U-G-L-Y, you ain’t got no alibi, you’re UGLY!!!
I don’t mean YOU you, but this or that wine label…
As you may or may not know, I purchase wines for The Wine Library across many different categories - all are located in the Old World - Italy, select parts of France, Portugal, Austria, Hungary, Greece, etc. And as you might expect, the WINE ITSELF is always the primary factor determining whether I purchase a wine for the shop or not, but as you also might expect, quality to price ratio, type of wine, continuity of supply, etc. are all considerable factors as well. But when I tell friends and customers that wine LABELS are an important factor in ultimately saying “yes” or “no” to wine, many say “Really”? and I always say “Oh, yes”!
Think about it…One wine’s label has a beautiful etching of an idyllic chateau with elegant, colorful lettering all printed on a fine, bone-colored paper stock. Another’s label is a thin, shiny, plasticized material written in a goofy, awkward font (which is smearing and scuffed), and depicts a dead bird. OK, admittedly a hyberbolic pair of examples, but there are indeed wines that I have eventually rejected not JUST because of a hideous label, but if a wine is (let’s say) DELICIOUS, and fairly priced, but is hopelessly obscure or is a proprietary blend (they are harder to sell), and the label is AWFUL, I probably will NOT buy that wine for our shelves. In my mind, a bottle of wine either does or does not reach a certain sales-oriented “critical mass” that will either tip the drinker to buy or not buy a wine, and the nature and appearance of a wine’s label figures prominently in that equation…
As the line from the old commercial goes: “You never get a second chance to make a first impression”, and this works in spades for wine labels. I have seen on more than one occasion a customer lift up a bottle to more closely examine/read it, see what I always thought to be an UGLY label, wrinkle his or her nose and scowl, and put the bottle back in place. And while I can’t PROVE that the label caused the rejection, it stands to reason that not much else COULD have - they didn’t just taste the wine and dislike it, so it couldn’t have been that, and they were initially attracted enough to the grape variety, or the wine’s place of origin, or even the wine’s price point, to take that closer look but STILL did not purchase the wine. Once again, there is hardly a guaranteed and ironclad connection, but the aesthetics of a wine’s label at least indirectly represents what many people believe about what they can expect from the bottle’s contents. Right or wrong, this is the calculus…
So, I like to think that I haven’t bought a slew of HIDEOUSLY-labelled wines, but just like there are wines that I reject BECAUSE of their labels, there have been more than a few that I have indeed purchased DESPITE their aesthetically-challenged appearances. Here are a few OUTSTANDING wines that don’t get the attention that they deserve due to their ugly duckling looks. All of these wine are beautiful where it really counts - on the INSIDE, so give these something-less-than-covergirl packages a chance to open up and reveal their highly charming personalities on your table…
TOM CIOCCO
Refosco - A thick plank in Friuli’s red wine platform
The Friuli Venezia Giulia region in Italy’s extreme northeast is often crowned with the laurel of “Italy’s finest white wine region” and it PROBABLY is (though Campania might put up a REAL good fight in the final game), but Friuli possesses just as many unique and noble red varieties, and though it seems perpetually ready to be acknowledged for that fact, thus far, the fanfare has not come. So to push Friuli’s status, let’s have a look at what is probably Friuli’s most important red grape variety, REFOSCO!
The name Refosco, in most cases, is an incomplete one. The name of the grape that is most often used to make the finest “Refosco” wines in Friuli is most completely named “Refosco dal Penduncolo Rosso” which means “Refosco with the red stem”, though it seems quite clear why most winemakers, drinkers, critics, etc. use the shortened version - the name Refosco is trouble enough for some folks…As with so many ancient varieties, there has been a considerable amount of both natural mutation as well as human-induced cross-breeding that has left the contemporary Refosco family with several “siblings”. As implied above, Refosco dal Penduncolo Rosso is considerd to be the most “noble” member of the family, but there are Refosco varieties that have normal, old green stems, as well as a Croatian/Slovenian branch of the family that goes by the name of “Teran” in the former country, and as “Refosk” in the latter. Unfortuantely, in many cases, in both places, red- and non-red-stemmed Refosco vines are planted side by side in the same vineyards. Further, Refosco is cultivated a bit in neighboring Veneto under the name “Terrano”, as well as a step further south in the Romagna region under the name “Cagnina”. And perhaps not unexpectedly the noble red stem variety and the lesser clones and cousins are found cheek by jowl in both of these locations as well. And just in case you’re not yet completely confused, the even rarer “Mondeuse” variety from the Jura region in France has been proven to be none other than Refosco, though precisely how and when it got to the Jura is lost to history.
Refosco dal Penduncolo Rosso seems to have, judging by references made to what is almost surely the same variety, a very long history in Friuli. The earliest references to the variety were made by the Roman historian Pliny the Elder in which he refers to a black-skinned grape with a red stem that produces good wine and which was the favorite wine grape of Livia, Augustus Caesar’s second wife. Later, in an early renaissance work entitled The Annals of Friuli published in 1390 by one Francesco di Manzano, the author also makes reference to a variety that is almost surely RdPR.
The latest genetic data on Refosco has shown that it is the parent of another northeastern vine variety called Marzemino. And while it is said that the apple never falls far from the tree (or the grape from the vine), the two varieties are not exactly identical, or even fraternal twins. RdPR ripens very late making it quite prone to early-onset cold weather in the autumn. On the upside however, the vine is highly resistant to rot and molds that rainy autumns can bring. Refosco is also quite adaptable in terms of preferred terrain, it being equally comfortable in both hilly and flat vineyard sites.
RdPR produces wines that are decidedly more acidic than tannic, and because of its natural paucity of tannins, many producers have experimented with aging Refosco in small, new oak barrels though unlike another northern Italian acidic variety Barbera, Refosco seems not to be able to carry the oaking as well as Barbera does, so many winemakers have abandoned its use. RdPR’s color leans toward an almost purple-black garnet. It is a medium to full-bodied wine that most often shows aromas and flavors of dark fruits like blackberry, black cherry, plum, and spices.
Due to Refosco’s high acidity levels, it is very much a “food wine” (hell, almost every Italian wine is a “food wine”) and pairs very well with all types of rich foods, but it makes an especially felicitous match with grilled pork sausages, dishes that prominently feature mushrooms, especially the more “exotic” varieties, polenta al ragu`, and poultry stewed in dark, rich sauces.
As always, if ayone picks up any of the wines on offer below, please post your tasting notes here as comments.
TOM CIOCCO
Put him on THE RACK!
Sorry, I couldn’t resist. But all jesting aside, THIS sort of racking, and THAT sort of racking do have one thing in common: they both separate one thing from something else, in the former case it is sediment from wine, while in the latter, it’s limbs from torso. Let’s stick to discussing the former meaning, shall we?
So as I said, the term “racking” refers to siphoning off wine from the sediments that inevitably settle in the bottom of barrels of aging wine, usually from one barrel into another, or from barrel to stainless steel tank, back to the original barrel (after the barrel has been cleaned of the unwanted sediments of course). This activity usually occurs for the first (and perhaps only) time just after fermentation and maceration (soaking the grape skins in the newly formed wine to extract color from the skins). Effecting racking just post fermentation/maceration is done primarily to separate the wine from the lees (a collective word that encompasses all of the large solids that fermentation causes, i.e. dead yeasts, bits of grape skin, seeds, etc.) There is however a second and third benefit to racking, namely the aerating effects that the process brings to the table which in the case of red wines, helps the finished-wine-in-training to set and retain a deeper color, as well a way to diminish the possibility of reduction (look toward the bottom of the page) and the odor problems that this flaw carries with it. With all of these benefits, it is no wonder that there are almost no wineries that do not do at least one racking.
In cooler winemaking climes, a second racking is frequently employed to remove tartrates (soildified and percipitated tannins) that cold northern (or deeply southern, south of the equator) cellars often bring about. Further, there are cellarmasters who perform one last racking as cellar temperatures rise in the spring into summer, this to prevent any off flavors that might develop as a result of the extra heat working on the particulate matter still present in the aging wine.
For the sake of clarity (no pun intended), there are wine makers that do very little racking, usually only the first round, and then go on to filter (oddly enough, with filters) and/or “fine” (a sort of specialized filtering that is done with particular substances like egg whites and eisenglas [a substance made from fish bladders]). The de-emphasis of any kind of racking/filtering/fining is most commonly encountered in the New World where greater density and concentration are more highly-prized characteristics than in Europe where the tendency is toward lighter, more nuanced wines. Winemakers that eschew fining and filtering believe that such invasive properties do a certain violence to the wine, and consequently efface winemaking and/or terroir subtleties. Those winemakers that hold to these tenets believe that multiple rackings confer all of the best aspects of fining/filtering without any of the drawbacks, PLUS things (like aeration) that fining and filtering cannot do at all. And so they rack on…
Racking is a process that has been utilized since the Middle Ages if not before, and it has become rightfully canonized into the plethora of techniques that 99% of modern winemakers use. Racking is such a direct and simple process, that it belies it’s great importance in winemaking…just like so many things in life, no?
TOM CIOCCO
What’s in a name? - A serious list of funny vine monikers
What does the word “Grenache” mean? What about “Malbec”? “Chardonnay”? As far as I know, these vine variety names don’t “mean” anything, or perhaps they did once, but the roots of the meanings of these names may now be lost to time. There are some vine varieties that do still have clear etymological antecedents. “Tannat” clearly refers to the variety’s seriously tannic nature. The “Sauvignon” part of Cabernet, Blanc, etc. is an old way of saying “smells or tastes of the vine”. The name “Albana” refers to a white variety from Emilia-Romagna that clearly refers to the Italian word “alba” (dawn), likening the grape’s color and freshness to the turn of a new day.
There are some varieties however whose names are more than anything else, are playful or downright funny . Here’s a decidedly incomplete list. I’ve listed the grape name, the variety’s country of origin, and the meaning and/or background story in English
Cacamosca - Italy - “Fly Shit” - So named because at full ripeness, this variety’s berries take on a black speckling.
Borrado de Moscas - Portugal - Surprisingly, also means “fly shit” - presumably for the same reason as above.
Esgana Cao - Portugal - “Dog Choker” - The variety is sour enough to choke a dog.
Bastardo - Portugal - Self-explanatory
Arneis - Italy - In the Piedmontese dialect Arneis means “fussy” or “pain in the ass” in the figurative sense
Okuzgozu - Turkey - Every vowel has an umlaut, BTW - Means “cow’s eye” in Turkish.
Xinomavro - Greece - Means “bitter black” in Greek.
Negroamaro - Italy - Means “bitter black” in Italian - To my knowledge, these varieties are genetically unrelated.
Juhfark - Hungary - Means “sheep’s tail” in Hungarian.
Agiorghitiko (a-yor-YEE-tee-ko) - Greece - Literally means “St. George”.
Gros Plant - France - Means “big plant”.
Cagnina - Italy - This is a good one…means “little bitch”. Don’t know if this is a canine or human reference…
Espadeiro - Portugal - “swordsman”.
Grillo - Italy - Means “cricket” (the insects).
Joao de Santarem - Portugal - Literally means “John from Santarem”…maybe a little like calling it “Frank from Omaha” in English.
Maria Gomes - Portugal - This is a proper name and surname…like calling a grape “Mary Jones”.
Pagadebit - Italy - Literally means “debt payer” because of the variety’s naturally high yields.
Picapoll (in Catalan) or Picpoul (in French) - Means “lip stinger” due to the variety’s high acidity levels.
Piedirosso - Italy - Means “red feet” for its ability to stain - especially feet…
Tazzelenghe - Italy - This is a good one too - means “tongue ripper” due to the variety’s wines’ harshness in their youth.
Pignolo - Italy - Means “stickler”. The vine presents a number of great challenges to those that choose to grow it.
Schiava - Italy - Literally translated means “female slave”. Not going there…
Tinta Cao - Portugal - “Dog red” - It’s actually a very GOOD variety…
Uva Rara - Italy - Means “rare grape”. And while this is a very interesting grape, it is anything but rare.
There are probably lots of other varieties whose names means in their native languages actually “mean” something (funny)…I KNOW that I’ve missed some…If anyone knows of any other strangely name grape varieties, post ‘em!
TOM CIOCCO
Xarel-lo - Blanc Catalan
The WHAAAAT?! I bet lots of you think I’m making this one up, or maybe you’re mumbling to yourselves that you didn’t realize that there were any vineyards on Mars, but I assure you that this IS the name of a real grape variety…
Let’s get the pronunciation out of the way first - the name is pronounced “Charrel LO”, and the grape is native to Catalonia (the Alella [where the vine is known as Pansa Blanca] and Penedes regions especially) in northeastern Spain, and not surprisingly, the name is Catalan too. It is a white-skinned variety.
If anyone has had any contact with this grape in any form, it would be via Catalonia’s super-value, champagne-method sparkler, Cava. Along with Xarel-lo, Cava most often includes two other native Catalan/Spanish varieties, namely Parellada and and Macabeu, which is none other than the more familiarly named Viura, Rioja’s workhorse white variety.
Xarel-lo is a strapping lad (or lass). It is both highly vigorous (lots of foliage), and highly productive (lots of fruit), so to get the best from it, growers have to prune back both the leaves to expose the fruit to more sun (but too much leaf-thinning is dangerous in the blazing Catalan sun), as well as a fair amount of green harvesting (cutting off unripe bunches to intensify a vine’s fruit production). Another of Xarel-lo’s pecadillos is its almost freakishly early bud-break date, which can put an entire crop in jeopardy if the season’s Spring is particularly cold.
In the glass, Xarel-lo usually shows good weight and body, but with a balancing acidity that helps the grape avoid flabbiness. The flavor/aroma profile of Xarel-lo skews toward notes of peach, apricot, almond, and a certain dried wildflowers/dried grass quality.
Xarel-lo wines pair well with poultry and richer, white-fleshed dishes, especially ones prepared with herbs and/or cream sauces.
As I began the piece, varietally bottled Xarel-lo is not a common bottle to turn up, but more and more producers are bottling it still (not sparkling) and unblended, like the one below…As always, if you grab a bottle of this (or any other!) Xarel-lo, please post your tasting notes here…
TOM CIOCCO
