Wine experts say there are 10,000 varieties of grapes in the world. So we'd better get busy if we're to taste them all to complete our bucket lists. The average lifespan for Americans is about 79 years, so if we start at age 21, we'll need to sip 172 different wines a year to try them all. Piece of cake, right?
To get you started, here are some wines and wine blends you may not have tried yet:
- Grignolino: It's a red grape popular in the Italy's Piedmont region. It makes light colored wines with fruity aromas, crisp acids and firm tannins. Italians pronounce it "green-o-LEEN-o" and fondly call it "the little strawberry." It's rare in the U.S., but Heitz Wine Cellars in Napa makes one. It's good by itself as an aperitif, and it goes well with veggie risotto, light meats, pizza, pasta with tomato sauce, salads with goat cheese and olives. You can order it online at www.heitzcellar.com.
2014 Heitz Cellars Grignolino, Napa Valley, Calif. (100 percent grignolino): pale red hue, citrus aromas, tart red berry flavors, light body, lively and crisp; $22.
- Primitivo: For years, wine fans believed Italian primitivo and American zinfandel were the same grape. Recent DNA testing concludes they're actually individual clones of a Croatian grape called Crljenak. Tasters still have trouble telling them apart, but U.S. wine laws insist they be labeled separately. In Europe, primitivo is often used in red wine blends.
Nonvintage Piccini Memoro Vino Rosso, Vino d'Italia (40 percent primitivo, 30 percent montepulciano, 20 percent nero d'avola, 10 percent merlot dei Veneto): deep red, soft and mellow, with aromas and flavors of black cherries and black coffee; $12.
- Sauvignon gris: Probably a mutation of the better-known sauvignon blanc, it is so rare that wine websites call it "obscure." Blended into Bordeaux and Bordeaux-style white wines, it adds sweet voluptuousness and tropical flavors to its leaner, tarter cousin.
2014 Chimney Rock Elevage Blanc, Napa Valley (54 percent sauvignon gris, 46 percent sauvignon blanc: hint of oak, aromas and flavors of mangos and grapefruit, crisp and lively, creamy finish; $48.
- Table wine from Port grapes: Portugal's famous Port dessert wines can be made from any combination of 30 indigenous grapes little known outside the country-from the thick-skinned, tannic touriga nacional to the softer, sweeter, resin-scented touriga Franca. They're fermented only half-way to leave plentiful grape sugars to make them sweet, then fortified with brandy to raise their alcohol level to as high as 20 percent. But unknown to many, some Portuguese winemakers are using these same Port grapes to make regular table wines that are dry and only 13.5 percent alcohol.
2014 Vila Nova Douro Red Wine, Douro Valley DOC, Portugal (40 percent touriga nacional, 30 percent tinta roriz, 30 percent touriga Franca): deep dark red hue, aromas and flavors of black plums and spice, medium body, ripe tannins; $12.
- Picpoul blanc: lemony, minerally and crisp, this white grape has powerful enough acids that its French name translates as "lip stinger." It's one of several white permitted in white wine blends in the southern Rhone Valley, including popular Chateauneuf-du-Pape whites. White Rhone blends are made now in California as well.
2014 Anna's White, Adelaida District, Paso Robles, Calif. (54 percent grenache blanc, 22 percent viognier, 13 percent picpoul, 11 percent roussanne): $35