An in house tasting this month, by Tim (Yours truly). The wine century (www.winecentury.com) is a wine grape challenge where the idea is to try as many different grapes as possible. They can be in blends. The first step is to get your hundred, and you do get a very nice certificate. I pressed on and am now past 300, where it does get difficult.
I selected these 8 wines on 3 criteria
1) All beyond my first 150 grape varieties – it took me 3 years to get to that point, so these are fairly rare in the UK.
2) Readily available in the UK – these are from Waitrose, Majestic and The Wine Society.
3) Not too expensive. The priciest here was only £14, and I got lucky with the 3 waitrose wines, all on offer at £9.25 – 25% !!
The Whites
Arneis - Marcarini Roero Arneis, DOCG. Piedmonte 2023 (Majestic) 13.5% £14
From NW Italy, a relatively common grape in Piedmonte, but rarely seen here. Very nice
Bourboulenc - Waitrose Loved & Found, IGP Pays d’Oc 2024 Carcassone 12% £9.95
Southern French – almost never seen as a varietal, but used in a blend in many southern French appellations, but rarely listed.
Famoso - Waitrose Loved & Found, IGP Rubicone - Emilia Romagna 12% £9.95
Very rare indeed. Had almost vanished, but can also now be found in the Wine Society listings. As I discovered the morning of the meeting
Feteasca Regala - Incanta Feteasca Regala. Romania. 2023 (Majestic) 11.5% £8
We have had this before. And very nice it is too. You can find it if you look for it, but unlikely to just bump into it
The Reds
Lagrein/Teroldego - Castel Firmian Nerofino Rosso. Vigneti Della Dolomiti IGT (TWS) 13%. £9.95
2 quite rare varieties from NE Italy, you won’t see much of either of these in the UK unless you look hard.
Pais aka Listan Prieto - Morande One to One, Old vines, Maule Valley, Chile 2021 (Majestic) 14% £9
This I first found on holiday in La Palma. It is descended from a grape taken across to the New World in the 1500’s, survives in the Canaries and is grown in Chile, Argentina and California where it is known as the Mission grape.
Sousao - Waitrose Loved & Found, Lisbon, Portugal 2022 14% £9.95
Actually a common enough variety – in Port, but almost never seen as a varietal, or even named in a Red wine blend.
Xinomavro - Jeunes Vignes, IGP Thymiopoulos, Macedonia, Greece 2022 (TWS) 13% £13.95
10 years ago you would not have seen this in the UK. Probably Greece’s best known red wine now, but again you have to look for it.
