There is a vast range of new grape varieties out there just waiting
to be discovered. Fiona Sims encourages us to broaden our horizons
A couple of days before Christmas I went to
St Albans for lunch - not the town, the London restaurant. If you don't already know it, you soon will. It's the latest eatery from the boys who opened Le Caprice and the Ivy.
Yes, it was wall-to-wall A-listers (I found myself sandwiched between Ralph Fiennes and Melvyn Bragg); and the food hit the spot - nothing fancy, but well-executed. I enjoyed my wine - once they managed to send me the correct bottle. It took three goes to get it right.
In my best French (the grape hails mostly from the Swiss Valais), I ordered Petite Arvine. There's only one on the list, from Les Cretes in the Valle d'Aosta, just over the Italian border.
The first bottle that arrived was a Petit Chablis. After my request was repeated, the next bottle that arrived was also French - a Petit Manseng from the south-west (the waiter was French). After much discussion and after I had actually ringed the wine on the list with a biro, the correct bottle finally arrived.
The main problem was that my (three) waiters hadn't heard of Petite Arvine. OK, so they should be familiar with the wines on their list but the restaurant had only been open for two weeks (I'm not that cruel). Anyway, Petite Arvine isn't seen on wine lists that often. I happened to be familiar with this particular Petite Arvine because I had visited the producer a few months before - Les Cretes, owned by pioneering winemaker Costantino Charrère (available from Les Caves de Pyrene 01483 538820).
The Valle d'Aosta is hardly the Barossa - the long, narrow valley in the rugged north-west is Italy's smallest region and with its steep Alpine slopes it looks more suited to the grazing of animals than to growing vines. But the Swiss-born Petite Arvine does particularly well here, giving the wines a nervy acidity and elegant minerality.
Hundreds of varieties
Apart from this region and the Valais in Switzerland, and odd experimental rows in the US, Petite Arvine is unlikely to grab more than a small slice of the global wine action.
OK, so there are only about nine grape varieties that make most of the wines on our shelves. But there are hundreds of grape varieties out there, and some of those are now registering as bigger blips on our wine radars - grapes such as Torrontés, Albariño and Nero d'Avola. Do you have any on your list yet?
I guess you've already got your heads around Malbec - Argentina's star red grape. It's the country's most-planted premium variety and the wines are far riper, softer and sexier than their Cahors counterparts.
Gaining restaurant listings
But what about Torrontés? It's Argentina's white speciality and picking up restaurant listings. As a refreshing summer wine, it's
well-placed, with its floral, Muscat-like aroma reminiscent of Gewürztraminer.
Salta, Argentina's northernmost wine region, makes my favourite wines from the grape, showing a balance of fruit and acidity that is not always found further south. Think delicate, perfumed nose with exotic fruit on the palate - for example, try those from Etchart and Michel Torino.
Albariño is another white grape gaining restaurant listings. And for obvious reasons, it packs an aromatic punch. Imagine Viognier, but lighter - all apricots and white peach, with less weight and more acidity. In Portugal's Vinho Verde region, where it's known as Alvarinho, it is lighter and more delicate, with a refreshing minerality that goes down well on a hot summer's day. The grape shines in the rainy north-west Spanish region of Galicia, where its thick skin and pergola-trained vines protect it against rot - try Pazo de Senorans and those from Martin Codax.
My favourite red grape of 2006 has to be Nero d'Avola. The Sicilian grape is attracting a lot of attention from winemakers in search of new grapes and flavours - so don't be surprised if you try one in the near future from Australia. Inky, robust and bursting with soft, juicy fruit, they age well too, especially if given a short stint in oak - try those from Planeta and Ceuso). Enjoy exploring - there's a whole world of new varieties out there to try.