Great Obscure Wines
In the coming two decades, American wine lovers surely will face dozens of interesting wines made from grape varieties they've never heard of before, mainly as a result of climate change.
This is not a surprise to people who today are harvesting cabernet, chardonnay and sauvignon blanc. These people know climate change is forcing them to rethink which grapes will make the best wines in their regions.
Increasing temperatures globally are altering many of the wines we made decades ago. And adventurous wine lovers are slowly seeing that the most interesting wines may be from grapes with which they are unfamiliar.
This subject came to mind last week when I tasted a sensational red wine made from a grape variety I had never heard of and which came from an area of the world that I never thought could make world-class wine.
The grape is called Areni, the brand is Khachen, and the country it came from is Armenia!
Armenia may sound like a remote location for fine wine. It is. Located in a mountainous enclave in western Asia, Armenia was for decades under the Soviet sphere of influence but gained its independence just over 30 years ago.
It is home to one of the planet's oldest civilizations and may be where wine was born. Archaeologists have unearthed a thriving wine culture dating back 4000 B.C.! It is located in what is called the Areni-1 cave, and artifacts found there tell a fascinating tale of a nascent culture.
The Areni I tasted was a medium-weight red wine. It had a fascinating aroma of violets and black pepper and was impeccable. It is not, alas, available in the United States yet. Los Angeles resident Alek Harounian owns Khachen and is seeking someone to import the wine.
He told me he is also planning on making a rose and a white wine from the obscure Voskehat grape. His project, which started in 2021, is now 18 acres of grapes, 70 percent of them Areni, the main grape in Armenia.
This is only one of the amazing stories about recent developments in wine alternatives that may be essential as global climate change wreaks havoc on more traditional varieties.
For example, in Bordeaux, several districts are experimenting with at least four different grape varieties—arinarnoa, touriga nacional (a Portuguese variety), castets and marselan.
Two other grape varieties have been approved for experimentation in Bordeaux. And other ancient Bordeaux varieties are also coming back from obscurity, like bouchales, tarney, mancin, and Saint-Macaire.
Several other red grape varieties that once were considered in decline have come back from obscurity. Included are pinot meunier, carignane, St. Laurent and Norton (which is best known in Virginia and in Missouri).
There are also a few new dry white wines being produced around the United States from chenin blanc, colombard, petit manseng, gruner veltliner, picpoul, vermentino, arneis, tocai friulano, sylvaner, fiano, pecorino and Ribolla Gialla.
The above list numbers 12 white wines, and this does not include chardonnay, sauvignon blanc and several others that are popular in California today.
This is not intended to confuse. It is intended to alert readers to the fact that excellent wine today is being produced around the world from regions and grapes that almost no one has ever heard of.
