Fellow Wine Lovers,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a break from tradition, we\u2019d like to talk to you about wine today. In France this week the Institut National de l\u2019Origine et de la Qualit\u00e9 (INAO) formally approved the use of six new varieties in Bordeaux.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Oh, how exciting!\u2019 I hear you cry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, I have to say we\u2019re somewhere between excited, miffed, confused, disappointed and outraged. Before I explain our many positions on the subject, I should probably tell you what\u2019s going on: farmers who produce Bordeaux AOC or Bordeaux Superior AOC are now allowed to plant some different grape varieties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the red front we\u2019ve got Arinarnoa<\/strong>, a cross of Tannat and Cabernet Sauvignon developed in Bordeaux in 1956; Castets, <\/strong>a long forgotten Bordeaux grape, \u2018almost extinct\u2019 is all I can find out, though I guess that might change!; Marselan,<\/strong> a cross between Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache grown in the southwest and often blended with Tannat down there; and Touriga Nacional,<\/strong> a grape we all know and love from Portugal, more specifically in the wines from the Douro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the white front we\u2019re welcoming Alvarinho<\/strong>, another Portugeezer also very popular in these parts in its Spanish version Albari\u00f1o and Liliorila <\/strong>(shrug emoji) which is apparently a cross between Chardonnay and Baroque.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019re excited<\/strong> because all new developments in wine excite us initially and it\u2019s nice to see people thinking ahead to mitigate the effects of climate change, hydric stress and different ripening horizons. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019re miffed<\/strong> that Petit Manseng having made the final 7 just didn\u2019t make the cut, we\u2019re a little fond of it. The grape variety is one we all know and love from Juran\u00e7on just a bit further south down near Biarritz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019re confused<\/strong> because for years and years we\u2019ve been told that Bordeaux is the centre of fine wine and all the best grape varieties for the soils are already planted. Is that no longer the case? Do we now begin a long slippery slope into mediocrity, albeit the mediocrity of having twenty different grape varieties you can grow? Will our fears of thin, unripe Touriga Nacional and fat, overripe Alvarino be unfounded? We\u2019ll see but at the moment you\u2019re only allowed a maximum of 5% of your vineyard area and 10% of the final blend to be made from these \u2018new\u2019 varieties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Disappointingly<\/strong> there are no changes to labelling regulations, so you won\u2019t be able to tell before the cork is pulled what you\u2019re drinking. But if it\u2019s Pessac Leognan, Pauillac or one of the other named appellations, it\u2019ll still be unchanged, for the moment. Let\u2019s hope they keep the varieties unblended to start with so that we can see how they turnout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our outrage <\/strong>actually has nothing to do with this story but more to do with the the fact that so little has been made of the fact that red wine may actually be a good sports drink! An article in Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition<\/em> explored the possibility of supplementing Grape Polyphenols to mitigate exercise-induced physiological stress. Red grapes contain high levels of these antioxidant polyphenols that, the article states, seem to have a positive effect against oxidative stress. Surely it\u2019s only a short leap to say that glass of red is good for you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n In other news this week, the PM has gone to Scotland, ostensibly to wind up Nicola Sturgeon we think but shopping for a new fridge and an eye test have not been ruled out. BooHoo have splashed out \u00a355 million on Debenhams name and website, we still think it\u2019ll end in tears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With that we\u2019ll bid you adieu, we\u2019re here if you need us and you can email us if you need a delivery \u2013 February starts on Monday which means this is the last weekend of \u20186 for 5\u2019 \u2013 don\u2019t say we didn\u2019t warn you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fellow Wine Lovers, In a break from tradition, we\u2019d like to talk to you about wine today. In France this week the Institut National de l\u2019Origine et de la Qualit\u00e9 (INAO) formally approved the use of six new varieties in Bordeaux. \u2018Oh, how exciting!\u2019 I hear you cry. Well, I have to say we\u2019re somewhere […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1377"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1378,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1377\/revisions\/1378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}