One of the pleasures of working with wine competitions is seeing new things that are going on in the wine world at large, and there are always a few surprises discovered as judges pass their bind finds to me for review. The Leon Millot grape is a hybrid developed in Alsace at the Oberlin Institute in 1911. Winemaker Ryan Scott has shepherded this Ohio version into a very tasty offering – it doesn’t carry any foxy character, and presents like a soft version of a Mencía with gentle savory notes joining elegant red fruit. I’m betting we’ll all be seeing more of this soon.
Hocking Hills Winery, Ohio (United States) Leon Millot 2021
By Rich Cook