 Hello, welcome back to Exotic Wine Travel, I am your host, Matthew Orkey, welcome back to the show. We have a special guest today and I'll introduce him in a second. First I want to let you know we're at the Go Volcanic Conference 2019 Budapest Hungry. Volcanic wines from, what do we have here? Israel, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Hungary, we've got quite a good little range. So for those of you don't know, for those of you who are not wine geeks, you probably should know. I'm a Master Cimeli John Sabo from Canada, author of this awesome book I'll also put on the screen, Volcanic Wines, Salt, Grit in Power, he is like the godfather of the Volcanic Wine Movement. Thanks for being on the show. It's a pleasure. Tell me a little bit about Volcanic Wine, what drew your interest in Volcanic Wines and what are Volcanic Wines all about? That's a good question, that's a big opening question right there and I'll tell you that my journey started about ten years or so ago. As I've said many times, I had visited Santorini, I had visited the north shores of Lake Balaton, I had been recently to Etna, found these wines really quite fascinating from unusual varieties, different sort of flavor profiles and I was trying to write an article about them. I couldn't find a way to tie them all together until it finally dawned on me that they all originated on Volcanic Soils. So from that moment on my new greatest vines are from a volcano and that small little article eight years later turned into the big, well the big tome, the tome which covers quite a few countries, about a dozen countries and twice as many regions, so quite a big slice of the world. It's not quite as niche, I know it sounds like a really niche subject, but it's not. It's all over the world. Yeah and we're here in Hungary actually which has a wealth of Volcanic terroirs and ethnically you kind of have Hungarian roots, obviously, a little bit. So what makes these Hungarian terroirs so special in your opinion? One of them is that they're still to be discovered for so many people, certainly in North America and in my part of the world in Canada, I think also down in the US that's true, but coming along you know it's, I don't want to call it undiscovered because these wines have been known for centuries but many of the varieties are unknown and unpronounceable and the flavor profiles are maybe a little bit outside of the comfort zone for a few people, but they're so intriguingly unique to this part of the world and a good part of that is the Volcanic origins, not just that, but across the entire stretch of Northern Hungary essentially from the Austrian border through Northern Budapest all the way to the Kukai. It's just this fantastic chain of Volcanoes that date from 16 million years back to about a million years and ranging from not to get too technical but basalts on one side which is a volcanic rock that I'm sure most people have heard of to rhyolite on the other end and these are just different chemical compositions the geologists will tell you all about them, but they all weathered at different rates and different ages and different chemical compositions even with the same relatively narrow range of varieties yes six or eight or so white varieties you get this amazing declination of styles and great age-worthy wines not easy not fruity wines I'll be perfectly honest they're a little salty and solid and good and powerful what for people that we'll get back to Hungary in a second for people that maybe you want to try some volcanic wines you know what kind of countries you see that are producing these wines that are more readily available say in the US North American markets maybe in Asia I know those markets are different but you know the North American markets best right well you could start right at home for you in California or Washington State yeah or Oregon I mean the whole West West side of the Americas all the way down to Patagonia is amazingly volcanic some nice little mountains that popped up there because of that as well the Andes and Cascades and everything in between so if you want to drink say Napa Valley Cabernet with the volcanic twist just go to the hills not all of the hills but how a mountain is particularly volcanic also Diamond Mountain volcanic hill that famous from Diamond Creek vineyards is one of my favorite Cabernets on the planet and then just move a little bit further north into the Willamette Valley there's an amazing spill of basalt a massive flow over several million years that covered most of that section of the Columbia basin and down into the Willamette with thick basalt soils that weathered and it's a great place to go and do these comparative tastings because a in the Willamette we're dealing essentially Pinot Noir yes which as we know or as all winemakers will tell you is that tortures variety that they spend as much of their time possible trying to do as little as possible so yeah the place so to taste from the called Jory soils one of the main types of volcanic soil in the Willamette versus say one of the sedimentary vineyards side by side pretty dramatic difference in those peanuts that only proves that dirt matters yeah are you are you a geology geek or did you get into it after this I've always had a bit of a science bend I guess you could say but yeah this kind of forced me to dive deep I didn't really know a lot about geology and rocks and certainly volcanology but you know it was a fascinating side branch of research well not a side branch a big branch of this project because I'm a geology half major so that all this stuff is super geeky and I loved it when you're showing all the slides and tectonic activity I want to talk about something that off topic but I think a lot of people would like to have your master some Elliott how long have you been a master some for a few years 2004 it's you know the some films are you know they're just big hits people are people find them crazy John's one of the best blind tasters I've ever seen actually when you're on the show so you think you know why not put the clip up we're sure and I've watched every episode I'm amazed how much you nail it down so talk a little bit about the difficulty of passing that exam especially the blind tasting do you remember that I do quite vividly I think all of us who have had some success will remember that moment for the rest of their lives obviously it's a very difficult thing I would say it's even more challenging now than when I passed 15 years or so ago yes which was already more difficult than the first generation you know we kind of giggle about the first ms's in the late 60s 70s in the UK they were probably tasting but port call it black some crime maybe a burgundy it was probably an easier blind tasting exam but as we all know the world of wine is so amazingly very now every country's kind of in on it and the country that has you know remotely the right climate grows in great somewhere and the range they can tell you from the inside the range of testable varieties is also much longer so yeah it's a challenging attempt but you know the master level for reason yeah let's go but one of my last question you know you're producing wines here in Hungary you're partnering up I love the wines can I mention that I'm on camera is not no surprise right no surprise stump I love the wines and as you get cool a fantastic kick front coast really like talk about Hungary the potential here what the future is I would say a couple a couple of varieties a handful of varieties that are a relatively easy to pronounce like four minutes I think kind of wave the flag for the for the nation's white wines on the red side cake Franko's is the same bride is blau Frankish it's a synonym and of course Hungary and Austria where we're part of the same empire point and most of the great blau Frankish area of Austria is just former German West Hungary it was called so I mean there's a real history of that great in the Carpathian Basin and for me it's the most important red grape not just in terms of plantings it is number one planted red in Hungary but I think a because it's it's red it's somewhat pronounceable but it also fits now I think into a flavor style profile that 10-15 years ago might not have been the case when everyone was looking for a little more power a little bit more extraction that's not what cake Frankish does well what it does do well is give you that mid-weight lovely almost sour cherry fruit not in the sense of overly acidic and austere but just vibrant bright it has a beautiful perfume if you don't cover it in wood I agree most of the best producers now are pulling back not in the stainless because it needs some air but into 500 liter barrels for the most part or and old 500 liter barrels I've tasted kek Frankoshio or blends because our blends range everything the gamut to I would put in a village burgundy tasting all the way to the Chianti Classico so great great that I like very very much so fits right into that into that wheelhouse you know if you love the Loire Valley Cabernet France you love northern pigment wine sort of Dolcetto Barbera in that style northern Roncera Chianti Classico yeah you got it you got it pretty nailed down that's a lot of area we've discovered but you know all delicious wines you know I love very much if you watch the show what is next for you I mean you have the volcanic summits I went to one in New York City was was outstanding I do one in Berlin any other books anything else on the horizon to yes multiple projects lots of things simmering on the back one of which is I'm co-writing a book with the professor of chemistry from the University of Quebec a Montreal fellow who has a passion for wine and he's done some courses I've invited him to teach on wine chemistry for some folks in Toronto and from there we sort of went on this tangent well we need to take this information that you have which is brilliant but technical yes and translate it a from French and English but more importantly from chemistry talk into digestible stuff for the Sunday a faculty for consumers it's a trade book got it but covering all the important topics of wine chemistry that will make you a better taster once you understand the underlying concepts and make you a better interviewer in the sense that you're talking to wine makers you know the things to ask and you understand what's being said to you and yeah I think it's an important work I'm very excited about it wine chemistry it's gonna be a few more months it's gonna be geeky and I love it so you can your website's johnsobo.com right correct yes that's where it's just kind of my holding point but my main business happens on wine align wine align okay okay so you guys check it out check out wine line I'll put the link up for volcanic wine so grit and power we have the book I love the book so much actually really really really well done if we see John Crowish I'm gonna try to make a little so you think you know wine kind of crowed addition I'll be a unfair advantage for you because I know the crew had variety so we can put a bunch of different wines in so thank you for being on the show I really appreciate good luck with everything and thanks I appreciate it guys yeah no problem check out his book check out wine align there's a lot of good stuff there and if you liked this video please subscribe to our YouTube channel exotic wine travel I will see you at the next episode