Tuesday, 3 January 2012

Another wine dinner featuring alternative grapes


This was a PWC wine dinner we had last week. The group had been having dinners in the week between Xmas and New Year since 2005. Of the past 7 dinners, 4 have taken unusual grapes as their theme, a "tradition" started in 2007, at the end of the same month that we had the Ch Lafite dinner. (The break was in 2008 when we sampled the delights of the Australina wines classified by Langtons.) One wine missed the line-up as one of the participants (who arrived later) supplied it, a Blauer Zweigelt from Austria.

The white wines included a four-grape blend featuring Inzolia and Catarratto, the two most planted white grapes of Sicily as well as a Spanish wine made from an Italian crossing by Prof Manzoni, Manzoni Bianco. Apart from Zweigelt, we had St-Laurent (from Germany rather than Austria), Tintilia and a Corsican blend from Neillucio and Sciacarello. Dessert wines included the fortified Bastardo I had blogged about as well as something not so unusual, a Canadian ice wine from Vidal. The Champagne was the undoubted star of the night as this varietal champagne is one of a kind, made from Arbane grapes. More on this special wine will require another tidbit.

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