I presented a tasting of 'under-appreciated grape varieties' here at ProWine Asia in Hong Kong yesterday. I have emboldened the grape names below.
At the end of the tasting (though perhaps unfortunately not before I had given the retail prices of the wines, in Germany, where they were sourced by the wine-fair organisers) I asked members of the audience to vote for their favourite wine. This was the pretty unequivocal result:
Sigalas Assyrtiko 2015 Santorini, Greece €21 5 votes
Domaine des Muses Petite Arvine 2015 Valais, Switzerland €29 14 votes
Walter Massa, Derthona Timorasso 2013 Colli Tortonesi, Italy €24 14 votes
Rafael Palacios, As Sortes Godello 2015 Valdeorras, Spain €34 42 votes
Zorah, Karasì Areni 2014 Armenia €23 2 votes
Mastroberardino, Radici Riserva Aglianico 2007 Taurasi, Italy €29 (surely underpriced?) 11 votes
I sent these results to Rafa Palacios (pictured above), who responded immediately that he could do with some cheering up. The recent frosts in northern Spain, the worst since 1967, look likely to have cost him 70 to 80% of his 2017 crop – and of course frost damage to vines also tends to affect the next year's growth too. These 2017 spring frosts have truly been devastating. See Gavin Quinney's report on the frost damage in Bordeaux and Michael Schmidt's report from Germany.