Bordeaux oenologist and wine guide Nicolas Vivas has really useful including the Refošk grape to a listing of types allowed within the well-known French area’s wines.
His feedback got here three years since six ‘new’, non-Bordeaux grape varieties have been accepted to be used on Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérieur wines, as a part of efforts to assist to producers adapt to local weather change.
France’s nationwide appellation authority (INAO, Institut nationwide de l’origine et de la qualité) gave the inexperienced gentle to pink varieties Touriga Nacional, Marselan, Castets and Arinarnoa, in addition to white grapes Alvarinho and Liliorila.
Vivas stated that the feeling of overripe Merlot that has change into frequent in Bordeaux attributable to local weather change might be ‘seamlessly countered by solely two-to- three % of Refošk’.
A specialist on pink wine polyphenols and tannin, Vivas started his profession in 1986 and is guide to estates in Bordeaux and overseas.
He found the deep-coloured, excessive acid grape whereas consulting for Vinakoper, a Slovenian vineyard alongside the Istrian coast close to Trieste in Italy, the place the grape is named Refosca.
Working with Vivas, the vineyard has this 12 months launched a Bordeaux-style mix known as Cape that features two % of Refošk, which ‘in small doses refreshes the wine, particularly when married to Merlot’, Vivas stated. ‘In my work overseas, I search for grapes like that for Bordeaux.’
It isn’t the primary time that the grape has been assessed by Bordeaux specialists.
The Istrian Provincial Council of Agriculture – at this time, referred to as the Provincial Ministry – prompt Refošk for Bordeaux again within the late nineteenth century, as a potential selection within the wake of the phylloxera disaster.
It was deemed too acidic, in accordance with Slovenian oenologist Iztok Klenar.
Nowadays, nevertheless, acidity is a plus. Vinakoper chief winemaker Boštjan Zidar agreed that blends of Merlot and Cabernet Franc work properly with the native grape selection, as a result of it acts as a ‘push button’ for fruitiness and juiciness in overripe grapes, or grapes with low acidity.
