As you ought to know by now, we’ve been shouting about the wines that have outdone themselves in terms of sales figures over the past year. After posts on Champagne, Prosecco, Rosé, Malbec, Grüner Veltliner, and Vinho Verde we’re honing in on one very special wine varietal, from a very special region.
A grape so rare and special it deserves its own newsletter at the very least, the criminally overlooked Baco Noir grape has been cultivated by the superbly talented Henry of Pelham, resulting in two of the best commercial reds you’ll ever find.
Here’s what Dan Speck of HoP had to say about the grape:
” Regional and autochthonic grape varieties are making something of a comeback. In our market California Zinfandel became the rage in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Then Australian Shiraz. Then Argentinean Malbec. For us, it’s Baco Noir.
Baco Noir is one of our main varietals and our best selling export. “
If you needed confirmation of that within the UK context, look no further than this quote in Harpers Magazine from Ben Franks; CEO of Novel Wines and one of our trusted trade customers.
“I can definitely find people in Novel Wines’ customer base who are looking for something different, and [Canadian] wines would get them really excited.
As a retailer, there’s some really exciting, commercial potential for them, so it’ll be interesting to see how they develop and also what other kind of varieties we can get as we’re looking for wines that are unique.”
At any tasting table, the flagship Baco Noir has never failed to have even the most reluctant traditionalists purring away. At our own table at Wine Rascal HQ, and those of our respective friends and families, we are always blown away by its reception across different age groups and social circles. Its punchy raspberry flavours makes it highly accessible while offering complexity in secondary notes for the more experienced drinker. This is all helped along by a fitting label too!
Put simply, the old vine variation is a deeper and more sophisticated exploration of the wonderful grape that, after a few sips of the above, anyone would be eager to undertake.
The same distinct raspberry and berry notes are here, but with a handful of cracked black pepper and smoke thrown in. Perfect with food.