Monday, November 9, 2009

Agria Wine and Grapes

It has been a while since I've posted a blog but have to talk about a wine I recently tried. It came from Southend Farm Vineyard in BC (http://www.southend.ca/sefv/Welcome.html). The wine is made from the Agria grape also known as Turan. In fact this is what Southend call's it "Turan". This red Hungarian variety has found a home in BC on Vancouver Island and the other Wine Islands between Vancouver island and the mainland. This variety is a very early ripening red vinifera grape and a robust producer with deep red juice. We are testing this varety at our site.

Now, I've tried a few other wines made from this variety incuding a big red not unlike a big Italian red which came from Marley Vineyard which was quite nice. Also, another nice one with fruity strength and some age potential from Crabrea Vineyard. Both these are vineyards in BC in the wine Islands.

What is different about the Southend Farm Vineyard Turan is that they craft the wine the same as you would a white wine by crushing and pressing the grapes and fermenting the juice without the skins. You wouldn't know that it was fermented without the skins by looking at their Turan wine, as it has a beautiful cherry red colour. This is the natural colour of the juice from the grape. This wine has a pronounced fruity aroma to it, crisp taste and finish not dissimilar to a lite crisp white wine. For me this is a very nice summertime wine, that should be enjoyed chilled.