For The Love Of Port

Many students of wine know that Chile has never had any issues with Phylloxera in their wine growing region. Can you name another country where this is the case too?

Roy Hersh wrote:Many students of wine know that Chile has never had any issues with Phylloxera in their wine growing region. Can you name another country where this is the case too?

Scotland. :devil:

Derek T. wrote: Scotland. :devil:

Would that be "Peat-Port" :devil:

I can't confirm about another country that has 100% of its vineyard under 100% ungrafted vines, even I'm not sure that chile is as grafted vines have prooven to give higher yields which is perfectly suited to new world philosophy. But other countries like Spain have region completly safe from the bugs, like Toro were the non grafted vines is a possibility withouth headache. Even in Portugal, Nacional parcel is not the only place that grows non-grafted vines, France has her too and I'm sure many other countries!

To clarify, I am talking about a country other than Chile, that has NEVER had to face any issues in their vineyards with Phylloxera. I made no mention of grafted vs. ungrafted vines.

I'm still searching the net, but i came up with this. Very interesting and i never knew that:

The only European grape that is natively resistant to Phylloxera is the Assyrtiko grape which grows on the volcanic island of Santorini, Greece, although it is not clear whether the resistance is due to the rootstock itself or the volcanic ash on which it grows.
(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phylloxera)

It is a zone, but not a entire country so my search continues. I'm having doubts about Australia though. The disease has been there but has not infected the main vineyards.

{edit}

Bingo:
Cyprus avoided the Phylloxera plague, and thus its wine stock has not been grafted for phylloxera resistant purposes.

Parts of Argentina and Australia have never been affected by Phylloxera, but Roy's asking for an entire country. Argentina was my first guess due to its proximity to Chile, but nope. Australia was my second guess, but it's also seen the bug in a few places.

I found Cyprus (along with Crete and Rhodes) in my search but skipped it because I also assumed that we were looking for a "known" wine-producing country. I'm sure Cyprus grows grapes and produces wine, but I've never seen or heard of Cypriot wines.

FWIW - Washington State has also never been affected by Phylloxera. We're as big as a lot of European countries, does that count?

Derek T. wrote:

Roy Hersh wrote:Many students of wine know that Chile has never had any issues with Phylloxera in their wine growing region. Can you name another country where this is the case too?

Scotland. :devil:

I still think my answer is 100% accurate and I demand to be awared the prize, which, presumably, is a bottle of the most famous wine not to be affected by this pest: Noval nacional 1931 :devil:

We're going to have to call you, "Googling Glenn" from now on. Spot on! Cyprus is the correct answer. I am aware of this because one of my best friends is originally from there (some of you here have met Nicos Neocleous at tastings here in Seattle and in London). His family owns some land and there are vineyards and I have had the good fortune to taste the amazing dessert wine that comes from there and the best producer too. Great stuff and thanks to Nicos, I have enjoyed learning about their wine called Commandaria which I know has been around for about 2000 years BC and comes from Mavro and Xinisteri grapes, if I have the spelling correct. It is delicious, rich and sweet, nothing like any other dessert wine I've ever had ... and I have tried dessert wines from well over 20 countries.

The only other dessert wine that I can think of which is as unique is Pisano's amazing late harvest Tannat from Uruguay, which I was one of the first in N. America to try and write about, some years back. Awesome stuff and I fortunately have two bottles left that the owner handed me in Canada a couple of years ago, after someone had forwarded him my original review on the Parker website.

Anyway, if you can find a solid (not the cheaper brands) of Commandaria from one of the top Cypriot producers, you'd be doing yourself a big favor. I got a chuckle when you were so close, when you had mentioned the Greek grape and area. So very close, as Commandaria comes from the Greek Cypriots, not the Turkish ones if I am not mistaken. It has been a few years, so my memory of the grapes and producers are not beyond reproach.

Derek,

I do hope to share a 1931 Noval with you someday, whether it is Nacional or even the regular bottling. Both would be an honor!

Haha... well Erik did find it first, so I can't really claim the prize even if it is just a nickname.

I was surprised to learn that Quinta do Noval has, in fact, had to graft their Nacional vineyard. I thought that part of the mystique of that particular wine was that it was made from ungrafted vines, but I guess not.

Haha... well Erik did find it first, so I can't really claim the prize even if it is just a nickname

Thanks Glenn,

we will split the Nacional 1931 so gracefully donated by Roy :devil:

I thought that part of the mystique of that particular wine was that it was made from ungrafted vines, but I guess not.

That mistakenly was on labels of Nacional through 1994 Nacional and was then changed by the new Noval team, led by Christian Seely when he learned of that falsehood.

Roy Hersh wrote:Derek,

I do hope to share a 1931 Noval with you someday, whether it is Nacional or even the regular bottling. Both would be an honor!

We are doing the '31 Nacional and '27 Taylor this summer side-by-side... Should be interesting... Seeing how little the reponse is/was to my last two offline requests, this will be a small gathering...

Roy Hersh wrote:

I thought that part of the mystique of that particular wine was that it was made from ungrafted vines, but I guess not.

That mistakenly was on labels of Nacional through 1994 Nacional and was then changed by the new Noval team, led by Christian Seely when he learned of that falsehood.

Wasn't it that the label was stating Pre-Phylloxera vines? When I was at Noval they did show me how the regenerate a new vine by planting one branch in the ground.

Moses Botbol wrote:

Roy Hersh wrote:Derek,

I do hope to share a 1931 Noval with you someday, whether it is Nacional or even the regular bottling. Both would be an honor!

We are doing the '31 Nacional and '27 Taylor this summer side-by-side... Should be interesting... Seeing how little the reponse is/was to my last two offline requests, this will be a small gathering...

I'm on my way, be there in a few hours

Frederick Blais wrote:

Roy Hersh wrote:

I thought that part of the mystique of that particular wine was that it was made from ungrafted vines, but I guess not.

That mistakenly was on labels of Nacional through 1994 Nacional and was then changed by the new Noval team, led by Christian Seely when he learned of that falsehood.

Wasn't it that the label was stating Pre-Phylloxera vines? When I was at Noval they did show me how the regenerate a new vine by planting one branch in the ground.

Off of my rusty memory this morning (and I may be wrong), there was two different wordings that appeared on the old labels prior to 1994. One was "Produced from pre-phylloxera vines" and I forget the wording on the other.