Bubbly After Thoughts - Additions to The Century Club

So, I was laying in bed last night thinking about the post for the Pride Parade wines and I realized that, in my haste to get through the pictures and day's stories, there wasn't much time to write about the wines. No surprise there.

However, I did think that I should go back and check on the grapes that went into the Segura Viudas Brut Rosé. Spanish wines, after all, are great for discovering new varietals that can be added to my Wine Century Club list - and, sure enough, that little sparkler contained about 90% Trepat.

Now, I've never heard of Trepat and neither, apparently, have many others. It barely garners a paragraph's mention in Jancis Robinson's Oxford Companion to Wine. It's an indigenous grape to North-East Spain and is mainly used for light rosés and Cavas. I didn't see any note of the grape being grown outside of Spain and, even there, as little as 3500 acres may remain planted. It doesn't seem, however, to go by any other name of grape and certainly not by one that I submitted with my WCC application. So, it's helping to get me started on my second hundred varietals.

This little discovery also reminded me that I completed a cross index review of all the varietals that I had set out in my membership application and there were a few glaring omissions. So, I'll just mention here that, in addition to the Trepat, I've also polished off wines - already included on The List - that featured the Nebbiolo, Kerner, Caladoc and Petite Sirah varietals.

There are at least four Nebbiolo wines already on The List (including way back at #159). The Kerner can be found at #336 and the Petite Sirah was on full display at #464. Funny thing is that both postings for the Kerner and Petite Sirah even referred to the Wine Century Club. I just never mentioned them on my application form. Silly me.

The Caladoc was a bit of different situation. We finished this bottle off during a stretch where I was so tight for time that I didn't actually write up the wines or times where they were enjoyed. I simply added them to The List. This Argentine wine was added back at #269 and should have been an early addition to my WCC application - particularly since it was a pure varietal wine. The grape is a French cross of Grenache and Malbec. So, it might not be a surprise that it made its way to Mendoza. I've never seen it before and haven't seen it again - since I picked it up at the Vancouver International Wine Festival back in 2009. I'd hate to think that I missed out on a great addition like this for the WCC.

With these "new" varietals, my compilation list is increased by another five grapes and currently leaves me at 106... with plenty more to come.