WTN: Difficulties in pronounciation

Add two more grapes to the list for varieties I've tried . . . delicious both:

2006 Azienda Agricola Giordano Sirch Colli Orientali del Friuli Schioppettino (Colli Orientali del Friuli DOC, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, northeastern Italy) cork closure, 13% - appears cranberry color, smell interesting earth and battery acid, as it opens, what a marvelous nose, earthy, pungent, wonderful, taste wonderful tart cranberry and strawberry, peppery/black pepper, juicy, lovely and crisp, slight acid that cleanses, very clean yet dirty wine, lots of crisp earthy spice, yum yum yum yum, this wine was promising at first but it just turns doggone delicious, somewhat of a non-smoky salami thing going on with the spice, if this is Schioppettino, sign me up!

2007 Xarmant Arabako Txakolina [Hondarrabi Zuri] (Arabako Txakolina/Txakoli de Álava DO, País Vasco, north-central Spain) synthetic stopper, 11.5% - imported to USA by De Maison Selections, Chapel Hill, North Carolina – appears gold with clingers, smell crisp and stony, light inviting fruit, perfumed tenderness that is quite inviting, taste zippy upfront, spicy, tasty, yum, very spicy and very suggestive of (and compatible with) garlic, full zingy and tangy flavor, this wine goes fast, fantastic companion to steamed clams and mussels as well as to a garlic dijon butter slathered on brussels sprouts. I really enjoyed this introduction to the Hondarrabi Zuri grape—I've had only a few Txakolí in the past,, but I love the style of the ones I've had. If only it were a couple of bucks cheaper than the $17 I paid.

2007 Itsasmendi Bizkaiko Txakolina [Hondarrabi Zuri] (Bizkaiko Txakolina/Txakoli de Bizkaia DO, País Vasco, north-central Spain) cork closure, 12% - imported to USA by Winebow, New York, New York – appears pale gold, smell inviting upfront, dry stony salty, hard to describe but big, mouthwatering, smell printing, taste salty/zippy upfront, medium body, delicious (astoundingly) in first three seconds, lots of interesting savory notes on midpalate—thinking buttery tangerine, yum, honeycomb rieslingesque background, fruity gewurztraminer notes too, lots lots going on here, an interesting and delicious savory story going on here, rocking match for Phat Woon Sen Talay (stir-fried cellophane noodles with clams, mussels, and squid and celery), a wow match for the mussels and clams, and beautiful evocative element with squid, powerful intriguing match, also went quite well with Pla Thu Tom Khem (country-style sweet-and-salty mackeral soup) matching the spice and the sweetness of the soup (I have no idea why the soup was spicy—no spicy ingredients within), well worth the $23 I paid and interestingly delicious over the four days I consumed it

The sight of those Basque names raises in me a glimmer of sympathy for the orientals who prefer Lafite to Latour on pronunciation grounds.

My importantly the wines sound delicious. I wonder if the exotic names play a part their not being widely available.

Yeah, when you are driving toward the Madiran, and start to see Z and X in the road signs, you know you are getting close.... same thing on both sides of the border.

Yeah, when you are driving toward the Madiran, and start to see Z and X in the road signs, you know you are getting close.... same thing on both sides of the border.

Do they have Bin numbers on the winelists down there?!!

Do they have Bin numbers on the winelists down there?!!

Bob, I have never seen bin numbers on French restaurant wine-lists. People are expected to recognize wine, like people, by name not by number. Maybe it's different in the Basque country because I can't see a Frenchman or Spaniard getting his tongue round these names any more easily than an Anglo.

At a tasting last autumn, I chatted with a proudly Basque grower from Irouléguy http://www.wineloverspage.com/forum/vil ... uy#p104739 who talks Basque to his children, which must give a problem to his Alsatian wife similar to the one my son has living with his half Finnish family in Finland. Both languages are reputedly fiendishly difficult to learn!