Teroldego	Italy
Teroldego is grown only in Italys Rotaliano plain. The wine was the darkest I have seen, so black that no light shone through the glass even when held to the light bulb. Refreshing, slightly bitter and fruity, an enjoyable individual wine.

Alicante Bouschet	California
Alicante Bouschet is another of those varieties not usually seen as a varietal. The variety was produced to give plentiful deep red wine and is used in blends to give colour. This red grape is a teinturier which means its flesh and juice is pinky red. We experimented with its famous deep colour. Jamie poured a little of the wine in a glass and added four times as much water. The wine in the glass barely changed colour and, while it had lost much of it's concentrated taste, was indistinguishable from many house wines. An interesting powerful tasting wine. Thanks to Jamie The Wine Anorak Goode for sharing it with us.

Zenit	Hungary
A fresh light taste somewhat similar to a young Chardonnay is offered by this grape. It is the result of a cross between two central European vitis vinifera's Ezerjo andBouvier. It is also known by its synonym name Badacsony 7. Thanks to Anthony Hawkins, author the web's most comprehensive wine grape directory for the information

Lagrein	Italy
An individual variety from Italy, dark red and chewy black cherry flavours make this an enjoyably different wine.

Tinta Barocca Allesveloren Estate	Swartland South Africa
I enjoyed this wine on a South African Airways flight to Cape Town in March 2000. It is a grape variety grown in Portugal and South Africa for making Port. Allesverloren is one of a few wineries making a varietal table wine from Tinta Barocca. It has a deep colour and dense silky texture with a complex fruity taste and subtle oaking. A lovely wine. Orland Firmani at Allesverloren Estate wrote the following to me in August 2000: Tinta Barocca - the South African name for the Portuguese vine Tintas das Baroccas was first planted as a port-making wine in South Africa on Allesverloren in 1945 by the third generation of Malans . For two years running, in 1956 and 1957, Allesverloren Port was awarded the trophy for the best port wine at the Cape Wine Show. Since then it has been crowned with just about every award in South Africa. It is indisputably the most sought after Port in this country and has just this year been rated as the best SA Port by the SA Port Association. When Fanie Malan, father of the present day winemaker, Danie (pictured right), became the owner of Allesverloren in 1961 he decided to bottle Tinta Barroca as an independent dry wine cultivar. This initiative was an immediate success. Allesverloren Tinta Barocca was awarded Superior Classification from the Wine and Spirits Board and is the top export product of the Estate - mainly to the United Kingdom and Western Europe. Recently, however, 50 cases were exported to Singapore where our agent assures us that it is excellently suited to the eastern palate and orders of much larger volumes are expected in the near future. At present there are 7 cellars in the Western Cape Province which produce the wine, but only Allesverloren Wine Estate matures the wine in oak barrels, the other 6 don't. The 1996 Allesverloren Tinta Barocca was awarded Gold at the Veritas Wine Show - the biggest wine show in South Africa. As far as can be determined, South Africa is the only country in the world which bottles Tinta Barocca as an independent dry wine cultivar. The Allesverloren 1996 Tinta Barocca was produced from trellised Tinta Barocca vineyards situated at 140 metres above sea level. These vines were planted between 1957 and 1996, face south east and were cultivated under dryland conditions. The grapes were picked by hand at 25° Balling from mid February till mid March (This year's harvest was picked from early February to end of February owing to the excessive hot summer). In the cellar the juice of the 1996 harvest fermented on the skins in open cement fermentation tanks at 25° to 27°C until dry. After malolactic fermentation the wine was wood matured for 18 months - 22 percent in new French oak casks, 3 percent in American oak and 75 percent in third-fill casks. On the nose the wine has ripe berry fruits, dark mulberries and lively vanilla tones. On the palate it is medium to full-bodied with youthful grape flavours and a well structured aftertaste. The residual sugar is 3,0 g/l, the extract 31,9 g/l, the alcohol 14,85 vol %, the total acidity 5,7 g/l and the pH 3.77. In addition to the Tinta Barocca and Port, Allesverloren also produces a prize-winning Shiraz and an excellent Cabernet Sauvignon. Orland (right) hosted a wonderful day in February 2001 taking me to Allesverloren and other wineries in Swartland. Here we enjoying lunch, unfortunately Danie Malan was too busy to join us. The harvest was in full swing and his fermenting tanks were bubbling with Pontac grapes for his port .

Symphony	California
Symphony is a white grape-cross of Muscat of Alexandria and Grenache Gris created at University of California at Davis by Dr H Olno. Usually used in sweet and sparkling wine blends, here it being made as a varietal where its aromatic flavours made it popular with wine lovers bored with Chardonnay. However the winery was bought by a corporation who redesigned the label and produced no more varietal Symphony. Many thanks to Patrick McGinnis for the label and information.

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