4

C

an’t keep up with all the new and obscure

grape varieties crowding your favourite bar or

indie wine merchant? I’m here to help. Tuck

these five names away in your memory bank

for the next time you’re scanning the list or browsing

the shelves, and you’ll feel like a true wine adventurer.

PINEAU D’AUNIS

This red grape from France’s Loire Valley is particularly

popular with sommeliers at the moment, partly because

it produces wines in the fashionable medium-bodied,

juicy style – with plenty of wild berry, undergrowthy

flavour – and partly because some of the most revered

natural-wine producers, such as Thierry Puzelat of Clos

du Tue-Boeuf, use it.

A couple of years ago, young winemaker Julien

Pineau became co-owner of the legendary Clos Roche

Blanche vineyard – the site of some of the best pineau

d’Aunis vines in the Loire – and now uses those

grapes to make a wine called Les Sucettes à l’Aunis,

a particularly wild and undergrowthy example. If you

like pinot noir or gamay, try pineau d’Aunis.

TROUSSEAU

Another sommelier favourite, trousseau hails from the

trendy Jura region of eastern France, where, like pineau

d’Aunis in the Loire, it makes wines that are medium-

bodied but by no means lacking in juicy berry flavour

and bracing acidity. In Portugal, the same grape goes by

the name of bastardo (presumably because it can be a bit

difficult to grow and ripen fully), and it’s under this

name that cuttings made their way to Australia many

years ago, where the variety has most often been used

to make port, blended with other grapes like touriga.

Recently, a few Australian producers such as

Stoney Rise in Tasmania, Lucy Margaux in the

Adelaide Hills and Amato Vino in Margaret River

Baled by the obscure grape varieties

turning up on wine lists everywhere?

MAX ALLEN has you covered.

have started producing very good light-to-medium-

bodied dry red wines from the grape on its own, and

they’ve labelled their wines trousseau. Again, this

variety offers a good alternative for gamay-lovers.

TEROLDEGO

A native of the Trentino region in northern Italy,

teroldego is genetically related to both syrah and

lagrein, another grape from Trentino that’s been

grown by a few Australian producers for a while now.

Knowing this about teroldego’s past helps give you

a good idea of what it’s like in the glass: like lagrein,

it makes wine with a beautiful saturated purple colour

and grippy tannin, and like syrah it has supple black

fruit and sometimes spicy perfume.

If you want to try teroldego from its homeland, look

for the wines of Foradori, arguably the outstanding

producer of the variety. A handful of local producers

also grow and make teroldego, the best being Amato

Vino and Blue Poles in Margaret River. It should

appeal to people who can’t decide whether they want

to drink an elegant cabernet or a cool-climate shiraz.

MAMMOLO

One of the most exciting current trends in red wine is

the interest in little-known grape varieties grown on the

Mediterranean islands of Sardinia and Corsica. One

variety that does particularly well on the latter island

is mammolo. It originated in Tuscany, where it was

traditionally valued for its floral perfume and blended

with the more robust sangiovese grape to make Chianti.

On Corsica, mammolo is known as sciacarello,

which means “crunchy” – and this gives you an idea of

Opposite,

from left: Les

Sucettes à

l’Aunis, Koerner

Mammolo

Sciacarello,

and Vinkara

Öküzgözü.

2016 Port Phillip

Estate Balnarring

Pinot Noir, Mornington

Peninsula, $38

This silky, supple wine

and its Red Hill sibling

(also $38) are amazing

value. You’d expect to

pay twice as much for

wines of this calibre.

portphillipestate.com.au

2013 Catherine et

Pierre Breton Nuits

d’Ivresse, Bourgueil,

Loire Valley, $40

Exceptional medium-

bodied cabernet franc:

crunchy, bright, juicy and

nervy – delicious.

Imported by george@

georgemccullough

imports.com

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54 GOURMET TRAVELLER