DAN'S WINE BLOG- EUROPE & HYBRIDS

This week is about some of the things currently happening in Europe plus an update on hybrid varieties.

SIEG HEIL: Bizarrely, a winery in Italy has again produced a series of “Dictator Wines”, supposedly featuring Stalin, Lenin and most controversially, Hitler. This isn’t the first time that they have done this. The outcry this time has been just as strong as on the last occasion around a decade ago. Whilst wine labelled as shown below is legal (barely) in Italy, it is illegal elsewhere in Europe. One store near Venice that sells the Hitler wine (they haven’t seen the other two) says that most of the sales are to German tourists who seem to be very keen on them.

Hey, maybe an Australian winery should produce a “Chairman Mao” red wine! – Wouldn’t sell well here in Australia but would probably have a significant market in China despite the current punitive import duty on Australian wine.

AHR GERMANY:  A year after the catastrophic floods in the wine growing region of the Ahr valley and despite significant support both in terms of volunteers (they had to hire up to 25 buses a day, to bus in the clean-up volunteers from across Germany) and funds, little of the major structural damage and destruction has been repaired. Most of the 9,000 buildings that were destroyed have not been replaced and the wineries that weren’t totally destroyed are still inoperable. Of the €15 billion earmarked by the German government to rebuild the region, only €500 million (3%) has been approved and paid out in the past year.

Sadly it sounds so much like the state of affairs in northern NSW after the repeated floods there destroyed so many people’s lives and livelihoods. Governments are great at making promises but lousy at delivering on them.

But hey, global warming is just a myth according to too many of the world’s politicians, including a significant number of ours.

HYBRID VARIETIES: Most wine connoisseurs and especially wine snobs, poo-poo wines made with or from hybrid grape varieties. Hybrid grapes are man-created grape varieties which are usually a cross between Vitis Vinifera and another Vitis such as, Labrusca – there are 79 different Vitis types across the planet.

Below are the main reasons why viticulturists create these hybrids:

►To engender mould resistance in the resultant variety.

►To engender cold weather resistance in the resultant variety.

►To engender drought resistance in the resultant variety.

Other than in marginal wine growing regions such as Sweden, Netherlands, the northern states of the USA, parts of Canada, etc., most regions shy away from these varieties and in many they are totally banned.

One area where hybrids are having great success (albeit unnoticed) is in sparkling wines, where in most instances the varieties that the wine is made from are not declared. Thus the winemaker can use cold-resistant hybrids in their bubbles, to produce a better, more viable wine and nobody objects because they are unaware of the presence of hybrids.

A great example of this is the superb Dutch sparkling wine, MinZeven Bruut & Bruizend (which in Dutch it means, Outrageous & Roaring). Being in such a northerly latitude, the vineyard (seven metres below sea level - hence the name MinZeven) is planted to three cold resistant hybrids: Hibernal (cross between Riesling and Siebel 7053), Sauvignac (cross between Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling) and Sauvignier Gris (a cross between Cabernet Sauvignon and a white variety called, Bronner). The resultant sparkling wine is outstanding! One of my favourites and consumers enjoy it (it sells out quickly every year) for the flavour unaware of what grape varieties it is made from.

Over time some hybrids become acceptable to a wider section of the wine community, for example, Chambourcin, Sylvaner (in Germany), Vidal Blanc, Seyval Blanc, Muscat Bailey A (in Japan), Norton (Canada), etc.

So next time you see a wine with some strange sounding variety on the label, try it! You may be pleasantly surprised as the wine has been engineered (indirectly) for your drinking pleasure.

Cheers, have a great week, enjoy superb wines and stay safe, Dan T.