Hello When speaking of Old world vs New world, we may be a bit parochial. There are worlds so old that they are mentioned in the Exodus (the one in the Bible, not the novel by Leon Uris) and you would have to have the experience of J Murray Freeman to expound on them with some authority. Oak? Barrels? Ha! Amforas were good enough for g'g'g'g'g'g'pappy, and they are good enough for us. I am, of course, refrring to georgia - not the one on the mind of Ray Charles, but the old kingdom in Caucasus, where, apparently, wine making was first effectuated, and Noa ... anyway, you probably learned that in Bible class. Georgia has some very archaic vines, and in all likelyhood is a repository of some rather odd and unusual varieties. The one in question here, however, is in no way unusual - at one time, it was the most planted white grape in the world! Gorbachev put a stop to that, grubbing up most of it, thereby surrendering the title to Airen (in La Mancha, Spain). The name means (according to Wikipedia) "red stem", which to me brings Chasselas to mind, as it also has red stems. When making wine in Georgia, special care is taken with skin contact, as in, a great deal of it-. Basically, you crush the grapes in an earthen jar, or amfora, and let them ferment while resting on the mash. This is regardless of whether the wine is red or white. Mike TOmmassi had brought a bottle of Rk 2005 to our place this summer, but circumstances precluded it being drunk at the time. Instead it was the first wine, the aperitif, even, in one of our tasting groups, and was served with cup cakes (with black olives), and spring rolls fileld with a lightly grilled salmon tartare. [C] Deep bronze, with some turbidity [N] Abricot, mostly, very slight oxidation notes, but mostly abricots - so much that Mårten who is arguably the best nose in the group suspected a Ch Grillet, or some other slightly idiosyncratical viognier [P] An asperity you rarely encounter in a white wine dominates in the mouth. It is completely dry, and has some firyness, with an alcohol content of 14 %. The acidity plays a definite second fiddle to the asperity. It is also slightly nutty, and the abricot is reflected on the palate.
This appears to be a white wine made accroding to principles without counterpart in the rest of the world -notwithstanding, it is interesting in the best meaning of the world, it is a fun wine, and it is quite enjoyable.
I would consider serving it with grilled haloumi, or some shellfish with much taste - crab, e g.
Recommended.
Cheers
Nils
PS Thank you Mike!