In praise of grandma’s knicker drawer wines
I'm very much in my floral wine era and I want you to join me
Open the drawer and stick your nose in among the ditzy printed, fabric-softened, massive pants.
If you rummage around a bit, among the blown knicker elastic and threadbare lilac pantie seats, you’ll almost certainly find a little bag of lavender or a bar of rose-scented soap hidden among the smalls like the toy in a cereal box.
On top of the chest of drawers, there will be a bottle of perfume, it will smell of violets or honeysuckle or geranium.
Many of my favourite wines conjure up this image in my mind. And I love them for it. When I was a teenage goth, I wore silky, pastel-hued car boot sale slips with my scuffed Doc Marten boots. All the punks in the rehearsal room I hung around in said I smelt like parma violets. It matched my purple lipstick and blue hair. I guess I’ve always been into granny chic.
If you are into granny chic, parma violets and rose lemonade, you might like floral wines. These are some of my favourites:
Frappato
Frappato is a red grape I got more acquainted with on a recent trip to Palermo, Sicily where I was lucky enough to visit some wineries, have dinner with winemakers, and take morning classes with the brilliant Filippo Bartolotta. Wines made from this grape are super juicy with big whiffs of tinned strawberries in syrup but they also tend to have rose petal notes too. In a heatwave, it’s also good to remember that Frappato is one of those lighter red wines that can handle being chilled down a bit.
Gewurtztraminer
Unearth that rose-scented soap again and give it a sniff. Better yet, rip open the pink foil of a Turkish Delight and smell that. That’s the German grape Gewurtztraminer and if the thought makes you nauseous, then floral wines might not be for you. When I started learning about wine, Gewurtztraminer stopped me in my tracks. I had never met a wine like her and it was love at first sniff. If you like lychee martinis, you’ll like Gewurtztraminer too.
Muscat
A relative of Zibibbo who we will meet later, Muscat has as many siblings as you’d expect from a grape connected to the goddess of love. One of them, muscat blanc a petit grains is one of the noble grapes of Alsace, which is my current favourite wine region. Muscat makes heady wines and often gets involved in late-harvest sweet wines (like the Aussie Rutherglen version) full of delicious, complex noble rot. It’s also the grape of the Italian sparkling Asti (where they call it moscato). But I have found it shining like a sequin jacket in many a bottle of natural or low-intervention orange wine. This muscat/grenache gris blend I had at Stockport restaurant Where The Light Gets In has lodged in my memory forever.
Nebbiolo
If you’re a bit fancy, you might have a taste for Barolo, one of Italy’s biggest wine players. This is a hard hitter of a red wine with deep, intense flavours and it’s common to hear wine bods talk about notes of tar and roses when they are tasting a good one. Barolo can be really expensive but it’s helpful to know the grape it’s made from is called Nebbiolo so wines not from the designated area of Barolo that use this grape might also have notes of tar and roses. And who doesn’t want a wine that tastes of tar and roses? Gimme some nebbie! There are some helpful tips on good Nebbiolos here.
Petit Verdot
One of the few red wines on my list although its name roughly translates as “little green one”, which always brings to my mind David Bowie’s Jean Genie. Florality is rarer in red wines but does pop up more in complex, high-quality examples (like the famous ‘tar and roses’ notes of a fine Barolo mentioned above). If you’re looking for a red with notes of violet and lavender, try Petit Verdot. Rarely found as a single varietal wine, this French grape often pops up in Bordeaux blends. But if you can find one going solo, grab it and see if you can smell those purple posy aromas. The floral wine for goths.
Pinot Gris
Another star of Alsace, Pinot Gris is the French name for Pinot Grigio named for its greyish-pink colour. Yep, it’s the exact same grape but the Italian Pinot Grigio we usually find in the UK is a very different creature to the wines the French make. Worldwide, if it’s called gris and stored in a tall, skinny bottle, as it usually is in Aus and NZ for example, it’s more likely to be made in the French style. This means longer ripened, luscious-bodied wines that plant a big honeysuckle smackerooni on your chops. If 80s Morrissey waggling his bunch of gladioli all over the stage was a wine, he would probably be Pinot Gris. And I am quite happy to pamper this wine’s complexities while, er, someone else drives.
Torrontes
This wine helped me nail my WSET Level 3 exam so I am forever betrothed to it. I happily wrote a couple of paragraphs on it because it had really charmed me when we tasted it earlier in the course so I studied that bit of the book that little bit harder. Torrontes is Argentina’s white grape. It’s peachy and floral, yes, but there’s candied ginger here too. Another nana favourite. Some people even say it has a soapy note to it and I like that, though I’m sure it’s not for everyone. When I got my double distinction (*painting nails emoji*), I didn’t celebrate with a fancy Burgundy but a £7.50 bottle of Torrontes from Tescos.
Zibibbo
Want to summon up the seductive power of Aphrodite? Grab a bottle of her favourite wine (allegedly). Zibibbo also known as Muscat of Alexandria is a sexy wine, all orange blossom, neroli and jasmine, like my favourite Lush perfume. This one is a Sicilian superstar and Sicily is a great place to find good value wines made from grapes you might not be as familiar with like the similarly floral Frappato - see above. My advice is to pair Zibibbo with a big plate of swordfish and enjoy it while wearing a big, floaty citrus-print dress.
If you like floral wines, let me know if there are any others you recommend. And if you like my writing, please subscribe - it’s free!
And if you like the cut of my jib, you might like the wine tastings I do for Manchester Wine School. Check out the listings. My next one is a cheese and wine matching session on 22 July but all the classes and teachers at the school are brilliant.