I’m not talking merlot instead of cabernet, or even Tribidrag instead of white zinfandel. I’m talking about grapes that Carole Meredith and Mike Officer may never have heard of. I’m wondering about a grape named for chocolate sauce (Bosco) that is used as a blending grape in Cinque Terre, or a grape named for predatory cats (Ocelot) that is a long lost but recovered grape in Friuli, of which I may own the only bottle in the US. Or you have the Corsican blend at Domaine Comte Abbatucci consisting of Morescola, Morescono, Aleatico, Carcajolo Nero, Montanaccia, Sciaccarello and Nielluccio. I admit to having heard of Aleatico (not Aglianico) and maybe I even tasted it once.
What is your favorite off the beaten path, no one other than Berserkers have heard of it, grape and what’s so good about it? Can you get a single varietal bottling just to check it out?
That link lists a few examples from Lodi and other California, so maybe people know about it, but I know of only one grower/producer in Washington, Cascade Cliffs, in the Columbia Gorge. They typically blend it, but I know some years a single variety wine was produced and those are what I’ve drank. 2022 Cascade Cliffs Symphony Cascade Cliffs, USA, Washington, Columbia Valley - CellarTracker
Ramisco would qualify. Outside of @Otto_Forsberg who tastes every grape ever cultivated on this planet, not many folks drop notes here on this wine. And yet many Bordeaux fans would love this coastal wine in a region that is not much different than left bank Bordeaux. Except these are on original vines!
Well, at the moment I’ve tasted +550 different varieties - and more than 75% of them as single-variety wines. So, yeah. My kind of thread. If there’s a grape variety that is made into a commercialized wine, odds are I’ve tasted it.
As for that Ramisco - some years ago I threw a Colares tasting where we had one wine per every decade, starting from the 2010’s and going back to the 1930’s. Thrilling wines, although they seem to go into some kind of permanent stasis after approximately 40 years of aging.
That Cabernet Pfeffer? I had heard of the variety, but I didn’t know it, ie. hadn’t ever tasted one nor could tell a single fact about the variety.
But if the variety is mentioned in the Robinson, Vouillamoz et al. tome Wine Grapes, I have heard of it, because I’ve read the book from cover to cover.
Removing all the blends and beverages like beers and ciders from the equation, I have about 100 different varieties represented in my cellar at the moment as varietal wines.
EDIT: I also have on bottle of Pheasant’s Tears’ Poliphonia, which has more than 100 indigenous Georgian varieties in just one blend.
I don’t know how off the beaten path Kerner is, but its a cross between Trollinger and Riesling and always enjoyable. I would throw Lagrein in there as well. I would venture a guess there are fewer than 10 producers that are imported into the US. I have also had some beautiful Alvarelhão over the years, really light on their feet, low alcohol, nice acidity.
Well, there is at least Chrtc, but it is a Czech Chrupka Červená (Chasselas Rosé) x Tramín Červený (Gewurztraminer) cross, which is just named by jumbling the first letters of the varieties’ names into one mess, so I don’t know if it counts.
Then there are tons of varieties that are just letter-number codes because they don’t have a proper name yet. Lots of vowel-less varieties there.
It is there all right. I mean I have the book always at hand whenever I’m at my computer.
Plus the variety has popped up in WB every now and then, so it’s not completely unheard of!
Oxford Companion is a great reference book for many wine-related things, but Wine Grapes is on a whole another level when it comes to grape varieties. No other source comes even close. The only thing that has more varieties listed is the VIVC website, but they really don’t have any descriptions of the varieties - just a few basic facts and a list of synonyms. However, it’s a great source when you’re trying to find out whether this obscure variety is really a unique obscure variety; a synonym for some other obscure variety; or just yet another obscure synonym for something like Tempranillo or Chardonnay.
