Paroles de vignerons - Vinparleur - Winzer talk
Latest update : 18 December 2015.
I admit, the question seems somewhat exaggerated. There are other varieties at least equallyworthy of the title: Shavkapito from Georgia, Grüner Veltliner from Austria, Folle noir from Fronton. Sauvignon blanc (by the way Cabernet Sauvignon’s mother, after a volatile affair with Cabernet franc) has long been planted in the Loire and in the region of Bordeaux...
I admit, the question seems somewhat exaggerated. There are other varieties at least equallyworthy of the title: Shavkapito from (...)
The cradle of Chardonnay is Burgundy. Everybody knows. There is even a village in the Mâconnais which bears the same name, which could be its historical birthplace. But another story says, that this worldwide revered grape variety originates from the center of the Christian world: Jerusalem! Probably brought to France by the Crusaders, the origin of his name is rather Hebrew than Burgundian. Thus, the French pronunciation of the Hebrew words “Sha’har adonay” or “charree ad’onay”, which mean (...)
continueWhat to say about Carignan, except that I love this grape? You wonder why?
SHORT ANSWER : Go to a Carignan tasting and you will know!
INTERMEDIATE ANSWER : It has character, nerve, fruit and spices. Its tannins are fresh and have much relief. The vines may live for more than a hundred years. It’s a restart level fighter: (some) people did not want to keep it any longer, and therefore many of them ripped it out.… but its still there! It comes in three colors, black, gray and white, like (...)
It’s a rather secret variety, this Vermentino. Originally from Malvasia, it first travelled to the vineyards of Madeira and Spain before conquering Corsica, Sardinia and Italy. Beyond Corsica. Traditionally it makes part of the white grape varieties in Provence under the name Rolle, and for many years is silently spreading out into further French wine regions around the Mediterranean. It can be found in Portugal and even in California, where its plantation has been authorized since 2001. (...)
continueI became aware of the great potential of Malbec for the first time in a series of tastings at the German Pro Wine Fair in 2004. Better late than never ... Before that, I mainly knew the variety from some cheap bottles of soulless Negociants, which operated on a large scale to sell the prestigious AOC Cahors for cheap money. Shame on them!
But the Malbec wines that have crossed my path in 2004 (and the ones I still drink and appreciate), have almost nothing to do with those. They are black (...)
Despite its somehow exotic name, the origins of SYRAH are indeed to be found in the northern Rhone Valley. Originated from a cross breeding between WHITE MONDEUSE from Savoy and BLACK DUREZA from the Ardèche region, people preferred to maintain that its origins are more mysterious, referring to the Romans, the Syrians and the Persians, as well as to distant cities like Syracuse in Sicily or Shiraz in Iran . The fact is none of that. Despite its modest and more « down to earth » origins, SYRAH (...)
continueLooking closely at grape varieties you may learn a lot. That’ s what we did with VIOGNIER at the beginning of 2015. The variety almost had disappeared in the sixties (there were barely 8 hectares left in 1965), but nowadays it guarantees for international reputation of the wines of CONDRIEU, with more than 100 hectares of vines planted on steep terraces and slopes of this AOC in the northern Rhone Valley. Thanks to its flavours, this variety has gradually conquered the world. Today it (...)
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