Last month we suggested that you try a wine from a not so well known wine region every once in a while. So, here are some suggestions for wine regions that can be worth discovering (and that merit more attention from wine lovers):
Chenin blanc, but primarily the dry white wines from the middle Loire Valley (they often have more personality than the South African versions, even if they can be good too). For example: Vouvray, Savennières or quite simply a dry white Anjou. One of the most underrated white grape varieties.
Red wines from the south west of France, le Sud-Ouest, with the two major districts Madiran and Cahors. Powerful wines that in modern winemakers’ hands also has lots of fruit and flavour.
Jurançon. Jura-what? No. Jurançon is a small district on the edge of France towards Spain, not far from the Atlantic Ocean. They make wonderful white wines, quite full-bodied with a very refreshing acidity from the grapes petit manseng and gros manseng. They come in both dry and sweet versions. You must try a dry one. Excellent and original.
Jura. Yes, why not also mention Jura, a mountainous region in eastern France. Know for its vins jaunes (yellow wines) made in an oxidative way reminiscent of sherry (with flor). But they also make “normal” white wines from chardonnay and savagnin. They too often have a hint of the nutty sherry style, but not as much. Perfect with a gruyere cheese or the local comté.
Sherry. Let’s jump to sherry then. A hidden gem. Above all the magnificent dry fino and manzanilla, and the somewhat more full-bodied amontillado. Make sure you serve it very dry and well chilled, to, for example appetizers (tapas, of course) or perhaps a flavoursome starter, say smoked salmon or gravlax. (Or have it on its own a sunny summer afternoon.)
Greece, but forget the resiny retsinas and look for one of the small and ambitious quality producers. You can even find excellent white wines (albeit reds are more common) from e.g. the assyrtiko grape. We’ve written about them before here.
Austria: Supposedly a very trendy wine country at the moment but wine lovers seem not yet to have discovered it. A great pity since they make excellent whites from gruner veltliner and other grapes. (see more further down)
Lombardy: a neighbouring district to Piedmont, not at all as well known. They also make splendid reds from for example the nebbiolo grape.
Galicia in north-west Spain, which is virtually the origin of the albariño grape, producing interesting and refreshing whites (see more on the grape further down).
Or if you prefer to be more classic and less exotic:
“Petits châteaux” in Bordeaux: Put the “great” châteaux, costing a fortune, to the side and look for smaller, less well known producers. There are many that make excellent wines, both reds and indeed whites that are good value for money in the range of €5-20. E.g. in Premières Côtes de Bordeaux, Entre-deux-Mers, Graves (not Péssac-L), Côtes de Bourg etc.
The southern Rhône Valley: “simple” Côtes du Rhône is a big district and there is a wealth of good producers making wine at a fraction of the price of the famous Rhône appellations (forget Cote Rotie, Hermitage, Chateauneuf… for the moment). You can also try some of the lesser-known appellations such as Vacqueyras, Gigondas and Costières de Nîmes, or simply the Cotes du Rhones.
And this is just a few suggestions. There are many more.
The only challenge with this is that you need to know which producers to choose. Not all wine producers in (for example) Greece are worth your attention. You have to choose your supplier/wine producer with care. But you already read the BKWine Brief (and no doubt other recommendations) so you’re well on your way to finding new discoveries. We try and help you find the most interesting wines instead of the run-of-the-mill producers.
We also try and help you find the best producers more literally, which leads me to our wine tours. We put a great deal of attention into choosing which producers to include on our tours. (And we’re there on the tours ourselves, and we certainly don’t want to go to any not-so-interesting places.) It’s easy to find a producer to visit but it’s not obvious that it will be a good visit (just like it’s easy to buy a bottle of wine, but requires a bit more of attention to make sure it’s good). We visit both of us (both Britt and Per) some 200 wineries each every year. (We sat down and counted and, yes, that’s about the right number.) And then we meet perhaps as many other producers on wine fairs, tastings etc. And we taste perhaps some 3-4000 wines in a year. So we have a bit of research to lean on when we plan our tours.
Take a look on the autumn program further down.
Britt & Per
