As I was adding a host of obscure grape names such as pelaverga, areni noir, and bovale sardo to some tasting notes recently, I was struck by the extent to which our experience of wine is circumscribed by a tendency to complacency.

Like sticking to the same old newspaper, washing up liquid, loo paper, car or, as often as not, wine, brand loyalty may well be a virtue in the eyes of the marketing industry but it’s as often as not the refuge of unadventurous consumers. A continually expanding wine universe challenges us to peer our from under the shell of our comfort zone and stick noses into an expanding array of new flavours and experiences.

Something similar must have occurred to Julia Harding MW when, tasked with finding her 50 top Portuguese wines, she decided to stick to wines made only from native Portuguese grape varieties. The result was a group of surprisingly good dry whites, among them the 2010 Quinta de la Rosa Branco, £14.95, Berry Bros. (08002802440), Slurp.co.uk, a Douro blend of viosinho and rabigato grapes that’s refreshingly zesty with smoky undertones and crisp, appley fruit enveloped in a swirl of smokiness, and finishing nuttily dry. Looking at her selection, Portugal’s whites could well be one of wine’s Next Big Things.

Crossing from Atlantic to the Mediterranean, Italy’s northern region of Friuli has long been recognised for its brilliant whites such as the wonderful 2009 Vie di Romans Flors di Uis, £25.00, Laithwaites (08451947720), an immensely fragrant bright and seductively exotic rich peach and pear blend based on malvasia istriana and friulano with a pithy grapefuity freshness.

It’s to Italy’s South though we now turn increasingly for fine new wave whites such as Sicily’s 2011 Planeta Carricante, 16.95 – 18.95, Great Western Wine (01225322810), Swig (08000272272), Valvona & Crolla (0131556 6066), a fragrant white whose apple and lime zingy aromas are complemented by a deliciously full-bodied stonefruit richness with a mouthwatering spritz and taut, bone dry, mineral finish.

Like carricante, the Mediterranean’s vermentino grape also retains a natural refreshness, a factor Laithwaite’s winemaker Mark Hoddy has taken advantage of in the 2011 Un Vent de Folie, Vin de France, £9.99, Laithwaites. It’s an accomplished richly concentrated white with a lightly toasty note underscored by honeyed notes and a crisply refreshing lemony aftertaste.

My most recent reminder of the new reach of obscure grape varieties was an encounter with the 2010 Zorah Karasi, £22 - £23.50, Philglas & Swiggot (02079244494), Shaftesbury Wines (01747850059), Swig. Made from areni noir, this Armenian red from Zorik Gharibian is aged in traditional amphorae with fresh fragrant cherry and pepper spice, stylish polished oak and a soft and juicy mulberry-like quality whose savoury acidity recalls northern Rhône syrah. Genatzt to that!

Something For The Weekend

Something For the Weekend 15 September 2012

Couch Potato

2010 Asda Extra Special Dão

A blend of the local Douro’s Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz and Jaen, the aromatics of this vivid Portuguese red are tinged with fresh mint, the flavour infused with a moreishly gluggy ripe dark cherry and plum fruitiness. £6.98, Asda.

Dinner Party

2008 Marks & Spencer Carignan Old Vineyard, Maule Valley

Marcelo Retamal shows his wizard of Chile credentials in De Martino’s distinctive old vine blend, a glorious red of herbal aromas and concentrated loganberry fruitiness framed by chocolatey oak and juicy freshness. £11.99, Marks & Spencer.

Splash Out

2006 Contino Reserva Rioja, £20,49

From one of Rioja’s great producers, this beautifully-proportioned reserva blends tempranillo with a dash of graciano and mazuelo for a purity of sweetly ripe cherryish fruit laced with spice and seamlessly textured intensity of flavour. Tesco Fine Wine (114 stores).