So what the hell is this? -- ForgottenGrapes.com

UPDATED EVERY THURSDAY,

WHETHER WE’RE SOBER OR NOT!

So what the hell is this?

And who the hell are you?

And why should I give a damn?

Welcome to Friends of the Forgotten Grapes

Friends of the Friends

of the Forgotten Grapes

Please support them because

they support us...with wine!

Doing for forgotten grapes what

Dancing With the Stars does for

forgotten celebrities.

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Welcome to ForgottenGrapes.com
Official web home of the Friends of the Forgotten Grapes

We appreciate you stopping by ForgottenGrapes.com and learning more about us. We are devoted to introducing you every week to a lesser-known or uncommon grape varietal you might not be familiar with , and doing it in a fun, irreverent, pop-culture-y style. But that’s not our real mission...

Our Mission: To Save the World!

Our mission here at Friends of the Forgotten Grapes and ForgottenGrapes.com is three-fold:

To expand the palates of wine lovers and wine drinkers of all caliber and from all over – from the dipping-her big-toe-into-the-Merlot novice in Nebraska to the most jaded wine snob in New York, London, Paris, Napa, or Monkton, Maryland – beyond the current Cab/Chard/Merlot/Grigio/Pinot/SauvBlanc/Syrah/Riesling cabal that has taken over the wine world and lords over wine shop shelves, wine magazine pages, and restaurant wine lists with an unclenching iron fist,

To introduce all wine lovers and wine drinkers to uncommon and lesser-known grapes they may already know about or might know at all, grapes that don’t get the same respect as the aforementioned cabal due to their lack of name recognition but grapes that make fantastic, enjoyable, highly-drinkable wines,

To make learning about these new wines as entertaining and pleasurable as possible. I mean, it’s wine after all. It’s not rocket science or a tax seminar or third-world debt. It’s meant to be jovial, convivial and satisfying, not stuffy, serious and cheerless.

We are committed to not only introducing you, the wine drinker and wine lover, to these grapes and wines but also to giving you a point of reference to better understand each one. This reference will help you better remember what the grape is, where it’s grown, what it looks/smells/tastes like, what food ingredients and dishes pair well with it, and most importantly, where you can get your hands on it and try it for yourself. Because nothing helps you understand and remember a wine better than actually opening up a bottle and tasting it yourself.

Why We’re Not Completely Against the Cabal

Don’t get me wrong: we’re not here to get you to STOP drinking Cabernet, Chardonnay, Merlot, Pinot Noir, et.al. completely. That would be antithetical to our mission of expanding people’s palates and making sure people enjoy their wine every time they open a bottle or raise a glass. Not to mention both foolish and suicidal. I mean, we’re not dumb enough to take on the entire wine-industrial complex by ourselves. Wait, are we? Nah, of course not. Hell, I’ll even be the first to admit that my absolute most favorite grape in the entire world is Syrah. By a French country mile. Or kilometer. Can’t get enough of the stuff. And I also like Pinot and Riesling a whole lot as well. There are plenty of places in this world and times in your life when drinking a good crisp unoaked Chardonnay or a dry, rich Cabernet is the ideal fit. And we’re completely fine with that. We just want to make sure that’s not ALL people are drinking, which is what we’ve seen happening way too much recently and by too many people. There are so many other wonderful wines out there and they are more readily available than ever before. Why limit yourself to just a handful of varietals? That’s why Friends of the Forgotten Grapes was founded and that’s why we’ll be here every Thursday whether we’re sober or not – just like it says on our home page.

So Answer the Question Already: Just What the Hell Is This?

Alright, alright. Sheesh!

So every Thursday, ForgottenGrapes.com will be updated and all-new, and most weeks (but not all – more on this in a bit) we’ll take an in-depth look at one specific Forgotten Grape. On our home page, you’ll get just a taste of the grape we’re featuring and its pop culture Doppelganger, and you’ll also be able to find a list of the other Forgotten Grapes we’ve highlighted over the previous five weeks (and also access all previously featured Forgotten Grapes via our archive). We’ll also give you a tease for the Forgotten Grape we’ll be examining next week, plus there’s also a form where you can submit your wine-related questions for our Booda Bag Mailbag feature, premiering in a few weeks (again, more on that later). That’s an awful lot for just one home page, but believe me, it’s worth it.

So, when you click through to this week’s featured Forgotten Grape, you’ll be taken to the main varietal page, which is divided into the following sections:

The Big Lead
This section is up front for a reason. Here you’ll find a general overview on the Forgotten Grape of the week as well as a detailed explanation of why we selected the pop culture icon we did to represent this grape.

What It Looks Like, What It Smells Like, and What It Tastes Like

Pretty self-explanatory. We even provide you with pretty pictures so you can visualize what you’re seeing, smelling, and tasting in the wine. We know that even if they are made from the same grape, every wine tastes a little bit different from every other wine. Sometimes a lot different thanks to the vintage, the weather conditions, the region and soils and topographies and hundreds of other minute factors that cause these variations. So we try to focus in on the big picture, the sight, smell, and taste headlines that are most common to that particular Forgotten Grape, the ones you should expect whenever you open up a bottle of that particular varietal. Your own sight, smell, and taste tests may vary. Oh, and we try not to use any wine-speak. We strive to make our vernacular as layman as possible so you won’t feel confused, intimidated, or completely lost when reading. We want you comfortable, accessible, and hopefully slightly buzzed when reading our website. Honest.

Fun Facts to Impress/Bore People at Parties
Again, the name says it all. These are little nuggets of trivia about the featured Forgotten Grape that you can put in your pocket and pull out when you need them. Showing off to your friends? Impressing the ladies/guys at the bar? One-upping that snooty Sommelier or your wine geek who thinks he knows it all (and let’s face it, he’s almost always a he)? Yeah, we got you covered on that. We’re here to help. You’re welcome.

From Brein’s Brain to Your Plate

Brein Clements is a certifiable god when it comes to food and wine. At 27 years old, he is the owner and chef of his own gourmet restaurant – Restaurant Omakase, recipient of two stars in the L.A. Times (out of three – and trust me, two is NOT easy to come by) and easily one of the best and most inventive places to eat in Southern California. He’s got an amazing pedigree when it comes to getting creative with food and wine and a palate that anyone else would kill for. All of this in spite of the fact that he attended one of the worst high schools in all of Orange County (*coughcoughlosalamitoshighschoolcoughcough*).

Each week Brein will offer up a combination of ingredients and dishes that will pair perfectly with the featured Forgotten Grape. It might be something as simple as a spice or as complex as a four-course meal. Sometimes he might even get really crazy. McDonald’s french fries? Baking soda? Hot pastrami on rye? Who knows! Brein’s got free rein over this section; the only instruction he was given was that his choice of ingredients and dishes should be things that the everyday wine drinker can easily get to and/or put together. Beyond that, though, we have no idea what Brein’s brain is going to come up with. All we can guarantee is that you’re going to like his recommendations and that they’ll be right on the money. Even the really weird ones.

But Don’t Take Our Word For It...
Whenever possible, we’re going to try to include a short three or four question interview with a winemaker who produces or specializes in the week’s featured Forgotten Grape. You’ll get to know the winemaker, some of the history behind his or her winery and involvement with the featured Forgotten Grape, what inspired this particular winemaker to start crafting these wines, what goes into producing his or her wines, and what separate this winemaker’s wines from others using the same Forgotten Grape. Even better, you’ll have a chance to try out the winemaker’s wares for yourself in our next section...

Go On. Try It. You’ll Like It.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: you can never really get to know a Forgotten Grape and discover if it’s up your alley or not until you try it yourself. And this section gives you the opportunity to do just that. Each week we’ll offer up three or four specific bottles of the week’s Forgotten Grape in its 100% varietal form (provided we can find the grape in its 100% varietal form). We’ll also make an effort to vary the wines as much as possible by country, region, vintage, or whatever to let you try different iterations of the Forgotten Grape and discover the differences and impact that location, terrain, aging, and climate can have on the same grape.

All of our bottles will be available from a Friend of the Friends of the Forgotten Grapes, an online wine retailer or individual winemaker whom we’ve established a relationship. We know them, we like them, we trust them, and you should too.

You can rest assure that each and every wine recommended here has been tasted thoroughly by the Friends of the Forgotten Grapes tasting squadron. We taste them beforehand to ensure that you’re not getting any lemons (unless, of course, the wine has a lemon flavor to it). We also don’t go by ratings here and won’t be rating these wines either; we’re just going to tell you honestly our opinions and everything you need to know about what’s in the wine so you can decide if you want to try it or not. Which we really hope you do. Because they’re all really good.

Finally, we’ve made a concerted effort to find wines made from our Forgotten Grapes that are value-priced and affordable, so you don’t have to break the bank to try out these wines and discover the Forgotten Grape on your own. While you’re always welcome to seek out these Forgotten Grapes at your own favorite local wine shops, we encourage you to buy from our Friends, as we know they’ll have the wines in stock and they keep us in business and allow us to keep providing you with introductions to brand-new Forgotten Grapes week after week.

So What Was That Other Thing You Mentioned? About Not Featuring a New Grape Every Week?

Right. So like we said, ForgottenGrapes.com will be updated every Thursday, and most of those weeks we’ll be presenting you with a new Forgotten Grape. But, on the last Thursday of each month, starting in May, we’ll be introducing three new features to the site that we think will nicely supplement the regular Forgotten Grapes information:

Off The Drinkin’ Path: Just like the Forgotten Grapes, there are plenty of forgotten or lesser-known wine regions out there, not only throughout the world but also around the United States and Canada. This special feature will take a look at one of these regions with winemaker interviews, wine recommendations, and of course, the pop culture twist that defines ForgottenGrapes.com.

The Booda Bag: You’ve got questions, we’ve got answers. Submit your wine-related questions and we’ll answer them in our own snarky, inimitable style. We can’t guarantee that you won’t be offended or insulted, but we can guarantee that your question will be answered. Sometimes.

Break for...: Because man (and woman) cannot live on wine alone. Let’s face it, it would be weird and kind of boring if we did. So once a quarter, we’ll take a break from the Forgotten Grapes and take time out for a different kind of libation. Maybe a bourbon, maybe a beer, maybe a gin martini, maybe even something exotic like mead. Who knows? All you need to know is that it will be something you can try at home and you will be thoroughly entertained.

So Is That It Then? Does That Just About Cover It?

Yeah, I think so. So go ahead, surf around a little bit. Explore the site. Enjoy yourself. And once again welcome to ForgottenGrapes.com. Oh, and try not to break anything either, will ya? We just finished paying for it.