New Grape Varieties - Discoveries

Drinks Chat
#1

I popped into the cellar showroom today and whilst there tasted a few of the wines in the enomatic machines.
One was this, and it is the first time I have come across the Scheurebe grape.

This was a lovely drop, with tropical fruits to the fore, bracing acidity and seemed to have a vinho verde like spritz.

I’ll be keen to try more of this grape, and I see TWS have a sweeter version on the list also - added to the wishlist.

What was the last new grape variety others discovered? And what did you make of it?

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#2

Interestingly, before the current craze for sparkling wines, Scheurebe, along with Reichensteiner and a few others like Bacchus, was a staple of the English wine growing world.

You can also find it in other cool-climate regions such as Nova Scotia in Canada and it can actually be much more impressive than I gave it credit for when tasting the English examples in the 1980s

#3

Scheurebe is definitely on my list to try… I actually do own 2 bottles (or rather bocksbeutel) from the recent German offer…

At the Christmas tasting they had a Trollinger on show. It was light and quite enjoyable, it is a it like an entry level Burgundy… another German discovery…

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#4

My suggestions, in alphabetical order:
Durif (essentially California, labelled as Petite Syrah)
Mavrotragano (Santorini - Greece)
Öküzgözü (Turkey)
Plavac Mali (Croatia)
Saperavi (Georgia)
Torrontes (Argentina)
Xinomavro (Naoussa - Greece)
The Society can satisfy most of the above but sadly not the quite extraordinary Plavac Mali I believe…

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#5

Bought a bottle of this whilst at TWS yesterday.

Thanks for the other recommendations. Had Torrontes & Durif before, but will seek out the others.

#6

You are very welcome, and I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. I reckon alongside Portugal, Greece and “Eastern Europe” represents the best value for money at the moment with some truly amazing wines with excellent ageing potential at very sensible prices. Most people haven’t discovered them yet which sadly makes them difficult to get hold of but every cloud has a silver lining and low demand = low cost.

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#7

Scheurebe is one of the best of the German crossings. Its also used in Austria for desert wines (called Samling or Samling 88 there), nice at all sweetness levels.

#8

I have had exquisite examples from the island of Tinos, close enough to Santorini

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#9

Nice! Would love to hear some names if you have any to hand - am a huge fan of the Hatzidakis one we list :slight_smile:

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#10

All from T-oinos — Mavro, Mavro Rose and Clos Stegasta red, also tasted Clos Stegasta Rare

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#11

@woodap Ooh, scheurebe sounds well worth trying. That chenin blanc blend sounds incredible - blackcurrant, honey and grapefruit?! :heart_eyes: A real wine geek’s wine.

One of my grape discoveries that I’ve been trying to find more examples of is bobal, a red grape from Spain. We currently do one but I confess I haven’t tried it:

The most recent one I’ve tried is this from Majestic:

Bobal seems to make really big, powerful-flavoured wines and I just love how loud and proud it is. Knocks your socks off!

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#12

Yes, Bobal is very very good (a bit on the rustic side, but with definite personality and intensity) and of course Mencía, but that’s no longer that new or rare, in fact it’s gone from cult to trendy I would say. The Society currently does two Mencía, both from Ribeira Sacra, but most Mencía is from Bierzo.

The ones from the Canary Islands are worth checking out - Listán Negro, Listán Blanco, Marmajuelo, Negramoll and Tintilla. Unusual and rare. My guess is that the special characteristics of Canary wines is not so much due to these odd varieties, but to the volcanic soils.

But my prize would go to Callet, from the Balearic island of Mallorca. Callet makes world class wines, notably the incredible Àn (previously known as Ànima Negra, and its more affordable sister wine AN/2 Ànima Negra) and 4 Kilos (and its sister wine 12 Volts http://4kilos.com/). Callet is often combined with two other indigenous Mallorcan varieties, Mantonegro and Fogoneu. Believe me, these wines are superb, and reflect both terroir and variety.

Sadly the Society doesn’t currently stock any wines from Mallorca. Hint hint @PierreM

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The great Mallorca question
#13

Maybe not really a discovery but this was the first wine made from the Mencia grape, that I can recall. Superb.

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#14

Might I say dry Furmint, Juhfark and Harslevelu as Hungarian white varieties to look out for.

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#15

Tried a South African Harslevelu last week but wasn’t much impressed.

#16

Ooh yes, and can I add cserszegi to that list? We don’t do one any more I think, but we used to sell this Hungarian white wine from Hilltop Estate, and it was SO fresh, fragrant and very, very drinkable indeed. I loved it - hoping it’ll come back soon!

Oh, and I loved it enough to learn how it was pronounced, so if anyone’s interested it’s (apparently!) “chair-zeggy”! :grinning:

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#17

That is pretty impressive, I would say it is closer to chair-seggy. Too pedantic, I know.

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#18

Oh nooo! I was so close to getting it right… :see_no_evil:

Quick, someone introduce us all to an amazing new grape so we can gloss over this fail… !

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#19

Fer Servadou #helping

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#20

Even the French can come up with some rare and interesting grapes I had never heard of!

We really enjoyed this one.

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