The Auswine Forum

After a particularly brutal options game at a tasting night I have decided revenge is a wine best served after it has had time be forgotten at the back of the cellar: given ample time to mature, but not so long as the rancio flavours have started to emerge.

To that end, for our next little gathering for which I am the responsible (if that is the correct word), I am planning a tasting night for which I plan to present NO standard/common varieties. The general rules of engagement of our standard tasting nights are that the average bottle price for the night should be under $30, and that the majority of wines presented should be relatively easy to acquire - just in case people decide they like it enough to hunt it down.

So, have you come across an uncommon variety in your tastings of the current vintage? Or perhaps a variety that has been treated in an uncommon way.

Some while ago there was a thread about the names of tasting groups. For the record, ours follows Iron Chef practice. We have "Battles" -- Battle Pinot Noir, Battle Vintage, Battle Terroir and so on.

(I'm not thinking specifically the latest vintage, but)

Cascabel Tempranillo Graciano
Bleasdale Malbec
Pirramimma Petit Verdot
Hewitson Mermaids Muscadelle
Chambers Gouais
Chalk Hill Barbera
D'Arenberg Sticks and Stones
Chain of Ponds Novello Nero (Sangiovese Grenache Barbera)
Fettler's Rest Gewurztraminer (or Piper's Brook, Delatite)
Arneis (Garry Crittenden or Pizzini)
Blue Imperial (Morris, Chambers etc)
Warrabilla Durif (or Morris, Westend, Casella)
Longwood Nebbiolo
Taylor's Pinot Noir (so far from a normal expression of pinot that if served blind it could easily get people)
Tahbilk Marsanne (preferably aged)
Tahbilk Roussanne
Yalumba Y Viognier
McWilliams Mt Pleasant Shiraz Pinot (I forget the name)
St Hallett GST
Brown Bros Dolcetto and Syrah
Pinotage would be great if you can find it, but it would have to be imported
Primo Moda or Lenswood the Palatine is a bit interesting - normal varieties but some raisined grapes.

Kieran

Kieran wrote:Warrabilla Durif (or Morris, Westend, Casella)

Gotta stay clear of the Durif. One of the crowd hails from near Rutherglen and would pick a Durif from the other side of the room.

The Tahbilk Marsanne is on the list.
I also have an Ondec in mind although the vineyard momentarily escapes me.

Seppelt at GW have some ondenc I think.

A good one would be Gapsted petit manseng. It's an off-dry white wine and although not a great wine it has a deal of acid. It might even age reasonably well, or at least hold on. Could be perfect for these purposes.

b.

David

Maybe using the "battle" terminology leads to "brutal" (read ridiculous) Options nights

Better off banning your Options organiser from ever running another one as the best form of revenge in my view, rather than continuing the obscure theme !!


regards
Chris

We had a Tinta Cao based red served to us last week. Brutal options wine. The bottle in question was the Yarra Yering Dry Red no 3...

Although they are hard to get, consider oddities like Domain Day Lagrein, and doesnt one of the Adelaide Hills wineries make a Trollinger? I'm sure I've seen Saperavi and Tannat around the traps as well.

Pinotage is good, and no one has mentioned Sangiovese or Tempranillo yet.

AB

Hahndorf Hill in the adelaide hills make a lemberger. It isn't bad.

Goes well with a serve of fries I believe.

b.

ChrisH wrote:David

Maybe using the "battle" terminology leads to "brutal" (read ridiculous) Options nights

regards
Chris

Brutal was probably.. no definitely a poor choice of words.

We use "battle" in the same sense as is used in Iron Chef, two chefs prepare a number of dishes trying to bring out the essence of the theme ingredient. So a Battle Pinot might have a range of new vs old world pinots, young vs old. Battle Oak looked at similar wines with different oak treatments.

None of us have particularly large budgets, or fine tuned taste-buds. What we all have is a desire to learn more, and to broaden our tasting experiences - to discover what we like and/or don't like. While the idea for an obscure variety battle may have started out as options revenge - in reality it is simply an excuse for all of us to try varieties that most of us have never had before in pleasant company.

I would imagine that at their core, most tasting groups have the "tasting wine in pleasant company" as part of their modus operandi.

Pizzini Arneis 2003, no-one will get that one!

Cheers

Grant,
Ring the Kraanwood winery in the Coal River, Tas. They make one of Australia's only Schonberger wines. A grape so obscure no-one will guess - if they've heard of it at all.

Curiously, my dinner group has exactly the same theme for our October dinner - 'less well-known varieties'. Effectively, this probably just excludes the Big 8 (cabernet, chardonnay, shiraz, riesling, sauv b, merlot, semillon, pinot) but we don't set price limits - usually in the hope it'll inspire someone to bring a Chateau Lafite. Maybe we'll get a top-line Barolo or something....fat chance!

cheers,
Graeme

Add to my list:

Best's Pinot Meunier
Ballandean Late Harvest Sylvaner
I think someone in Tasmania does a Muller-Thurgau or something, but the review I read suggested it was pretty dire.
Cassegrain Chambourcin
Any worthwhile Crouchens or Chenins around?
Settlement Wine Company 1997 Pinot Noir (from Langhorne Creek). Utterly unpickable.
Some sort of Cabernet Franc.
Shiraz/Sangiovese (Coriole or Primo)
Primo La Biondina Colombard
Hewitson Old Garden Mourvedre
Gamay - Bass Phillip or Sorrenberg
Cab Franc Icewine would be cool, but it would be hard to find and probably blow your budget
McWilliams Tyrian
De Bortoli Rare Dry Botrytis

Kieran

2003 Palamara "Exotica" - made from 100% Siegerrebe, a German developed variety not usually made as a varietal owing to its very strong aromatic nature.

Apparently James Halliday said in his pocket companion that it is "Australia's most exotic and unusual wine".

http://www.virtualcellardoor.com/cgi-bin/winelist.pl?palmaravineyard
http://members.ozemail.com.au/%7epalmara/Index.html

Adair

Try the Box Stallion Pinot Menieur (spelling?) most would pick it as a pinot noir

There are a couple of must haves which are really the most obscure. Cleggett wines in Langhorne Creek have two varieties that arose on their own vineyard, called Shalastin and Malian. Both are sports (mutants) of Cab Sav. They get mention in Hallidays Companion 2005, or you can see them with a few other odds and ends on my page at http://www.vinodiversity.com/rare-varietal-wines.html

Cheers

david,

There are lots of choices or options mentioned above. From an obscurity point of view they will probably do the trick but from tasting and liking it viewpoint some are ok and some Not so. Very little excitement or WOW wines.

Q:Is the tasting manily to screw the others or also to taste good wines?

A good Chateau Neuf Du Pape or a Muscadelle from France may fit the bill if taste is taken into account (or just go over the limit but be admired as well).

For just spite factor a white Zin can do the job!

sanjay

For the black art of Options Bastardry, I'd suggest:

2002 Kabminye Schliebs Block
2002 Kabminye HWG Cabernet Sauvignon
2002 Kalesske Old Vine Grenache
2002 d'Arenberg Sticks & Stones

All are quite unusual, and all are good drops to boot!

Cheers
Ian