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Tomswaterhole Winery and GJKerr Newsletter
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The Mystrey Grape
Have you ever wondered how it is that a new variety of grape becomes popular and suddenly there are hundreds of thousands of bottles of that variety on the liquor shop shelves?
Well we have, and what''s more we have never been able to reconcile the claimed quantity of the trendy variety produced with the declared area of that variety under grapes. Ten years ago it was Marsanne, five years ago it was Verdelho, now it''s Pinot Gris (aka Pinot Grigio.) And there now seems to be so much Sauvignon Blanc for sale that you could float the Queen Mary II in it. Where does it all suddenly come from? And more to the point, where does it go again when the variety falls out of fashion?
One answer is grafting. It is not only possible, it is quite common to undertake what is called "top grafting." This is where new upper grape canes are grafted on to old root stock. Chardonnay is an ideal graft recipient, especially for Pinot Gris, so it is not entirely beyond the realms of belief that vast acreages of Chardonnay could have been converted, except that the industry and labour required for such an activity is immense. We think we would have noticed and we haven''t.
We have a theory. It''s called Trebbiano or, in its French guise, Saint Emilion (not to be confused with the noble variety, Semillon) or Ugni Blanc.
Trebbiano is a workhorse grape. It has a high yield, is drought tolerant and disease resistant and it''s the kind of tofu of the wine world. When picked slightly under-ripe it produces wines that are light, crisp, with pleasant acid and no flavour. When picked ripe the wine is more golden in colour, slightly oily and, once again, with no flavour. But in both cases, add a little of a better variety - say, Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc or even Semillon or Chardonnay and it takes on the better variety''s character - for a little while. In less than a year that better character has vanished but in the early months you could be excused for believing that you have the real thing.
Under Australia''s somewhat curious winemaking laws it is quite legal to substitute up to 15% of one variety for another without disclosing it so it would be quite legal to include (say) 15% Trebbiano in a Pinot Gris or a Sauvignon Blanc and never show it on the label.
We are emphatically NOT saying that any reputable winemaker would be party to such a substitution but in the past less reputable winemakers have been known to substitute a lesser variety for a better one. One producer was even caught with apple juice in his tanks. We urge our readers to be wary, especially of cheap "cleanskin" versions of the trendy varieties.