DAN'S WINE BLOG

FRANCE

This week, we start of with the worlds most expensive wine at $33,000 a bottle, it comes from a quiet little corner of Bordeaux. It is called Liber Pater and it is made from a blend of almost extinct grape varieties and the main component, Petit Vuidure- which was the name of Cabernet Sauvignon in ancient times. It is called that because unlike all the other Cab Sav vines in Bordeaux these vines are ungrafted, i.e. not planted on rootstocks.

The other varieties in the blend are Saint Macaire (less than 10 hectares world wine- including a superb wine from Calabria Family Wines Griffith) Castets, Cabernet Goudable, Mancin, Gros Cabernet Tarnay Coulant and Pardotte.

Owner Loïc Pasquet uses old viticultural methods including ploughing with a horse rather than a tractor.

This wine causes controversy in the wine trade with a number of critics saying it is not worth its price, whereas others say that it’s uniqueness justifies the price tag.

SPAIN

The one of the largest wine growing regions in the world is D.O. La Mancha in Spain.

At around 152,000 hectares La Mancha is larger than Austria & Germany combined and is greater than all of Australia’s wine growing area (146,000 ha) all in this one area. It is beaten by Languedoc Roussillon at nearly 300,000 ha but it is significantly more homogenous than the French region which has all sorts of varieties growing across it.The largest single D.O. sub-region- Ciudad Real (real city) covers close to 74,000 ha which exceeds the vineyard area of Georgia- the home of wine. D.O. La Mancha used to cover nearly 200,000 hectares but the number of growers has been gradually reducing since the turn of the century and many growers have diversified by converting a part of their land into other uses.

Today there are between 45-50,000 hectares of white wines grown in the region from the 13 authorised varieties. The most grown variety is the virtually unknown (outside of Spain) Airen, which is a mediocre but prolific white variety. Until the mid 1990’s Airen was the most planted grape variety in the world. Since then with the focus on wine quality rather than volume, significant acreage of Airen has been ripped out or grafted over to more contemporary white varieties.

PERU

Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina researchers have identified and confirmed via DNA tests six unique grape varieties. These are Jaen Blanc and the red varieties Cantarilla, Ceniza, Moscatel Negra Rubio, Loca and Negra de Caraveli.Trials so far have indicated that Cantarilla & Jaen have commercial potential.These will be registered with the Vitis International Catalogue (VIVC) and will then be classified as native Peruvian varieties.

Until next week, have a great week #chooseaustralianwine and when possible enjoy #emergingvarieties.

Cheers

Dan T