Nearly Noble Grape Varieties: Introduction

You may be asking yourself what a nearly noble grape variety is. Its a good question. And straight away I’ll come clean – its a term I’ve made up!

You see, frankly, there are a lot of grapes which, while they are not the most widely grown varieties, produce some truly outstanding wines. Even in winemaking circles, there is very little disagreement on the noble varieties. Or the criteria for selecting them. For the purposes of this site, I used the WSET Level 1 list as it was familiar to students wishing to get further into wine education. But, there are a number of other fantastic varieties. While they are not in the WSET list they at least deserve an honourable mention.

Artistic licence

Of course, it would be possible to make a case for almost every variety to be included as a nearly noble variety. So so keep the list manageable I’m trying to keep to to under 10 grapes. I’m also trying to balance the list with a mix of white grapes and red ones. Although it is fair to say that the bias is slightly towards the red. Some of the grapes are grown widely, some less so.

Need to justify my decisions

Not everyone is going to agree with my list. Thank goodness! I don’t have a monopoly on the truth, and the list is just my opinion. However, I do want to include a reason as to why each variety has been included in the list. So as part of each post I’ll briefly explain my rationale. Some of the wines will be signature wines of particular countries, some are hidden gems which usually get over-shadowed by the big hitters. Whatever the reason I’ll be sharing it.

Moving away from the traditional bias

My list is also going to be including varieties which are not just the standard French, Italian and Spanish varieties, but will be including some from the New World. There has been a tendency to assume Old World = good, New world = less good. Frankly, I’m not sure that holds true any more. While some of the grapes are ones which have originated in the old world, they may well have fallen out of fashion there.

Something different

Another reason to have a nearly noble varieties section is to hopefully introduce you, the reader, to some more varieties. Where possible I will try to draw comparisons. This should help you decide which varieties you are likely to like based on other wines you tend to gravitate to. At the very least, I’m hoping those less experienced wine enthusiasts will pick up some new knowledge from this section. And those who are continuing through their WSET qualifications might pick up a few grapes found in the level 2, 3 and 4 qualifications.

You don’t have to agree

These are my choices. I don’t expect you to like them all or even any of them. The best wines are the ones you enjoy drinking, as much as they are the ones that score highly on ‘objective’ scales. What I would ask is that, if you’ve only tried these wines once, it might be worth considering a second go. Sometimes bad bottles, or poor vintages occur. Sometimes the quality of wines varies across producers and the same grape can be made into multiple styles of wine.

As always I love to know the readers think. If you find a new favourite, I’d be delighted to hear about it. You can always drop me a line and tell me. In the meantime, keep exploring this beautiful planet we live on, one glass at a time!