Odd Varietals

Some of the BC winemakers have taken to trying to make oddball, or at least rare to this area wines from grapes not normally found in this area - many of them sourced from Washington State. One such is Mooncurser, which I have visited several times.

They have released Carmenere (usually a minor component of some Bordeaux) in the past as well as Tannat, mostly utilized in the Madiran, and have now released a Touriga Nacional, a mostly Portuguese varietal usually made into Port and Dao reds.

All of this experimentation is making things more difficult for those of us that do blind tastings! And I've seen American made Torrontes, Furmint and Pecorino as well. It must be exciting for the winemakers - getting to emulate wines from other countries or find varietals that contribute unique things to local wines, but it can make things interesting/harder for groups like my blind tasting lunch group, who already delighted in bringing things the others might not to be able to identify!.

Do you think you could spot a BC grown Arneis, Dolcetto, Verdejo, Carmenère, Grenache, Malbec, Marechal Foch, Viognier, Ortega, or Petit Verdot blind...?

Bill, I do understand the nature of your complaint, but that sense of experimentation is what the Romans and Catholic monks did for several millennia in Europe before arriving at what we consider the canonical grape varieties grown in the various regions of Europe. Especially in this era of rapidly changing climatic conditions, I think it's prudent on the part of winemakers to explore varieties that they might suspect would do better in the soils and climate of a given region. I don't think it's a coincidence that Carmenere, Tannat and Touriga Nacional all grow in rather hot regions.

[Jenise]

From the winemakers I talked to, like John Weber at Orofino, emulation is not the goal so much as finding varietals that contribute unique things, as you put it or, taking it further, will do even better down the road than some of the grapes already planted. I know that both he and Le Vieux Pin are planting Cinsault based on their success with the Washington grapes they purchased for their 2024's.

[David M. Bueker]

Ortega? Gray Monk was making that years ago. They made Bacchus as well. David Ramey dabbled with Ortega from Sonoma as part of his Sidecar Cellars project.

It is interesting when you can analyze what the varietal is (or are) but haven't a clue where they were made. A good example is something like a Blaauwklippen zinfandel. You can maybe decide that it is characteristic zinfandel, but working out that it comes from South Africa can be a challenge. Same for zin made in Australia - there is a small amount made there (e.g. Cape Mentelle)

[David M. Bueker]

It is interesting when you can analyze what the varietal is (or are) but haven't a clue where they were made. A good example is something like a Blaauwklippen zinfandel. You can maybe decide that it is characteristic zinfandel, but working out that it comes from South Africa can be a challenge. Same for zin made in Australia - there is a small amount made there (e.g. Cape Mentelle)

If there’s only a single wine or a very small number it’s going to be next to impossible to understand what terroir is being expressed by the grape.

Blaauwklippen zinfandel. You can maybe decide that it is characteristic zinfandel, but working out that it comes from South Africa can be a challenge.

Yonks ago I was runner-up rather than the winner because I identified the variety - Zinfandel - and put USA as the country.
That's when I learned that Blaauwklippen in Stellenbosch were making Zin. AT that time they were the only winery in Soth Africa to grow and make Zin.


Tasting is tremendously more difficult now than it was when I first started because if one correctly identifies a variety, that variety night come from almost anywhere. And identifying a variety is difficult because of the different interpretations of it in different regions

[David M. Bueker]

Tasting is tremendously more difficult now than it was when I first started because if one correctly identifies a variety, that variety night come from almost anywhere. And identifying a variety is difficult because of the different interpretations of it in different regions

So true!

Randall Grahm was very fond of growing unusual (for California) grape varieties when he ran Bonny Doon.

-Paul W.

[David M. Bueker]

Randall Grahm was very fond of growing unusual (for California) grape varieties when he ran Bonny Doon.

-Paul W.

He is even fonder of it now.

Grahm is one of wine's more interesting characters - long may he continue to perplex and delight wine fans.

This recent article makes interesting reading: https://worldoffinewine.com/news-features/randall-grahm

I read an account by Randal Grahm of his attempt to grow viognier, which even in its native Northern Rhone is notorious for being difficult to cultivate. The first year he was expecting a harvest the viognier vines produced lots of flowers, but the heady aroma caused a frenzy among the bees, who knocked a lot of the flowers off the vines, thus significantly reducing the harvest. The grape clusters ripened unevenly, many being green on one side and sunburned on the other. The yield was disappointing. The following spring the vines caught a nasty disease (I think it was oidium) and most of them died. Grahm gave up and planted the whole plot with something else.

-Paul W.

[David M. Bueker]

RG was known for tall tales. About half of his stories were true. Which ones nobody knows.

I read an account by Randal Grahm of his attempt to grow viognier, which even in its native Northern Rhone is notorious for being difficult to cultivate.

It's successful in Virginia

Grahm is one of wine's more interesting characters - long may he continue to perplex and delight wine fans.

This recent article makes interesting reading: https://worldoffinewine.com/news-features/randall-grahm

I gave up on this article because I don't believe Grahm said the things he is quoted as saying, e.g.

“Picolit is a female grape and thus easy to cross, while a hermaphrodite vine (which needs to be tediously transformed into a female for the crossing)

I don't think Picolit is a female vine and the bit about crossing a hermaphrodite vine is nonsense. People have been crossing hermaphrodite vines for over 100 years. A hermaphrodite vine (which nearly all wine grape vines are) bears both male and female flowers. The female flower of the vine that is to be 'mother' has the pollen from taken from a male flower of the vine that is to be 'father' put on it..

Viticulturist around the world are doing this multiple times during the flowering season. And anyway, how does one transform a vine into a female - tediously or not?

[David M. Bueker]

As I said above, Graham says some wild stuff, but only half of what he is reputed to have said is actually a real quote.

[Jenise]

Ortega? Gray Monk was making that years ago. They made Bacchus as well. David Ramey dabbled with Ortega from Sonoma as part of his Sidecar Cellars project.

Blue Grouse on Van Island makes a great single-varietal Ortega as well as using it in their entry level white blend. In fact its widely grown there (maybe even the most-widely grown white) as it's uniquely suited to that location's climate/seasonal peculiarities. Chaberton also grows it in the Fraser Valley, though I haven't tried the wine.

As I said above, Graham says some wild stuff, but only half of what he is reputed to have said is actually a real quote.

With respect, you didn't say that quotes weren't real, you said that Grahm made stuff up.

If he made up the sentence I highlighted that was in the article as a direct quote, the interviewer should have queried it. That he didn't shows the interviewers lack of knowledge of the subject. Either way, the article isn't worth reading