A thoroughly mixed up wine

This is Vino della Pace - or Wine of Peace, which is a project of Luigi Soini of the Cantina Prouttori Cormons. A vineyard was started in 1983 along the River Isonzo, in which was planted some 600+ varieties of vines donated from all over the world; the Vineyard of the World. The first harvest was in 1985, producing 3120 bottles (0.75L) of this Wine of Peace. This was repeated every year since then, with the growing season dictating the production which varies between some 6500 to a bumper 16000 bottles. The web site contains the list of different varieties of grapes growing in the vineyard, which runs to nearly 3 pages of 3 columns per page. Three labels were commissioned each year from artists - two of the three were on show at the wine fair this year. The promotion says that the above vintage is a blend of 838 varietals. My wife and I went and had a taste of course, but I don't suppose JC will let us count them in our Wine Century proformas!

Erste Lage for Austrian Wines

Austria is in the process of developing its own Erste Lage classification. Like the German system, it is at present only a system of the  Association of Austrian Traditional Wine Estates (Traditionsweinguter Osterreich) and it is very new. The first classification was in 2010, when 52 vineyards were designated Erste Lage. The classification was revised this year, with the number of sites increasing to 62. Like the German Grosses Gewachs designation, only wines made from two grape varieties can qualify - Riesling and Gruner Veltliner. Like GG, it is for dry wines. The logo is the figure 1 with O umlaut WT and I saw the above bottle at this year's Wine Fair. Scheiben is an Erste Lage vineyard in the commune of Fels am Wagram.

Fortified Cabernet for the Tsar

This is Livadia Red Port, a fortified Cabernet Sauvignon made for the Imperial Russian Court since 1891. First made in the Imperial Estate at Livadia, the wine is made from Cabernet Sauvignon grown at Livadia (one of the Tsar's Crimean palaces as well as wineries), Massandra and Ai-Danil. The grapes are harvested at no less than 22% sugar. After fermentation is stopped by fortification, the wine is then matured in casks for 3 years. The wine tasted at this year's Wine Fair was the 2008 vintage. Ruby red with a sweet spirity fruity nose, the wine was sweet and fruity on the palate with acid slightly tannic but still sweet backbone to support it to the finish.

Pino de Bali

This is a mistelle from Bali; made in the mould of Pineau de Charentes (hence the name), but with local spirits (origin not specified) muting Alphonse Lavalle grape juice. The mixture then undergoes maturation in a Solera of French, American and Hungarian oak barrels, a departure from the usual way of making Pineau de Charentes. They have two versions, a white and a red version; this is the red one. I suppose some form of skin maceration is done for colour extraction. As for the wine, it was tea coloured with pink tints, with a porty vine fruit nose. The raisiny profile carried through the sweet palate to a sweet acid finish, with some nutty notes in the tail. Actually not bad at all.

Humagne Rouge

This is a bottle of Humagne Rouge from Valais. As we have noted before, the Prime Name of the grape is Cornalin d'Aosta, which has the potential to cause confusion with the Cornalin which is Rouge de Pays. I had a wine made from this grape some years ago, at a Swiss wine tasting jointly organized by the KCC Wine Society and the Hong Kong Wine Society. I had the above example at the doctors' association dinner that I organized a couple of months ago, which featured Rhone wines (including Swiss Rhone ones). Purple ruby and with a sweet jammy fruity nose, the palate was similarly sweet but a little less jammy and fruity, giving an unfortunate impression of dilution. An acid backbone provided support and structure.

1996

To finish this little miniseries, we will look at 1996, which was a very good year for Champagne, clarets, red and white Burgundies, Loire (especially botrytised sweet wines) and Alsace. It was an outsatnding vintage for Sauternes, giving the richest and most complex wines since 1990. Rhone had a good vintage, but the wines were variable, especially in the Southern Rhone. Outside of France, there was a very good vintage in Italy and Spain as well as Australia and New Zealand. The growing season was a touch too dry for Germany, although some elegant ageworthy wine still managed to be produced, including some superb Eiswein. It was good for California too, but 1996 tended to be overlooked being sandwiched between the superb 1995 and 1997 vintages. The wines for Chile, Argentina and South Africa are also quite good for 1996.