Bobal

On a recent trip to Valencia we took the opportunity of checking out the local wine. Reds tend to be from Bobal, a grape that in the 1980s held 11th place in the list of the world's most planted varieties. At that time there were over 90,000 hectares planted (mostly in Spain - mostly in Valencia, Utiel-Requena and Manchuela. Now the figure has fallen to 85,000 while the reputation of the grape itself has risen.

This re-valuation of Bobal on the Grape bourse is due to the fact that it is different from other Spanish varieties in that it makes light wines of good acidity and lower alcohol.

Utiel-Requena had always fascinated us; the names sound like something out of 'Il trovatore' (which actually takes place in Aragon much further to the north). Valencia itself is Spain's 3rd city but somehow a bit off the beaten track. For that reason there have been unbelieveable efforts in the last decade or so to put it on the map, involving public spending on an epic scale. Just in time for the crash, a magnificent Science Park, Opera House, airport terminal

and Concert Hall were built by architects including Santiago Calatrava. These buildings are now rather underused but they will still be there for the turn-around in the Spanish economy which is bound to come later if not sooner.

These public works also included impressive Autopistas and the incredible high-speed train network but despite all this spending, our visit to Requena (100km from Valencia) reminded us of the old Spain in both the good and less-good senses.

Just an hour from that fantastic Opera House, we saw street urchins rifling rubbish bins in Requena. Perhaps they has thrown out a school textbook by mistake and were only trying to retrieve it but somehow we doubt it. Requena is small. Compare their theatre!

But Requena is all about Bobal. The earth all around is a lovely orange pink and the plants are pruned low for bush Vines it seems as we didn't see too many trelisses or wires in the vineyards.

 Bobal is as we heard, on the up and we certainly applaud the kind of diversity which results in lighter wines.

We arrived in Requena in mid-afternoon when everything was still closed but we had a nice walk through windswept streets

noting the hansome building in the centre of town, the Estacion de Viticultura y Enologia, the Calle Subida a Bodegas, the Ruta del Vino, even a winery down a side street complete with stainless steel tanks visible through glass windows

and last but not least the Bodega Benito where we hoped to get a free tutorial on the best wines from Bobal and maybe buy a bottle or two and if lucky, something else local made from a varriety we had never heard of: perhaps a Moravia Agria in purezza.
 

While waiting for the Siesta to come to an end, we popped in to what looked like a worker's cafe and had a glass of Bobal with some tortilla.

This eclipsed memories of Bobals past. Buoyed by optimism, we took up position outside Bodegas Benito ready for them to re-open at 17.00. the advertised hour came and went so at 17.30 we made our way back to Valencia, still with no sign of Benito's re-opening.

Back home we called Bodega Benito and discovered that if we wanted anything other than Bobal or the familiar repertoire of other Spanish wines, we would have to go to the actual place of production, i.e. for Moravia Agria we would have to go another hour down the road to Manchuela. How's that for Campanalismo?
 

As we saw at the Real Wine Fair in London in March, there is diversity enough in Spain. It just needs people to bring it to our attention. The way things are going, we think this is inevitable - later or sooner.

The Real Wine Fair, London March 17th 2013

Quite big but manageable, this 2nd 'tasting of organic, biodynamic and natural wines' at Tobacco Dock in East London had a good proportion of fascinating discoveries for Slotovino. It was also an opportunity to meet in person the great winemakers whose produce have given us and so many others such pleasure and stimulation.

Before coming on to the discoveries, we would like to list the Greats who took the trouble to come to London and unfailingly answer questions and be nice to annoying people like us.

First was the scion of Mas de Daumas Gassac, Samuel Guibert.

The famous property lists over 20 grape varieties and we asked him 'how come?'. The answer was charming. He said his parents travelled a lot and wherever they went they used to like to collect cuttings of local grape varieties and bring them home. How wonderfully seredipidous and unscientific. It doesn't prevent Mas de Daumas Gassac making some of France's best wines. Perhaps it even helps it! O si sic omnes.

Another legend was Fulvio Bressan himself. We had a long conversation with the giant of Gorizia. He is a passionate and emotional man ready to see the wrongs of the world and put them right. We ended with embraces and warm feelings not only about his marvellous wines. Of course the two are connected!

There were the people from Binner and Frick, Domaine de Montrieux, Trinchero, Foradori, Pincic, Zidarich, Skerk, Afros, Montevertine, de Bartoli, COS and Hatzidakis and many others. Only Thierry Navarre was missing this year..

Now to the pioneers of Heritage varieties, autochtonous grapes, those brought back from extinction and so forth. Our first great find was Bodegas Bernabe Navarro. Sr. Navarro was on hand to tell us about his property in Alicante. He grows grapes such as Merseguera, Rojal, Forcallat and Garnacha Peluda (Lledoner Pelut).

We tasted the first three of these and found them exceedingly good and fresh.

La Armistad is 100% Rojal,

Ramblin Del Arco 100% Forcallat 

and La Vina de Simon, 100% Merseguera. It is much rarer in Spain than in Italy for example to find producers working with local varieties. This was a discovery indeed.

We have mentioned the elusive Spanish grape Moravia Agria before in this blog and has found a blend in which this represented 60% called Buena Pinta at the late lamented Blue and Green, produced by Bodegas y Vinedos Ponce, Manchuela. With a visit to Valencia coming up we had planned to hire a car and zoom off to Iniesta, about 100 miles away to visit Juan Antonio Ponce and see if we could find any 100% Moravia Agria. Who should we find practically at the next table to Bernabe Navarro but Sr. Ponce himself! As well as saving ourselves the 200 mile round trip, we got to meet this wonderful man, taste his wines and learn that in a year or two he plans a 100% Moravia Agria. Thank you Real Wine Fair!

Also completely unexpected was our encounter with the Sr. Eulogio Pomares and his wife of  Zarate Family, Saines Valley, Rias Baixas (Galicia).

Here we were introduced to wines from varieties such as Tinto Caino (wierd even for us),

Loureiro Tinto (soft and lovely) and Espadeiro (both wierd and wonderful). Rias Baixas produces 99% white wines and only 1% Red, Sr. Pomares told us. Indeed at a London International Wine Festival a couple of years ago we asked a representative on the Rias Baixas stand about red wines and he knotted his brow and had to ask colleagues if there was any. he even opined that if there was it couldn't be any good. The Zarate stand proved him very wrong indeed.

There had to be discoveries among the Italian exhibitors and our first was at AA Fondo San Giuseppe, Brisighella, Emilia Romagna. Sr. Stefano Bariani, Sra. Bariani and Signorina Bariani were on hand to tell us about a quintessential Slotovino grape, a rarity indeed -

 'Centesimino'. We only realised just how rare this was when we attended Vinitaly in April and met another of handful of producers making wine from this grape which is also known as 'Sauvignon Rosso' (see our Blog on Vinitaly - when it comes!). That was La Sabbiona of Oriolo del Fichi, Faenza.

The story behind the name Centesimino is nice. One Pietro Pianori found a vine in his garden and propagated it. His vines escaped the Phylloxera plague and all modern plantings are taken from them. Pianori's nickname was Centesimino (little cent) because of his way with money. It now has the blessing of the official register of Italian grapes although the version by La Sabbiona is still known as Sauvignon Rosso.

Georgia was perhaps the biggest story at the fair; the more we learn about this fascinating country there more there is to discover. We had met John Wurdeman at previous fairs.

He seems to be an inexhaustable promotor not only of his wines, 'Pheasant's Tears' but also those of his colleagues. Mr. Wurdeman is an American from the Virginia whose story is so picaresque that at the age of 35, it could fill at least one novel. He studied Polyphony and Painting and has a fascination for Georgia, so much so that he moved there, married a Georgian girl and has become Mr. Georgian Wine in no time at all. He speaks of all the different families who have made wine through thick and thin over centuries whom he has now encouraged one by one to make a go of it commercially.

Their products are all unique, using many different grape varieties and methods. His practised and fluent seminar at the fair on Georgian wine was required listening. There was a decent and attentive audienc: those who had not attended were missing something important.

Georgian wines on show were more than ever before - 12 producers (Greece only fielded one). The point is that there are many Georgian producers who have never 'modernised' and so are eligible for the Real Wine Fair, their wines being organic and natural. Cutting edge within ancient practices indeed. The wines of these producers were obtained for 13 varieties;

Aladasturi
Chinuri
Chkhaveri
Kakhet
Khikhvi
Kisi
Mtsivane
Rkatsiteli
Saperavi
Shavkapito
Tavkveri
Tsitska
Tsolikouri

Wines made from these grapes were for the most part produced in raditional Qvevri amphorae buried in the vineyard for up to 6 months. The resulting wines have immense interest and personality unlike the wines of other states in the larger region which may also come from an impressive variety of indiginous grapes but tend towards the bland in comparison, at least in our humble opinion.

Coming up to making our choices for the 2012/13 Slotovino Awards it is going to be difficult to imagine Mr. Wurdeman and Georgian wine not being winners in a number of categories and predictions.

Switzerland vs Savoie

A recent trip to the French Alps (Savoie) gave us a pretext for comparing some Swiss wines from Lavinia, Geneva with the local French ones to be found in supermarkets at our ski resort. Shopping at Lavinia Geneve had always been a joy and we had discovered lovely Swiss wines there in the past.

This time the results were surprising. Savoie won more or less hands down. The Swiss wine were on this occasion nothing like expected. For example we bought 3 different Gamays and each was more souped-up than the last (OK one was 'Tardif').

A Diolinoir on the expensive side was both more interesting and better then the Gamays but not something we would rush to buy again. The back story of Diolinoir is also interesting. It is a cross between something called Rouge de Diolly and Pinot Noir. Rouge de Diolly is the same as a variety called Robin Noir from the Ardeche. It was probably introduced inadvertantly into the grape collection of a Dr. Henry Wouilloud who found and propagated all sorts of local vines, ancient and otherwise.

Syrah and Pinot Noir were acceptable but again lacking the lightness and refreshing quality we always thought part and parcel of the Swissness of Swiss wine.

The whites were more pleasurable with the Scheurebe and Savagnin mildly aromatic and the Pinot Blanc pleasantly luscious.

 The Fendant (Chasselas) was perhaps predictably successful although it was 'entry level' rather than anything special.

Here was the order from Lavinia. Note the Swiss idiosyncracy of the 0.70L bottle!

Stephane Gros Gamay Tardif 2010 Rouge0,75L     
Domaine des Curiades Authentique Gamay 2010 Rouge 0,75L
Fabienne Cottagnoud Cave des Tilleuls Gamay Vetroz 2009 Rouge 0,75L
Freres Philippoz Diolinoir 2009 Rouge 0,75L
Domaine des Curiades Pinot Noir sans SO2 2009 Rouge 0,75L
Domaine Dugerdil Syrah 2010 Rouge 0,75L
Domaine du Centaure Scheurebe 2011 Blanc 0,70L
Domaine des Curiades Savagnin 2007 Blanc 0,75L
Philippe Darioli Pinot Blanc 2009 Blanc 0,75L
Fendant 2010 Denis Mercier Blanc 0,75L

None of these wines was under 13%

In our local French supermakets there were even more wines from our favourite Savoie producer Domaine Grisard than the previous year including

Mondeuse Blanche
Cuvee Loyse (Chardonnay, Jacquère, Mondeuse Blanche)
Rose de Mondeuse
Mondeuse
Gamay

From other Savoyard producers, there was also an Aligote as good as any we have tasted from Burgundy, a Persan from St. Germain which gave little hint of how this variety can soar in the hands of the Grisards,

 fresh Chignin-Bergerons, Jacqueres and Rousettes (we didn't buy Apremont or Crepy this time). There were some fun sparling wines from the region too.

We found the Mondeuse Blanche the very day when Jancis Robinson had eulogised this variety in the Financial Times. It is extremely rare and rather expensive and only about 5 hectares of it exist. We had tried an example from another producer already a year ago without being bowled over so with Jancis's enthusiasm we gave it another go. This time it showed up better in the Grisard version but we

obviously still have to work at it. This variety is important as the parent and ancestor of  Syrah and the ancestor or progeny of Mondeuse Noire and even Viognier. It turned up in Grisard's Cuvee Loyse, a very attractive blend.

As in our previous visit the Rose de Mondeuse of Grisard was a tremendous hit.

All the Savoyard wines were low in alcohol and were characterised by lightness, freshness and pleasant acidity. We expected the same from the Swiss wines and had the impression from those we tried that Swiss wine is going the same way as so many other areas (see our recent moan about Bardolino).

Back home we had the honour to receive a present from 'Wine Grapes' for having found a variety not included in the first edition. There had been a kind of light-hearted competition to find such omissions for inclusion in the second edition with a free bottle of wine as a prize for doing so. Robinson, Harding and Vouillamoz were on pretty safe ground but a handful of players managed to scrape up some fantastically obscure varieties used in commercial wine production and we at Slotovino can attest that these prizes swiftly arrived at successful participants' front doors.

In our case we found missing from 'Wine Grapes' was one well known to the three authors but which had unaccountably been left out; the Greek red grape Voudomato from Santorini. This has already featured in this blog and is available in sevaral countries including the UK and France. The Voudomato vines of Santorini are claimed to be the oldest in existance at over 500 years old. This figure is not contested. And Voudomato wine? It is almost undrinkable such is its viscosity and concentration. We believe it may best be consumed drizzled over vanilla ice cream.

Our prize was a Petite Arvine from Switzerland chosen by Dr. Vouillamoz from Bonvin, a leading Swiss producer as the name suggests. We are prone to mixing varieties up and we may have confused Petite Arvine with Amigne in the past. We are not great fans of Amigne so it was a revelation to taste Petite Arvine - another grape altogether. According to Vouillamoz this version was vinified traditionally dry; he says "in recent years the trend for some producers has been to leave a considerable amount of residual sugar to attract young consumers it singlehandedly". It restored our faith in Swiss wine.

 
As with other regions prone to a beefing-up process, there seem still to be those who refuse to lose sight of the country's unique character.

So there is hope that if we choose more carefully next year, Switzerland may equalise with Savoie. At least its diversity seems not to have been lost. Watch this space.