The Six Hundred Club
October 30, 2019
We now have six Hexavin members!
Michael J. Mangahas was the first with 622 grapes. Dan Traucki followed with 603.
And this month, we added four more: Thomas J. Reagan, Jr. at 666, and Jim Breed, Patricia Faust Breed, and Tim Faust at 601.
Yes, just in time for Halloween, Tom has drunk the number of the beast! However, I’m not sure if Patricia and Tim have sold their souls to the devil!
Way to go Tim and Patricia!
WooooHoooo! Kudos and congrats
Wow – 200 is hard enough, but just the effort in finding 400 more makes my mind boggle!
That is one damn fine effort.
Sweet. We are on our way to 500. We have 326 varietals identified on our “go find” list. Here is one varietal for everyone to go find and try, “Katsano”. Only one winery in the world makes this wine.
Hello Wine Lovers,
Two weeks ago I visited Wine Paris which is a fantastic wine event that was launched two years ago to combine two world famous wine exhibitors, Vinisud and VinoVision Paris under one roof in Paris. This international trade event turned out to be an unprecedented meeting and I enjoyed tasting many, many great and unusual wines.
I am adding to my list of grapes and will send the tasted grapes that were new to me as a member of the Wine Century Club.
Cheers! Thomas (Tom) Reagan
Nice to see that members are still participating. We made submissions to Mr. Delong for 300, 400, 500, 600 and never received a response. We have now passed 700 but have not submitted because we are not sure if the WCC is still functioning. Cheers.
Steve My wife Claire and I have been in WWC since 2014 I have a 100 and 200 certificate and a PDF file of 300 which you E-mailed to me several years ago Without digging through old files I do not have the exact dates of the application submissions at this moment I known I have made 300 400 500 600 submission some time after 12/28/2017 when we finished 600 We finished 700 on 7/13/2019 but did not submit that one Figured WWC no-longer existed. We started our QUEST for 800 on 7/15/2019 We are currently are at 742 Have 8 “yet to try” new grapes/wines in my ‘CELLAR’ Just order more wines to get us 4 more new grapes E- mail me so we can figure out how to move forward on this matter THANKS JRC 3/4/2020
Steve My wife Claire and I have been in WWC since 2014 I have a 100 and 200 certificate and a PDF file of 300 which you E-mailed to me several years ago Without digging through old files I do not have the exact dates of the application submissions at this moment I known I have made 300 400 500 600 submission some time after 12/28/2017 when we finished 600 We finished 700 on 7/13/2019 but did not submit that one Figured WWC no-longer existed. We started our QUEST for 800 on 7/15/2019 We are currently are at 742 Have 8 “yet to try” new grapes/wines in my ‘CELLAR’ Just order more wines to get us 4 more new grapes E- mail me so we can figure out how to move forward on this matter THANKS JRC 3/4/2020Steve My wife Claire and I have been in WWC since 2014 I have a 100 and 200 certificate and a PDF file of 300 which you E-mailed to me several years ago Without digging through old files I do not have the exact dates of the application submissions at this moment I known I have made 300 400 500 600 submission some time after 12/28/2017 when we finished 600 We finished 700 on 7/13/2019 but did not submit that one Figured WWC no-longer existed. We started our QUEST for 800 on 7/15/2019 We are currently are at 742 Have 8 “yet to try” new grapes/wines in my ‘CELLAR’ Just order more wines to get us 4 more new grapes E- mail me so we can figure out how to move forward on this matter THANKS JRC 3/4/2020
Hello Wine Friends,
I have sent my newly increased wine list and am looking forward to receiving a note that it has arrived and will be processed.
Cheers to all,
Tom
Hi Tom, James and Claire,
I’ve got all of your lists and will send out the certs in the next few weeks. You three are the tops!
Thanks,
Steve
Thank you very much Steve. You are, as I have known for years, a great leader in the wine world. Keep up your great work.
Tom
Need a ruling from the “Wine Gods”, as we could leap from 460 varietals to the mid 800’s with one Wine. Pheasants Tears Winery in the Republic of Georgia makes a wine called Poliphonia. Another derivation is Polyphony. Anyway, upon research Poliphonia is made up of 417 unique Georgian varietals. I got my hands on one of these bottles and plan to open it, at a Republic of Georgia wine tasting event at our home in July. You can visit the winery website to learn more about the wine, and there are other web based/youtube based links to the Winery. If someone lives in London, England, I found a wine shop there that carries the Wine.
This wine is a blend of 417 of the estimated 525 indigenous red and white varieties in Georgia, as the name “Poliphonia” (Polyphony) suggests.
It is a mixed planted field with 1-10 plants of each of the 417 varieties. They harvest in 3-4 sweeps, as they all ripen at different times, so you get white, golden greenish, blue, purple, grey pink grapes at various level of ripeness that finish co-fermenting together!
Matured in a qveri, this wine has bags of fresh dark fruit. The wine is incredibly moreish, a perfect step off into the unusual.
About the Winery:
All of the wines at Pheasant’s Tears are fermented and aged in qvevri.
Pheasant’s Tears qvevri vary in age but, some date back to the mid 19th Century. The winery built their cellar in the vineyard itself to minimize the damage to the grapes in transportation, allowing them to harvest and press before the hot hours of the sun. It is usually a question of hours before the harvested grapes are already pressed and in the cool qvevri.
In accordance with Georgian traditional winemaking methods, the ripest of stems are added to the grape skins, juice and pits, for both reds and whites produced by Pheasant’s Tears. The maceration time depends on varietal and the size of the qvevri and varies between 3 weeks and 6 months.
I seem to remember there was already a ruling on Polyphony, but cannot remember at which level it could count. I look forward to seeing the answer to that question. I have a sib moving back from the UK next month (if allowed!) and perhaps I can get her to find it before she leaves. I just submitted my Doppel app in January.
Thanks for all you do Steve and Deborah!
Steve, Our certificates arrived today. Thanks so much. Hope all is well with you and your family. Jim is continuing to search for new grapes to complete our 800 quest. Stay safe and healthy. Cheers! Thanks again for all you do for the WCC.
Susan, there was a ruling on Cente Uvo, the 152 +/- varietal blend from Mario Giribaldi. Now with Polyphonia, there is a Georgian Wine, that puts 417 varietals into play. As of today, my wife and I have tasted ~ 463 varietals, on which, maybe 6 Georgian varietals are included in our total.
How many different grape varieties are there in the World? Wine Dogma and Google state there are +10,000. I can Find and Classify +2,000 varieties. (They are in my web-site dthev.com ) What do you think? Do you have a list? What do you tell people when they ask how many varieties are there in the world? …Derek Bacciocco, Curator of DtheV.com
Derek I use the http://www.vivc.de database, mostly European in origin. They have over 10000 unique names quantified. To date I have personally tasted 486. With another 9 in my wine room I haven’t tried yet, and one very unique wine, made up of 417 unique Georgian varietals.
A Georgian wine tasting event in the Sacramento Valley this Saturday. We are talking about forming a Century Club chapter. On the list of wines to try are Chardakhi 2010 Chinuri (unfiltered), Pheasants Tears 2018 Rkatsiteli, Pheasants Tears 2107 Polyphonia (made up of 417 unique Georgian varietals. If you have access to the Wine Show on Amazon Prime, here is an episode about the wine. https://thewineshow.com/uk/episodes/episode-3/
What a magnificant achievement !
I have now reached 445 varieties, BUT I am still waiting for my 300 certificate (you previously sent me a second 200 certificate when in fact I submitted all the details of my 300 list).
Will supply details and submit application for 400 membership when I receive my 300 document.
Regards
I hit 600 in May 2018 – or more likely in April of that year, when I drank my first bottle of Polyphony, the Georgian wine said to include 417 varietals. Do any of you have a list of what those 417 might be? I’ve been back and forth with the winery owner for several years seeking the info. At first, he said he’d been meaning to type up the list and to remind him. Every three months or so, I’ve done that – and his replies have become testy: “I don’t have time to do anything like that!” It’s hard not to wonder if the 417 is a bit like “Heinz 57 Varieties,” meaning more marketing than reality.
Randy, I did my own projection of the Varietal list in Polyphony. Starting with known individual varietals already produced by Pheasants Tears. Next I looked at known varietals planted in Kakheti region (location of Pheasants Tears Winery). Finally I got a list of all known, documented Georgian varietals from the VIVC.de database. Then I did a thorough cleaning of info in that database. Eliminating grapes that didn’t have a Red/White designation. Eliminating grapes that didn’t have a clear identifying name. Next, eliminating documented clones. Next, in the VIVC.de database varietals are assigned a number based upon when the varietal was documented. The lower the number the longer it has been documented. The higher the number, the more recent the varietal has been documented. I ended up with about 525 varietals. I then selected the remaining varietals with the lowest/earliest documentation information. This lead me to a list of 417 varietals. Noting I had previously already tasted about 30 known Georgian varietals from a range of Wineries, including Pheasants Tears. So, by producing this list, I added about 380+ varietals to my Century Club list.
Randy, I did all this work after doing exactly what you have done. Try to work directly with the Winery to get information on the varietal list, and receiving little to no information.
I have created a group on mewe.com for all Wine Century Club people to share comments and PDF or XLS Applications. I expect a bubbly and exuberant reception!
https://mewe.com/group/5ffe9011e133da3ba8341f02
FRIENDS OF WINE CENTURY CLUB
Steve Delong, thanks for the 900 certificate for my wife and I. “Novem” member. We just ordered two cases of wine that should get us to 955 +/-. Mazzese, Roscetto, Cococciola among the new ones. Looking forward to becoming a Mille (1000) member.
Steve,
I submitted my application and my wife’s by mail for 200 varietals certification on 26 October 2020. To date (7+ months) we have received no certificates. I have followed up with requests for status to both your Wine Century Club site and your personal email. I regognize that you have many members and lots of certificates to issue,but I would appreciate knowing if we are still in the queue. Thank you. Jim Devine
All quiet on the Western Front apparently in The Wine Century Club world. My wife and I submitted a request to get certified for 1000 varietals. We submitted a total 1013 varietals in early December 2021. I don’t know if anyone else is interested in helping Steve maintain, and run our special Club. I have told him I am willing to help given I am retired and have a fair amount of time on my hands. Our count in early 2022 is a couple of varietals higher.
Question for the group: When counting up the different varietals that you have sampled, do you count grapes with various synonym names as different varietals, or are they considered one entry? For instance, would Grenache and Garnacha be counted as two entries, or only as one (since they are simply different names for the same varietal)? As another example, does drinking one wine labeled Mourvèdre, another labeled Monastrell, and another labeled Mataro count as one entry or three? Thank you!
I only use the PRIME name, not multiple synonyms. I use VIVC.de as my source. You type in whatever varietal you are researching, and the database gives you the PRIME name you can use. This prevents duplications.