Wine: Comeback varietals

Never count a good grape out, said Ray Isle in FoodandWine.com. In recent decades, a number of indigenous European grape varieties have neared the brink of extinction before bouncing back in a big way. Below are three such white wines worth seeking out.

2011 Zafeirakis Malagousia ($16). Only one vine bearing the malagousia grape was still living in the late 1970s when winemaker Vangelis Gerovassiliou came to the rescue. Much of Greece now produces “silky” malagousias.

2011 Elvio Cogno Anas-Cëtta ($33). Nascetta, a “citrusy” grape native to the Piedmont region, was also a virtual goner when Elvio Cogno began working with it in the 1990s.

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2011 Gaba do Xil Godello ($17). Spanish vintners revived the “crisp, minerally” godello in the late 1970s, a time when the species was down to its last few hundred vines.