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This small, round red berry grows in clusters on low-lying evergreen shrubs. The acidity of fresh cranberries largely overwhelms their sweetness, so they are usually cooked and sweetened into sauce, jam or juice form.

That sweet-tart flavour profile makes cranberry a useful wine descriptor, sitting in the red fruit spectrum probably between raspberry and redcurrant.

You can look for cranberry notes in red wines with high acidity, like some young Pinot Noir wines from cooler climates, such as Germany, Alsace, the Loire Valley or even Oregon in the US. Younger Grenache wines can also have relatively high acidity and tart red fruit flavours including cranberry, as can Italy’s Barbera or Lambrusco grapes.

In this issue (p37), the Querciabella, Chianti Classico Riserva 2016 (100% Sangiovese) boasts ‘intriguing scents of spring blossoms, cranberry bush and potting soil’. In the Provence rosé panel tasting, cranberry notes also crop up in wines by Château La Coste (p71), Château Barbebelle (p74) and Estandon (p77).

Single-variety Albariño/Alvarinho wines are produced in rather marginal areas and achieved prominence only in the 20th century, thanks to the dramatic improvement in technical and social conditions in Portugal’s Salnés and Monçao & Melgaço (Vinho Verde) areas.

Aiming for high-quality wines, the Cluny monks used the varieties that worked best, blending as necessary and experimenting with crossings. What monks brought with them was primarily know-how and a vision. They created terroirs through hard work, time, study and observation, and varieties are secondary to that. In northwest Spain, you’ll find monasteries in Ribera del Duero, but no trace of any Burgundy varieties – the same in Priorat, Navarra and some other regions.

I hope that your wine is good. I’m curious to find out how Albariño can ripen while keeping its acidity and fruit expression in such a Mediterranean climate.

D

Despite a 0.3% dip in the six months to the end of May 2020, this was up by 29% over 12 months, 23% over two years and by nearly 280% versus five years ago. See our Piedmont guide for collectors, available to Premium subscribers on the Decanter app.