trying new ones.
Dan Kravitz
The trendy will also find ways to set themselves apart. If blaufränkisches and rkatsitelis are, in fact the future of wine, I will acknowledge this guy’s prescience. Frankly, I think it is a bunch of crap.
I will say that the article gave me a new hero to venerate:
In 1395, the Duke of Burgundy banned gamay (“a very bad and disloyal variety”) and insisted that only pinot noir be planted.
I thought there are more acres of rkatsiteli in the world than any other white. If so can it really be considered weird?
This is the club you’re referring to, I think:
Thanks for the link, Dan. I probably haven’t tasted 100 types of varietal wines, or even ones that were mostly varietal, but pretty sure I’ve tasted that many if you include components of different blends. I’ve worked with 50+ varieties at wineries, though some of those ended up in blends rather than as varietal wines. While there is something to be said for focusing on making only one or just a couple of “noble” varieties, it’s sure a lot more fun to work with (and drink!) so many of the different grapes and wines that are out there.
I agree Neal, highly unlikely that any other than a handful of those 1300+ varieties are worth tasting, and all the important ones have been identified. This is all marketing crap.
There will always be a group of people looking for something different. I believe that the absolute numbers in that group a relatively small, but growing and quite vocal in their support for these other varieties.
It’s no different then the music scene, the art scene, or other types of subjective artistic crafts.
Cheers.
Thanks for the link, Dan. I probably haven’t tasted 100 types of varietal wines, or even ones that were mostly varietal, but pretty sure I’ve tasted that many if you include components of different blends. I’ve worked with 50+ varieties at wineries, though some of those ended up in blends rather than as varietal wines
I would bet you probably have tasted 100 different varietal wines, counting wines that were mostly a single variety. Between working at wineries and opening mystery wines, there have been quite a few although some varieties might have been represented by only one or two wines.
-Al
Yes and this guy may know a lot about grapes but this article makes him seem pretty naive. There’s no historic designation of any grapes as “noble” unless your history starts one generation back.
The reason some grapes are more popular than others today has to do with England, politics, and two world wars. England bought wine from Spain, Portugal, Germany, and France for hundreds of years. Then most of those countries were decimated by a depression and two world wars. When the US wine industry started to awaken in the 1960s, it looked to France since in the 50s and 60s the central and eastern European wine producers were behind the iron curtain, while Spain was under a dictatorship Greece was dysfunctional, and Italy was decimated.
It’s not like Cab has historically been considered a better grape than anything else, but Chardonnay and Cab had an advantage. Those other grapes aren’t “obscure” to the people who work with them, only to the people who’ve suddenly “discovered” them, which is often as not some hipster type.
Not that I ever serve any “weird “ varietals…
One of the guys in my group keeps track and he’s almost up to 200.
I disagree with those who are dissing the ‘weird’ grapes… and the article gives plenty of backup to this position.
When I was a freshman in college, a visionary at the Monday night poker game won a pot and told the guy who was old enough to buy: “Next week, buy the gallon of Gallo Zinfandel instead of the gallon of Gallo Burgundy. It’s a buck more, well worth it, and here’s the buck.” I paid attention. In those days, five bucks got you a gallon of what was probably mostly old vine Sonoma Zin. A little later, I lay down a case of half gallons of Foppiano Petite Sirah for 10 years. It developed beautifully through the screwcap. Now those at the time were certainly considered weird if not worthless.
Not much more than couple of decades ago, nobody had heard of Pinot Grigio. Now we’ve heard way too much about it, but the best wines from the Alto Adige are great wines and great bargains.
The writer makes the point about Albarino and Gruner Veltliner.
Are those dissing the ‘weird’ grapes including Assyrtico? And coming up on the rail is Thrapsathiri. Go to Crete and just taste.
Banning Gamay in the Cote d’Or? You go, Duke Phillip! Banning Gamay in Moulin-a-Vent? Stick a 10 year old Chateau des Jacques ‘Carquelin’ from a good vintage into a tasting with some 10 year old Pommard, then talk to me.
Are all of the 1368 varietals worth cultivating? Of course not. BTW, the stoopidest thing in the article is giving that as the definitive number of varietals. I guarantee you that’s way off. Greece alone has over 600 indigenous varietals… or is that over 800?
Dan Kravitz
Who’s dissing weird grapes? I am dissing the trend-followers who are dissing the world’s greatest wines because they aren’t hip enough. Anyone gets to live whatever they like, and if someone’s favorite wines are from assyrtico, bully for them. But the “pinot noir has had its day” crap is pretty funny.
BTW, I am totally ok with a global ban on gamay
I think there’s a place in the wine world (at least, in mine) for SteveEdmunds Bone-Jolly.
Tom
Tsk, tsk, only a grouchy and uncaring person sees no place for Gamay in the world.
-Al
A few decades back, a few intrepid winemakers (including Joel Peterson and Paul Draper) invested in a widely planted, but little appreciated variety called Zinfandel. At the time, it was fodder for bulk wine, generic “Reds,” and a (popular) 
wine. It was in the process of being pulled and exterminated for apartment houses and more popular varieties.
There are thousands of varieties out there. What the French and Italians decreed decades ago mean little to me. Bring on the “weird” wines!
As long as it isn’t on my table
Fair enough, I’ll withdraw the uncaring and downgrade the grouchy.
-Al
I have no problem with all the grape varieties made into wine. Who are we to tell people what to grow? Or what to like? I vote with my credit card like everyone else.
I do have a problem with the pejorative ‘should’ headlining this article. The reasons why we should drink these wines are basically twofold.
First is sustainability/biodiversity. I have to say bunk to this argument. It’s an opinion with no facts given to back it up, and on the surface makes zero sense to me. Am I really supposed to believe that these massively genetically manipulated/bred (over centuries) varieties can somehow make some kind of biodiverse difference where they are grown? Seems unlikely. Grape growing is a monoculture that requires massive man-made intervention and is in no way extremely natural. The only sustainability issue I can think of is growing varieties that don’t need water in drought-y areas.
Second reason to drink uncommon varieties is because you might like how they taste. This is a reasonable point of view. Some people like trying new things. Some just want to enjoy what they know for the rest of eternity. Both are legitimate. But telling people how they should behave in matters of taste is kinda pushy.
Restaurants, wine stores, clubs, etc. experiment with new stuff all the time. My understanding of why they do it is to, yes, offer diversity to their clients. But more importantly they need to keep lower priced wines readily available. Cool new hip varietals are also nearly always dirt cheap. A crucial space to fill in every retail environment.
Bring on the new cheap weird stuff!
to Neal,
OK, can I please find a way to provide you with a bottle of well-aged Moulin-a-Vent? If you’ve been there-done that, I understand, but my first one was a revelation that led to cellaring it. I’m serious… I’ll send you a bottle of something if you’ll brown-bag it with a good, equally priced red Burgundy of the same age.
Did the article actually say that “Pinot Noir has had its day”? I don’t remember that. If he wrote it, I strongly disagree.
A few further thoughts about the (ludicrous) 1368 varieties:
- By the time somebody decided to give the grape a name, it already had some value to somebody, was probably making pretty good wine, for the time and place. Or why would they bother?
- How many could benefit from good winemaking? Remember that basic Cotes du Rhone, made mostly from the not-very-reputed Grenache, traded at a big discount to basic not-very-good red Bordeaux until they got temperature control in the cellars. Now it sells at a premium.
- Location, location, location. I’ve had some pretty good Malbecs (and Malbec blends) from the southwest of France. None of them get close to my list of the ten best Malbecs I’ve had, all of which are from Argentina… And I’ve tasted only a tiny number from North America, what’s the potential for the grape in Washington and California (or Maryland or Virginia)?
Dan Kravitz
How about if we go with Dave Bennion and David Bruce here, Mike??
Tom