The critics are somewhat sniffy about Vino Nobile. “The poor relation of Brunello Di Montalcino,” is how the Oxford Companion to Wine describes it. This seems a dismissive way to talk about a wine which has been around since at least the eighth century, was praised in the sixteenth as “perfect in both Winter and Summer”, and in the seventeenth was exalted as “the king of all wines”.

The consensus seems to be that the Vino Nobile lacks the finesse and elegance of its Tuscan cousins, Brunello and Chianti.  Various explanations are offered for this: Montepulciano has less limestone in its soil; its nights are warmer.  In consequence, we are told, the wine is too full and too alcoholic.   Drivel, say I.

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Now and again over the past year I have dispensed advice about buying wine during these times of economic woe. This advice was given only partly with tongue in cheek. The fact is, very many of us must now tighten our belts. Those of us who love fine wine must either drink less of it, or lower our standards, or find some way of getting the same for less money.

The third option seems the least unattractive. But what does this amount to in practice? In the case of French wine, one trick is to seek out the more obscure appellations, such as Quincy or Monthelie or St. Aubin, whose better examples are almost indistinguishable from their more famous (and much costlier) neighbours – respectively Sancerre, Volnay and Puligny-Montrachet.  But there is another strategy. Read the rest of this entry »

A decidedly unfashionable grape, Riesling.  A century ago it was held in much higher esteem.  In those days Hocks – Rhenish Rieslings – were better known than white Burgundies, and they commanded higher prices.  Nowadays the only people still keen on Riesling live in Riesling-growing areas.  The rest of the world has lost interest.  Contemporary taste favours wines that are heavily oaked and super-strong.  Riesling can be neither.

There may be one other reason for the grape’s low popularity.  With two or three years’ bottle-age, Riesling acquires a curious odour, often likened to petrol or kerosene.  This is caused by a flavour compound called 1,1,6-trimethyl-1,2-dihydronaphthalene, more commonly known as TDN.  Read the rest of this entry »

A puttonyio is a Hungarian hod.  Puttonyios means not “hods” but “hodded”.  So a 5 Puttonyios Aszu is a five-hodded Aszu.  I trust that makes everything clear.  It doesn’t?   Let me try again.  Aszu (pronounced rather like a sneeze) is Hungarian for “dried out” or “shrivelled.”  The word refers to grapes affected by botrytis, the “noble rot” that produces the world’s finest sweet wines.  A Tokaji Aszu is therefore a sweet Tokaji made from noble rot grapes, as opposed to a dry Tokaji (they do exist) or a sweet Tokaji made by some other method (they exist too, apparently). Read the rest of this entry »