Unusually exciting

"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door." Exactly. Just when you thought it was safe to venture out and look through retail shelves and wine lists, you find yet another name you never seen. A new producer. Another one? And new grape varieties too. How many more could there be?

It's like counting stars and galaxies. There are more than you can count. There are more than you think.

But we welcome newcomers and unfamiliar grapes. Without them we'd still be drinking watered-down wines made from müller-thurgau and Baco 22A. There was a time not long ago sauvignon blanc, pinot gris, pinot noir and syrah were minor grapes of insignificance. Now they are on everyone's lips.

Some of the new grape varieties will never make it beyond the experimental phase before inevitable extinction, but one or two might just make the big time. At least it's fun trying them while they have the novelty value.

One of the first 2012 vintage wines on the market, this is cracking with energy. Coopers Creek SV 'Bell-Ringer' Albarino 2012 ($22) shows youthful charm and plenty of appealing flavours. The bouquet is ripe and fragrant with white peach, citrus and floral. It's succulent and rounded on the palate with lovely texture, finishing long and smooth. A very likable wine. Albarino is a grape of northwest Spain and Portugal. Think seafood, think albarino.

Coopers Creek also do an arneis called 'The Little Rascal' ($22), which is another seafood champion with elegant fruit flavours and a refreshing mouthfeel. And don’t stop there. It’s worth checking out their grüner veltliner and montepulciano too.

Speaking of grüner, there are some dozen producers making wine from this grape now. One of the best is Seifried Nelson Grüner Veltliner 2011 ($22). It’s a lovely youthful wine showing delicate aromas of floral, citrus and white peach. The palate is beautifully ripe with bright acidity and a lingering finish. More expressive than most grüners, this should evolve nicely over the next few years. Grüner veltliner is a grape from Austria, and has the generosity of chardonnay and the fragrance of pinot gris/viognier, with a riesling-like freshness, so it’s a difficult grape to describe but it makes a pretty tasty wine.

Seifried also make other delightful rarities: würzer, a fragrant white wine with juicy flavours, and zweigelt, an appealing medium-bodied red with a pleasant dry finish, proving that they are much more than makers of outstanding mainstream wines.

Staying in Nelson, Waimea is renowned for fabulous sauvignon blanc, chardonnay and riesling. Their recent release Waimea Nelson Dolcetto 2011 ($25) is a little ripper, displaying superbly ripe aromas of dark plum, blueberry, game and spice. The palate is dense with velvety texture and fine/firm tannins providing excellent structure and length. This would be great with rich meat dishes. Dolcetto means ‘little sweet one’ in Italian, and it’s an immediately appealing grape of succulent flavours and vibrancy.

There are many more to discover beyond the common-or-garden varieties. And it sure isn't a dangerous business trying new wines. How else would we discover new taste?