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Chardonnay Is So Ysterday..All Hail Picardan

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TomHill

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Chardonnay Is So Ysterday..All Hail Picardan

by TomHill » Tue Aug 07, 2018 11:29 am

As linked in the WineTerroirist, we find in the DailyBeast:
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
Last edited by TomHill on Wed Aug 08, 2018 9:15 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Chardonnay Is So Ysterday..All Hail Picardin

by SteveEdmunds » Tue Aug 07, 2018 11:27 pm

hey, Tom;
it's Picardan (not Picardin).
You might be thinking of Muscardin (even though no one mentioned that)
who can keep track of this stuff? :P
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Tim York

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Re: Chardonnay Is So Ysterday..All Hail Picardin

by Tim York » Wed Aug 08, 2018 6:11 am

TomHill wrote: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.


Is that a tongue in cheek comment? Or do you have some statistics showing that the main demand for Condrieu comes from California?
Tim York
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David M. Bueker

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Re: Chardonnay Is So Ysterday..All Hail Picardin

by David M. Bueker » Wed Aug 08, 2018 6:31 am

Save the Texas wine industry? From what? Obscurity?

And I agree with you on the Idlewild Cortese. It’s still (and will likely remain) obscure.
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TomHill

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Nope

by TomHill » Wed Aug 08, 2018 9:22 am

Tim York wrote:
TomHill wrote: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.


Is that a tongue in cheek comment? Or do you have some statistics showing that the main demand for Condrieu comes from California?


Nope, Tim..as described in Patrick Comiskey's book. The main demand for Condrieu does not come from Calif. But it was
the interest that Calif winemakers (mostly) took in Viognier from Condrieu and their planting it and running w/ the variety
that revived the interest in Condrieu wines. I think in the late '80's, the acreage of Viognier in Condrieu was down to some 21 acres.
Not sure what it is now, but the acreage (if you include Collines) must be (not way) up.
Tom
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Peter May

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Re: Chardonnay Is So Ysterday..All Hail Picardan

by Peter May » Fri Aug 10, 2018 8:07 am

In Jancis Robinsons 1992 book* she says there are '80 acres worldwide', of Viognier, nearly all in France.

JRs 'Wine Grapes' reports 10,869 acres in France in 2009, 2,993 acres in California in 2010.

*Vines, Grape and Wines - (I think it had a different title in the USA)
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Re: Chardonnay Is So Ysterday..All Hail Picardan

by David M. Bueker » Thu Aug 16, 2018 4:06 pm

Last night I re-read the chapter on Viognier in Comiskey's book, and I think you are overstating the case. At least the least you are reading into it things he did not say.
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