‘Wine Therapy: Around the World’ is an Honest Grapes explorative, escapist series of online tastings which attendees can dip in and out of or come along for a full journey around the wine-producing regions of the world. Each scheduled tasting will comprise a set of three wines (sent in advance to attendees) and attendees join us live via Zoom.
Find out more about our events here:
honestgrapes.co.uk/events
For Session 7 we went off-piste a little and rather than focus on a specific country or grape variety we decided to take a look at some lesser-known red varieties that we feel deserve their moment in the spotlight – be it the 15 minutes only or a plinth in the hall of fame!
First up the Gamay grape, once hugely popular when the vineyards of the Beaujolais were in huge demand and considered some of the finest wines in France. It then suffered an image problem being associated with Beaujolais Nouveau and many wine drinkers have written it off. The Gamay grape, when properly managed, can produce wines that share similarities to the Pinot Noir wines of its illustrious neighbour of Burgundy.
Following this delicate grape, one of the biggest powerhouses in the grape kingdom; Zinfandel (also known as Primitivo) is a grape that naturally has a high sugar content and as such, it is often linked to robust reds that can see alcohol levels of 14% and more, whilst hiding it well. The low tannins make it eminently drinkable and food-friendly.
In Italy, it’s usually Piedmont and Tuscany that take the glory for red wine but head further south into Campania and you’ll find growers doing absolute wonders with the illustrious Aglianico grape. Rightly called the “Barolo of the South”, Aglianico makes highly complex fine wines with great aging potential and has one of the richest histories in viticulture, having been very popular among Romans.