What do you get when you cross the great port grape variety Touriga Nacional with the most common table grape variety Thompson Seedless? Tarrango! This is exactly what Austrailian scientists did in 1965 to produce perhaps one of the oddest combinations yet. I tasted it blind and thought it was a Beaujolais.
Brown Brothers 2004 Tarrango, Australia
Pale ruby red, which is even lighter than any Pinot Noir I've seen from Australia.
Real Beaujolais-like nose. Sweet cherries, raspberries, hint of herbs and mowed grass with a whiff of marshmallow. I found out from the Brown Brothers website that 16% of the grapes had been carbonically macerated.
Very low tannins, good acidity, very fruity and fresh cherries and raspberries, ultra-light. There seemed to be a little too much alcohol, but at 12.5% vol taking it any lower might make it a hard sell Down Under.
Rating: :) It was a fun, light fruity wine perfect with a pizza and pretending it's summer in London. I couldn't find it in the US on Winesearcher.com, but it seems to be available everywhere else. For £5.99 at Waitrose it was certainly cheap and cheerful.
