Italy - an embarrassment of riches

If you ask any wine lover which is their favourite wine producing country, they tend to fall into two camps: the Francophiles and the Italophiles.

While I tend to plump for France (and a quick glance through my back catalogue of columns here will confirm this) I can see the case for Italy. The country, and its wines, are an endless source of fascination with a wealth of indigenous grape varieties to draw on and a long history of winemaking. You could spend a lifetime studying the wines of Italy (there are worse fates) and still not exhaust what this goldmine of vines has to offer. But there is also frustration, with lacklustre wines sometimes too much in evidence, a famous name on the label no real guide to quality and a tendency to play fast and loose with wine regulations.

I swear that every time I look at a wine map of Spain, they’ve added a new region I’d never heard of before. Italy manages the same trick with grape varieties – just when you think there can’t possibly be any more to discover, up pops another one – not new, per se, just new to me.

And is it any wonder? Italy is home to 377 indigenous grape varieties, which is more than any other wine producing nation. Much more, in fact, as the second placed country for native varieties is France with just over 200.

This abundance of grape varieties is due partly to the fact that Italy has been at this winemaking lark for a very long time – long enough for new varieties to emerge and evolve. Those ancient Romans might have invented central heating with their fancy-schmancy hypocausts, but when it comes to winemaking, they were just continuing a centuries-old tradition. The Greeks, who were on the scene before the ancient Romans, dubbed the country “oenotria”, or land of the vine, testifying to its already established wine-making credentials. 

Italy makes a lot of wine – it occupies the 2^nd spot after France; both are quite some way ahead of Spain in 3^rd place.  How much wine a year? Each year varies a little, but it’s somewhere over 40 million hectolitres – or about 20 times as much as New Zealand. 

The geography of Italy can be summarised as a range of hills and mountains surrounded by sea – very little of it is flat. The boot of Italy covers many latitudes, combined with the variations in altitude, soil type, exposure and grape varieties, making it one of the most diverse wine producers - perhaps the most diverse – in the world. You can begin to see why it might take years to get to become expert in such a multi-faceted jewel of a country.

In addition, it might not surprise you to know that Italians often employ a creative approach to applying its own, sometimes arcane, wine labelling laws. Labels seem to be either impenetrably over-populated with seemingly meaningless terms; or all attempts to convey something about what’s in the bottle are sacrificed to elegant, minimal label design.

I have memories of visiting the beautiful Amalfi coast south of Naples back in the 1990s. The scenery and the food were stunning – the wines were not. Determined to drink the wines of the region, I struggled to find something that was not utterly undrinkable. The good news is that, since then, there has been a quality revolution in Italy’s wineries. They have always had good raw material to work with, and at the top level the wines have long been high quality, but now they are increasingly rising above a sea of indifferent  dross at the more everyday level.

Recently I was asked to pick six wines to represent Italy, from top to toe. I could probably pick a different six wines every week for a year and still be nowhere near exhausting Italy’s winey riches. However, here is this week’s selection, for what it’s worth.

Prosecco Bellenda Brut 2012 - £14.99 from Caves de Pyrène and independent merchants

A wine trade friend of mine calls Prosecco, Drossecco – and it’s true that too much of it is dull, too sweet and coarse. This one is drier than most (Brut rather than Extra Dry) and comes from a single vintage rather than being a Non Vintage blend.

Greco di Tufo, Benito Ferrara 2012 - £17.90 from Caves de Pyrène

From Campania, scene of my disappointing wine tour of the 1990s, this would have cheered me up no end. It combines a high quality variety (Greco) with volcanic soils to make a wine with bags of character. Not particularly aromatic, but it has layers of flavour, including stone fruit, lovely texture and length.

Gewürztraminer “Joseph” J Hofstätter 2012 -

£13.95 from The Wine Society

Can this really be Italian, with all those Germanic-sounding names? Well it is, just. Alto Adige, in Italy’s far north, is also known as Süd Tirol – it was part of the Austrian Empire until the end of the First World War and the population is predominantly German speaking. This aromatic variety might be associated with Alsace or Germany, but it originates from here, around the village of Traminer. Expect rich, spicy, lychee and Turkish Delight flavours.

Marzemino, Castel Firmian 2012 - £6.95 from The Wine Society

Further down the Adige valley is the Trentino region, whence this wine comes. I love the way Italy can produce some of the most serious and sometimes austere wines (Barolo and Chianti spring to mind) but alongside them is happy to dish up light-hearted, unchallenging and delightfully fruity ones, such as this Marzemino.

Fondo Filara Etna Rosso, Nicosia 2012 - £10.95 from The Wine Society

To say that soils in the Etna region of Sicily are volcanic is something of an understatement. This is a typical Etna blend of Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio and its structure and minerality demand food.

Morellino di Scansano  “Bellamarsilia”, Poggio Argentiera 2012 - £11.81 from Caves

de Pyrène, Majestic has a very similar wine for £11.99

I’m avoiding the elephant in the room that is Chianti, which is too big and complex a region to be summed up in one wine – but this is one is close. From the Tuscan coast, this blend of Sangiovese (the Chianti grape) and the ancient Ciliegiolo has the black cherry and leafy characters of Chianti, but with more roundness and ripeness, making it easy to love and flexible with food.

Malbec - do you come from a land downunder?

It may have escaped your notice, but last Thursday 17^th April was Malbec World Day. Why Malbec World Day and not World Malbec Day, I know not. Admittedly I have not turned the British Library upside down in my quest for the truth, nevertheless I haven’t found the answer, so the eccentric word order remains a mystery.

I say Malbec. You say? Argentina I’d wager.

Argentine Malbec has become a successful and succinct partnership in our minds. Usually reasonably priced, often generously fruited and with, it must be said, a fair whack of alcohol, this is a wine style that was always going to find a large following in the UK.

Malbec, as a variety, has a much longer history than our fondness for its South American incarnation. It originates back in France, around the town of Cahors in the Southwest of the country. Back in its native land the variety is most often known as Cot. Cahors is its homeland, but it can also be found as far north as the Loire Valley and downriver from Cahors in Bordeaux. The fact that one of the names the Bordelais gave the grape was Malbec (or sometimes Malbeck) gives us a clue that it was from here that it first made its way across the Atlantic Ocean.

Apparently we can be confident that a certain Michel Pouget first brought Malbec vines to Argentina in 1868. It was clearly a raging success and is now the most widely planted quality wine grape in the country. Argentina is a big producer of wine, perhaps bigger than we imagine, sitting at number 5 in terms of global production behind France, Italy, Spain and the USA. Much of what they produce is consumed by their own thirsty local market, with the US the most important export market.

A few Malbec vines have made it across the Andes to Chile, but it remains mostly an Argentine speciality.

Altitude is all important in Argentina – the weather at lower levels is far too warm to produce good quality wine, so vineyards are generally tucked up into the foothills of the Andes, primarily in the province of Mendoza. In fact, looking at a map, it looks like a mere hop, skip and jump from Mendoza to Santiago in Chile – albeit there is a 6,000m Andean mountain ridge between the two.

The other distinguishing feature of Argentine viticulture is dependence on irrigation – the air in those high altitude (often over 1,000m) sites is clear and dry, with the city of Mendoza itself averaging just 200mm annual rainfall, which is getting on for desert conditions. This means low incidence of problems like rot and easy ripening of grapes, but also means a need to find water from somewhere in order for the vines to survive.   

The immigrants who came to Argentina in the early days, many from Italy and Spain, brought with them their taste for wine; apart from the Welsh, who brought tearooms, crocheted teacosies and Welsh cakes to their enclave in Patagonia.

Recommended Malbec (and Cot)

Argentina

Trapiche Pure Malbec - £8.99 from the Co-operative

Pure as in unoaked, this intensely coloured wine is so dense it actually feels thick. Plenty of dark chocolate and black cherry flavours to keep fans of big boned wines happy. If the weather is barbecue-friendly, this wine’s smoky, punchy flavours would be just the ticket.

Bodega Colomé proudly trumpet wines made from the highest altitude vines in Argentina (and possibly the world) from their vineyards in Salta, far north of Mendoza. Their Colomé Estate Malbec is £17.49 in Waitrose and combines full-bodied fruit (and 14.5% alcohol) with altitude-driven freshness in a beguiling way. Their Amalaya red blend is predominantly Malbec, plus some Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Tannat and gives a taste of the same style at a more consumer-friendly price of £10.99 (£9.99 if you buy 2) at Majestic. The price is due to rise to £11.99 from 29^th April, so it would be worth your while to sniff some out sooner rather than later if you can.

The name Susanna Balbo is synonymous with quality, so if you see it, give the wine a punt. Majestic again have Ben Marco Malbec from her Dominio del Plata winery for £15.99 (down to £12.99 when you buy 2). She is also the winemaker behind The Society’s Argentine Malbec (£7.25 a bottle from The Wine Society).

Nicolas Catena was a pioneer of high altitude winemaking in Argentina and his Malbecs are ever-reliable. His Catena Alta label is top of the quality tree but will set you back getting on for £30 a bottle. More readily available is the straight Catena Malbec:  £13.99 or £9.99 if you buy two at Majestic, or £12.99 from Waitrose.

France

Back where it all started, Malbec, or Cot, from Cahors typically has more tannin and acid structure and a more savoury character than the Argentine version. Basic Cahors can be a rather underwhelming experience, but ambitious producers are doing their best to build (or perhaps rebuild) a reputation for quality with concentrated and ageworthy wines.

The wines of two of the best producers, Clos Triguedina (£20.49) and Château du Cèdre Cahors (£17.99), are available at Guildford’s own Caves de Pyrène and other independent merchants. Clos Triguedina is also available through The Wine Society for £16 a bottle.

What have the French got down the back of their sofas?

We are told that it’s a good idea to rootle around in our soft furnishings, with some sources estimating that between us we have around £40 million tucked away in loose change between the cushions of our sofas in Britain.

The French, too, are harbouring some hidden gems in their chaises longues. Vinous gems I mean; little-known, often rare grape varieties that can enrich the life of wine drinkers the world over.

France has famously given us grape varieties which have earned the soubriquet “classic” and which have gone on to conquer the world (the wine world at any rate). Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Merlot – these are wines A listers, names that are instantly recognizable and which are grown the length and breadth of the wine producing world.

But France amounts to much more than these wine superstars. If you have a virtual rummage down the back of France’s vinous sofa, all sorts of surprises result: varieties you’ve never heard of, even some that were thought to be extinct.

How does this happen? As Kirsty and Phil would tell you: location, location, location. Many of France’s smaller wine-growing regions are in rural, sparsely populated, isolated areas, far from anything that might resemble the beaten track. In “la France profonde” such as this local customs – and very local grape varieties – can persist where elsewhere progress, development and fashion have swept them away in favour of more recognizable varieties.

Here I invite you to embark on a virtual tour of some of France’s hidden gems that are worth winkling out.

Domaine Bruno Lupin, Roussette de Savoie, Frangy 2012 - £12 Caves de Pyrène

 Savoie is France’s only true mountain vineyard and the surprise is not only that it harbours its own unique varieties, but that this snowy, alpine environment is capable of producing wine at all. Roussette is the local name for the variety Altesse and if you’ve been to Savoie to ski then you might have downed a glass of this to accompany your fondue.

The vast majority of Savoie’s wines, most made from the unremarkable Jacquère grape, are consumed locally, much of it by thirsty skiers; as wine writer Andrew Jefford put it, the region benefits from “buoyant and undiscerning local demand”.

Roussette/Altesse seems to originate in Savoie itself and makes mountain air fresh wines with a herbal flavour and rather soft, pear-y fruit.

Château d’Anglès La Clape Classique 2010 - £12.49 Hawkshead Wines, £13 The Cheese and Wine Co (Hampton)

This wine highlights a white variety that is normally found in the role of second fiddle elsewhere in France. Bourboulenc, for it is he (she?), is one of the 13 varieties permitted in Châteauneuf-du-Pape and is grown widely across much of southern France. Only here, in La Clape, however, is it the focus of the white wines.

La Clape is a former island which now forms a limestone massif between Narbonne and the Mediterranean. Legend has it that when it was still an island off the coast of the Roman city of Narbo, Julius Caesar gave Roman legionaries permission to plant the first grapes here.

Whatever the historical truth, La Clape today is a viticultural one-off, its limestone blinding in the strong southern sun, the vines and olive trees that manage to grow in its stony soils blasted by winds. Benign it is not.

And yet this is where Bourboulenc reaches its true potential as a variety. At Château d’Anglès, the situation is also helped by having Eric Fabre as its owner – a man who had previously spent 8 years as the winemaker at a certain Château Lafite Rothschild.

This Classique cuvée, a blend of 50% Bourboulenc with 30% Grenache blanc and a dash each of Roussanne and Marsanne, is made without the use of oak and really showcases the variety’s innate ability to produce wines with as much texture as flavour, combining fennel, a hint of honey and a mineral stoniness.

Domaine du Cros Marcillac “Lo Sang del Païs” 2012 - £7.95 The Wine Society

Marcillac really is in the middle of nowhere – technically it is in the Aveyron, north of Rodez, but middle of nowhere about covers it.

The grape that locals here know as Mansois changes its name in other parts of France’s southwest variously to Braucol, Fer or Fer Servadou and finally Pinenc. You don’t need to know all this to enjoy this delightful little wine though. Its bright, slightly twiggy fruit is a perfect foil to a bit of bread and pâté – and could even be chilled in the summer.

Domaine d’Alzipratu Cuvée Pumonte, Corse Calvi 2011 - £18 The Wine Society

Corsica’s history of being ruled by both Pisa and Genoa before becoming part of France has resulted in an intermingling of French and Italian influences, and this is reflected in its wines.

Nielluciu (the Corsicans seem to be fond of adding a “u” to an obviously Italian word to make it more “Corsican”) is widely grown on the island – but is in fact none other than the classic Tuscan variety, Sangiovese. Here it appears in a supporting role to a variety that can be claimed as one of Corsica’s own: Sciacarella.

Sciacarella, meaning crunch in Corsican dialect, does in fact originate in Tuscany as well, but is all but extinct there. This wine has dark, brooding fruit aplenty with a wild, herbal streak and a structure that demands food.

La Magendia de Laypeyre, Jurançon 2009 - £19.75 Caves de Pyrène

Where better to finish our tour than with a most delicious dessert wine, made on steeply sloping vineyards tucked into the foothills of the Pyrenees.

The variety here is Petit Manseng, whose thick skins permit it to remain on the vine long into Autumn (sometimes even into Winter) without being affected by rot. The grapes shrivel in a process known as “passerillage” and are then fermented and aged in oak. The result is an intense experience combining the flavours of honey, quince, mandarin and grapefruit marmalade, shot through with piercing acidity that gives it a characteristic clean finish. Try it with a tangy blue cheese and die happy.   

Christmas top wine tips and picks

If you’re still casting around for ideas to inspire your wine choices for Christmas, read on. Also read on if you’re one of those people, like me, who has already laid in the necessary, but can’t resist a quick scan of others’ recommendations, to see if they have the good sense to choose the same wines as you would. In which case, we should both probably get out more, but hey, don’t let me stop you reading.

Aperitif

La Noë Muscadet Côtes de Grand Lieu sur lie 2012 - £11.75 from Lea and Sandeman; Château du Cléray Muscadet de Sèvre et Maine sur lie (Sauvion) - £9.99, or £8.99 if you buy two at Majestic

If you spend a bit more than the minimum on Muscadet, you’ll be reminded why it was such a popular style in the first place. The Sauvion has more classic citrus freshness, whereas La Noë’s structure comes not from acidity but with a certain mineral weight, possibly influenced by the granitic soils of the vineyard. Either would make a classy aperitif or fine accompaniment to seafood. 

Christmas Day

Domaine Champalou, Le Portail 2010 - £22.90 from Caves de Pyrène, near Guildford

Feel free to drink white wine if that’s what you fancy with Christmas dinner – and I don’t think it matters a great deal what the meat is (if any). All the flavours we pile up onto one plate mean a couple of things: avoid anything too subtle, which will be overwhelmed (eg Chablis); or too flamboyantly flavoured, which might clash (eg Gewurztraminer). Christmas dinner is often a multi-generational affair too and you don’t want to intimidate those who maybe don’t enjoy wine that much or even drink it for most of the year.

But if you do want to splash out a bit, this is the kind of thing I’d plump for. It is a 100% Chenin Blanc from Vouvray in the Loire which has been given the white Burgundy treatment, with fermentation and ageing in oak barrel for 18 months before bottling. This is not a typical Vouvray, but the Champalou family like this style of wine, so they make it. It fulfills much the same function as would a white Burgundy, or any high quality white with barrel fermentation and ageing characters, but the Chenin grape imparts its own personality, giving hints of fresh ginger and honey in harmony with the spice of the oak.

Craggy Range Te Muna Road Pinot Noir 2011 - £22.50 down to £17.99 if you buy two at Majestic

I am a big fan of Pinot Noir for Christmas dinner: the vibrant red fruit rubs along with rather than fights with the multiple flavours on the plate and there is just a hint of tannin, but good acidity to refresh the palate and cut through the richness. 

This one is from Martinborough, New Zealand, which produces the kind of exuberant fruit we associate with the New World, but with a powerful underlying structure and food-friendly savouriness.

Château Musar 2005 - £19.99 at Majestic, (and £20 at The Wine Society, though their Christmas ordering deadline has now passed)

This is for those who like to live by the mantra: claret for Christmas – but with a twist. Young red Bordeaux is I feel too tannic and structured to meld with the wide variety of flavours (including sweet) that are involved in Christmas dinner. However, mature ones are more mellow and harmonious and this is an example of that mature style, but not from Bordeaux. A really good Rioja Reserva or Gran Reserva with some maturity would also do a grand job.

The Musar is made from Cabernet Sauvignon, Cinsault and Carignan grown in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon. Unusually it is not released until a full seven years after harvest, having been fermented and matured in cement tank and then French oak barrels, before spending more time back in tank before a final rest of four years in bottle. It has a combination of high-toned pungency and mellow spiced fruit with hints of leaves and leather that will appeal to fans of mature wine.

Stanton & Killeen Classic 12 year old Muscat - £15.60 (for a half bottle) from Caves de Pyrène

What, I hear you cry, are we to drink with Christmas pudding (or Christmas cake, or mince pies)? I have tried many different accompaniments over the years and there are in fact a good many vinous matches for these dried fruit and spice-heavy concoctions. A rich, sweet, old Oloroso would be wonderful; ditto a 20-year old tawny Port, Malmsey (or Malvasia) Madeira, a solera-aged Maury or Banyuls. A less obvious, but successful, choice is Moscatel de Valencia, whose distinct orange peel flavour marries with the dried fruit and candied peel of the pudding or cake.

However, Rutherglen muscat from Australia is the closest you can get to Christmas pudding in liquid form, with its intensely sweet yet tangy flavours of dates, treacle, caramel, nuts – it’s one of those wines in which you find something new with every sip.

Boxing Day

Les Hauts de Bergelle 2011, Saint Mont - £7.99 at Majestic, down to £6.99 if you buy two

You may never have heard of the region of Saint Mont, which is an area between Bordeaux and the Pyrenees, tucked in next to Gascony. You are unlikely to have heard of the grape varieties involved here either (Gros Manseng, Petit Courbu and Arrufiac), let alone tasted them before. These disadvantages are more than made up for by the fact that this is made by one of France’s very best co-operatives and that the grape varieties, while rare, make wonderfully characterful wines. An intense grapefruity tang, allied to hints of apple and quince and a subtle whisp of honey make for a punchy wine that would pep up Boxing Day cold meat and pickles.

Bellingham The Bernard Series Roussanne 2013 - £10.99, down to £7.99 at Sainsbury’s

Roussanne hails originally from the Rhône valley, but it has been on its travels and appears here in a South African incarnation. This is another weighty, characterful wine with a rich mixture of stone fruit, pear, citrus and herbs and a hint of damp wool. Quite a full-on style, but refreshing. 

Next time – the party’s over: hangover advice for the compulsively convivial.

Getting fresh at the Real Wine Fair

Don’t you just love it when the wine trade gets a bee in its bonnet about what we should call wines?

Guildford’s own Caves de Pyrène are the leading lights in a new wine movement, which has recently held its second annual tasting of what they are calling “real wine”.  Doug Wregg, wine trade poet-philosopher and sometime Sales and Marketing Director (a man further removed from the image of anyone with that job title you could not hope to find) for Caves de Pyrène is the brains behind the operation.

What is a real wine?  Are some of the things we drink, foolishly imagining them to be wine just because that’s what it says on the label, in fact no such thing?  Rest easy, wine drinkers, of course it’s all real wine – just not “real wine”.  

Now I should provide a pithy and concise definition of what constitutes “real wine”.  But of course such a thing doesn’t exist.  These wines tend to be made with minimum intervention in both the vineyard and winery; many are organic and/or biodynamic; usually they are made by small-scale operations; a good number of them would probably also come under the banner of natural wines (another rather nebulous and hard-to-pin-down category).  The winemakers share an interest in producing wines that speak of their origins and which express the growing conditions of the vintage.  The real or natural wine movement is somewhat akin to the slow food movement.

Giusto Occhipinti of COS, a "real wine" maker - and a real winemaker

If someone put a gun to my head and asked me to sum up such wines in a single word, I’d say “What the h*** are you doing with a gun, for God’s sake, it’s only wine.” as I ran from the room.  If I was asked nicely (without the gun) then “authentic” might be a decent stab at it.

Here are some of my own highlights from the second annual Real Wine Fair, held last month in London:

I Vigneri Salvo Foti – Vinujancu Bianco 2011 - £23.16 from Caves de Pyrène

One of the joys of exploring Italian wines is constantly discovering new grape varieties, even as a seasoned grape-spotter.  This Sicilian white is a blend of Minnella (the new one to me, native not just to Sicily but to the Etna region specifically), Grecanico (aka Garganega, another Italian native and most famously associated with Soave) and Riesling (a long way from its German origins).

As you might imagine in the Etna region, the soils that the vines grow in are volcanic – indeed some resemble black granulated pumice, rather than anything you might consider trying to use as a growing medium.  The result is intensely flavoured, characterful wines, helped along by the high altitude (1200m for this wine) and ancient vines.  Salvo adds no sulphur to the wines, but there is no hint of odd or off flavours, just aromas of honey and honeycomb, leading onto a dry, grippy and zippy palate.

COS, Giusto Occhipinti – Cerasuolo di Vittoria 2010 - £16.80 from Caves de Pyrène

Still in Sicily, COS produce a range of wines from indigenous varieties.  Cerasuolo di Vittoria is the island’s only DOCG (ostensible top of the quality tree for Italian wines) and is a blend of two native varieties:  Nero d’Avola and Frappato.

If you were to imagine the style of red wine that comes from such an intensely Mediterranean setting, then I would wager it would be confounded by what you would find here:  nothing is overdone, all is lightness and elegance.  The fruit is delicate, cherryish and fresh, with no oak flavours to tone it down – the wine is fermented in cement tank and aged in large old oak “foudres” (essentially giant barrels).

 

Bodegas Bernabe Navarro – La Amistad 2011 - £8.88 from Caves de Pyrène

Spain has been rather slow to hop aboard the real wine train, but Alicante winemaker Damien Perez is making enough leftfield wines to make up for it.  This one is made from local variety Rojal and is fermented and aged in amphorae, or tinajas in Spanish.  We usually associate amphorae with archeological digs, as these vessels were used in the ancient world to transport olive oil and wine, but they have begun to find favour again in the natural/real wine movement.

Amistad is a light red wine that you could serve chilled in summer (should it ever arrive) to appreciate its lively, fresh sour cherry fruit.

“The Wild Vineyard” Villalobos Carignan Reserva 2012 - £15.90 from Caves de Pyrène

Just to show that the New World is also getting the hang of this real wine thing, I’ve included this Chilean, new to the Caves portfolio.  Carignan is one of those lowly varieties that gets labelled “workhorse” if it’s lucky.  It was enthusiastically taken up by growers in France’s Languedoc post 2^nd World War, valued for its colour, alcohol and high yields.  This aim-low strategy allied to reliance on industrial viticultural techniques was never going to be a recipe for quality, and Carignan’s reputation suffered as a result.

Chile, however, is home to some wonderful old vine Carignan – these were planted in the 1940s and 50s, which makes them positively prehistoric in the context of Chilean viticulture.  Essentially organic from the word go, the vines have never been subjected to any kind of treatment and have been allowed to grow wild (hence the vineyard name).

Freshness is a hallmark of all the wines that I enjoyed at the fair and this one is no exception, with masses of crunchy blueberry fruit - though I concede blueberries are not a crunchy fruit, it’s more a combination of crunch and blueberry that I’m trying to convey.  There is plenty of body and substance, but also elegance.

If you fancy checking out more of these kinds of wine, you can pay a visit to RAW, which bills itself as an artisan wine fair and will take place in London on 19/20 May.  The Real Wine Fair will be back again in 2014.