Varietal Wine Organisations

There are a few organisations which promote particular grape varieties. They may be consumer oriented or be made up mainly of producers, or even a mixture of both. Sometimes they are international groups but at other times they are more localised to a particular country or region.

Here are links to some organisations promoting individual varieties

Carignan

Carignan Renaissance

This group collects information about the variety which has copped too much blame for creating the European wine lake.

Unfortunately Grenache can be used as a high yielding variety to make huge volumes of very ordinary wine but there's more to it than that.

Carignan Renaissance is based in The Languedoc - where else - and organised by John Bojanowski, Clos du Gravillas, 34360 St. Jean de Minervois.

Grenache

Grenache Ambassadors Group is new group started on the Business/Social Networking site Linked In. The membership is cosmopolitan, just like the variety.

The Grenache Association is for producers and consumers. It conducts the International Grenache Day on the third Friday of September each year.

Prosecco Road in the King Valley

The King Valley in Victoria's North East is well known for the Italian heritage of many of the winemakers and the influence this has on the local wine culture. A group of producers making Prosecco have got together to promote the Prosecco Road. The web page includes links to Prosecco producers, a map, suggested itineraries other visitor information.

Tempranillo

Tempraneo is a group of Australian winemakers who use Tempranillo, a variety which is still regarded as alternative in Australia. This may change soon as more and more wineries are realising how well the variety is suited to Australian conditions.

Petite Sirah (Durif)

PS I love you

This is a Californian based organisation. There is some free information but membership is a hefty fee.

Vermentino and Sardines

In January 2011 A few Australian winemakers organised a tastings of Australian Vermentino wines along with some freshly cooked sardines.

Let's hope they continue with this promotion.

Zinfandel

ZAP - Zinfandel Advocates and Producers.

This group is very active. They hold Zinspiration, an annual festival in San Francisco and the website includes Zinworld - resources and social networking for Zinophiles.

Multi varietal groups

We should mention a couple of organisations that promote alternatives as a group, rather than a single varietal. A group of growers and producers have formed the Riverland Alternative Wine Group.

The Strange Bird group, based in Queensland's Granite belt promotes the wineries in the region producing wine from alternative varieties.

The Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show is held in Mildura every year. Over a hundred grape varieties are shown.

The Rhone Rangers is a California-based group who promote 22 grape varieties associated with the Rhone Valley. Think Shiraz, Grenache, Marsanne but also Terret Noir, Counoise and Bourboulenc.

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