“X” is for Xinomavro

First things first, I expect most readers are wondering how on earth you pronounce it? It is actually quite easy...phonetically it is pronounced as “See-no-mav-ro”. Second main point: Xinomavro is a grape not a wine. About the grape – Synonymous with Greece, in particular the northerly Naoussa region, this black grape is widely considered the finest of the Greek varieties. Literally translated as ‘sour black’ – not a hugely appealing translation on the face of it I admit! ....and…

Continue Reading “X” is for Xinomavro

“W” is for whole-bunch fermentation

Sounds weird right?  Truth be told, “W” proved more problematic than I thought it would when doing this A-Z, but then I though about a term I hear quite a lot when referring to a wine making process and one that you sometimes see mentioned on labels so I thought I would do a very quick (and hopefully not too geeky) explanation. What is whole-bunch fermentation?  (aka whole-cluster) As the name alludes, it is a process which involves fermenting…

Continue Reading “W” is for whole-bunch fermentation

“V” is for vegan and vegetarian wines

The rise of veganism globally (you only need to see how many vegan restaurants are on the High Street these days) has invariably led to much wider interest in what constitute vegan and vegetarian ‘friendly’ products.  While it is obvious meat or fish aren’t suitable, it’s a much greyer area with other products...take wine for example. When I was working for a wine merchant, one of the most popular questions fielded was from customers asking which of our wines…

Continue Reading “V” is for vegan and vegetarian wines

“U” is for Uruguay

When you think of South American wine, the two nations that come to mind are Argentina and Chile, and rightly so as these two are the well established ‘big players’ on the international wine scene.  However, Uruguay is coming up hot on their heels, not in terms of volume perhaps, but certainly in terms of quality potential. Before I go into the wines and producers to look for, I wanted to give a quick overview of the history and…

Continue Reading “U” is for Uruguay

“T” is for Txakoli

Phonetically pronounced “Chak-hul-ee”, apart from being hard to pronounce and worth a huge numbers of points in scrabble, the main thing to note is Txakoli (or Txakolina) is not a grape, but a wine style.  Never heard of it? I wouldn’t be surprised.   Even today many of these wines are made for, and consumed by, the local market with few wines being exported, but this is thankfully beginning to change. Where is Txakoli from? Spain.  As you may have…

Continue Reading “T” is for Txakoli