You must not like it when people smile… 
How about if we go with Ernest and Julio Gallo, and Jim and John Pedroncelli, and Parducci and Trentadue here, Tom?
My point is that a lot of people knew the wine could be good… getting it out there and getting the grape name recognized was a whole other job.
Dan Kravitz
The one circumstance in which I would abide a gamay wine on my table is if I got to share it with you Dan. But I promise I’d bring a back-up bottle or 3.
Let’s put this in another way. Our food crops are quite the monoculture. There are basically 2 mass grown bananas in the world. The one the Americans import (I think it’s Cavendish) has problems were it is grown, mainly in Central America. If disease affects it, it could wipe out about over half the world’s banana harvests. Don’t eat bananas you say? There are similarly very few varieties of wheat, corn, rice grown throughout the world. The WORLD. If disease resistance hits any ONE of these varieties, you are talking mass starvation, because there is no biodiversity of plant material, nothing left to breed new varieties of crops in time. The world is a living time bomb. Biodiversity matters.
Yes, certainly. But I’m not clear on whether wide planting of all the different varietals of wine grapes = biodiversity. The author of the article presumes that it does. I don’t buy it, at least not without some facts to back up this opinion.
I regularly drink a few dozen different varietals, and I’m not that crazily adventurous. And I know that there are many many different clones of Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon that are planted. Is this the same for other varietals (Zinfandel, Chardonnay, Granache, Riesling, etc. etc.)?
My point is this article claims a potential problem (that wine has a biodiversity problem) without backing up the claim in any way. Given how diverse the varietals are that actually are used (even if we’re just talking about the top 20 or 30) it’s not clear to me this is a problem.
I’m a millennial. Though some of us are lucky to be able to afford quality wines made from noble grapes most millennials don’t go past grocery store plonk and can’t afford or are getting priced out of Bordeaux, Burgundy, Napa cabs, etc. I think the industry should embrace the “godforsaken” varietals if it’ll get more people to drink wine without the intimidation that comes with approaching certain regional wine styles.
Yep!
I like trying weird stuff so a ‘zillion grape types club’ is right up my alley. There is a sadly defunct blog called Fringe Wine whose author detailed tasting wines made from lesser known grapes. The author was brutally honest in the reviews as opposed to ‘I’m in love with all grapes unknown’…which made for interesting and entertaining reading.
Trendy people can make anything annoying - just look at ‘natural wine’. I just try the weird stuff that sounds appealing…not expecting much but delighted to find something really good…and enjoy that it will probably not cost an arm and a leg.
I believe that that’s the subtext of his mention of Gouais blanc… not a fashionable grape in and of itself, but without it we wouldn’t have Chardonnay, Aligote, Blaufrankisch, Gamay Noir, Melon de Bourgogne, and Riesling (among others).
Certainly in modern times a genetically diverse pool of grape cultivars is of critical importance to grape breeding programs worldwide.
I have been coming round to the view that the industry in many locales has been hemmed in by planting purely noble varieties.
I have been developing a great liking for varieties such as Saperavi, Inzolia, Cataratto, Listan Negro, Assyrtiko to name a few. There is a great little Assyrtiko produced by Jim Barry wines in the Clare Valley taht has become a bit of a house white of late. This is the first iteration of Assyrtiko in Australia, but its suitability to our climate is obvious, however it has only been recently planted here.
How many more Assyrtiko’s are there. Scores I would think.
Consumers are now more willing than ever to sample them. Twenty or thirty years ago consumers stuck to a modest suite of brands and varieties, now many a total tarts and jump around with gay abandon, sampling all manor of wine styles. It makes it tough for producers, but it provides opportunity for more variety of wines to be available.
I’m just starting on that author’s book which is quite a great read.
I’m a millennial. Though some of us are lucky to be able to afford quality wines made from noble grapes most millennials don’t go past grocery store plonk and can’t afford or are getting priced out of Bordeaux, Burgundy, Napa cabs, etc.
Brian - there is no such thing as “noble” grapes.
Based on limited cultivars available at the time, a French guy claimed that a few French grapes were somehow superior to others. He was comparing what they had in France to other things they had in France.
And a lot of those weren’t French anyway, like Carignan, which was planted all over the south to produce jug wine, Grenache, which was planted to produce ripe grapes, Mourvedre, which gave backbone to the other two - Peynaud didn’t think those were as wonderful as Merlot and Cab. Maybe because they were all Spanish. But he wasn’t stupid and today he probably wouldn’t make such a distinction.
Blaufrankisch isn’t a “weird” grape at all. Franz Liszt drank a lot of it. Gamay isn’t a lesser grape at all, despite all the BS lore about it. The duke banned it because he wanted to screw his rivals and as a result, he screwed his duchy. He didn’t ban it because there was anything at all wrong with it or because it made inferior wine. The Greeks were making wine centuries before the Celts in France were, and somehow their grapes are weird and unusual?
So screw Bordeaux and Burgundy and Napa Cabs. Those aren’t the “best” wines in the world, they’re simply the wines that for political reasons became popular. Are there great wines produced in those regions? Of course. Are there no wines produced anywhere else that will ever be as good or better? Of course not.
Assyrtiko is one of the best grapes for making wines that go with shellfish and grilled seafood. The island of Santorini is a testiment to the beauty of this grape. It is always on my table if I am in the mood and can find it. Sigalas is my favorite.
Those who focus on Chardonnay, Pinot and Cabernet/Merlot only miss fantastic wines. That’s for sure.
Austria produces superb red and white wines. IMO Grüner Veltliner is on par with Chardonnay when it comes to complexity, finesse and longevity. The best Blaufränkisch are in a league with fine Bordeaux. I.e.
Those in love with Pinot Noir should try Nerello Mascalese from Sicily. These wine have similarities to a ripe Grand Cru Burgundy IMO.
Germany is not only Riesling. Try to find the top Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc. They exist in oaked and non oaked versions. The non oaked ones are refreshing but certainly not boring.
And so forth.
BTW: If you ever visit Germany try also white wines such as Silvaner, Müller Thurgau, Scheurebe etc. They can be very interesting. Isn’t it boring to drink the same varietal every day?
Agreed. I only wrote “noble” because colloquially that’s what they’ve been referred to as.
If things were different hundreds of years ago, when royalty and others of high political power decried certain grape varietals and favored others, Bordeaux and Burgundy as we know it today wouldn’t be a thing and people may be paying hundreds of dollars for “grand cru Blaufrankisch” or other varietals considered “weird” today.
Jason Wilson’s new book, Godforsaken Grapes, is a good read, both interesting and entertaining.
P.S. to Neal: I don’t remember Gamay being mentioned in the book.
P.S. to Dan: Last night’s 2004 Morgon, Dom. Calot, was fabulous with grilled salmon.
I’m with the consensus here that it’s fun to try new varieties. And as a wine loving citizen of planet Earth, I feel it’s my duty to always expand my base of experiences and sample all that humanity can cultivate. I don’t think anyone here is arguing otherwise.
However, the marketplace likes to pick winners, and the base of consumers mostly just notices a handful of varietals. What’s interesting to me is that the marketplace seems to be waking up to all this variety. Makes for a great time for experimentation.
I’ll be a cantankerous contrarian curmudgeon and say I resent anyone telling me what wines I should be drinking. I do like reading about alternatives and I like trying new things now and then but I know what I like and I’m also a creature of habit. So get off my lawn, you’re blocking my view of the clouds I’m trying to yell at.
More seriously, though, I enjoyed the article and am tempted to pick up the book.
Robert Parker has been telling people what wines to drink for 30+ years.
Add me to those who enjoyed the article and its intent (which I don’t think was to be bossy, just suggestive).
Of course, he got off to a great start with me by referring only to grape “varieties,” and never to grape “varietals”… ![[soap.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/a/a7ea1fffd3ef237e8f19d17a83270ad8452218ca.gif "soap"){kind=small}
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I love the major “noble” varieties, and they dominate my cellar. But I’ve always enjoyed trying new wines from new places, and have enjoyed many a Madiran, Gaillac, and Fronton, to cite three he named. Would I have enjoyed them more if those regions had ripped out all the tannat, braucol, and negrette to plant merlot? I dunno, but I enjoyed them fine as is. Even more so for some of the varieties which stand out the most (to me) as distinctive compared to most red wines - e.g., mondeuse from the Savoie and mencia from Bierzo and Ribeira Sacra. All of these were not just “weird” but completely unknown to me and my teachers when I was first learning about fine wine - when Bordeaux and Burgundy dominated, and the truly diversified added such exotic wines as Champagne, German riesling, Napa chards and cabs, Italy’s three Bs and super Tuscans, and Port.
The value of the weird grapes and places only multiplies as the tried and true rise in price and get beyond the means of more and more folks.