https://www.thedailybeast.com/move-over-chardonnay-is-picardan-the-next-great-white-wine
Of course, TablasCreek was instrumental in getting this minor Rhone variety into the USofA.
I thought JasonWilson's comment were important:
Jason wrote:According to Jason Wilson, who explored the world of rare grapes in his book, Godforsaken Grapes: A Slightly Tipsy Journey through the World of Strange, Obscure, and Underappreciated Wine, there is a tradition of obscure Old-World grapes coming into their own in the New World and capturing a large market share.
“What’s happening with picardan is not that unique,” said Wilson. “It’s happening all over the world. What often happens is maybe a variety that in Europe is a blending grape or a secondary or tertiary grape to the famous wines, it goes to some other country and then maybe one of the minor grapes becomes a major grape.”
Indeed....if it wern't for the Calif folks taking an interest in Condrieu, Viognier could very well have wallowed in obscurity to this day. Calif can very well
take credit for rescuing Viognier from extinction. Maybe the same thing for Picardin.
Same thing can be said of Tribidrag.
I take a raft of $hit from certain quarters here (not to mention any names...but you know who you are!!) when I taste a Timorasso or a Tazzalenghe that impresses me and then
proclaim that this is a grape they should be planting all up & down the Coast of Calif and making world-class wines. As they say..."a prophet in his own time...."
It's happened before and it'll happen again. I think Sam's Idlewild Cortese is world-class and as good as anything I've had from Piemonte.
Anyway...an interesting article in which we discover that Picardin is going to be the savior of the Texas wine industry.
Tom