Lambrusco is a grape and not a place but it really pays to make sure the one you drink comes from Italy. The good ones from there are not sweet. They are often deep red and sparkling. The one I am holding in this video is Cleto Chiarli E Figli and it is closer to rose in color (and it is delicious).

My discussion of an earlier vintage of this wine made me think "Huh?" because it doesn't sound like the dozen or more bottles of this I have had since then. Of course different vintages have different tastes. What you eat with a wine can also change how it tastes to you (I was probably scarfing down a hot pepper pizza from Dante's in Chicago).

My take isn't about acid when I drink this now but rather the red fruit, white flowers,maybe a hint of green herbs and the general deliciousness mentioned above.

Lambrusco wine is made using the "tank method" like Proseco (as opposed to the Champagne Method).  Another interesting tidbit is that lambrusco is more a family of grapes than a specific grape. There are a lot of lambruscos out there and I am willing to bet if you went through and did DNA analysis at least some of them would turn out to be unrelated.

I am not psychic. This always happens when DNA analysis is done. Something turns out to not be related and some traditions turn out to not be accurate (I'm looking at YOU Brunello). Among the types of lambrusco are Grasparossa Lambrusco,  Oliva Lambrusco, Lambrusco di Sorbara, Lambrusco Marani, Lambrusco Maestri, Lambrusco Montericco and Lambrusco Salami (that last one conjures potentially unpleasant notions of its taste).  To add to the confusion there is a Lambrusco DOC and even some more specific DOCs that produce lambrusco wines. I will link to a few places with more information below.

In the meantime grab some lambrusco and a spicy pizza!

Some sources--

From the always reliable Wine-Searcher on lambrusco.

Check out the Italian Wine Guide's input on Lambrusco.

For more about Cleto Chiarli winery.

And more from Masterclass on lambrusco.

Domaine Cauhapé is a unique wine. They use carmaralet, a nearly extinct grape to make a $15 bottle of wine.

Camaralet (aka Camaralet de Lasseube) is paired with gros manseng in this interesting wine. It uses old grapes in a fairly new style. It wasn't all that long ago that the area, Jurancon, was associated with sweet wines, desert wines. This wine, and a half dozen others from Cauhapé, are dry.  This particular wine, "Chant des Vignes", has a lot of citrus, spice (maybe a whiff of anise), pepper and a plethora of sometimes tropical fruit that rounds out the wine. You will see references to cinnamon flavors but that doesn't seem to be the case with this wine. There is good acidity here to give it some backbone too. It isn't SUPER high acid but it has enough.

Camaralet is an old varietal. This is corroborated by a number of sources but none of them get specific with dates. It seems to have moved north from it's original home in the Pyrenees (not a huge trek to Gascony). Another common theme is that this is a grape with great potential to make excellent wine.

So why is there so little of it? It is difficult to grow. It is a female vine rather than hermaphroditic. It has to be planted close to male or hermaphroditic vines in order to pollinate. Likewise it doesn't have great yields (but low yields often mean quality grapes).

But what about gros manseng? This grape is all over Gascony and Jurancon and is a component of numerous wines both dry and sweet. It is often partnered with petit manseng, colombard and even sauvignon blanc in dry blends. There is even gros manseng in places like Arizona. Gros manseng is easier to grow than camaralet. If I recall there are some plantings of gros manseng in Arizona and perhaps in Virginia too.

Some sources--

The Domaine Cauhapé website.

The always helpful Wine Searcher's 2 cents.

For more technical information head to Plant Grape--Catalog of Grapevines Cultivated in France.

A previous discussion of a gros manseng wine from Charles Hours (Cuvee Marie).  

by Patrick Ogle

Are Gascon whites the last great bargain whites in France?

Yes.

Sure you can buy cheaper wines but cheap isn't always a bargain is it? Also, not every single wine from the area is guaranteed to not suck but that is true of more prominent locales as well. I can recommend some Burgundies that are horrible if you would like!

Domaine des Cassagnoles make wine and Armagnac (like many producers in the area). Their basic white,from what I've read anyway, is a blend of two grapes, ugni blanc and colombard . Click to read more about those in detail but the former is one of the grapes widely used in the production of cognacs like Armagnac. The latter is a white often used to punch up acidity on potentially flabby blends (those grown for jug wines in Central California in the 1970s for instance.

These are generally crisp light wines with solid acidity. They will have fans in lovers of New Zealand sauvignon blancs (although they do not have any of the grass or grapefruit). Likewise someone into unoaked, non-buttery chardonnays or super dry rieslings will find something to like here.

Keep in mind these are not incredibly complex wines with many nuances. Nor will they impress your snooty friends. But if you are trying to impress your friends with your wine? Well that sounds like something to talk to your therapist about in any case.

Try some of these Gascons until you find your fit.

Some sources--

For those who missed it above the Domaine des Cassagnoles website.

An interesting , and occasionally eye-roll inducing, travel piece from CNN.

And back to Wine Searcher! (as Ive noted elsewhere? They provide great information but sometimes I question the editorializing "this is a BAD, BORING grape!")

It is also worth noting the two links above in the body of this are from Plant Grape--Catalog of Grapevines Cultivated in France which is an invaluable resource.

by Patrick Ogle

This wine is a pet nat or Pétillant naturel. This is the method of making sparking wine that predates the method used to make Champagne. I won't get into the details of the differences . You can find that out HERE.

The video tells you what I think about this wine, Curated Mutations, by Liten Buffel in New York state. It is a mix of riesling and vidal blanc. It is unfiltered, gunky even. But if you like the style? You will like the wine.

What caught my eye here, aside from the label which is fabulous, was the fact they use vidal blanc. This is a hybrid grape, a crossing between a European wine grape and an American grape. American grapes are not generally the best option, to put it mildly, for making wine. Hybrids, however, can make some pretty nice wines in the right hands. Vidal blanc is well-known for its use in ice wine and is a crossing between one of the many "Seibel grapes" and ugni blanc (itself mostly known for it's use in brandy production).

Some sources-

Find out more about Liten Buffel HERE.
You can find out more about Vidal blanc at WIne-Searcher.

by Patrick Ogle

XInisSTERI! I left a syllable out. Sorry about that to all my Cypriot brothers and sisters out there. I also would like to apologize for Corsica for saying biancu gentile was from Sardinia. A lesser man would have just reshot the video but I own my mistakes (I am also lazy).
 
Let us get back to the wine wine--xinisTERI (not xinistri as I say in the video). It is mainly grown on Cyprus. Apparently it is the most commonly seen wine from Cyprus on our shores but somehow I managed to miss it.

Tsiakkas, in Lemesos, started as a husband and wife team and now their progeny run things. They also started out with international varieties but in recent years have shifted to more traditional grapes. Yiannoudin, vamvakada and promara are among the obscure varietals Tsiakkas has embraced. Now the search begins to find these in the USA!

It is sometimes used in the other wine from Cyprus you see with some regularity--the sweet wine, Commandaria but that is not where it is the star. From a number of sources the best versions of this wine are alleged to come from the Troodos Mountains. Maybe look for that on the label.

Some sources-

Tsiakkas Winery website.

Check out the 12 best wines from Cyprus at the Cyprus Alive website.

Find out about the Troodos Mountains at Choose Your Cyprus website.

by Patrick Ogle

Surprising Wines began as a way to introduce people to wines made from grapes folks hadn't heard of or wines from areas not associated with wine making. It went ok and it got the word out. The end of net neutrality hurt and then various diversions distracted. But I am going to get back to it and a new component will be unedited videos. Here is the first.

Credit where it is due? This was partly inspired by the inspired video reviews at needcoffeee.com.

INTERACT! I will research your questions......

Patrick

by Patrick Ogle

Remember this name-Raul Perez. It isn't always prominent on the bottle but when you manage to locate it? You are unlikely to be disappointed.

This particular wine, Ultreia, has some body to go with its acid. It is bold, it is unctuous and it will stand up to rich food. I used to recommend chardonnay drinkers looking for a change take a swing at godello. This doesn't mean this TASTES
like chardonnay but that there are some points of reference. There is more minerality here than with many chardonnays.  Ultreia has a certain hints of lemon and lemon pith but it still has little to do with  denizens of Burgundy. Whites from the Bierzo area  in Northern Spain are likely to be godello. You can also find examples from Galicia (although it is overshadowed by Albarino in that area) In neither place does the grape make up much more than 10 percent of total plantings.

Sometimes you get some "saltiness" I put this in quotes because it is more an impression of that than actual presence of salt! This wine I don't really get it but it has some body so that might mask it.

Godello is one of those grapes that have many variations. There are light versions that are breezy and "Summery" and chuggable. While there are others that have body and even fairly high alcohol (this one is moderate in alcohol). There is some oak here but it isn't over the top. Perhaps used barrels? I'm unsure. There is also,  by the way, a red Ultreia made from another Spanish native grape, mencia. Curiously mencia is also a versatile grape.

Godello was in decline as far as planting goes but it is creeping up. BUY some because wine lovers want this grape to stay around. The world has enough friggin chardonnay (I love chardonnay but not every white wine has to be a chardonnay).

For more information on godello go HERE or HERE.

by Patrick Ogle

Libertine Wines' Acid Freak rosé is made from riesling and dolcetto. If that sounds a little odd it is because it is a teensy weensy bit odd.

Out of the gate the wine has cranberry, then raspberry with a bit of vinegar. It is a little a little funky with great , bright acid, as you might expect from the name. I say "this tastes like summer" about a lot of roses and this one really tastes like that but it is a great deal more interesting than the ocean of Provence rosés flooding the market. 

A dolcetta riesling co-fermentation is unlikely. You can read more about how it came to be on Wilamette Valley-based Libertine's website.  The fact that this is an odd mix does not mean this wine is, in any way, off putting or weird.  It is not. I cannot imagine anyone not liking this who enjoys rose. There are a number of such co-fermentations, sometimes with much more peculiar combinations of grapes, out there. Sometimes they veer toward red, other times are more obviously rosé. Once upon a time it was considered a BAD thing to mix red and white grapes (even though it was often done traditionally). These days orthodoxy isn't king and we are seeing more creative blends.

Even though it isn't traditional this co-fermentation makes sense. You get bright fruit from dolcetto but not much in the way of acid. Of course riesling BRINGS the acid. Riesling is one of the white grapes with the highest acidity. There is a lot of fruit here. One drinker thought it was sweet but that is likely the fruit masquerading as sweetness. The acid might cover a little but there isn't more than a small amount of sugar even if it is there.

Riesling gets its due. People who know realize it is one of the premiere grapes for white wine. Dolcetto is often regarded as a poor stepchild of the more famous reds from Piedmont.  This is unfair. Not every wine needs to be something you save for 20 years, nor does every wine have to rip your head of with its tannins.  Maybe wines like this will get people interested in their more traditional counterparts.

by Patrick Ogle

Chardonnay may seem a little out of place on a website called "surprising wines." It might seem more appropriate on a site called "ubiquitous wines." Chardonnay is everywhere. Cheap bottles and blends for under $10 a bottle abound, as do well crafted high end wines. It would be easy to find a Chardonnay that cost more than my last car.

What makes this wine interesting is both the location, Oregon, and the approach used making it. It is a natural wine that recalls different versions of classic Chardonnay without being identical to them.
 
Many people will be able to identify this wine with a sniff. It screams Chardonnay. After so many years of smelling and tasting various Chardonnay I have lost the ability to describe this "scream" but I know what it isn't here--overwhelming oak and over done malolactic fermentation (which gives that buttery taste).

This Statera, 2016, Corral Creek Vineyard Chelahem Chardonnay, is a pure expression of Chardonnay with orchard fruit, a bit of peach and bit of pear overlaid with a strong acidity. Maybe some honeydew melon. One adjective
that kept creeping into my head while drinking this was "spectacular." This was one of those times where it was hard to not just enjoy the wine and dispense with description and comparison.

When you think of unoaked chardonnay you may think of moderately priced Chablis and other Chardonnay that can be stark and citrusy. You might describe this as having citrus and starkness but the wine also has body and depth. None of this wine's characteristics overwhelm the others. 

This wine was created, crafted with a clear philosophy. First off one ofthe winemakers, Luke Wylde, views oak as an additive. No oak at all here but still a wine with complexity. This is a wine that we hang the natural wine tag on but it is as much a throwback to winemakers who wanted wines to be a product of terroir. Terroir refers to the unique combination of weather, climate, soil, elevation etc in the area where the grapes grow. 

Oregan is, more and more, being seen as a Chardonnay region and one that produces a distinctive version of the wine. It isn't Northern California Chardonnay nor is it Burgundy. It is a different iteration.  Wylde and Meredith Bell are the brains behind this wine. They partly funded this project with a Kickstarter. This enabled them to hold their bottles for a year before release to the public. Often smaller producers are forced, for financial reasons, to release wine right away. The fundraiser allowed them to hold not just the first bottling but subsequent bottlings for that crucial year.

Find out more about Statera Cellars HERE.