New Zealand should concentrate on red wine more than it does. Plus, the secret menace!

Master of Wine Steve Smith, who is also the Director of Wine and Viticulture at Craggy Range in Hawkes Bay, was recently in the news saying that New Zealand should stop for a moment and concentrate on making its reds even better, rather than going off on all these new "fashion" varieties making the rounds (Grüner Veltliner, anyone??).

There's a lot of merit to that sentiment -New Zealand can do great reds, starting with Pinot noirs, Merlots, Syrahs and even overlooked varieties such as Malbec. As well as his mention of Craggy Range and Felton Road, some other noteworthy producers of reds in Aotearoa are Fromm Estate, Forrest Estate, Mount Difficulty, Millton Vineyard, Kumeu River, Te Mata Estate and a host of others on Waiheke Island. And in one fell swoop, I have left out loads of other wineries that produce great tasting reds on a consistent basis...

It will take more work in the vineyard to get this right, starting from the beginnings of site selection and all the rest that goes after it. But done right, and in suitable places, it should be possible to consistently produce great quality reds right here in our little patch of land in the Pacific Ocean.

Let's go to it, guys!!

However, Steve Smith also lets loose a huge cannonball, which is probably the one that should be making headlines in the eyes of viticulturists in New Zealand:

"This year would be the last for the Les Beaux Cailloux [one of their best Chardonnays, ed.] due to the onset of leaf roll virus which is threatening to spread to neighbouring vines with red grapes."

 Grapevine Leafroll associated Viruses, in particular, the Type 3 variant, are insidious beasts, which are working their way through our vines - slowly, but surely becoming something that we will have to manage much more actively in the near future.

It's primary means of spread is via mealybugs or less often, scale insects. The habitat range of mealybug in particular is spreading, and so goes Leafroll Viruses with it.

So far, there is no way to cure infected vines, so control is limited to pulling out infected vines (and often the neighboring vines as well), planting with virus-free stock, and trying to prevent the mealybug vectors from coming in again.

The latter point will be crucial for eventual effective management of the disease - much more research into how the virus and its vector(s) can be controlled is needed, and here in New Zealand conditions - we can't rely on overseas work alone.

Here's hoping that some virologists and entomologists out there and eager to take up the challenge!!

Time for a pet peeve - Capitalisation of variety names!

Bear with me here!

One thing that the popular press seems to do is not capitalise the names of grapevine varieties.

Oh, sure, Glen, "big soap-box," you say... but this does really bother me!

In New Zealand it's rampant! Editors of the Christchurch Press, and related newspapers, enjoy a glass of "riesling," for example. The editors of the Listener will extol the virtues of the latest release of "sauvignon blanc."

And it's not limited to Australasia! The New York Times also finds it difficult to capitalise these proper names.

Thankfully, more rational heads prevail at JancisRobinson.com, where the real Pinot noir will stand up and be recognised!


In scientific publications, there is an effort to do the right thing and keep the capitalisation as it should be. The American Journal of Enology and Viticulture specifies that "for varietal names, the AJEV conforms to spellings listed in
the TTB listing of approved grape names for American wines
(http://www.ttb.gov/wine/wine-faq.shtml#w9)." This kinda takes it out of their hands, but at least it's an "official" source. And the US government uses capitals!!

But what about Europeans? How do they handle it?

For that, it's best to go straight to the source - the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (the OIV, http://www.oiv.int/uk/accueil/). They publish standards for viticulture and winemaking (for a more complete listing of their responsibilities, see this page), including such titles as the "Description of wine and grape varieties throughout the world," the "OIV descriptor list for grape varieties and Vitis species," and the "International list of vine varieties and their synonyms."

The latter of these, for example, lists names, all of which start with a capital letter - as proper names should!!

When you get to binomial names, such as Pinot noir and Cabernet Sauvignon, things get a bit more complex, with some people always capitalising both, some never capitalising the second of the names, and some doing a mixture, depending on what the variety name is. The OIV document has a mixture, for example.

So, is there a golden rule for capitalisation of variety names? Well, no. Sometimes in a two-part name the second name isn't capitalised.

But the first part of the name is _always_ capitalised!

Please, editors of the world, do the right thing and capitalise the names!! After all, how do you think people would react it if someone referred to barack obama, president of the united states of america??

Keep those old varieties!

Saw this article today, courtesy TizWine:

http://www.decanter.com/news/wine-news/499095/first-tasting-of-lost-grapes-in-southwest-france

It's nice to see that just because some varieties are not in vogue at the moment, people aren't necessarily discounting their worth!

It was not that long ago that Viognier was almost grubbed out of existence, with sources commonly stating that there were as little as eight acres of the variety left in France in the mid 60s. Now it is enjoying a renaissance with the New World wine countries, including New Zealand, experimenting with the grape and becoming quite successful...

Lesser-known varieties such as Sauvignon gris and Arneis are getting a mainstream chance, with reasonably large bottlings going on and being made available commercially (via Pernod-Ricard NZ Sauvignon gris and Arneis and Forrest Estate Arneis, respectively, to name a few -both varieties are worth trying - I've had the P-R Sauv gris and the Forrest Arneis).

So kudos to those around the world that are not following the wave and replacing all of the world's grape diversity with seas of Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay!

And to complete the circle, a thank you to all of you who go out and try a bottle of all these lesser known varieties! Unless it's sold and tried, we may lose some of these cultivars forever!


NB:
For an excellent resource on varietal names, have a look at the Super Gigantic Winegrape Glossary, which was put together by Anthony J. Hawkins. Sometimes entries are very detailed, but at the least, there's some interesting information in there!

Cabernet Gernischt

One of the interesting varieties that I saw in China was this little fellow: Cabernet Gernischt. It is widely grown there, so much so, in fact, that "Jiebaina" (a phonetic equivalent to "Cabernet") has becoming a synonym for Cabernet Gernischt and blends of other Cabernets, much to Chang Yu Winery's chagrin, as they have wanted to lay claim to the name (see here for more details).

Do a search on the web and not a lot useful comes up. Wikipedia as a stub, and there are various entries by outfits selling the wine that comes from China, but there is little else available - not even my hardly-ever-fails-me Super Gigantic Y2K Grapevine Glossary, by A.J. Hawkins has an entry for it!!

Most sources agree that the variety was brought to China (ChangYu lays claim to this, in particular) in the late 1800s, and that it no longer appears to be grown in Europe. The authors of the Wikipedia entry claim that it is the same variety as Cabernet franc, but I'm not convinced about this. I tasted it while in China, and think it's sufficiently different, and as well, there is some scientific evidence that Cabernet Gernischt is not the same as Cabernet Sauvignon or Cabernet franc (see the article by Jiang et al., 2007).

I was told that the non-vintage Cabernet Gernischt is ChangYu's top selling red wine, and that they make 20,000 tonnes worth of it every vintage. That's about a sixth of their present production! I can see why - it's a very pleasant wine - not as big as a Cab Sauv, but a nice accompaniment to an every-day meal. Big less dainty than a Cab franc, but with nice fruit, spice and a hint of perfume.

There is also interest in making a lower-alcohol version of the wine, with Qingdao (better known for its beer than its wine!) coming out with a 9% alcohol version (via reverse osmosis).

Is it possible that this long-lost native of Europe could make a foray back into the West? Never say never!!