Wine Scrolls

Pinot Gris

2007-05-14T21:42:00.000-05:00

Pinot gris (or pinot grigio, as it is known in Italy) probably is the best-known "white" variant-clone of Pinot Noir. Ripe pinot gris grapes may be described as having colors from bluish grey to light pinkish brown. Clusters with a variety of colors are not unusual.

The variety can attain a very high level of sweetness, but will begin to lose acid rapidly when near to fully ripe. Sometimes it is used to add richness and to lighten, when blended with Pinot Noir.

Some pinot gris is grown in Burgundy, where it may be called pinot beurot. Where planted in Germany, it is known as ruländer. It is of little commercial significance in either locale. Friuli, in Italy, produces the largest quantity, but only two appellations have Pinot Gris stars in the wine quality galaxy: Alsace, France, the traditional base of Pinot Gris appreciation and Oregon, the newest Pinot Gris area to come to light.

In Alsace, the pinot gris grape is called tokay d'Alsace (no relation to the Hungarian Tokay). The Alsatians value it as a full-bodied wine that can stand up to food without introducing any flavors of its own. In Italy, Pinot Grigio can be quite distinguished, coming from some producers, especially in the Friuli region, who devote attention to growing and vinifying. Unfortunately for its reputation, there are many other Italian Pinot Grigio makers that overcrop and harvest early to produce crisp, but vapid wines.

There are winemakers in the United States who are putting serious efforts into growing and producing Pinot Gris. Nearly 1,620 acres are planted in California, mostly in the Central and South coastal areas. Both quality and sales have been erratic thus far. Many Oregon wineries, on the other hand, have had good success and are moving steadily away from making Chardonnay while increasing production of Pinot Gris. In the 2000 vintage, Pinot Gris total plantings (1270 acres) and quantity crushed (2917 tons) surpassed Chardonnay (1125 acres, 2523 tons) for the first time.

Pinot Gris / Pinot Grigio is usually delicately fragrant and mildly floral with lightly lemon-citrus flavors. Depending upon ripeness at harvest and vinification technique, Pinot Gris can be tangy and light, or quite rich, round and full bodied. Made in an appropriate style, it is one dry white wine that may even age well.

Muscadelle

2007-05-14T21:41:00.001-05:00

Not to be confused with the Muscat grape, Muscadelle is an increasingly unimportant grape that calls Bordeaux home. Part of the blend used for both dry white Bordeaux and the sweet wines of Sauternes et al., Muscadelle has now taken a back seat to Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc. In fact, most of the Muscadelle plantings today are in the outlying area of Entre-Deux-Mers instead of the more prestigious Graves or Sauternes. Also found in the Dordogne area of the Gaillac region further to the south where it is capable of producing light and aromatic wines with notes of flowers, peaches and honey.

Muscadelle is most famous today for the outstanding dessert wines known as stickies that come from southern Australia and the Rutherglen in Victoria. These wines are often referred to as Tokay as the Muscadelle in Australia was thought for years to be the Hárslevelu varietal that is a big part of the Hungarian dessert wine Tokaji.

Marsanne

2007-05-14T21:39:00.001-05:00

This grape is relatively new to the "varietal scene", as one of the white wine grapes that is helping, along with Viognier and Roussanne, to increase the visibility and popularity of "Rhône-style" wines in California in particular and the United States in general.

Its probable origin is the northern Rhône region and it is one of eight white grape varieties allowed in the Côtes du Rhône appellation. Offering greater productivity and intriguingly different aromas, it has gradually taken oven the role of blending that traditionally was held in many Rhône appellations by Roussanne. Besides fairly recent and limited plantings in California, Australia has less than 250 acres of vineyards planted to Marsanne, although some date back a century or more.

While the vines are relatively hardy, the grapes hangs in winged, long, well-filled, and compact clusters. This leaves the fruit susceptible to powdery mildew (odium), bunch rot, berry cracking and excessive juicing at harvest. Marsanne grapes tend to be low in acidity, so both must and wine have tendencies to oxidation and browning. This grape's varietal character has little tolerance for weather that is either too cool or too warm and bland, simply vinous wine will result.

The round, medium-gold to amber Marsanne berries make deep-colored wine that is also fairly full-bodied, sometimes described as almost "waxy". Where growing conditions are right, Marsanne aromas can suggest almond paste or citrus, mixed with perfume or model airplane cement. Low aciditiy means Marsanne wine is best consumed young.

Gruner Veltliner

2007-05-14T21:38:00.001-05:00

Grüner Veltliner, or Gru-Vee, as it has been dubbed, is the latest craze. It’s Austria’s own white variety: although lots of attention has focused on Austrian Riesling, there’s actually an awful lot more Gru-Vee planted (by a factor of 10). Now it’s rightfully regarded as the centrepiece of Austria’s wine industry. If you want to look cool this summer, then you should really be sipping Gru-Vee.

So if Austrian whites, and Grüner Veltliners in particular, are so good, how come we haven’t seen many of them here in the UK? The main reason they’ve not been better known abroad is because the domestic market greedily snaps up most of the good stuff, and keeps the prices high across the board. Indeed, Austria doesn’t actually make that much wine. But the word is out, and Grüner Veltliner is gaining more of the attention that it deserves. With its food friendliness, versatility and in many cases a capacity to gain complexity with age, Grüner looks set to gain more friends.

Much of the hype surrounding Grüner Veltliner comes from a series of blind tastings (there have been three so far) put on by a Swiss aficionado of Austrian wines, of which the best publicized was held in the UK at the invitation of MWs Jancis Robinson and Tim Atkin. In this shoot-out, Austria’s leading Grüner Veltliners and Chardonnays were pitched against top Chardonnays from around the world, including some very, very stylish white Burgundies. Remarkably, the panel of illustrious judges voted the Austrian wines into seven of the top 10 places. Grüner Veltliner was the clear winner.

Grüner has a variety of expressions. Cropped at high yields it can make a pleasant but light quaffing white, but if growers take a little more care it is capable of making complex, full flavoured, spicy whites often with a distinctive white flower and cracked pepper edge to them. The examples that I tried below (at a tasting put on by the Austrian wine marketing board) aren’t necessarily the best; they represent a spectrum of styles, and many of the most famous names are missing. However, the quality was consistently good across the board. Only a couple of these wines have seen new oak: generally, Gru-Vee doesn’t need new oak to enhance its character, and if barriques are used they have to be used with care.

Garganega

2007-05-14T21:37:00.001-05:00

An ancient vine which is nearly identical to Sicily’s Grecanico, Garganega is thought to be of early Greek origin, as the name suggests. It has been established in northeast Italy for centuries and is widely planted throughout the Veneto, where it is the primary white vine and the staple ingredient of Soave. Cultivated to lesser extent in Friuli, Lombardy and Umbria, it shows up almost nowhere else.

Garganega is a late-ripening and extremely vigorous vine, with medium sized, pentagonal leaves with pronounced notches. The loosely-knit clusters are long, cylindrical and winged, supporting spherical, thick skinned, juicy berries of moderate acidity, medium in size and pale white-green in color.

Responsible for oceans of bland, undistinguished wine, when sited in the best microclimates and cultivated to restrict yield it can produce an elegant, delicate wine reminiscent of greengage plums, citrus and almonds, with balance, structure and texture.

Garganega is also produced in a recioto version, during which the finest parts of the bunches are dried on mats until winter, and the resulting semi-raisins slowly fermented to yield a seductive, sweet dessert wine that can age for decades.

Zinfandel

2007-05-14T21:34:00.000-05:00

Zinfandel was for many years somewhat of a mystery grape, as far as its origins are concerned. Recent research in Croatia and at the University of California at Davis, using DNA profiling, has proved Zinfandel is a clone of the Croatian variety Crljenak. While it had been theorized that Zinfandel's genetic twin, the Italian Primitivo, was the source, this grape also originally mutated from Crljenak. Further research may indicate the very first plantings migrated from Albania or Greece.

In April, 2002, the TTB announced they are considering ruling Zinfandel and Primitivo synonymous for use on wine labels. Producers of California Zinfandel will probably object, anticipating that Italian producers with a bountiful supply would then be able to undercut the market with inexpensive Primitivo wine labeled "Zinfandel".

Zinfandel came to the United States in 1820, when New York nurseryman George Gibbs carried back various cuttings from the Imperial Austrian plant species collection. Over the next two decades, Zinfandel became a popular table grape in the Northeast U.S. Although there are some commercial claims that Agoston Harazsthy brought Zinfandel to California, records show that a Massachusetts nurseryman introduced it here. In either case, Zinfandel is now considered indigenous to California, where it has thrived since the mid-1850's.

Nearly as versatile as Chardonnay in the number of different styles of wine produced from it, it has only achieved widespread popularity in America since 1980, as a pink, slightly sweet wine. In fact, this popularity has so outstripped all other forms, that many fans think that there is actually a grape called "White Zinfandel" (there isn't)!

Zinfandel as a red wine can be made light and fruity, much like French Beaujolais, or lively, complex and age worthy, like Cabernet or claret. It can also be made into big, ripe, high alcohol style wines that resemble Port. Zinfandel is also a component of most California "jug" wines, since it is the most widely planted red wine grape.

This vineyard proliferation can be attributed to zinfandel's hardy nature. Adaptable to a wide range of soils and climates, its vines tend to be vigorous and productive. Zinfandel also has a frequent tendency to set a second crop.

The clusters are compact and full and the berry stems (peduncles) somewhat short. These factors make Zinfandel somewhat susceptible to bunch rot and some types of mildew. Water management is particularly critical to raising Zinfandel. Under stress from lack of moisture, it is prone to raisining. It also ripens more unevenly than most other varieties and it is not uncommon for green and raisined berries to occur within the same cluster. This tendency to can be aggravated by poorly-timed irrigation. Uneven ripening also means that machine-picking is impractical and a Zinfandel vineyard may often require a few passes, days apart, to harvest all the fruit with the same level of maturity.

Because of its vigor, generosity and resistance to vine disease, many zinfandel vineyards exist that are 75 to 100 or more years old. Zinfandel aficionados believe these "old vines" produce the best wines, because the older vineyards set smaller crops and the grapes tend to ripen more evenly.

At its best, Zinfandel (red) has a very fruity, raspberry-like aroma and flavor and a "jammy" quality. The most common aroma and flavor descriptors used with Zinfandel are: >>>

Zinfandel is one red varietal that is probably best enjoyed in its youth, within three to five years of the vintage. With more bottle age than this, the luscious fruit that distinguishes Zinfandel drops markedly and the wine can show a pronounced "hot" taste of higher alcohol levels and become more neutrally vinous. It is sometimes hard even for experienced tasters to pick an older Zinfandel from among similar-aged Cabernet Sauvignon, for instance (not that there's anything wrong with that).

When paired with outdoor-grilled steaks or chops or meat that has been stewed with or stuffed with fruit, Zinfandel becomes a prime motivation for people to become wine-lovers.

Tempranillo

2007-05-14T21:33:00.001-05:00

Tempranillo is a primary red wine grape for much of Spain, especially those from the Ribera del Duero and the Rioja Alta. It is also a key blending varietal in Port and known by the name of tinta roriz in Portugal's Douro Valley.

While its varietal character is somewhat vague, its aromas and flavors often combine elements of berryish fruit, herbaceousness, and an earthy-leathery minerality. Rarely bottled as a stand-alone varietal, its most frequent blendmates are grenache, (aka garnacha in Spain), carignan (aka mazuelo in Spain) and, more recently, cabernet sauvignon.

Shiraz

2007-05-14T21:30:00.000-05:00

Shiraz is the most widely planted grape variety in Australia. It currently represents 40% of the total red grape crush and constitutes one fifth of all wine grape production in Australia. It is without doubt Australia's favourite red variety, both domestically and internationally.

However Shiraz has not always enjoyed the popularity that it does today. Until the mid-1900s, Shiraz was grown purely for fortified wine production. Its ability to get very ripe, along with its inherent rich flavours made is perfect for this wine style. When the red table wine boom began in Australia, Shiraz was overlooked whilst the refined and sophisticated Cabernet Sauvignon became the wine of fashion.

Shiraz reached its lowest point when the South Australian government implemented a vine pull scheme to replace old, low yielding Shiraz vines with the more fashionable Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. Thankfully, some growers resisted, giving us the iconic old block Shiraz styles that Australia is now renowned for.

Shiraz underwent a renaissance when the international world began to focus on Australia. Never before had Shiraz as opulent, as powerful and as seductive been seen. Ripe fruit, a fleshy mid palate, soft tannins and a kick of American oak became the template for Australian Shiraz. And the regions of focus were the Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale and the Hunter Valley.

The beauty of Shiraz is that it can flourish in a range of climates and slowly cool climate Shiraz came into focus. The cooler regions of Central Victoria, Coonawarra and Padthaway became known for structured wines that had black cherry, pepper and spice characters rather than the chocolate and stewed plums found in warmer climates.

Shiraz can be made into a range of styles, defined by the terroir of the region and the winemakers' artistry. In an attempt to allow for regional characters to be expressed, many winemakers are moving away from 100% new American oak, preferring the use of older barrels and/or French oak. The result is a plethora of new styles with finesse and complexity.

Never before has Shiraz enjoyed such stardom. With its soft ripe tannins, it can be crafted into wines suitable for immediate consumption. However it real character is seen in wines with longevity that show layers of intoxicating complexity with age. Shiraz deserves is status as Australia's flagship grape variety. Find yourself a 10-year-old Barossa Shiraz and you will easily see why.

Sangiovese

2007-05-14T21:29:00.000-05:00

Italian immigrants from Tuscany probably introduced the Sangiovese grape to California in the late 1800s, possibly at the Segheshio Family's "Chianti Station," near Geyserville. It is one of several varietal components of the field blend in many old North Coast and Gold Country vineyards that are often otherwise identified as Zinfandel.

Sanguis Jovis, the Latin origin for the varietal name, literally means "blood of Jove" and it is likely that Sangiovese (a.k.a. Sangioveto or San Gioveto) was known by Etruscan winemakers, although the first literary reference to it was in 1722. It is probably indigenous to Tuscany, whose most famous wine is Chianti.

The basic blend of Chianti was established by Baron Ricasoli in the 1890s. This averages 70% sangiovese as the varietal base (along with 15% canaiolo [red], and 15% trebbiano [white] and sometimes a little colorino [red]). Many vineyards are traditionally planted with this varietal mix. It is difficult even for the Italians to keep up with their own ever-changing and very detailed wine laws, which specify permitted grape types, maximum yields per acre, minimum alcohol content, minimum aging standards before sale, etc. Currently, the minimum amount of sangiovese permitted in Chianti is 90%. Other grapes that may be used now include malvasia toscana, a white grape far superior to the ubiquitous trebbiano. Still, the total white grapes used must not exceed 5% of the blend.

In some ways sangiovese is to Chianti as cabernet sauvignon is to Bordeaux. Both form the base of wines normally blended with other varietals and both by themselves share a certain distinctive elegance and complexity, when well-made.

There are at least 14 separate and distinct clones of sangiovese. At one point, there was some attempt in Italy to identify two separate "families", Grosso and Piccolo, although this seemed to have more commercial basis ("mine's better than yours") than ampelographic or taste evidence to justify this attempt to classify.

The fruit is slow to mature and late-ripening. With relatively thin skins, it has a tendency to rot in dampness and does not mature well if planted above an elevation of 1,500 feet. Sangiovese vineyards with limestone soil seem to produce wines with more forceful aromas.

The hot, dry climate, such as Tuscany provides, is where sangiovese thrives. Because these climatic criteria generally enhance quantity, rather than quality, it takes careful cultivation and winemaking techniques to produce really excellent wine from this grape. The official classification of Chianti itself demonstrates the widely fluctuating range of Sangiovese quality from those identified as ordinary vino di tavola to the highest classico superiore. Sangiovese is the #1 varietal in Italy with 247,000 acres, 10% of the entire wine grape crop.

The flavor profile of Sangiovese is fruity, with moderate to high natural acidity and generally a medium-body ranging from firm and elegant to assertive and robust and a finish that can tend towards bitterness. The aroma is generally not as assertive and easily identifiable as Cabernet Sauvignon, for example, but can have a strawberry, blueberry, faintly floral, violet or plummy character.

Pinot Noir

2007-05-14T21:28:00.000-05:00

Pinot Noir is often described as being a "difficult" grape, to grow, to deal with in the winery, and to find truly great examples of, but fans are passionate about this veriety, as sensually expressed by the dialogue between Miles and Maya in the 2004 movie "Sideways."

Pinot Noir is one of the oldest grape varieties to be cultivated for the purpose of making wine. Ancient Romans knew this grape as Helvenacia Minor and vinified it as early as the first century AD. Recognized worldwide as a great wine grape, pinot noir has many alias and is grown in Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria (called Blauburgunder or Spätburgunder), Brazil, Canada, Croatia (Burgundac), Czechoslovakia, England, France, Germany (Spätburgunder), Greece, Hungary, Italy (Pinot Nero), Mexico, New Zealand, Switzerland (Clevner, but labeled "Dole" when often blended with Gamay Noir), and the United States.

The reputation that gets pinot noir so much attention, however, is owed to the wines of Burgundy (Bourgogne), France. For most of wine history, this two-mile-wide, thirty-mile-long stretch of hills, called the Côte d'Or ("Slope of Gold"), is the only region to achieve consistent success from the pinot noir vine.

The quality of Bourgogne is due to a number of factors. Its vineyards slope gently down toward the East, providing the vines with long sun exposure yet avoiding afternoon heat. The soil there is very calcareous (chalky; containing calcium carbonate), offering good drainage. Well-drained soils have a higher average temperature, which assists ripening. Pinot noir seems to reflect more pronounced Gout de Terroir, or flavor of the soil, than other black grape types, making vineyard site selection a critical factor.

Difficulties plague pinot noir at every step, from propagation to even its bottle-aging characteristics. Genetically unstable, the parent vine may produce offspring that bear fruit that is nothing like the parent's in the size and shape of the berry or cluster and will frequently even have different aromas, flavors, and levels of productivity. There are 46 recognized clones (genetic variants) of Pinot Noir in Dijon, France. Ampelographers estimate there are as many as 200 to possibly 11,000 clones of pinot noir worldwide. By comparison, cabernet sauvignon has only twelve identifiable clones.

Nearly every affliction known to affect vines is common among pinot noir vineyards. Although quite tolerant of cold climates, it is particularly susceptible to Spring frosts, because it is one of the earliest-leafing varieties. The sharpshooter leafhopper finds pinot noir a perfect host. This bug carries Pierce's Disease, which can destroy an entire vineyard in as little as three years. Leaf-roll virus is prevalent in almost all pinot noir plantings over ten years old. The pinot vines are not very vigorous and often lack adequate leaf cover to protect the fruit from birds, which do much damage. Even if the grapes survive the birds, if not picked promptly at maturity, the thin-skinned and tender berries shrivel and dry out rapidly (notice this shriveling in the photo), resulting in a raisiny aroma and neutral flavor.

Pinot Noir is also one of the more difficult wines to ferment. Partly due to the presence of 18 amino acids, which are naturally balanced in this variety, Pinot Noir ferments violently, often "boiling" up and out of its container, speeding the process out of control. Color retention is a major problem for the thin-skinned berries. Pinot is very prone to acetification and often loses the sometimes promising aromas and flavors it seems to display through fermentation and aging, as soon as it is bottled.

There is one component in which Pinot Noir seems naturally quite rich, three to four times higher compared to other varieties, especially when it is grown in cooler and more humid climates: resveratrol. While this may not affect the aspects of sensory enjoyment, it may draw the attention of health-conscious consumers.

Pinot Noir shows some promise and has a possible future in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, and in New Zealand, although all may prove to have growing seasons that are generally too short and too humid for consistently outstanding results.

The popular image persists that California Pinot Noir is a light, fruity wine of no consequence, but California vintners over the past twenty years have been improving site and clonal selections, viticultural methods, and vinification techniques to increase their record of success. The nominees for Best Supporting Appellation in California Pinot Noir are much the same as for Chardonnay: Santa Maria Valley (Santa Barbara County); Russian River Valley (Sonoma County); Carneros (in both Sonoma and Napa Counties); Anderson Valley (Mendocino County); as well as the Pinnacles (Monterey County) and, recently, Santa Lucia Highlands (Monterey County).

Great Pinot Noir creates a lasting impression on the palate and in the memory. Its aroma is often one of the most complex of all varietals and can be intense with a ripe-grape or black cherry aroma, frequently accented by a pronounced spiciness that suggests cinnamon, sassafras, or mint. Ripe tomato, mushroom, and barnyard are also common descriptors for identifying Pinot Noir. It is full-bodied and rich but not heavy, high in alcohol, yet neither acidic nor tannic, with substantial flavor despite its delicacy. The most appealing quality of Pinot Noir may be its soft, velvety texture. When right, it is like liquid silk, gently caressing the palate. Pinot does not have the longevity in the bottle of the darker red wines and tends to reach its peak at five to eight years past the vintage.

Although Pinot Noir harmonizes well with a wide variety of foods, the best matches to show off the delicacy and texture of Pinot Noir are: grilled salmon, a good cut of plain roast beef, or any dish that features mushrooms as the main flavor element. Classic French cooking has creations based on Pinot Noir, such as Coq au Vin (chicken cooked in red wine) Boeuf Bourginon, and Cassoulet. Other main dishes that match well with Pinot Noir include roasted and braised preparations of lamb, pheasant, and duck, as well as grilled meaty fish, such as salmon, shark, and swordfish. Best are foods that are simple and rich. Go easy on the spices, some of which may mask the delicate flavors of pinot noir and generally tend to accentuate the hot taste of alcohol.

Pinotage

2007-05-14T21:26:00.000-05:00

The result of a cross between the Pinot Noir and Cinsault varieties, 1Pinotage was created in South Africa in 1925, by Stellenbosch University Professor A.I. Peroldt.

Pinot Noir makes the classic highly-prized wines of Burgundy, while Cinsault is a prolific cropper that makes relatively undistinguished wines in the south of France. Pinot Noir is very difficult to grow successfully, whereas Cinsault is sturdy and resistant to most vine ailments. It was hoped, by 2crossing these two, the new variety would gain the good points of both parents: classic Pinot Noir taste with a large crop from easy-growing vines.

However, as all parents know, offspring do not always turn out as expected. Initial tastings did not sufficiently impress, so Pinotage was largely ignored until 1961, when a 1959 vintage Pinotage won the Grand Championship at the Cape Young Wine Show, South Africa's long-running and uniquely-themed wine competition.

There was a subsequent rush towards planting Pinotage vines. The vines proved easy to grow and high sugar levels were easily achieved, it is a good cropper and many farmers overproduced. The resulting wines didn't show the early potential and Pinotage tended to be used to bulk out popular-priced blends. There was also a tendency for the wine to show a sweet paint or nail-varnish like bitterness. And as such it suffered descriptions such as "rusty nails".

A few wineries began to specialize in pinotage and showed that a wine worthy of serious consideration could be made. But plantings declined year by year. Pinotage acreage sunk to around 2% of total area by 1993, with prices and demand for Pinotage grapes dropping, much was distilled for brandy.

Again, a wine competition proved savior. In 1991, Kanonkop's winemaker Beyers Truter entered his Pinotages at England's International Wine and Spirit Competition. These so impressed the judges that he was presented with the "Winemaker of the Year" award - becoming the first South African to win this honor.

Pinotage gained international attention, and wine drinkers keen to enjoy a new taste clamored for the unique wine, causing the price of Pinotage grapes to shoot up 500% by 1995. Again winemakers started taking the wine seriously and many even invested in French oak casks to age it. Wine Spectator Editor James Suckling was at a 1995 Cape of Good Hope tasting of old Kanonkop Pinotages when he declared, "What the hell's going on around here? These are spectacular …… SPECTACULAR! Why did you murder the grape?"

The Pinotage Producers Association was formed, research funded, and an annual Pinotage Top 10 competition begun. Research found that fermentation at too low a temperature was the cause of the nail-varnish problem.

The ending of apartheid not only removed trading sanctions, thus opening up new markets, but also created a great international interest in all things South African. And what was more South African than its own varietal? On the other hand, vineyards could finally import vine stocks and the inclination was to plant more fashionable world varieties. At the start of the twenty first-century, demand for Pinotage is increasing and the acreage now forms almost 5% of the South African total for wine grapes.

Pinotage may be made in several different styles: young, light, and fruity, like Beaujolais, deep and rich like a Cotes du Rhone or Zinfandel, or elegant and restrained like Bordeaux are the most common styles. There are also a few rare 'blush' versions and several fortified into "Ports." At least one producer makes Methode Champenoise sparkling red Pinotage.

So what should you expect in a red Pinotage? Good depth of flavor, a unique individual fruity refreshing wine. Some tasters remark on a banana-like taste. I have noted bramble fruits and a velvet texture. It is a dinner wine, with good levels of alcohol giving depth and structure and keeping ability. But - like Zinfandel - there is no old-world style for winemakers to model on, so opening a bottle from a new winery is very much an adventure.

The list of top Pinotage growing estates includes Kanonkop, Simonsig, Warwick, Clos Malverne, Aventuur, L'Avenir, Uiterwyk, and Middlevlei3. The words "bush-vine" on a South African label indicate that the vines are old, as it is only recently Pinotage was thought worth the expense of trellising.

Pinotage is not unique to South Africa. It is made in neighboring Zimbabwe and also widely planted in New Zealand, where the relatively thick, rot-resistant skin is an added benefit in this humid locale. Unfortunately many of the original New Zealand vines had a viral infection and acreage severely declined. New plantings of virus-free vines are improving the Pinotage reputation in New Zealand.

Pinotage has been planted in 4California, with just four wineries currently producing - J Wines, Phoenix, Steltzner and Sutter Ridge. Lake Breeze Vineyards in British Columbia released Canada's first commercial Pinotage in 1999. There are also experimental plantings in New York and Australia.

Mourvèdre

2007-05-14T21:21:00.001-05:00

Mourvèdre as a cultivated wine variety originated in Spain, where it is called monastrell. Over 250,000 acres are planted there and, although many vineyards are intermingled with the bobal variety, only grenache outnumbers total monastrell acreage. It is the principal black grape of the five appellations that cluster on Spain's Southeastern Mediterranean Coast, Almansa, Valencia, Alicante, Jumilla, and Yecla. Prior to the late Nineteenth Century phyloxera devastation, mourvédre was also widely planted in Southern France.

There are contradictions and anomolies in the growth characteristics and properties of mourvédre vines. Mourvédre is a very late variety in both bud break and ripening season. It can recover quite well from Spring frosts, but sometimes fail to survive cold Winter temperatures. It craves heat, but is drought-sensitive.

Phylloxera nearly drove mourvèdre to extinction, because the vines took so poorly to grafting that most vineyardists deemed the results not worth the effort. Replanting did not begin seriously until following World War II, 60 years after the devastation, when sufficient vinestock was developed that had both adapted to grafting and had consistent production history.

Until the late 1960s, however, the main French plantings of mourvédre were in Provence, where it is the dominant grape in Bandol. Total mourvédre vineyards in France increased from 2,200 acres in 1968 to nearly 14,000 by 1988.

Mourvèdre is a slow-ripening variety that develops tight bunches of grapes that need good ventilation to avoid rot. It seems to do best in windy climates like Southern France, and in parts of Spain and Algeria.

On their own, Mourvèdre wines tend to be deep-colored, quite tannic, somewhat alcoholic, and have generally "spicy" aromas and, sometimes, "gamey" flavors in their youth.

Montepulciano

2007-05-14T21:19:00.000-05:00

Montepulciano is an ancient hilltop town in southeast Tuscany. Worthy of a visit because it is a treasure trove for enthusiasts of medieval and Renaissance architecture and artifacts, it also the home of a very fine Sangiovese-based red wine. The noble wine of Montepulciano, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, is one of Tuscany's classic red wines. Although notice of the town's wine dates as far back to 790AD, it was the poet and doctor Francesco Redi who widely established the fame of the wine in a famous poem, Bacco in Toscana in which he toured the great Tuscan wine regions of his day with Bacchus and Ariadne at his side. Redi stated, "Montepulciano is the King of all wines."

Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, in both regular and riserva versions, is a blend of 60-80% sangiovese grapes with 10-20% Canaiolo Nero grapes and with a maximum of 20% of either recommended local varieties such as Mammolo or authorized grapes such as the "international" varieties Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Since Canaiolo Nero produces a lighter style of wine, the 80% cap on Sangiovese makes Vino Nobile less powerful than Chianti Classico or Brunello di Montalcino, which both use higher percentages of Sangiovese. Vino Nobile also must be aged a minimum of 2 years in barrel, which is too long to preserve the fruit of the current grape blend in most vintages. Best examples have a solid ruby-crimson color, a rich cherry scented aroma with accents of leather, violets, and cigar tobacco, and a rich full taste in the mouth.

In excellent vintages, when the quality of the fruit is high, the wines from the best vats are selected for Riserva, which receives at least 2 years barrel aging and a total of three years maturation in all. Riserva has more intensity of flavor than regular Vino Nobile. The component aromas and tastes seem better integrated. The overall impression is of a wine with more polish. Sometimes new oak is used in Riserva. giving it a faint oaky smell.

Since the late 80s, Rosso di Montepulciano, a lighter and fruitier version of Vino Nobile, has been made. The grapes are usually collected from vineyards less advantageously sited or from young vines. There are no aging requirements, which makes this wine the cash crop for Montepulciano wineries and a less expensive bottle of wine for consumers. Most wineries also make a luxury wine, commonly referred to as a Super Tuscan wine, usually using "international" grape varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Super Tuscan wines are usually aged in small, French, new oak barrels. Since they represent the highest aspirations of the estate and are often the personal statements of winemakers or estate owners, these wines are usually of very high quality, but can be eccentric in taste.

A dessert wine made in Montepulciano as well as throughout Tuscany is Vin Santo, a Sherry-like wine made from dried white grapes (usually Trebbiano and Malvasia). It can be made dry or sweet and is usually served after dinner with local hard, almond filled, biscuits called "cantuccini". The tradition is to dip the cookies in the wine. This is a good idea if you are drinking an inexpensive Vin Santo. Due to its difficult production process and aging period , usually about 4 years, Vin Santo can be expensive. The best and the most expensive Vin Santo made in Tuscany is made by the Montepulciano producer, Avignonesi. The glass of 1987 Avignonesi Vin Santo I enjoyed recently in a Montepulciano restaurant is available in the Massachusetts area for a mere $108 per half-bottle.

Despite Redi's coronation of Montepulciano, the average level of wine quality of modern Vino Nobile has lagged behind that of the two other famous Sangiovese-based appellations in Tuscany, Chianti Classico and Brunello di Montalcino. The problems have been that the color of the wine has been lighter and more prone to develop orange and brown hues with time. The bouquet has been occasionally volatile, smelling of vinegar or airplane glue. On the palate Vino Nobile has also tended to have high acidity and to lack texture and richness in the middle of the mouth. In the last decade and increasingly so in the last two or three years, there has been improvement in the quality of Montepulciano's wines. This has been due to recent transfusions of investment into the region's vineyards and wineries. The area also now draws on the attention and skills of many of Tuscany's top enologists.

Recently, I visited many wineries and tasted a broad range of the region's wines.. I found that while the average level of quality has risen, there is still a more than usual variance of quality among the popular brands. From my experiences in Montepulciano, I recommend the following producers.

The established pace setters in quality have been Avignonesi and Poderi Boscarelli. Avignonesi's dynamic owners, brothers Alberto, Ettore, and Leonardo Falvo, have rapidly expanded their company based on the critical success of their Vino Nobile and Super Tuscan wines, such as Grifi, which is a blend of Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon aged in new small oak barrels. While Avignonesi's wines are very high in quality, they are shy of the level of quality achieved by Poderi Boscarelli, which now makes the best wine of the region. Also rapidly rising to stardom are the wines of Poliziano and Fattoria Le Casalte. Bindella, Fazi Battiglia (using the well-known brand name, Fassati), Fattoria La Braccesca (owned by Antinori), and Lodola Nuova (owned by Rufino) are wineries whose wines have vastly improved due to the support of wealthy, quality-oriented parent companies.

Other producers whose wines I thought excellent in my recent tastngs in Montepulciano are Nottola, Canneto, Fattoria della Talosa, Tenuta Valdipiatta, and Vecchia Cantina di Montepulciano.

Montepulciano wines are improving by the day. New laws affecting the 1998 vintage will allow producers to increase the percentage of Sangiovese to 100% in the blend and to reduce the current 2 years aging period in oak requirement to 18 months. These changes will help ambitious producers so that they can make wine that will compete with Tuscany's best.

Malbec

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One of the traditional "Bordeaux varietals", Malbec has characteristics that fall somewhere between Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. A midseason ripener, it can bring very deep color, ample tannin, and a particular plum-like flavor component to add complexity to claret blends.

It is known in much of France as Côt, and, in Cahors, also as Auxerrois. There are in fact hundreds of local synonyms, since Malbec at one time was widely planted all over the country. Sensitivity to frost and proclivity to shatter or coulure is the primary reason Malbec has become a decreasing factor in most of France. Although plantings in the Medoc have decreased by over two-thirds since the mid-twentieth century, Malbec is now the dominant red varietal in the Cahors area. The Appellation Controlée regulations for Cahors require a minimum content of 70%.

Malbec truly comes into its own in Argentina, where it is the major red varietal planted. Much of the Malbec vines there were transplanted from Europe prior to the outbreak of phylloxera and most is therefore ungrafted, on its own roots. Sadly, over the years, the bug has infested Argentina, too, and vineyards are being replanted on resistant rootstock.

Argentines often spell it "Malbeck" and make wines from it that similar in flavor to those made in Europe, but with softer, lusher structure, more like New World Merlot. Another difference: where French examples are usually considered short-lived, Argentine Malbecs seem to age fairly well.

Malbec is also planted in Chile, and there's relatively little and recent acreage in California and Australia. It is usually blended with other red varietals in these countries.

Successful Argentine Malbec growers claim that, in order to develop full maturity and distinction, Malbec needs "hang time" even after sugar levels indicate ripeness. Otherwise, immature Malbec can be very "green" tasting, without its characteristic notes of plum and anise.

Grenache

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Grenache noir is the world's most widely planted grape used to make red wine, sometimes made into a stand-alone varietal, frequently as a rosé, but most often as a backbone of red blends.

Used as a component in some Northern Rhône reds, nearly exclusively for Rhône rosés and as the primary component in nearly all Southern Rhône red blends, Grenache is probably most notable as the base varietal for Chateauneuf du Pape, Cotes du Rhône and Gigondas. In spite of its fame coming from French wines, Spain is most likely this grape's origin1.

Grenache is known by local names (alicante, carignane rousse) in the Mediterranean regions of France. Particularly important in the areas of the Languedoc and Rousillon, there are also variants with different colored berries: white grenache blanc, and pink grenache rose or grenache gris. Nearly three times as much grenache is planted in Spain as in France. The spanish know this grape and wine as garnacha or garnacha tinta and it is the dominant red wine variety in the Rioja and Catalonia. The grape is known in Italy as cannonau.

In the New World, Australia has extensive plantings of Grenache and has been very successful making full-bodied Grenache-dominated red blends. Until surpassed by plantings of merlot in the past decade, Grenache was the third most planted red variety in California after Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon. Most of this acreage is in the Central Valley and used to produce bulk rather than premium wine.

An abundant producer of fruit, grenache habitually will "alternate" a crop of 8 to 10 tons per acre one year and 14 to 16 tons the next. The vine is very sturdy and woody, lends itself well to head or spur pruning, and survives arid and drought conditions better than less vigorous vines. Cool and damp conditions can cause "deadarm" disease in grenache, however, and its compact and well-filled clusters are quite prone to rot. Grenache is also susceptible to shatter or coulure.

The grenache grape is relatively low in both pigment and malic acid, and oxidizes readily. Although some 100% varietal wines are produced from grenache, particularly in Spain's Rioja and from some "old vines" plantings in California, it is mostly used to "fill out" red blends and soften harsher partners, such as syrah and carignan.

On its own, grenache makes fleshy, heady, very fruity wines in their youth. They tend to age rapidly, showing tawny colors and prone to oxidation or maderization after only a relatively short time in bottle. The general character and mouthfeel of Grenache wines are more distinctive and identifyable than any particular aromas or flavors.

Partly due to its commonplace abundance and partly due to its hardiness in warmer climates that are generally considered to grow lesser-quality wines, Grenache has never achieved as much of a premium reputation as other red varietals. The group of California wineries marketing themselves as the Rhône Rangers are committed to raising both the quality and profile of this and other lesser-known grape varieties.

Gamay

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Gamay noir is the primary black grape of France's Beaujolais region, where the wines are typically fermented, spared from aging, and consumed young to appreciate their fresh, fruity qualities, with more tang than tannin.

In 1395, the Duke of Burgundy, Phillip the Bold, ordered Gamay vineyards to be torn out and banned the variety evermore from being planted in the vineyards of Burgundy, so that it would not compete with Pinot Noir. Although this decree nearly erradicated Gamay altogether, it found a new home to the south in Beaujolais.

The name is so closely associated with Beaujolais, that many vineyard plantings and wines, in California especially, were incorrectly identified as the variety "Gamay Beaujolais" for many years (an illegal practice after 2007). Gamay is also planted, but is less significant, in the Loire, Rhône, Jura and Savoie appellations of France.

Although gamay noir vines grow with moderate vigor in many soil types, it seems partial to granite and limestone soils. Gamay can be quite productive, averaging five to seven tons per acre. Heavy crop loads may slow growth to below average, as well as reduce fruit quality, so crop thinning is often used to control this tendency.

Gamay begins its annual cycle early as grapes go, budding and flowering early and may therefore become victim to early Spring frosts. Ripening is usually early to mid-season. Both the clusters and juicy berries of gamay noir are large and it is a relatively easy variety to pick, with relatively thin but tough skins. The true full name of this grape is Gamay Noir à Jus Blanc; there are, however, some clones of teinturier gamays, with colored rather than clear juice.

Generally light in color with hue that usually is more blue-purple than red, wines made from gamay noir can be very fragrant, full of fruit and fresh, floral esters. Frequently tart in their youth, wines made from gamay noir tend nonetheless to be short lived. Like its distant cousins, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, Gamay tends to easily lose its varietal aroma and flavor identity when blended with another grape variety. Both red wines and rosés are typically produced from unblended gamay noir.

The technique of carbonic maceration is quite often used to enhance the fruitiness of this grape. The fruit is placed whole, uncrushed, in the fermenting vessel and the fermentation begins within the individual berries, trapping the forming bubbles of carbon dioxide until the grape bursts. The resulting wine has a lighter, yet brighter color, a "banana", "candy" or "bubblegum" quality in the fruity aroma, often accompanied by a slight petillance or "tickle" to the texture.

There is relatively little gamay noir planted in California, even less than was thought to exist only a few years ago, because many vineyards, once thought to be planted to gamay noir, were positively identified by DNA "fingerprinting" as valdiguié in the 1990s.

Dolcetto

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The Dolcetto grape makes soft, pleasantly fruity wines that are for early consumption. It is used in the Piedmont region of northern Italy but it's use is diminishing. There are also limited plantings in California and most other key wine producing regions around the world, but most of those plantings are for experimental purposes.

Thoughts of Piedmont usually bring images of big tannic Barolos and Barbarescos, but an oft-forgotten everyday variety of the region is Dolcetto. Roughly translated, Dolcetto means "little sweet one." While not exactly "sweet," the wines made from Dolcetto are definitely light and fruity.

Dolcetto is an early-ripening grape, grown in the Northwest area of Piedmont. It produces wines that are soft and fruity and ready-to-drink when released. The Italians like this wine for everyday drinking because of its soft tannins, ripe fruit, and ability to match with a variety of foods. No cellaring required here and prices are usually quite affordable.

Carmenère

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Historically, Carmenère has been difficult to grow in cold, humid climates, and, although this is one of the most ancient varieties in Bordeaux, plantings have not been maintained even in this region, let alone any other in France, or for that matter, anywhere in Europe!

Carmenère was prized in the Medoc for both its depth of color and, in ripe years, flavor that can range from herbal to gamy and add complexity and interest to blends. Carmenère requires more heat to ripen than the other varietals planted in Bordeaux. This and its erratic tendency to develop a condition called coulure, poor fruit set after flowering, may have caused Carmenère to fall out of favor.

Thought to be the antecedent of other better-known varietals, some think Carmenère is possibly a long-established clone of Cabernet Sauvignon. The Bordeaux synonym for Carmenère is Grand Vidure and Cabernet Sauvignon is also known there simply as Vidure. Some suggest that Carmenère may be Biturica, the vine of not only ancient Roman praise, but also the word then used to call the city that became Bordeaux.

Carmenère was imported to South America in the 1850s, along with other Bordeaux varieties, prior to the European outbreak of Phylloxera. The largest established vineyards of this variety are in Chile, although many of these were misidentified as Merlot (the two vines share many similarities) for more than a century. French ampelographer Jean Michel Bourisiquot discovered the truth in 1994.

There may soon be something of a resurgence in plantings of Carmenère. In California, the virtual rescue and revival of this cultivar was the result of a twelve-year quest by Karen Mulander-Magoon, co-proprietor of the Guenoc and Langtry Estates in Lake County. Cuttings of the cultivar had to survive three years of quarantine and testing in Canada and New York, prior to admission and planting in California in the late 1990s.

Carignan

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The most widely-planted red wine grape in France is Carignan (sometimes spelled Carignane in the US, a.k.a. Carginano in Italy and Cariñena or Mazeulo in Spain). Planting became widespread in France during the 1960s, when Algeria gained its independence and was no longer an inexpensive source of ripe grapes. Most Carignan is confined to the Languedoc and southeastern France and is gradually being replaced with more distinctive and aromatic varieties.

Carignan buds and ripens quite late, so is not prone to spring frosts, but requires a long season. A vigorous, though not really hardy vine, it is very sensitive to downy mildew and powdery mildew (a.k.a. oidium). Carignan has but a single characteristic to recommend it for planting: high yields. An acre of Carignan may easily produce 10 to 12 tons of grapes.

The berries are bluish-black, round and fairly large, with fairly thick, astringent skins. They hang in large, rather compact clusters that are short-stemmed, difficult to harvest, and susceptible to grape worms. They also rot easily.

Like Pinot Noir, Sangiovese, and Grenache, Carignan is a somewhat unstable species, with the tendency to mutate. The French recognize and approve over 25 separate clones.

Carignan mostly produces wines that have high color, acidity, and tannin, without displaying much distinct flavor or personality and with very little appeal. Only a few growers carefully manage vine vigor and limit crop size to produce interesting, distinctive wines from this grape. As with many other varietals, older carignan vines seem to produce wines with generally more character and less brutality.

Thus, Carignan frequently becomes a wine for blending or, on its own, for inexpensive everyday consumption. The whole cluster fermentation technique of carbonic maceration can somewhat improve its tendency toward harshness. Oak treatments, on the other hand, seem merely to exacerbate the variety's underlying toughness, while adding little to either its complexity or interest.

Cabernet Franc

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Recent studies in ampelography, using the relatively new application of DNA fingerprinting, have determined that cabernet franc is one of the genetic parents of cabernet sauvignon (the other is sauvignon blanc). Both cabernet varieties are among the five major grapes of Bordeaux. The differences between franc and sauvignon become apparent when grown and fermented in close proximity.

Cabernet franc vines bear thinner-skinned, earlier-ripening grapes with lower overall acidity, when compared to cabernet sauvignon. Yields are similar, although cabernet franc normally buds and ripens somewhat earlier.

Consequently vineyards in climates where rain is a harvest-time threat often plant this grape, in place of or in addition to cabernet sauvignon. Cabernet franc vines survive cold winters better than cabernet sauvignon, but are more susceptible to being damaged by Spring frosts.

France has by far the most cabernet franc plantings of any wine producing nation with over 35,000 acres. There are significant plantings of cabernet franc in St. Emilion, the Loire Valley (where it is known as Breton), and south west France (aka Bouchy). There are cabernet franc vineyards in Romania, Hungary, the Balkans, and the Friuli region of north eastern Italy (aka cabernet frank). New plantings in the 1990s in Australia, New Zealand, and Argentina show promise. In the United States, cabernet franc is planted in Long Island, New York, and in Washington state. California has about 2,000 acres, mostly planted since 1980, over half in Napa and Sonoma.

Depending a great deal on vineyard practices, the flavor profile of Cabernet Franc may be both fruitier and sometimes more herbal or vegetative than Cabernet Sauvignon, although lighter in both color and tannins. Over-cropping and underexposure each tend to accentuate the vegetative flavor elements. Typically somewhat spicy in aroma and often reminiscent of plums and especially violets, Cabernet Franc is more often used as a secondary or tertiary element in varietally-blended red wines, such as Bordeaux or Meritage, instead of as a stand-alone varietal bottling.

Barbera

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Barbera is a wine grape variety from Monferrato in Piemonte, Italy. Babera produces an intense red wine with deep color, low tannins and high acid and is used in California to provide "backbone" for so-called "jug wines".

Century-old Barbera vines still exist in many regional vineyards and allow production of long-aging, robust red wines with intense fruit and enhanced tannic content. In Italy the best known varietals made from it is Barbera d'Asti, made in Asti, and Barbera d'Alba, made in Alba, which can produce a high quality wine with some ageing potential.

Probably one of the most underrated grapes in the world, Barbera can be used to make an incredible range of styles, ranging from young and spritzy to powerful and intense wines that need extended cellaring. It is a deep ruby color, full bodied, with low levels of tannins balanced by higher levels of acidity.

Barbera, the ultimate Italian summer red is also known as the perfect pizza wine for many. Barbera's tooth jarring acidity, high alcohol, low tannin and lush fruit, make Barbera an ideal food wine that will stand up against anything you throw on the barbeque.

No other wine has the versatility that can cut through tomato sauce or compliment a steak as nicely as Barbera wine.

Prosecco

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Prosecco: dry, lemony, and bubbling, is Italy's answer to refreshing, well-made, sparkling wine. Created from predominately Prosecco grapes in the northern Veneto region of Italy in the foothills of the Alps, Prosecco is light, affordable, and fun.

Traditionally Prosecco was made as a soft, somewhat sweet wine with just a little fizz, but today's Proseccos are dry and very bubbly. Sometimes combined with a small amount of Pinot Blanc or Pinot Grigio grapes, Prosecco is made using the Charmat method rather than the Champagne method, the French method of making sparkling wine. The Charmat method allows the wine to go through the second fermentation in pressurized tanks rather than in individual bottles. No turning the bottles every day as in Champagne. The shorter, tank fermentation is preferable for Prosecco because it preserves the freshness and the flavor of the grapes.

Straw-colored Prosecco, with its overtones of citrus, melon, lemon, almonds, and honey, is a perfect summer wine. It is crisp and clean with small bubbles and pairs nicely with seafood - especially calamari and crabmeat, salads, and even all but the heaviest pastas.

Most Prosecco is at its best when consumed within three years of its vintage, but the highest-quality Prosecco can be aged for up to seven years.

Venetians consider Prosecco an ideal apperitivo or ombrette (pick-me-up). Prosecco is also delicious when combined with fresh peach juice to make Venice's most famous cocktail, the Bellini. Prosecco is very affordable when compared to her French or California sparkling cousins and is becoming more widely available in wine stores and restaurants in the United States.

Pinot Meunier

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Pinot Meunier, like Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris, is one of the many mutations of Pinot Noir. The name comes from the appearance of its leaf undersides, which look as though they've been dusted with flour (meunier is French for "miller"). It is also simply called Meunier in France. In Germany, it is known as Müllerrebe (miller grape) and also Schwarzriesling.

The home turf for Meunier is the region of Champagne. Its value there is due to the fact that it buds later and ripens earlier than Pinot Noir. Pinot Meunier thusly avoid damage from early spring frosts or from coulure and can be more reliably productive than either Pinot Noir or Chardonnay in this regard.

Pinot Meunier has a slightly higher natural acidity than Pinot Noir and gives some brightness and fruitiness to Champagne blends. It is, on the other hand, lower in color and tannin than Pinot Noir and wines that use Meunier in their blend are not as long-lived. This also keeps it from being a candidate for wide use as a varietal red wine, although some is used in some areas of France for rosé.

A little Meunier is planted in Australia, where it occasionally does appear as a varietal red, and also in California, used mostly as a component in sparkling wines.

Malvasia

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The Malvasia vine is one of the most ancient known, planted widely throughout the Mediterranean basin though not in great quantity. Though believed to have originated in Asia Minor, the variety is named for the Greek port of Monemvasia, the exit route from which wines produced in the surrounding Agean Islands were shipped.

Usually thought of as a white vine, Malvasia is in fact a family of related subvarieties whose grapes may range in color from red to pale green, each of which typically adopts a place-name, as in Malvasia di Toscana, or a characteristic, as in Malvasia Fina. There are also numerous other varieties referring to Malvasia, such as the French Malvoisie, which are entirely unrelated. The most important subvarieties of Malvasia are generally grouped under the term Malvasia Bianca.

At the risk of overgeneralization, Malvasia is a reliable, resistant, moderately productive hot climate vine which prefers a dry climate and well-drained slopes. It has large, deep green, sharply notched leaves and loosely-knit bunches of spherical berries. Depending on the strain, acidity will vary, as with color. The fruit is high in flavor, fragrance and extract and can achieve high potential alcohol levels.

Malvasia is as versatile as its family members are numerous. Throughout Italy it is blended with other white varieties, notably the equally hard to buttonhole Trebbiano, for fresh, dry wines; in Spain with the Viura in the white wines of Rioja and Navarra; and in Portugal in numerous dry blends. Malvasia stands on its own in eleven different Italian D.O.C. wines, both dry and “passito,” in which the grapes are dried to the semi-raisin state before being vinified as a sweet wine. In Portugal, as a fortified wine, it may appear in any proportion in semi-dry to very sweet white Ports, and it is one of the five varieties cultivated on the island of Madeira, where it is known as Malmsey, for production of the sublime, immortal sweet wines of the same name.

As a dry wine, Malvasia offers spicy perfume, full body, heft and fat, peachy fruit with nuances of musk and almonds and a note of acidity on the finish. As a sweet wine the grape-like, nutty qualities intensify. In Maderia the volcanic soil, method of production and customarily long aging yield a deep gold, smoke and honey-scented wine with notes of toffee and chocolate underscored by a firm acidic tang. Also planted sparsely in Germany and California.

Grenache

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Touriga Francesa

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Also indigenous to Portugal, the Touriga Francesa is related to the Touriga Nacional vine, though more fragile. The wines these two varieties yield are similar in character, but Touriga Francesa is of slightly lesser concentration and color and shows greater suppleness and elegance.

Of moderate vigor and low productivity, it thrives in the hot soils of the Douro Valley’s lower, relatively fertile, slopes where it is protected from wind. Though the grapes are thick-skinned the bunches are delicate, and the fruit may not mature fully in very dry years if planted in arid soils.

Very high in tannin and extremely highly scented, it is an important contributor of structure and balance. It shows an intense perfume of fresh red fruit, earth and flowers, and its overt fruitiness is repeated on the palate, preserveing a marked grape quality in the wine as it ages. At 21%, it is the most widely planted of the port producing region's vines.

Alternate Names: Touriga Franca, Tinta da Barca

Corvina

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Corvina is widely grown on the Veneto shore of Lake Garda and the hills of Valpolicella to the north and north-east of Verona. Sometimes known as Corvina Veronese, it is blended with Rondinella and Molinara to produce Valpolicella and Bardolino. It can be a tricky grape to cultivate, as it ripens late and is prone to rot if affected by rains at harvest time. It is a high-yielding grape and quality is very dependent on keeping yields low.

Corvina-based red wines can range in style from a light, cherryish red to the rich, port-like Recioto and Amarone Valpolicellas. Most Valpolicella from the plains is pale and insipid, and bears little comparison with Valpolicella Classico from the hills. Some producers such as Allegrini are now producing very high quality 100% Corvina wines.

Gewürztraminer

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Gewürztraminer is one of the most pungent wine varietals, easy for even the beginning taster to recognize by its heady, aromatic scent. While the French have achieved the greatest success with this grape and its name may be German, the history of Gewürztraminer began in Italy's Tyrollean Alps, near the village of Termeno (Tramin) in Alto Adige.

Since the Middle Ages, the parent variety traminer has grown there. Traminer also is grown widely throughout Eastern Europe, but neither abundantly nor very successfully. With hardly any of the characteristic of its spicy offspring, traminer berries are pale green and make much less interesting or appealing wine, hardly scented at all.

Like pinot noir, however, traminer vines do have a propensity to mutate. One of these mutations, a few centuries ago, resulted in a vine that produces dark pinkish-brown, spotted berries and makes very distinctive and heady wine.

The French began calling this prized clone traminer musqué, traminer parfumé, or traminer aromatique; the Germans roter traminer; and the Italians traminer rosé, traminer rosso, or termener aromatico. In the late 19th century, the Alsatians began calling this vine gewürztraminer, although it wasn't until 1973 that this name was officially sanctioned. Wine texts often report that "gewürz" translates from German as "spicy", but considering the list of various synonyms, the more likely contextual meaning is "perfumed".

Alsace has achieved the most success with Gewürztraminer. Even here some producers give it less priority than other varietals and make accordingly dull wines. Those houses that pay specific attention to and take particular pride in their Gewürztraminer include Léon Beyer, Schlumberger, and Zind-Humbrecht.

While the gewürztraminer vine is prized for its wine, it can be despised for its viticultural difficulty. It buds early in the Spring, so it is particularly susceptible to damage from frost. Gewürztraminer also has weak defenses against viral vine infections. Even healthy vines are not very productive, with small clusters, so there is a great temptation for growers to over-crop, which results in dilute, lightweight wine.

The berries, with their thick and tough skins, can attain high sugar levels of amazing concentration. Alcohol levels, therefore, can get quite high in dry versions. Conversely, low acidity and high pH in Gewürztraminer are problematic. Close monitoring and precise harvest timing are critical. Early picking retains acid, but without long "hang time" distinctive varietal character fails to develop. Pleasant results are nearly impossible in warm climates.

At the Colmar viticultural station in Alsace and at Geisenheim in Germany work is underway developing clones that bud and ripen later, produce larger fruit clusters, with more consistent and greater production levels and that are virus-free. The challenge is to gain these improvements in economy while retaining gewürztraminer's unique character and intensity.

The dark pink color of gewürztraminer grapes results in wines colored from light to dark golden yellow with a copper tone, depending upon the fruit ripeness. Gewürztraminer is quite full-bodied, more so than most any other white wine type. In fact, the combination of its strong, heady, perfumey scent, exotic lychee-nut flavor and heavy-oily texture can be overwhelming and tiring to many palates. There is a slight tendency to bitterness that seems exacerbated by ripeness, so a light touch is needed at the wine press. Many makers finish their Gewürztraminer with a mask of residual sugar. Gewürztraminer can be made into an excellent dessert wine, in fact.

Gewürztraminer wines are an excellent match for fresh fruit and cheeses and a good complement to many simple fish and chicken dishes, especially recipes that include capsaicin (hot pepper) spices, oriental five spice, or even curry.

Due to limited popularity and viticultural and production difficulties, gewürztraminer acreage has remained relatively static in most world appellations for several years. Encouraging signs of new success come from fairly recent plantings in New Zealand 1(apparently since 1990, NZ Gewürztraminer acreage has see-sawed from a low of 210 to as much as 540 acres) and the Pacific Northwest 2(Oregon total 182 acres; Washington, 330 ac).

Semillon

2007-05-14T19:34:00.000-05:00

Semillon grapes make up 80% of the blend in the most expensive and famous dessert wine in the world, Château d'Yquem. Semillon seems the favorite foil of Botrytis Cinerea, the noble rot which concentrates the sugars and flavors and intensifies the aromas for d'Yquem and the other "late-harvest" dessert wines of Monbazillac and Sauternes. These wines hold up spectacularly in antiquity, unique in the spectrum of unfortified wines.

Consistently productive at six to eight tons per acre and of vigorous vines, semillon is easy to cultivate. It is fairly resistant to common vine diseases, with the notable exception of rot, which most often is hoped to be the noble type and not the destructive strain. This viticultural profile has led to widespread propagation and popularity of semillon vineyards.

While semillon is the majority white variety in Bordeaux, Graves, and Sauternes, more grows in Chile than anywhere else on earth. Early in the viticultural development of Australia, semillon (often incorrectly labeled as Riesling) dominated as the major white variety, although the vineyards are mostly Chardonnay and sauvignon blanc today.

California has an ongoing checkered relationship with Semillon. Acreage has fluctuated up and down over the past several decades, from 1,200 acres in 1961, to 2,800 acres in 1981, to currently over 1,500 acres planted.

Most California Semillon today is blended with Sauvignon Blanc and rendered dry, but an experimental dessert wine created a sensation in the middle of the 20th Century.

In 1956, winemaker Myron Nightingale, then of Cresta Blanca winery, made a dessert wine by spraying spores of Botrytis cinerea on semillon and sauvignon blanc grapes to produce French Sauternes-like results. The wine was a breakthrough success in the industry, because the California climate had always been considered too arid for the Noble Mold to naturally exist at a high enough population level to any beneficial effect.1 Financial problems caused Cresta Blanca to change hands and production ceased after the 1966 vintage.

Wines dominated by Semillon may lack much youthful aroma, but have fairly full body and tend to be low in acidity, even "fat" at times. This is the flavor profile of a supporting role grape, rather than a star, and most Semillon is blended. Semillon is the soft, subtle, rich Yin to balance the Yang of Sauvignon Blanc, which can be aromatically aggressive and acidic. Semillon even works well when blended with that notoriously standoffish loner, Chardonnay, providing weight and richness without diverting aromatic delicacy.

Sauvignon Blanc

2007-05-14T19:33:00.000-05:00

Charles Wetmore, founder of Cresta Blanca winery, brought the first cuttings of Sauvignon Blanc to California in the 1880s. Some came from the vineyards of the legendary Sauternes Chateau Y'Quem, world's most expensive and famous dessert wine. These plantings did well in the Livermore Valley and Sauvignon Blanc became one of the early favorite dry whites from California. Eventually, Sauvignon Blanc became a varietal with an alias in California, where it is now often known and labeled as "Fumé Blanc".

Sauvignon Blanc vines tend to be quite vigorous growers, so it is especially important to manage the canopy by careful pruning and even by thinning leaves and shoots to direct the plant's energy towards ripening the fruit. Unrestrained growth and over-cropping result in neutral-tasting wines of little interest.

The varietal identity of Sauvignon Blanc is typically similar to grass, bell-pepper, or grapefruit in nature. New Zealanders liken it to "gooseberry", but that is not a familiar smell or flavor to most Americans. Quite often Sauvignon Blanc picks up an aggressive "catbox" odor when the grapes lack sun exposure or are harvested underripe. Clonal selection and viticultural practices that expose the grapes to more sunlight yield wine that is more melon-like in aroma. Development of hardier clones has helped production levels, which were irregular in humid climates, due to this variety's propensity to develop "powdery mildew" and "black rot".

Barrel-fermentation, although not commonly used for this variety when compared to Chardonnay, can also modify the Sauvignon Blanc aroma and add complexities. Blending Sauvignon Blanc with Semillon is a common practice that can add richness and an extra element of figs to the aroma, softening the sometimes abrasive Sauvignon Blanc character.

This blending is widespread in the Graves district of France's Bordeaux region (normally 75-85% Sauvignon Blanc to 15-25% Semillon). In the communes of Sauternes and Barsac, a blend of 60-70% Semillon with 30-40% Sauvignon Blanc is more typical. When allowed to hang, past the normal ripeness point for dry table wine, the grape flavors may be concentrated by the influence of a naturally-occurring mold known as "Noble Rot" (Botrytis cinerea), to make the area's famous dessert wines.

Loire Valley wines made from Sauvignon Blanc, such as Pouilly Fumé and Sancerre, are most often 100% Sauvignon Blanc, unblended and usually made without the use of oak.

For many years, California wineries made wine from Sauvignon Blanc grapes, but there was almost no consistency of style: some made bone-dry wines after the fashion of the French in the Graves and Loire regions, while others chose to make very sweet, dessert-style wines after the Sauternes and Barsacs. Even if the sweet wines are left from consideration, there are plenty of inconsistencies within the group of dry wines to leave consumers confused.

Keeping the French traditional methods in mind, the California production and marketing practices are decidedly ironic. California producers tend to use the Loire-derived Fumé Blanc name and bottle shape for their blended and oak-aged wines (more like the Bordelais). Meanwhile, the California Sauvignon Blancs that are 100% varietal and most likely without oak in fermentation or aging (distinctly Loire-like practices), are most often bottled in Bordeaux-style bottles!

Besides France and California, Sauvignon Blanc also is produced successfully by New Zealand and South Africa (excellent in both), Chile, Argentina, and, to lesser degrees of production, Washington State, Australia, and Italy, where it is expanding. With fairly good tonnage per acre and lacking the inflationary consumer demand of Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc is often a very good value.

With naturally high acidity, Sauvignon Blanc is always tangy, tart, nervy, racy, or zesty, and this character pervades even sweet and dessert versions, keeping them from being cloying and sticky-tasting.

Dry-style Sauvignon or Fumé Blancs are very versatile in accompanying foods and can handle components such as tomatoes, bell peppers, cilantro, raw garlic, smoked cheeses or other pungent flavors that would clash with or overpower many Chardonnays and almost all other dry whites. In fact, Sauvignon Blanc is probably the best dry white wine to accompany the greatest variety of foods.

Riesling

2007-05-14T19:31:00.000-05:00

Because of both its cellar longevity and its ability to maintain varietal identity while reflecting the individuality of its terroir, Riesling may be the best of all the white wine grapes. Its homeland is Germany, where it has been cultivated since the 1400s or earlier, and where it is made into wines that run the gamut from bone dry and crisp quaffers to the complex, unctuous nectars made from Botrytis-affected, shriveled berries, individually late-picked, and known by the moniker Trockenbeerenauslese.

Sometimes referred to as White, Rhine, or 1Johannisberg, the Riesling name has been tarnished by the attachment of its name to other white varietals (Grey Riesling--aka Chaucé Gris--, Walschriesling--aka Italian Riesling--, and Missouri Riesling) that are of far lesser quality and genetically unrelated to the true Riesling. It does have distant relatives in the Sylvaner (or Franken) Riesling and the crosses, Emerald Riesling (with Muscadelle du Bordelais) and Müller-Thurgau (with Sylvaner). In Germany, there are more than 60 selected Riesling clones available to meet various flavor and growing condition criteria.

Riesling vines are particularly hard-wooded and tolerant of cold weather and they bud late, so are well-suited to the coldest wine-growing climes. Riesling is both moderately vigorous and productive, yielding from three to six tons per acre. The berries are small, round and soft when ripe, with tender, greenish-yellow skins that have a flecked appearance from lenticels (lens-shaped pores) on the skins. Hanging in compact, winged clusters and ripening later than other varieties, bunch rot and non-beneficial molds can be a problem if there is much rain or humidity during in the ripening season.

If dry conditions, however, follow a single day of wet, Riesling grapes left on the vine beyond normal ripeness can develop Edelfäule (Nobel Rot). The result of this ugly but non-toxic mold, Botrytis cinerea, is the shriveling of the grapes, the evaporation of much of the juice, and the concentration of the sugar. The German names for this heirarchy, which ascends in order of the must weight or degree of sugar concentration, are Spätlese (late-picked), Auslese (selectively-picked bunches), Beerenauslese (selectively-picked berries), and Trockenbeerenauslese (only the most affected berries), or TBA. These wines have not only incredibly intense and concentrated flavors, but also remarkable life span.

Hillside microclimates which provide cool climates and at the same time plenty of sun exposure, yet protection from the winds are of paramount importance to quality Riesling. The best German vineyards with these conditions on the Mosel River produce wines that are unique in their low alcohol, powerful aroma, and high extract. This grape also is very successful in Alsace, France. The nominees for Best Supporting Appellation in California Riesling are: Santa Barbara, Monterey, Santa Cruz, and Mendocino, while Washington and Oregon also have done well. Other countries which grow Riesling with much dedication, albeit generally lesser results, are Australia, South Africa, Chile, Austria, Switzerland, Russia, Yugoslavia, and Italy.

The light, delicately sweet flavor of simple pan-fried-in-butter trout is especially good with Riesling. On the other hand, grilled or sautéed sausage, with its range from savory to spicy, also works well with this varietal. As with most foods, spices and sauce should be the factors that determine the wine match, rather than the color of the meat. Try a Riesling with Spicy Long Bean Beef Stir Fry and you'll understand.

Cabernet Sauvignon

2007-05-14T19:25:00.000-05:00

Cabernet Sauvignon makes the most dependable candidate for aging, more often improving into a truly great wine than any other single varietal. With age, its distinctive black currant aroma can develop bouquet nuances of cedar, violets, leather, or cigar box and its typically tannic edge may soften and smooth considerably.

It is the most widely planted and significant among the five dominant varieties in the Medoc district of France's Bordeaux region, as well as the most successful red wine produced in California.

Long thought to be an ancient variety, recent genetic studies at U.C. Davis have determined that Cabernet Sauvignon is actually the hybrid offspring of Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Franc.

Cabernet sauvignon berries are small, spherical with black, thick and very tough skin. This toughness makes the grapes fairly resistant to disease and spoilage and able to withstand some autumn rains with little damage. It is a mid to late season ripener. These growth characteristics, along with its flavor appeal have made Cabernet Sauvignon one of the most popular red wine varieties worldwide.

The best growing sites for producing quality wines from Cabernet Sauvignon are in moderately warm, semi-arid regions providing a long growing season, on well-drained, not-too-fertile soils. Vineyards in Sonoma County's Alexander Valley, much of the Napa Valley, and around the Paso Robles area of the Central Coast have consistently produced the highest-rated California examples.

Typically, Cabernet Sauvignon wines smell like black currants with a degree of bell pepper or weediness, varying in intensity with climatic conditions, viticulture practices, and vinification techniques. Climates and vintages that are either too cool or too warm, rich soils, too little sun exposure, premature harvesting, and extended maceration are factors that may lead to more vegetative, less fruity character in the resulting wine.

Cabernet Sauvignon began to emerge as America's most popular varietal red wine in the mid-60s. By the late 1980s, it had replaced "burgundy" as a consumer's generic term for red wine (as had Chardonnay, replacing "chablis" as the equivalent for generic white wine). This popularity was based partly on the flavor appeal of the grape and partly on its status or snob-appeal as a "collector's" wine. Indeed Cabernet Sauvignon is the wine most subject to inflationary climb, as fans, collectors, and the Nouveau Riche bid the supply ever upward.

Chenin Blanc

2007-05-14T18:56:00.000-05:00

At the beginning of the 1970s, Americans began to discover that California's better wines are labeled by the predominate grape variety. Made in the style of the day, fragrant and lightly sweet, and also easy to pronounce, Chenin Blanc quickly became the best-selling wine of the era.

As wine popularity rocketed, Chenin Blanc helped to introduce another, completely unpopular, wine phenomenon that became the varietal's 1sales death knell: allocation. The "boom" in wine, especially white varietals, caught most producers by surprise. Charles Krug was the top-selling brand and, from 1972 to 1977, the winery completely controlled the chain of supply, using the demand for whites as a reward to buyers of the 2less-popular reds.

Chenin blanc is arguably the most versatile of all wine grape varieties. Crisp, dry table wines, light sparkling wines, long-lived, unctuous, nectar-like dessert wines, and even brandy are all produced in various areas of the wine world, all of chenin blanc.

It might even be said that chenin blanc is France's most successful export variety, if only considering the vine rather than the wine. Although the native region for chenin is the Loire Valley (where the grape is often called Pineau de la Loire), there is less planted in all of France than in most wine-producing countries of the New World. It is planted as Pinot Blanco in Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Argentina, where there are over 10,000 acres of chenin blanc. Nearly a third of vines in South Africa are chenin blanc, where it is also called Steen. In California, it is the third most widely planted white wine grape. Australia has close to 1,500 acres and New Zealand 500.

Resistance to many diseases, vine vigor, and the tendency to early bud break and late ripening suits chenin blanc to grow in climates too warm for many vinifera types. The vine grows well in many soil types and can be very vigorous in either sandy loam or clay loam. Production is fairly consistent at from five to eight tons per acre. At three or four years old, the vines tend to overproduce and may set crops too large to fully ripen in the coolest areas. Chenin blanc grapes are susceptible to both bunch rot and sun burn.

In spite of its wide plantings and potential flavor palates, most chenin blanc is made into serviceable, but generally bland wine. A general tendency to over-irrigate and overcrop further reduce most Chenin Blanc to the forgettable. Careful viticultural practices easily overcome chenin blanc's weaknesses and can result in excellent wine.

Nearly all the truly memorable Chenin Blancs are French, from Saumur and Savennières (dry), Anjou and Vouvray (off-dry), Coteaux du Layon and Quarts de Chaume (dessert), and Crémant de Loire (sparkling). No matter the style, a certain floral, honeyed character, along with zesty acidity are the sensory trademarks of well-made Chenin Blanc. When conditions are right, Botrytis cinerea adds additional complexity and intensity.

Burgundy Wine

2007-05-14T18:48:00.000-05:00

The fine wines of Burgundy and Bordeaux could not be further apart in terms of what "makes them tick". Whilst Bordeaux is dominated by large estates each producing a classic red wine, Burgundy is composed of thousands of small-scale growers, often with only tiny parcels of land, who may make a range of a dozen or more different wines, both red and white. In Bordeaux, almost all wine is labelled Mis en Bouteille au Château which means the whole process, from growing the grapes to bottling the wine, is carried out by the Château. Whilst there are many similar producers in Burgundy (usually referred to as "domaines" rather than "châteaux"), a very significant part of the production comes from négociants: merchants who may own no vineyards, but who buy grapes and finished wines for blending and bottling under their own label.

The Burgundy region lies a couple of hundred miles east and north of Bordeaux. It covers a large area, the vineyards running in a long, thin line from Auxerre in the north to Lyon in the south. The climate is continental, with cold winters, hot summers but plenty of rain. It is easiest to think of Burgundy in terms of its distinct regions. Running from north to south, these are:

Chablis by far the most northerly of Burgundy's regions, known exclusively for dry white wines.
The Côte de Nuits home of the great red Burgundies. Some white is produced too, but the reds are the region's glory.
The Côte de Beaune known for both red and white wines, but the greatest white Burgundies (other than Chablis) are from here.
The Côte Chalonnaise generally regarded as a lesser district. It still produces some extremely fine wines, both red and white.
The Mâconnais the southern limit of Burgundy. Wines tend to be cheaper and made for drinking young but can be excellent value.
Beaujolais is quite a bit further south. Though not part of Burgundy, it is usually included when we talk about the region.

Pinot Noir

2007-05-14T18:38:00.000-05:00

The Grape and the Grill

2007-04-23T22:42:00.000-05:00

For many of us summer time means cooking on the grill. Human beings are hard-wired to get satisfaction from the combination of flame and food and summer is the perfect season to scratch that itch.

When you bring the kitchen outside, do not forget the wine cellar. Scientists figure that we can experience about 150 different flavor sensations. Wine made from grapes can trigger almost all of them, more than any other single food or beverage. What that means is that by adding any number of the wines of the world to the grilling menu you can turn an enjoyable experience into a memorable one…a little something you will appreciate in the middle of February.

You do not need an elaborate wine cooling system for outdoor dining but you do need to keep wine out of the sun, and if possible, try to keep it at wine-cellar-cool, around 55 degrees F.

Matching wine with food is more of an art than a science but there are some reliable guidelines that you can use to narrow your focus.

Heavy dishes, foods you chew hard with strong tastes, match up with full-bodied wines. Full-bodied usually means the reds but whites like Italian Malvasia and oaked California Chardonnay can also fill the bill.

Sweet dishes require sweet wines. This is really more of a rule than a guideline. Even an excellent dry wine paired with a sweet dish can create a sour or bitter taste.

Fatty dishes usually pair well with wines high in acidity like the Rieslings, Sauvignon Blancs and most sparkling wine.

Protein-rich dishes often match-up well with high tannin wines. The big reds are the usually the choice here with the Cabernets and Syrah at the top of the list. High tannin wines usually do not pair well with fish and other seafood or with salty dishes.

Here are a few wine-grill combinations that food editors have found particularly alluring.

Shrimp skewers: Shrimp marinated in olive oil, lime juice, onion, garlic and rosemary, skewered and briefly grilled.Wine: Pinot Grigio: light and crisp and fruity, with mild flavors of citrus and peaches.

Chicken legs: Marinated in oil and hot pepper sauce.Wine: Shiraz: soft and rich, with red berry flavors and the sweetness to go with the spice

Barbecued ribs: Grilled slowly and indirectly for hours, slathered with spicy, tomato-and-molasses-based sauce in the final minutes so it doesn't burn.Wine: Syrah: Zingy, rich and spicy, with black plum flavors and the sweetness to match the ribs.

Pork chops: Butterfly them so they'll cook through, marinate in oil and sage, and grill..Wine: Riesling: soft and lightly sweet, with golden apple and peach flavors and a little hint of citrus.

New York strip steak: Marinate in garlic, olive oil and rosemary, crust it on the outside, red in the middle. For an extra special treat place the meat directly on white-hot charcoal. Wine: Cabernet Sauvignon: Big oak, big black cherry fruit, big tannins; a real steak wine.

Salmon: Marinate in soy sauce and a hint of oil, brush with maple syrup just before the grill.Wine: Grenache, Mourvdre, Syrah, Zinfandel: hugely rich and fruity, with moderate tannin.

Turkey breast with grilled vegetable chutney: Marinate breast in oil and Cajun spices. For the chutney, slice up onions, eggplant, and red and green bell peppers, marinate in olive oil and balsamic vinegar, grill briefly and chunk up into chutney.Wine: Chardonnay: a nice hint of oak to go with the grilling flavors.

Peaches, pears, pineapples, bananas: Brush them with a hint of oil. The caramelization produces a memorable flavor.Wine: Ménage a Trois Rosé: Lots of strawberry and light cherry flavors, just sweet enough to match the grilled fruit. Also makes a great basket picnic wine.

Wine Storage Temperatures & Solutions

2007-04-23T22:39:00.000-05:00

The love of wine has existed since the dawn of time. Fossil vines, 60-million-years-old, are the earliest scientific evidence of grapes. The earliest written account of viniculture is in the Old Testament of the Bible which tells us that Noah planted a vineyard and made wine (well with all those animals on the Ark what was he expected to do!)

Exactly when it was discovered is unknown, but an ancient Persian fable credits a lady of the court with the discovery of wine. This Princess, having lost favor with the King, attempted to poison herself by eating some table grapes that had spoiled in a jar. She became intoxicated and giddy and fell asleep. When she awoke, she found the stresses that had made her life intolerable had dispersed. Returning to the source of her relief, her subsequent conduct changed so remarkably that she regained the King's favor. He shared his daughter's discovery with his court and ...

The wine industry and consumption continues to grow every year. Wine connoisseur are continually buying great wine to keep either for later consumption or for investment.

One of the most important aspects to ensure your wine stays fresh during storage is the wine storage temperature.

The basics of wine storage temperature are fairly simple. First, the wine should be kept cool. Like most beverages and foods, heat is the natural enemy of wine. A cool temperature is optimal, but the temperature should not lowered too much as this too will harm the wine. In the unlikely event that the wine freezes, it will probably only be suitable for vinegar!

The basics of wine storage are really straightforward with whites, reds, and blushes. However, the serving preparation for each of these wine types is different and something worth discussing. After removing the bottle from storage, getting your wine to the correct temperature is important. With red wines, such as a merlot or sheraz, approximately 65 degrees Fahrenheit (18 degrees Celsius) is what is recommended. This is basically room temperature. Secret tip: in a room of about 70 degrees Fahrenheit the wine, due to being a liquid will naturally be cooler. It is highly advised to not chill red wines. This is a more common error than you think, the cold can be very destructive on the wine and its flavor.

With whites and many blushes the need for refrigeration before serving is key. Chilling truly brings out the flavor. For these types of wine 39 degrees Fahrenheit or 4 degrees Celsius is usually a good temperature.

In the case of both darker wines and the lighter types, it is advisable to let the bottle ‘breathe’ after opening. It is recommended you do this about half an hour before drinking (longer is often better)

Now to tasting. Swish the wine around the mouth to truly get the most out of the flavor. I however recommend drinking as opposed to spitting it out!

In the end ENJOY the wine, it is after all a pleasure that has been with us for centuries.

Ice Wine

2007-04-23T22:23:00.000-05:00

One would expect ice wine to have a long history in winemaking, but it does not. In fact, ice wine has only been around for about 200 years. The prevailing theory of its “birth” centers on a German winemaker who was surprised by an early frost. He decided to press the frozen grapes anyway, but separated them from the rest of his vintage so as to avoid ruining everything. To his surprise, the resulting wine was pure and sweet.

Ever since, ice wine has been produced to some degree in all wine producing countries of the Northern hemisphere, including Austria, Germany, Hungary, Switzerland and others.

The difference between ice wine and other dessert wines is that ice wines show a much clearer fruit and varietal character. This is because other sweet wines are made from botrytis (”noble rot”) affected grapes, or with grapes that have been laid out and dried. Because ice wine grapes are healthy at harvest, a good amount of acidity remains, which gives the wine a raciness that other dessert wines generally have to a far lesser degree.

True ice wine is that made from grapes that are kept on the vine until the temperature sinks below -19.4 Fahrenheit or -7 degree Celsius. In the U.S., New Zealand and some other regions, winemakers have started producing simulated ice wine by tossing the grapes into a commercial freezer. These simulated ice wines are considered to be of lesser quality and will typically sell at half the price of ice wine made in the traditional way.

Both methods do employ the same basic idea: a grape is made up mostly of water, and since only the water will freeze at these low temperatures, the sweet grape nectar can be pressed from the grapes while the frozen water remains trapped in the skins.

It is essential to harvest on the first freezing night of the year, because grapes left on the vine to go through a freeze-thaw-refreeze cycle can pick up unwanted flavors. Winemakers are often nervous wrecks by harvest time, as they will have spent night after night waking up repeatedly to check the temperature.

“Keeping the harvest workers ready can be a tedious and embarrassing task” says Franz Heiss, head winemaker of the respected Heiss Winery in Austria. He will often have to wake up a dozen harvest workers for the fifth or sixth time, only to see another night pass without the desired temperatures quite being reached.

The best ice wines are clear and vibrant in their flavors and aromas. The aromatic Scheurebe grape has properties that make it a popular choice for use in crafting great ice wine. The stunning 2002 Eiswein by the famous Austrian Gsellmann and Gsellmann winery exemplifies this perfectly.

Traminer is another aromatic varietal that results in great ice wines. Master sweet wine vintner Franz Heiss makes a stunning ice wine from this grape, of which the 2001 and the 2002 vintages stand out. He has also made ice wine with the red grape Blaufränkisch, and the result is a magic rose-colored version with notes of exotic berries. As he explains it: “An ice wine made from red grapes is very uncommon. The freezing of the grapes influences the aromas greatly, and this is especially true when the grapes are red.”

In Austria, where the wine laws are the strictest in all of Europe, only ice wines created by Mother Nature are allowed to carry the proud name. So, if Austrian ice wines are then considered to be some of the most authentic and true ice wines, one could argue that an ice wine from Austria’s flagship grape, Grüner Veltliner, is the truest ice wine of all. Manfred Weiss of the Weiss Winery in the Burgenland region made a Grüner-only ice wine in 1999 and a cuvee of Grüner and Welschriesling in 2001. He prefers to use Grüner Veltliner for his ice wine because it is resistant to botrytis, so the end result has particularly clean and clear notes.

Finding these great ice wines can be almost as difficult as making them. As the production method suggests, quantities are very limited, and the amount exported to the United States limits availability even more. Add to that the fact that every year around the holidays, most major food and wine publications run a story about ice wine, and what there is to be found on your local retailers shelf is quickly snapped up. There are, however, a few online retailers who specialize in these wines: Winemonger.com is one example, with a wide selection of Austrian wines including a number of ice wines. Or a simple online search of the name of an ice wine maker, such as the ones mentioned in this article, will yield sources. Finding a great, true ice wine is certainly worth the effort, though: there is nothing else quite like this spectacular dessert wine specialty.

Kosher Wines

2007-04-23T22:10:00.000-05:00

Many believe that if a wine is made in Israel, it has to be Kosher. Well, that is not always so, and in fact there’s a complete set of rules that make a wine kosher. In this article I will try and answer the question “What is a Kosher wine?”.

Generally speaking, a kosher wine is a wine that was produced according to the “halacha” - the rules of the Jewish religion. Those rules apply to every stage of the wine making process, and make sure that all steps have been carefully conducted.

The rules of the “halacha” state that the production process must be handeled by an orthodox Jewish person, and he must make sure that all stages are done properly without neglecting any of the orders. For example, the grapes must not be picked before the vineyard is 3 years of age, other kinds of fruits and vegetables must not be growing in the same field etc.

A kosher wine is called “kosher”, or “kosher lemehadrin”, while an unkosher wine is called “nesech”, and that means a wine that has been produced by not jewish workers. According to the “halacha”, even the pouring of the wine into glasses must be done by a Jewish person. The only exception to that is for cooked wines – those become kosher as soon as the wine temperature is greater than 75 degrees (Celsius), even if a non Jewish person handled it.

When shopping for a kosher wine for the Passover, one must pay special attention to the kind of the “hechsher” and see that the product is also kosher for Passover (pesach), meaning that there are no “hametz” materials involved in the process, that is – materials such as wheat flower and dough.

In past years it has been quite difficult to find kosher wines, especially in countries other than Israel, but today, there are many Israeli and non Israeli wines that are kosher, and the selection is quite large worldwide.

Lechayim! (Cheers)

What is Corked Wine?

2007-04-23T22:03:00.000-05:00

Keeping a wine bottle sealed is probably the most important factor when it comes to maintaining a good wine.

A cork is essential, as it keeps oxygen out of the wine bottle. If a bottle of wine is not airtight then it may become oxidized and undrinkable

Traditionally, the only corks worth considering were those actually made of cork. Recently, however, many wine experts have recognized that cork may actually cause more problems than it solves.

Cork, due to its malleable nature may have imperfections; these can result in the seal of the bottle not being as airtight as it could be and the wine being spoilt. In an attempt to avoid this problem, modern cork manufacturers may treat the cork with a chemical called TVA. Unfortunately, this chemical can cause the wine to taste and smell a little damp and musty.

Having said this, cork is able to expand to fully fill the neck of the bottle, which therefore, still makes it the preferred option for special wines that need to be stored, over a long period of time.

Plastic corks are becoming increasing popular, of late. One of the main problems associated with traditional corks is that the wine becomes 'corked'. Plastic corks prevent this occurring. Great! I hear you say. However, there can be minor irritations with plastic corks. A plastic cork can sometimes be difficult to extract from the bottle and virtually impossible to fit back into a half drunk bottle.

Another recent development is the widespread use of screw-top bottles. Until recently, this type of seal was used for only the cheapest of wines. Wine producers across the globe are now recognizing the benefits that screw tops provide. This type of seal ensures that wine is kept fresh; there is no chance of the wine becoming 'corked' and the bottle can be easily resealed. In reality, the only reason that screw tops are not more popular is because of the ingrained snobbery associated with this method of sealing a bottle.

No matter which type of cork you choose, it is important that you are able to recognize whether the wine has been properly sealed or not. A useful test is to see whether the top of the cork is level with the top of the bottle; if it isn't, then that particular bottle of wine is probably best avoided.

If a traditional cork breaks when you are removing it - don't panic! Use a corkscrew to attempt to 'dig out' the remaining cork. If this fails, simply push the remains of the cork down into the bottle. Contrary to popular belief, this will not destroy the wine's flavor. You may have to fish out a few bits of cork, but the taste of the wine should remain unaffected. However, you'd be wise to finish the whole bottle, under these circumstances!

When choosing your wine, base your decision on the wine itself and not the type of cork. Resist the temptation to be a cork snob; a screw top bottle may just give you a pleasant surprise

The Ten Most Important Wine Label Terms

2007-04-23T21:57:00.000-05:00

For the average wine consumer, there is a plethora of intimidation associated with wine buying. This is a feeling that is most often associated with not understanding wine labels. New world wines tend to make it easier - wines bottled in Australia, South America and the United States are often more direct in their presentation of the type of wine and the name of the vineyard. On the other hand, old world wine labels like those from France, Italy, Spain and Germany carry with them loads of classifications, harvest-types, town names, vineyard titles and producer idiosyncrasies - all in a foreign language. While these labels embody the wonderfully classic aesthetic associated with a good looking wine label, they almost always cause a cocking of the head for the average wine buyer.

In an effort to make the process less of a mess and more fun for those unmoved with the prospect of memorizing a pocket dictionary worth of French, Italian, Spanish and German wine terms, here is a list of the top ten things to look for on a wine label. The first five are things you want to look for, and the last five are items that should raise a flag of caution or don't mean what you think they should.

1. Cru

If there's one term you should learn when looking for a good French wine, it's Cru. The infamous wine regions of Bordeaux, Burgundy and Alsace in France will carry the term Cru somewhere on the label to indicate that the wine is from a town or producer of high quality.

2. Poor Soil / Deprived of Water

This will be something you read on the back of the wine label if there is a description. Sure - it sounds counter-intuitive, but wine that is grown in poor soil and deprived of water irrigation is actually likely to be of higher quality. Why? Because when a vine is deprived of excess water and nutrients, it will channel more of its energy into ripening the fruit rather than producing bright and vibrant leaves. The result is a higher quality grape harvest.

3. Methode Traditionelle (Traditional Method)

This applies primarily to sparkling wine made in the United States and Australia. If you see Traditional Method on the label of a new world wine it means that it is made in the same way as traditional Champagne, and will often be less expensive!

4. Vieilles Vignes (Old Vines)

Similar to the concept of vines grown in poor soil with minimal irrigation, vines that are considered old vines have more concentrated juices. The result is a vine that produces wines with denser, richer flavors. And as the juice is more robust, so usually are the other aspects of the grape, including the tannin and the acidity. A reference to Old vines either on the front or the back label is a positive indication of the wine's quality. This will be called Vieilles Vignes on French Wines.

5. Estate Bottled

On a bottle of French wine, you will see this labeled as Mis en Bouteille au Chateau, Mis en Bouteille au Domaine, or Mis en Bouteille au Propriete. The concept of an estate bottled wine is that it was grown, produced and bottled at the same location. There is an inference that the wine maker takes a great deal of pride in all aspects of the wine making process and wants the world to know that he or she oversees every element of the wine's production. As such, it is typically a reference to higher quality wine.

6. Odd Sounding or Unfamiliar Wine Awards

This is something that should raise a red flag. Australia notoriously has problems with wine makers placing gold, silver or bronze stickers on their wine labels that boast winning an award at an esoteric wine festival. Until very recently, there was no regulation in place for what type of award was worthy of placing on a wine label. If you do see award-winning stickers, make sure that the event sounds familiar or at least sounds large. You don't want to end up with a wine that won an award at a bake sale.

7. Flowery Marketing Terms

Most consumers have no problem identifying marketing adjectives from legitimate inferences to why a product is high-quality. Be wary of terms that a marketer developed while staying up late at the local café in the midst of a brain-storming frenzy. Anything that is trying to sound impressive by using words like exceptional, from wine maker's personal bin, or limited release is most likely trying to sell the wine based on gimmicks rather than on its quality.

8. Vague Geological References

High quality wines are usually a reflection of the unique characteristics of the small plot of land on which the grapes were grown. Wine makers will want to highlight this fact by referencing their specific region or town and the vineyard name. Be cautious of wine labels that reference a vague geographical space without getting more specific. South-Eastern Australia is a notorious labeling term you will find on Australian wines, which is about as specific as saying This Wine Was Made on Planet Earth. South-Eastern Australia includes the majority of the country's wine growing regions. Similarly, a wine that only says California Wine, or French Wine without honing in on towns or more isolated regions should be avoided.

9. Grand Vin

A Grand Vin term on a French wine label simply refers to the fact that the wine is the primary one produced at that vineyard. It is often confused with Vieilles Vignes (Old Vine), which is a reflection of quality. Grand Vin is a neutral term that will give you little indication either way.

10. Superieur

This labeling term causes confusion similar to Grand Vine listed above. It sounds cool but all it really refers to is the fact that a French or an Italian wine has a higher alcohol content than what it is traditionally known for.

The art of understanding the wine label can be the journey of a lifetime, but there's no reason why the average consumer can't get a leg up by understanding some of the key items to recognize. The most important thing is to have a sense of adventure and continue to explore new wines. Taste them and see how the label reflects what you like (or don't like) about the wine. If it was flat and watery, were there gimmicky marketing terms that were used in the description? If it was full, balanced and complex, did it have a reference to Old Vines? The terms listed here will help equally with choosing wine off of a menu at a restaurant as buying a bottle in a store. Listen closely to the waiter or sommelier's description. You never know what gems you can find by simply being aware of the terms listed here!

How to Order Wine in a Restaurant

2007-04-23T21:18:00.000-05:00

Ordering wine in a restaurant is not much different than buying it in a wine store. The main difference is that you have an audience. Yet ordering wine in a restaurant can be intimidating especially if the wine list is extensive.

Experiment or Homework
Keep in mind that even the experts will not be familiar with every selection on a wine list. If you are a novice and your are going on an important date, you should do a little homework to get some idea of what you might want to order. Unless you are feeling extremely adventurous, a restaurant is usually not the place to try something new since the mark up can range from 100 to 200%.

The Wine List
Today, most restaurants have a wine list, but expect a myriad of shapes and sizes. Some establishments might simply offer just a house red or white, while others have a daily blackboard to outline their rotating selection. Most wine lists are presented as a printed menu, with the wines arranged by color; red, white, and rose and the region of country. Additionally, many establishments will number their wines on the list, which helps big-time if you do not know how to pronounce the wine. You can simply say, "I will have the number 8".

Before you order, you are going to want to factor in what you are going to be eating. Unfortunately, not a lot of menus give advice on food pairing. If you need some help talk to the wine steward, or sommelier. They are there to help you make the best decision for your occasion, and a good one will not try to take you out of your price range.

Getting the Best Wine for Your Money
• Skip the house wine. Unless you are familiar with the house wine, don't bother because they generally carry the highest mark up.
• Scan the wine list too quickly to get an idea on the average price of a bottle. Try to stay within this median price range where the mark ups tend to be average.
• Choose a wine from the same region as the restaurant's food specialty. A good French restaurant, for instance, should have a solid selection of French wines.
• Ask the server for a recommendation. Just ask if they have any special values currently.
• If two or more at your table are going to have a few glasses of wine, it is cheaper to order by the bottle than the glass.

Corkage
Many restaurants will open and serve a bottle of wine brought by the patron. A quick call to the restaurant will confirm if this is possible, and if so, they will charge a corkage fee. They usually charge between $5 and $15 per bottle, although some restaurants will charge a lower fee if the wine brought is not on their wine list.

The Mystery of Decanting

2007-04-23T21:15:00.000-05:00

Decanting is a strange word to many people. Some do not even know what it means exactly. Taking the sophistication out of it, decanting literally means pouring the wine from the bottle to a special glass container. This is done in order to expose the wine to oxygen and enrich it.

What is the meaning of this process? Do all wines benefit from decanting or not?

The wine experts are not in agreement. Some say wine should be decanted in order to allow it to “breathe” and develop fully before consumption. Others claim decanting does not contribute to the quality of the wine.

So who is right? Well, the truth is somewhere in the middle. Decanting does seem to benefit certain wines more than others. Most red wines, except for the very aged and some white ones would definitely benefit from decanting 1-2 hours before serving. Young red wines, on the other hand, which are low in tannins, light and fruity, would not improve if allowed to oxidize. There are also wines that would actually suffer from decanting. Those are the aged reds. Their quality could worsen if allowed too much contact with air.

Also read:
A Closer Look At How Wine Is Made - Many of us love wine and enjoy the taste but many people really don't know exactly how wine is created. While almost any fruit juice...Another important factor in decanting is keeping the right temperature of the wine until it’s time to serve it. When it comes to white wine, one could easily place the decanter in a bigger bucket filled with cold water or ice. That would guarantee a crisp wine ready to serve and enjoy. However, when it comes to red wine, keeping the ideal temperature for serving is more difficult. The same technique as for white wine could be applied but with a minor difference - the temperature of the water in the bucket should be controlled by a thermometer. It may seem like a hassle but the exercise is well worth it.

Finally, a few words of wisdom - don’t be afraid to experiment! Sooner or later you’ll be surprised to find that you also have an opinion about decanting which you could adamantly defend.

Dessert Wines

2007-04-23T21:11:00.001-05:00

At your next dinner or holiday party, make sure your guests save room for dessert...dessert wine, that is. They augment or just take the place of the after dinner tea and coffee.

What are Dessert Wines?
A dessert wine is one that potent, sweet, and full of flavor. It is because of their sweet flavor the wine complements a dessert. Often extra spirits are added to raise the alcohol content. In general, dessert wines are thicker, richer, and sweeter than table wines. The grapes are picked late in the harvest to preserve residual sugars.

They come in small bottles and are served in tiny glasses. An average pour is 2 ounces. Therefore, you notice that dessert wines sold in the smaller 375ml bottles (as well as in larger bottles).

Like dinner wines, white dessert wines are generally served chilled. Red dessert wine are served at room temperature or slightly chilled. Dessert wines are especially good with fresh bakery sweets and fruits. It is best to save heavier tastes for winter, lighter tastes for summer.

These wines contain flavors like peach, almond, oak, and herbs, which allow them to show off their flavor, and add a tang to even the lightest dessert. Adding them to a sweet cream or paste dessert always creates a wonderful combination. Examples include fortified wines like port and sherry, and late harvest wines, which originated from grapes that have shriveled a bit, concentrating their sweetness. As a rule of thumb, a dessert wine should always be sweeter than the dessert it accompanies.

Some of the world's great fortified wines include Madeira, Vermouth, Marsala, Sherry, Cream Sherry, and Port.

Wine Touring

2007-04-23T21:00:00.000-05:00

To be honest, when my husband and I first started exploring wine and wineries we certainly did not have the customs or techniques down as we should have. Now however, after numerous day trips to the tasting rooms we feel like seasoned veterans. So, I wanted to cover some tips that might help you on your next winery visit.

Hours of Operation
There is nothing worse than taking a long drive, only to arrive with no lights on. So when you plan your day, be sure to consult the winery guides to make sure that the winery you want to visit is open. There are many wineries that are only open on weekends or on a few major holidays. For the most part wineries are open from noon to 5:00 pm. A few open earlier.

Tasting Rooms
A tasting room is just what it sounds like. It is designed to host visitors, display the various wines for sale, and most importantly, allow visitors to sample some of the wines. Tasting rooms typically feature a winery's selection of wines, and may have additional products, cheeses and foods, and other accessories.

Depending on the size of the winery, the tasting room may be simply a small room or an isolated part of the building. The tasting room may be located on the winery's property, or in a nearby city.

One important point is to find out what order to taste the wines in. You want to start with dry wines, then reds, followed by sweeter wines. If you drink the sweeter wines first, your taste buds will be shot for the nuances of the lighter, drier wines.

Ask Questions
Be sure to ask the tasting room staff any questions regarding their products. They are there not only to pour tastes of wine, but also to educate you about their offerings. Here are a few of the many questions you might consider asking when you arrive at a winery:

-What kinds of varietals do you grow at this winery?
-How long are the wines aged before being bottled?
-What have been the best vintages?
-What is the winery´s average yield of harvest grapes per acre?
-Which wines are aged in barrels?
-What is the winery´s volume of production?

Spit
Spitting is an acceptable part of tasting room etiquette. The technique is simple: when you have finished tasting your wine lean forward and expel a steady stream into the bucket. It is considered bad form to dribble or spray the sample.

Experiment
Try wines you have never tasted before to widen your range and surprise yourself. Ask the staff which of their wines the vintner is best known for.

Take a Notebook
It does not make you a wine nerd to want to remember the wines you have tasted.

Buying Wine
Most every winery allows you to purchase their wines in any quantity you desire. Most offer discounts if you purchase a half or full case of wine, and even allow that case to consist of any combination of their wine.

Eating
Always plan to eat somewhere along the way and having some non-alcoholic drinks available. Wine like other alcohols tends to dehydrate you, so a water bottle in the car is an excellent idea. I tend to plan for a picnic after the second winery visit on day-trips or to eat a meal at a restaurant before the drive home. That break is also useful for clearing the taste senses and allowing you to discuss what you´ve done so far. Many wineries have picnic tables available, or know where you can find them.

Tours
For larger groups you may want to organize your own tour, rent a private tour bus, and customize the tour specifically for your guests. If you have a party of ten or more, organizing your own tour may be the best route to go. Be sure to plan the event carefully, visit the specific wineries you have in mind, and plan some fun to get the most enjoyment possible.

Please remember that while most wineries welcome tour buses, not all have the facilities are able to accommodate such a large number of people. Please remember to call all the wineries ahead of time, before you organize the event. This will give them time to prepare for your arrival.

Scents
Wearing any scented items will interfere with your enjoyment of the wines as well as those around you. So leave behind scented perfume, hairspray, and tobacco. No offense to smokers, but the scent of tobacco takes away from the wine.

Wine Club
If you find a winery that you really like, join their wine club. The discounts and availability of wines allows you greater access to what you like at a price reduction. Many of the wines you have tasted you probably will not find at your local wine merchant. Therefore, when the 2,000 cases of the 1999 Cabernet you love run out, they are gone!

Walking through Vineyards
Some wineries may allow you to wander through a portion of their vineyard, and some may request that you remain near the tasting room property. Wineries are very concerned about the spread of pests such as Phylloxera. These pests can be carried on your shoes and transferred from one winery to another. Throughout history pests and diseases have destroyed acres and even entire crops, so be sure to ask the staff at the winery before you go wandering among the grapes.

If you are permitted to walk in the vineyards, you are in for a real treat. Few things can compare to holding a wonderful glass of wine in your hand, as you stroll past the very grapes that make that wine possible.

Stages of Wine Drinking

2007-04-23T20:43:00.001-05:00

We are all, to one degree or another, creatures of habit. Although sometimes adventuresome, we still feel greater comfort in the familiar. This applies to our preferences in wine as well as to more mundane topics as the type of chocolate we like, our choice of favorite color and other favorite things. As we move along life’s pathways, we experience many different sensory moments. Some are memorable on a conscious level. Others we experience subliminally.

Take, for instance, soap, a rather mundane product. Or is it? On first glance, you would think that soap is soap, period. But no. The marketers tell us that this one is for hands, this one for faces, this one for feet, that one is antibacterial, this one is all-purpose, that one is gentle and mild, this one softens cuticles, ad nauseum. Doesn’t all soap cleanse? So why such an emphasis on layered positioning and multi-tiered marketing?

Yet when we first experienced soap, as infants, we downloaded into our recognition centers the part of the experience worth remembering: the fragrance. We remember the soft, gentle hands of a parent, the warm, slippery water and we imprinted a sense of the aroma. If it was the faintly medicinal smell of Lever Bros. soap, then for the rest of our lives we would have some wake up call when a similar aroma was presented to us. When I smelled Lever 2000 soon after it was released about a decade ago, I noted the faint yet distinct resemblance to some of the soaps I used as a child in the 1940’s. It was the smell of cleanliness. And it was fine for then. Now we sell soap based on other things: beauty, attractiveness, personality.

So I imagine a bunch of flavor-and-fragrance chemists in their white lab coats at Lever Bros. trying to figure out how to make a soap aroma for the Next Century that would still have a trace of that old scent of “clean.” They have to make an aroma that will appeal to old fogies like me who grew up when Ivory was king. Yet, they want to add to it enough new “beauty” aromas (floral, perfumey smells) to make today’s young, hip, with-it, anorexic super models look like they are having an orgasmic experience when taking a shower with this soap. Does it work? It does with me. I use Lever 2000. The aroma psychologists did good.

Wine isn’t quite as subliminal as all that since we don’t (legally, at least) consume it until we’re of a thinking and remembering age. In our first experiences with wine, we typically find it “sour” or some other term indicating that it’s not gulpable. Nor, for that matter are gin, beer, coffee or a host of other drinks that require getting used to, or “acquiring a taste for.”

It takes time, years for some people, decades for others (some never get it), before people actually enjoy wine and even longer before they can appreciate the subtleties and gain an appreciation of its smaller, almost transparent nuances. Wine is difficult to understand, since it is composed of an endless stream of related and unrelated components, some of them easy to perceive, others nearly impossible to see, and all of them changing, transmogrifying, sometimes revealing themselves and then going into hiding (sometimes reappearing, sometimes not). Thus wine is not only hard to understand fully, but damn near impossible to write about with cogency and clarity.

Wine is not only hard to understand fully, but damn near impossible to write about with cogency and clarity. When I describe a wine as having a certain lemon-mint character, someone else would say, no that’s lemon peel, others would say Lemon Pledge, yet another would say lemon basil, someone else would argue for dried tarragon or anise.

We’d all be right. For in describing wine, we try to translate a sensory experience into a verbal, and there are no words that do this with precision. The best we can do is approximate with words that are similar and, we hope, within the framework of experience of our audience. A key point is that this exercise in conveying wine’s sensory elements involves our previous experiences. It would do little good to describe the above lemon-mint smell as the rind of esren (even if that descriptor is the most accurate one) when not one person in ten has even heard of esren.

So we get to the human factors. Creatures of habit/comfort that we are, we place positive and negative recollections on certain components we find in wine. Oddly, a negative component (one negative enough to evoke epithets of disgust when found in high enough concentrations) can be seen as positive and indeed quite desirable when found in smaller concentrations!

Aside from preferences in wine, we are motivated by varied pressures, many so subtle and ingrained that they are part of a subconscious that only a thorough psychoanalysis could uncover. To do so with a therapist would be time consuming and expensive and probably money not well spent. I’d rather spend my money on great wine and remain ignorant of my neuroses!

A Ranking of wine people
So it was with a degree of amusement about a decade ago when a psychology student called and asked if I could tell her my beliefs about the motives and psychological factors in the makeup of the typical wine drinker. She explained that she wanted to get at the core of the wine lover, not the person who only drank wine once in a while. I was intrigued. I had never before thought there was a “typical wine lover,” or even a typical persona that led to a dedicated wine drinker.

Over the next few weeks, I mused about this conundrum, with all its myriad implications, and I finally realized that there is no single mind-set that led a person into this life of perdition (and potential financial ruin) with wine and its attendant lifestyle. I began to see, however, that a person from any walk of life could get hooked on the taste of wine the way my 10 year old son is hooked on Star Trek in all of its incarnations, incantations and vestments.

There is no personality of a typical wine lover, but I perceived five stages in the development of this person, be he or she young or old, rich or poor. Alas, this discussion only affects about half of the adult U.S. population. One third (85 million Americans!) consume no alcoholic beverages at all. Nothing. Never have, never will, probably. Perhaps another 40 million consume beer or hard liquor, but no wine. A pity.

Stage One: The Beverage Consumer Discovers a Non-Sweet Liquid
In Stage One we are not a wine lover at all. It is that natal stage through which most of us pass on the way toward an appreciation of fine, aged red wine, an appreciation of subtle nuances in white wine, and toward complexity as well as fruit in all wine. This first stage has embedded in it an anchor that retains a huge percentage of the populace who never escape it.

Stage One is the sheer discovery of wine, dry or at least off-dry wine, that we serve with food, not really caring about vintages, origin, or much else except price. Most Americans who drink wine reside here, paying scant attention to what’s in the bottle. They stick with jug wine, despite its declining character, only because it provides a light, delicate, pleasant amnesiant buzz to blot out the care of the day. It makes life’s irritations easier to take and makes food (as well as the spouse and kids) much more acceptable than either would be without that sublime liquid.

Stage One, therefore, is a formative stage, one where we explore, grope and discover. Where we find some things we like, but much we don’t; where we have our share of consumption-to-excess just to imbibe; where we find some majestic experiences only to have a wine snob tell us we are drinking battery acid.

Stage One is a formative stage, one where we explore and discover. Where we find some things we like, but much we don’t; where we often just imbibe; where we find some majestic experiences only to have a wine snob tell us we are drinking battery acid.

The mystical transition between Stage One and Stage Two is varied. For some, it is the entertaining yet formal wine course that ratchets the Stage One drinker up to Stage Two fairly quickly. For others, it’s boredom with mediocrity. Sometimes it is serendipity - the chance taste of a truly great wine at a moment when it’s paired with the right foods and the right people.

Stage Two: Blissful Ignorance and Wine Consumption
Stage Two is one of the finest stages of wine consumption. Interestingly, it is at a level of consciousness that is most appealing: general unawareness of the individual’s persona. There are no real wine snobs at this level, but it is here that the early stages of snobdom are first seen. At this stage, we know we like wine more than at the jug-wine stage, but there is no pretense about it. We try a lot of different wines, thinking we will remember this one as a Sancerre, that as a Chardonnay. But more than anything, we love the endless variety.

We buy by the color of the label or the sound of the name more than on a knowledge of anything in particular. We gain some insights into what we like, we develop some favorite tastes, and we start to accumulate knowledge of wine styles. One of my first wines was Wente’s Blanc de Blanc, a sweeter style that I soon found didn’t go with a wide variety of foods. Then I discovered Wente Chablis and Heitz Chablis, and moved on to drier wines. It was here that I began to move into Stage Two, a stage where brand names start to mean something, a stage in which we begin to realize some of the subtle differences in wine.

In some ways, Stage Two along with Stage Four are the two most enjoyable stages, for they are replete with the joys of discovery without the bother of learning details. I knew only that Wente was south of San Francisco, somewhere, and that Heitz was in the Napa Valley. I had no idea what grapes were used in the white wines I was buying regularly for $1.79 per bottle. The red wine of choice at the time was the same price: Simi Burgundy (Today, the wines would probably be $6 - $7 varietals).

It was at this stage that I was prepared to experiment. One evening the sign on the shelf said the Muscadet was a seafood wine: I was making seafood that evening, so I tried it. The wine wasn’t bad, but I learned two things: there are varying degrees of dryness in dry wines, and some of the more tart wines tasted rather neutral when they are well chilled.

Stage Two is where most people either find comfort and remain for a lifetime, or move on to Stage Four. Many remain here, exploring and finding a “great” wine this month, none the next. This stage that pleases many people because it allows some adventuresome dining and pairing different wines with foods without spending lots of money. It doesn’t require knowing a lot of unnecessary details. It does, however, call for an open mind or palate along with the desire to learn just a bit about new wines that you hear about from a merchant or friend.

The really nice thing about this stage is that most of the wines people buy here are under $10 and they are often not as well known or as widely recognized as some brands. Moreover, folks in Stage Two are less critical, so they become very excited when a $6 bottle they discover tastes great, and they recommend it to everyone in sight.

Even wealthy folks who could afford to pay a lot more for wine love remaining in this buying niche, even though they may stray now and then into a more expensive category. Last year I gave a luncheon speech to a group of high-powered LA executives. I had prepared a sober talk about winery and vineyard ownership, the costs of doing business, and a bit about starting and maintaining a wine collection. As I chatted before lunch with some successful bankers, stock brokerage executives and business leaders, it became clear that many of them relished the idea of finding great values in wine that they could enjoy on a daily basis, and that price was an object. They had experienced and enjoyed great Bordeaux and Burgundies, yet found more pleasure in paying $5 for a Chilean Cabernet!

Needless to say, I changed my prepared talk to an impromptu one on the glories of discovering wine at lower price points. It was clear that despite their incomes, most of the execs were happy to be at Stage Two. The wines they were buying were satisfactory and satisfying, so was the price. Now and then their favorite wine would be out of stock and they’d have to choose something else. A bit of adventure amid the habitual buying patterns.

As I said, remaining here at the second stage of wine development offers a comfort factor to those who like wine, drink it fairly regularly, and don’t want to get involved with reading books about it (maybe a wine column in a newspaper, but rarely, if ever, a wine magazine).

I met a few men at that luncheon who had moved on in their wine appreciation, for whom the quest for an inexpensive bottle was still a joy, but for whom there was now a higher calling. This is the beginning of Stage Three, where the price of a bottle isn’t necessarily a barrier to purchase, where the buyer is now seeking “an experience,” a taste sensation that he or she perceives can only be obtained now and then by buying a special wine.

Learning about the special wines that mark the beginning of Stage Three isn’t easy for the resident of Stage Two who wants to move on, but it can be done in a number of ways. I did it 20 years ago by connecting with friends who I discovered were also in Stage Two and sharing our discoveries.

Stage Three: A Transition or Temporary Resting Point
This stage of wine development is not one at which most people remain for a lifetime. It reminds me of the second Star Wars movie, which I felt was a feature length coming attraction for the third Star Wars movie.

My own move into Stage Three occurred about 1975. I was buying Zinfandel ($4.50) and Chardonnay ($6) at a wine store in Woodland Hills. An intelligent, wine-loving gentleman who worked there and a witty woman who shopped there and I often wiled away afternoons perusing the shelves, chatting about wine. Soon we formed, with three others, a small, very informal monthly wine tasting society. We bought wines, bagged up so we could serve them blind, and we brought our own wine glasses, some cheese and crackers to the community room at the local bank. We swapped stories about wines we had tasted in the last month.

This sharing of discoveries and staging of tastings helped us all gain knowledge about the wine, about people’s reactions to great and not-so-great wine, and gave us insight into our own likes and dislikes.

At about the same time, I began attending wine tastings staged by a premium wine shop. This also boosted my confidence in learning more about wine and the people who made it. But, as I said, this stage of my development was temporary. Either one hasn’t got the time, interest or expendable income to continue this quest and is happy to drop back to Stage Two, or you move forward to what may be the best stage of all: Four.

Stage Four is a wonderful place to live. We start knowing more about wine than 95% of everyone else in the U.S., and this means we can often find bargains no one else could imagine. I recall my first bargain: the now defunct Oakville Vineyards was closing out every wine it had ever made. This was wine made from grapes growing about where Opus One now sits!

As we progress in this stage, we may also discover great wines, almost by accident, such as the time in 1976 when I was touring Napa and visited Franciscan Vineyards, met Justin Meyer and spent an hour with him, well past closing time, sipping on a new wine, 1972 Silver Oak Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon, which at that point hadn’t been announced.

Soon, my small cellar was filling with things like Heitz Martha’s Vineyard, Stag’s Leap, Chappellet, Freemark Abbey “Bosche”, Chateau Montelena, Hanzell, Burgess and Stony Hill - all the names that meant anything at the time.

This niche is a good one except for the pitfalls, and there are a few. In fact, they are all of the pitfalls that befall anyone who isn’t cautious, and thus falls into the pit known as Stage Five.

The Costs of Moving to Stage Four
In Stage Four, wine lovers formally become collectors, always seeking a bargain and always looking for great wines. But, unlike Stage Three, the Stage Four buyer is prepared to spend a considerable sum to acquire wines that are recommended by a reputable merchant, even if the buyer has never heard of the wine before.

The trick is to amass a nice, sizable collection of wine, and not to overdo it. The trap lands you half way into Stage Five, where you have a wine collection that has you thinking of mortgaging the homestead. In Stage Four, you now select the wine before you choose the main course for a dinner you’re doing for friends. You buy special glassware, decanters, cork pullers, and myriad gadgets, most of which you will never need.

You buy wine racks and wine posters; you insulate part of the garage or basement and think about buying an air-conditioning unit; you subscribe to a wine publication; you go on-line; you spend parts of Saturdays in a wine shop; you attend wine tastings and wine-dinners; you begin to remember which vintages are good and which are not. You may plan vacations around winery tours. You read wine books and winery and privately published newsletters.

In Stage Four, wine lovers formally become collectors and spend a lot of time and money on things like special glassware, wine books, newsletters, wine tastings, etc. But this game is a little like shuffleboard, where your quoit is pushed down toward the scoring table of the court at the far end. If you are a little short (Stage 4), don’t fear; another quoit could bump yours onto the scoring table. But once you’re too far, past the scoring table, you’re out of the game.

Wine is like that. If you get to Stage 5, you’re out of the game. I don’t know anyone who has successfully negotiated his way back from Stage 5 to the comfort and joy of Stage 4. I use “his” deliberately because in all the years I’ve been doing this, I’ve only known 2 or 3 women who fit this almost obsessive profile.

Humorist Mike Lynch and cartoonist Bob Johnson have caricatured these Stage 5 people in the past. One cartoon in particular shows a fellow standing by the fireplace, glass in hand, pon-tificating about wines from his cellar while around him lie three others (presumably including his wife) who died long ago and are now mere skeletons covered in cobwebs!

Stage 5 is a trap, a hole out of which it is nearly impossible to climb. I know of people whose incomes were once substantial enough to support “the habit”, who later were financially and otherwise “down-sized” and could no longer afford to play the game. Yet still these people persisted. Once a snob, always a snob. It’s nearly impossible to back up into Stage Four and simply enjoy wine again as a beverage.

The Stage 5 arrivee is self-assured to the point of arrogance; he memorizes vintage charts and numerical ranking scores, buys only the best wines (at least those reputed to be the best) and then alibis when those wines don’t turn out to be great. He bores everyone with endless tales of conquests and wines tasted; brags about cases of great vintages residing in the cellar, and generally takes the fun out of drinking wine.

True, there are some Stage 4 residents with characteristics of Stage 5, but that’s only the early warning sign. Once that fever is seen, it’s possible to take a few vitamin C pills (humbling experiences can help), and resist the temptation to become one of the world’s great bores.

Guarding against Stage 5 requires a 12-step approach: Participate in a dinner where you don’t say a word about the wine being served. Don’t moan about every wine list you get in a restaurant. Don’t denigrate a wine served by someone else. Don’t mumble irritably over inaccurate information you get from a wine steward or waiter. Be charitable if someone pours too much wine in your glass. Don’t fret if a white wine is served too cold. Don’t read a wine book looking only for the errors. When a Cabernet is barely drinkable and a Zinfandel is too oaky, don’t be above blending them together to make a more palatable wine. Don’t go into a blue funk if you miss out on getting any Grange this vintage. Go a day without having a glass of wine. Don’t feel as if you’re being tested when a friend from another table in a restaurant offers you a glass of something; it might be a simple, friendly gesture, not a test. Above all, don’t take wine so seriously that it ends up ruling you.

In general, lighten up. Wine is just a drink!

Is every one who has a serious wine cellar a resident in Stage 5? Of course not!

Is it possible to be in two stages at once? Yes, and here is where this analysis falls apart. For example, you can be a true wine lover of one type of wine, for example Napa Cabernet, but know nothing about sherry and port. Moreover, being on the cusp between Stage 3 and Stage 4 is a common place to reside, since most people don’t have the time or interest to actively participate in the pursuit of wine knowledge. By reading this publication, however, you are already ahead of the game, and on your way to pure wine enjoyment in Stage 4. Just be wary: it’s possible to slip and fall into Stage 5, possible to be drawn in like a riptide, before you know what’s happening to you.

If that occurs, run right out and buy a $10 Cabernet and try to enjoy it. If you can, you may be saved from a life of pursuit of the unattainable.

Wine Components and Aging

2007-04-23T20:42:00.000-05:00

A recent tasting of wonderful, but very young white Burgundies started me thinking about aging wines in general and aging white wines in particular. I started thinking about how hard it is to assess the potential of a young wine. Occasionally, when I’m headed for a wine tasting, I’ll hear someone say, sarcastically, “Tough job! Let me know if you need any help.”

Yet wine tasting is hard work, especially when one must make serious and critical value judgments about dozens of wines - whether there is enough or too much wood, tannin or acidity. It is physically and mentally fatiguing to taste through numerous wines, but it is especially so when tasting young wines to determine if they will age into something special.

Many people are confused about the subject of aging wines. Some don’t realize that wines change in the bottle. Some think that wines will last forever or that the best quality wines will continue to improve forever. Some think that only red wines improve with age.

In fact, most white wines are ready to drink upon release. Yet the wines most enthusiasts are interested in (the best Chardonnays, Chablis or Cote D’Or White Burgundies, even the better German wines) are released years before they will be at their peak. They can be enjoyed when young, but they will not have reached their full potential. The consumer is assumed to be knowledgeable enough to understand that these wines need that time in bottle to smooth out, mellow, and evolve into something complex and wonderful.

The previous article, Wine Essences, was devoted to some of the major components or essences of wine. Many of these essences are crucial in determining a wine’s ability to improve with age.

Acid: Critical for a wine’s ability to age well. Age-worthy wines may, in fact, seem too acidic when young, but the acidity will reduce over time and the wine can come into balance as long as the other elements are there and the wine has plenty of fruit. However, a taster must be wary of wines that seem balanced, but in fact have just enough tannic astringency to cover residual sugar. The resulting texture mimics acidity, but the wine won’t age well.

pH is related to acidity, but refers to the balance between acid and basic components in a liquid, not simply the acidity alone. Thus, for example, one can increase acidity, yet keep pH the same if one makes other adjustments.

What does this have to do with tasting young wine? Although high pH wines tend to taste hot despite having acceptable alcohol levels, it’s unfortunately impossible to “taste” pH. Yet, pH is even more important than acid to the balance in a wine and to a wine’s aging potential. A wine with low acid (and thus a high pH) can be artificially acid adjusted, yet still have a pH problem that will cause the wine to collapse down the road. The wine maker can test for pH, but we are not so fortunate. The best we can do is to be aware of the problem and use historical precedent: a few California wineries (see “austerity” below) and most French white Burgundies consistently have plenty of natural acidity and the proper pH to age beautifully. Generally, the coolest climates with long growing seasons yield grapes with the best acid and pH levels.

Alcohol: High alcohol (above 13.8 to 14%), will give a wine a certain hotness and it will taste slightly sweeter. Although not the death knell of a wine, high alcohol is a major concern. It is not intrusive as long as there is a lot of fruit to go with it. In evaluating young wines, we may come across and be impressed with a wine sporting 14.5% alcohol that seems to have enough fruit to age for 6-8 years. If we are wrong, however, the fruit will diminish in a few years, but the alcohol will still be 14.5% and the wine will be out of balance. Moreover, is that initial hotness due to the alcohol or to an artificial boost in the acidity? It’s not easy to tell. High alcohol wines often do not age well. Amarone is an exception.

Oak: A major concern in Chardonnay and becoming so in Sauvignon Blanc. French wine makers say that when the wood is noticeable in the nose, you have lost the wine. Yet Californians routinely make wood-dominated Chardonnays. The result can be a buttery, caramel toasty flavor that many people like. Such a wine has complexity when young, but will it age well?

As Chardonnay wines age and slowly oxidize, they take on a natural fullness that emulates oak. This character can be noted in older French Chablis, most of which never see wood at all. So where does a heavily oaked wine go in 6-8 years? The barrel oak and the “oakiness” from aging can combine to so dominate a wine that its fruit doesn’t show. Another out-of-balance wine that will disappoint down the road! And you think judging young wine is easy!!

Residual Sugar: Sugar may be fine in Riesling, Gewurztraminer and Chenin Blanc, but it is worrisome in Sauvignon Blanc and a danger signal in Chardonnay. Tasters may find a young wine among many that is “easy drinking.” Residual sugar (r.s.) does that. But will such a wine offer much interest when the acidity has been tamed by 3-5 years in the bottle? The answer lies in the amount of acid, pH, and balance the wine has. Most experienced wine lovers agree that a heavily oaked wine with residual sugar will not age well, no matter how appealing it seems. Kendall-Jackson lovers beware! Such wines should be (and, in fact, are) consumed early.

Sugared Chardonnays have other problems as well. The sugar in a wine with r.s. fatigues the palate so our ability to taste is diminished. Even more importantly, sugared wines really don’t pair well with food. Most foods have reasonably high levels of acidity in them and they need good acidity in a wine to synergize. In fact, a wine that may seem a bit acidic by itself often tastes just fine with food. Apéritifs are fine, but wine really is meant to go with food!

Austerity and Harmony: Austere wines rarely win medals or get high ratings. When young, fresh delicate Chardonnays or White Burgundies are served to a group of tasters, the panelists look for interest and complexity. Austere wines do not offer those things. Yet! At a judging, such wines often finish in the middle of the pack. They simply do not stand out. Examples such as Trefethen and Chateau Montelena Chardonnays, Chalone Pinot Blanc, most French Chablis and many Cote D’Or wines come to mind. These wines can be austere and tart when young, particularly when served cold. Yet, with time in the glass to breathe and warm up a bit, the intriguing elements in the wines begin to unveil themselves and their harmony shows through.

It is easier to recognize the high quality of such balanced, delicate and refined wines when they are tasted alone. But such wines get lost when tasted alongside more flamboyant ones. Yet such wines often become the prizes of the cellar years later, when the winners of the same tasting have lost their stuffing. It is the “little” wine, the wine of perfect, but balanced proportions, with good acid and pH, light oak and ample fruit, that ages well.

“So what?” you might say. “I buy a bottle of wine for this weekend, not for 3 years from now.” And that is just the point. No doubt you will enjoy that forward style Chardonnay this weekend. But surely you would enjoy a more classically structured wine even more in 2-3 years. Why not find out!? By the way, this also works with the best (and only the best) Champagnes.

Wine Essences

2007-04-23T20:41:00.000-05:00

There are hundreds of different wines made throughout the world. With each type of wine comes a set of varying essences. These can be tastes or smells. For example, the aromas of a California Chardonnay or White Burgundy may suggest essences of pineapple, apple, fig and oak. Tasting this wine may reveal the same essences, plus others dealing with the texture of the wine in your mouth, i.e. buttery (smooth). Even though each different grape varietal has its own set of essences, many of these overlap from one wine to the next. There are nine basic categories of essences characteristic to all wines: sweet, bitter, sour, smooth, acetic, flowery, fruity, oak and tannin. These essences, although sometimes barely noticeable in some wines, should be understood, both literally and physically, to better understand and determine the reason you either like or dislike a wine. As you taste each wine, thinking about each of these essences will give you a framework to analyze the wine.

SWEET - Sweet is often confused with fruity when describing a wine. Sweet (opposite of dry) is the amount of sugar the wine contains. All wine contains sugar in varying amounts although the amount is quite low in dry wines. The amount of sugar is not usually indicated on the wine label. The percentage of alcohol is. The higher the percentage of alcohol, generally the lower the sugar content and the dryer the wine. Wine labels will sometimes indicate the percentage of residual sugar in the wine - sugar left in the wine after fermentation. Residual sugar can be less than .5% (bone dry - the threshold of detection for most people) to as much as 20% (or even more!) in a late harvest dessert wine.

The integration of sugar with wine’s other constituents is intriguing. Sugar masks the effect of acidity and tannin in a wine. This is a key point! Some Californians are following the Kendall Jackson formula: .5% or more residual sugar. This makes the wine seem very soft, but it shortens the life span of the wine, fatigues the palate, and makes it much more difficult to match the wine to food. Sugar is also sometimes used to disguise (hide) defects in lesser quality wines (avoid any label that says “Serve very cold”). That’s why “jug” wines are usually fairly sweet - to hide flaws caused by using inferior (cheaper) grapes. Sweetness is not undesirable in wine - it should exist in an amount appropriate for each specific type of wine. Much more significant to the quality of a wine than sugar content is the balance between all its components: sugar, acid, fruit, tannin, etc.

BITTER - Bitter is one of the four basic tastes (on the tongue) recognized by organoleptic science, the others being sweet, sour and salty. Among novice wine tasters there is often some confusion between bitter, sour and tannic. Bitter is sensed at the back of the tongue, almost as an aftertaste. Sour is sensed on the sides of the tongue and sweet on the tip. A slight bitterness in wine can give an appealing aftertaste.

SOUR - The sharp, tart, tangy taste of wine comes from its acidity. Although there are more than one hundred different types of acid in wine, malic, tartaric and lactic are the most important. Malic acid has a distinct sour taste and is at its maximum level at the beginning of the grape’s ripening process. As the grape size increases, the concentration of malic acid decreases. Warm temperatures, rainfall and a long growing season continue the process of reducing malic acid levels and result in a softer, smoother wine. Many wines, particularly Chardonnay, may suggest an aroma of fresh apples. Malic acid is responsible for this characteristic. Apples are extremely high in malic acid (In fact, the word malic is derived from the Latin word malum, meaning apple).
At one extreme, high acidity causes excessive sharpness or sourness. At the other extreme, low acidity results in a wine that is flat, flavorless and bland. Acidity is also crucial for the longevity of a wine. Low acidity comes from over-ripe grapes or growing conditions that are too hot.

SMOOTH - Malic acid, the sour essence, is at its most pronounced when wine is young. Newly fermented wines that are high is malic acid may undergo a natural “secondary fermentation” known as malolactic fermentation (ML). Wine makers who wish to moderate the sharpness of malic acid may artificially induce this action by inoculating the wine with a strain of lactic bacteria. The bacteria break down the malic acid into lactic acid (also found in milk), thus “smoothing” the harsh acid out. Basically, it’s like converting apples to milk. Lactic acid is responsible for the “buttery” component found in many Chardonnays.
Acid is indispensable to a sound, stable, balanced wine. It also intensifies any bitter taste present. Excessive lactic acid leads to an unpleasant flavor, instability and shortens the life of a wine. Hence, many wines that have undergone 100% malolactic fermentation MAY not age as well as those that have undergone only partial ML or none at all. Most wine makers decide whether or not to induce ML. Some have a non-interventionist policy and let the wine decide!

ACETIC - A small amount of volatile acetic acid enhances the development of a wine’s bouquet and also produces a taste similar to that of the sour essence. Excessive acetic acid causes accentuated sharpness or sourness and, at the extreme, turns wine into vinegar. New wines normally contain about .02 - .03% acetic acid. (This can rise to as much as 1.5% in some wines.) Generally, the cause of an acetic wine is overexposure to air because of a leaking cork or barrel. However, this is not a common problem today thanks to modern wine making technology in which, for example, the addition of Sulfur dioxide (yes, sulfites!) in small amounts reduces the amount of acetic acid formed.

FLOWERY - This essence is noteworthy for its fragrance rather than its taste. The perfume of flowers is common in all wines, particularly whites. A Sauvignon Blanc may suggest aromas of lemon grass and citrus flowers, while a Muscat wine is redolent of honeysuckle and rose petals. A good red, like Cabernet Sauvignon, Bordeaux or Barolo, may suggest violets in its aroma.

FRUITY - Again, the aroma of this essence is more important than its taste. Fruitiness is a quality wine makers strive to achieve in their wine. Zinfandel is renowned for its raspberry aroma and flavor, while Cabernet Sauvignon reminds tasters of cherries and blackberries. Chenin Blanc brings to mind pears and melons, while Chardonnay exhibits tropical fruit, citrus and apple. An experienced wine taster will recognize a wine by its aroma and bouquet before even tasting it. The nose and the imagination can inspire the discovery of a score of fascinating associations.

OAK - Aging wine in oak barrels imparts unique tastes and fragrances to the wine. Depending on where the oak was grown and how long the wine is aged in it, barrels impart varying amounts of wood, vanilla, clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, chocolate and bitterness. Quality white wines gain an added dimension with moderate barrel aging, while reds are sometimes matured in oak for several years. Other woods, such as redwood are used for aging wine, but oak is generally the wood of choice. The type of oak is important too. French oak gives a taste and texture different from American oak (which is more pungent). Even the particular French forest where the oak is grown has an influence, as does the percentage of new oak barrels used.

TANNIN - Young red wines often give an astringent, tart, puckering, drying sensation felt particularly on the gums, roof and back of the mouth. This sensation is caused by tannin. Tannin is derived from grape skins, seeds and stems and can also be leeched from oak barrels during aging. (It is also present in tea leaves and is responsible for the bitterness of over-steeped tea.)
Tannin is about five times higher in red wines than whites. Interestingly, the tannin content of a wine from the same vineyard can double or halve from year to year, depending on the weather. Tannin involves the sense of touch or feel, rather than taste. It is often confused with bitter or sour. A young wine with excess tannin may be too rough to enjoy today, but it is this same tannin that helps the wine to mature well. Tannins are anti-oxidants and help to protect young wines from spoilage. Over time, tannins soften, allowing the fruit and other essences of the wine to surface. A wine with insufficient tannin will be insipid, flat and short-lived.
Tannin is not the only component responsible for the ageability of wines. Acids play a significant role in a wine’s aging process. In general, it is the balance of tannin, acidity, fruit and sugar that is very important in determining wine quality. So just because a wine has a lot of tannins does not necessarily mean it will age gracefully.

Twelve Little-Known Medical Facts About Wine

2007-04-23T20:40:00.002-05:00

1. Non-drinkers have approximately the same level of cardiovascular death as heavy alcoholics. Moderate drinkers have about half this level. Recently, strong evidence has been discovered to extend this 50% protective effect to strokes (cerebro-vascular accidents). The existence of this "U-curve" has been verified from the study of many different populations from all over the world using many different study technologies.
At least three factors appear to be at work here. The first is the prevention or reduction in oxidation of that bad cholesterol, LDL (low density lipoprotein), which reduces or prevents scarring of the artery. The second is preventing the platelets from becoming sticky and thus forming clots. The third is the production of nitric oxide, which causes restricted blood vessels to open, allowing more oxygen-rich blood to reach heart muscle or brain tissue.

2. Wine is a significant aid in the treatment of both anorexia and obesity! The wine has to be dry (no sugar). Isn't this amazing? How can this be? In obesity, 4 to 5 ounces is given at the major meal or at bedtime. The average weight loss was twice as great as the controls in the study. The explanation of this paradox appears to rest in relaxation of anxiety and emotional tension. (Anorexia is a condition characterized by excessive weight loss.)

3. Some afflictions of old age can be relieved by a glass of wine. The majority of hospitals in California have wine on their menu. It really can reduce the dependence on “heavies” like Thorazine. It's amazing what a glass of wine can do for patients. Their faces light up. They feel like socializing. Their appetite improves. Their self-esteem rises. They have a flood of happy memories. In short, life is worth living.

4. Moderate drinkers are, on the average, of higher intelligence than either non-drinkers or heavy drinkers. Moderate drinkers routinely have higher education status than non-drinkers.

5. On the subject of that “Contains Sulfites” label: Did you know that your body produces sulfites each and every day. In fact, every 24 hours your body produces sufficient sulfite to require 100 bottles of wine to be so labeled!!! Sulfite production is a normal by-product of most forms of life. It is not surprising to discover that even yeasts produce sulfites!
So... Even though wine makers who make wines that are completely organic (i.e. uses no sulfite at all) still may need to label their wine “Contains Sulfites.” Just keep in mind that most wines contain very little sulfite. It is a non-problem for 99.9% of people.

6. True allergies to wine are extremely rare. This is my area of expertise. I was a physician in active practice for 25 years, and I actively looked for wine allergies. I never saw a single confirmed case! Three examples of allergy to wine (or specifically to egg-white, a fining agent used in wine) have been uncovered in a computer-aided search of medical literature. It is that rare!

7. The Fetal Alcohol Syndrome occurs only in the chronic alcoholic. Hard drug use, heavy smoking and undernutrition produce similar fetal defects. So which factor does what is often difficult to determine. The question remains, “Does moderate wine intake have any affect at all?” There probably is more support for fewer medical problems! For example, there appear to be fewer fetal lung problems with moderate drinking mothers. More study is needed. For more information, click here.

8. Auto accidents are not increased in areas of high wine sampling. California wine country Highways 29, 12 and parts of 101 have wine bars every 200 yards. Yet when statistics are compared to highways of equal density, the level of accidents is not increased.

9. Liver disease is decreasing during a period of increasing wine consumption and decreasing spirits consumption. Everyone knows that cirrhosis is a very serious liver ailment. Chronic alcoholism is its number one cause. In recent years cirrhosis has decreased by 12%. This appears to be following the reduction in consumption of spirits. I must conclude, changing people's drinking habits over to wine is saving lives, here as well as in cardiac deaths.

10. Red wine contains anti-cancer compounds. The components thought to be responsible for this are antioxidants. At least 25 antioxidant compounds have been discovered in wine, especially red wine. The most famous of these is resveratrol, a stronger antioxidant than Vitamin E (and Vitamin E is one of the strongest antioxidants you can take). But two other compounds in wine, epicatechin and quercetin, are twice as strong as resveratrol! One example of the protective effect: The U.S. Government's Center for Disease Control found that endometrial cancer (lining of the uterus) is decreased by 83% in women who consume 12 or more drinks per week.

11. Bones are more dense in both men and women with moderate wine consumption. After menopause, osteoporosis becomes a very serious problem in women. Hip fractures are notorious. Dense bones are resistant to fractures.

12. Frequency of the common cold is reduced (or at least the symptoms are reduced) by moderate wine consumption. It is an exciting possibility that certain elements in wine bolster immunity. Nobody will be surprised if it turns out to be those antioxidant compounds again.

Debunking Wine Myths

2007-04-23T20:40:00.001-05:00

Myths abound everywhere in our culture. Long ago, we seemed to be more willing to have the wool pulled over our eyes; today, we seem more likely to be skeptical. The news media are a lot more revealing these days. So there are fewer myths in most fields -- except wine lore.

Decades ago, our religious leaders were above reproach. Recent allegations about some religious leaders (infidelities, child molestation, embezzlement, etc.) have made us all more skeptical. Take also political leaders. John F. Kennedy, we now know, was quite a “ladies man”, unlike the clean-cut image we had of him at the time. We were genteeler back then. Conspiracy theories had yet to develop; Watergate and Monicagate had yet to happen.

Myths exist in other areas of our lives. And for various reasons, we hold onto these “false truths” long after we should. Some may call it faith, others simply chalk it up to tradition: once an object gets an image, it’s hard to shake it.

What is odd to me, then, is that in the wine business, a business laden with images, romance and history, many people are quite prepared to accept the myths and hold fast to them because they like the comfort in simple answers. Simple answers usually are for simple people, but in the wine business, some otherwise very intelligent people are prepared to believe a myth rather than deal with research and fact-digging. They know, consciously or unconsciously, that to do so might ruin their simple answers. And simple answers, even if incorrect, make their lives simpler and less complicated.

Sometimes these myths are passed along sort of like an oral tradition. And many myths go back centuries.

One of the simplest myths about wine: “Bad wine turns to vinegar.” The truth is that very little bad wine actually turns to vinegar. The conversion of alcohol to vinegar is done by bacteria that simply are not present in a bottle of wine. Mostly what happens to bad wine is that the fruit simply oxidizes. In fact, bad wine that has oxidized will make a very poor vinegar.

Some Myths Die an Ugly Death
It’s true that a few myths have been wiped out in our lifetimes, but they usually went kicking and screaming. Take the term Pinot Chardonnay, for example. Once a staple of wineries in California, the term was used for decades and began to disappear slowly about 1975 once it was discovered and then widely disseminated (within the industry) that Chardonnay was not from the Pinot family. Yet the term Pinot Chardonnay remained on some wine labels long after it was known that the term was dumb, misleading, and only served to display the user’s lack of knowledge! Tradition carried more weight than fact.

Myth: Old wines are better when they are opened long before you drink them so they can breathe. Decanting is even better.
Truth: Really old red wines are so fragile that opening them and letting them sit to breathe is silly. Especially after decanting. More than once I have attended dinners where someone did this and the wine simply deteriorated before anyone had a chance to take a single sip.

Corollary Myth: Young wines benefit from uncorking the bottle to let them breathe.
Truth: Without decanting, a wine sitting in an open bottle essentially does not “breathe” in the way we think it does. Very little happens. Only decanting really helps.

Myth: Cabernet is a better wine than Zinfandel.
Truth: This is like comparing a Valencia to a Pippin. I could argue that more Zinfandel is tastier than Cabernet, but that is only an opinion. However, you never see a Zinfandel get a 100 rating, and a number of Cabernet Sauvignon-based wines have. Varietal discrimination!

Myth: Chardonnay is a varietal wine.
Truth: Almost all Chardonnays these days go through a series of processes that end up lowering the acid, making the wines rather flabby in texture. At the same time, the wines get an addition of non-grape flavors (from blending, malolactic fermentation, oak aging, etc.) resulting in something that is truly terrible with food. The worst sin is infusing the wine with a bitterness offset with sweetness (A glass of Kendall-Jackson, anyone?), which wipes out any hope for a tasty wine with meals. Yet vast hordes of Americans remain convinced that Chardonnay is a worthy choice for the dinner table, and they keep ordering it. And they apparently enjoy it, too, although I suspect they use it mainly as a palate wash, not a flavor enhancer. Besides, it’s usually served so cold that the negatives are muted.

Try Tackling the question: “What is a Reserve Wine?”
Myth: “Reserve” indicates a superior wine.
Truth: Reserve has an interesting history as a word applied to wine, one that is completely forgotten in the US today. 100 years ago, the word “reserve” was not used in the same way we use it today. There were wines called Reserve du Chateau, but the term meant simply that the wine was made for the chateau owner’s use exclusively. It was a wine held back from sale, reserved if you will, for the cellars of the property. This was not a commercial wine.

It could of course be given by the chateau owner to a friend as a gift, or swapped with another chateau owner. My unsubstantiated theory is that some of these gifts made their way to auction houses and were advertised as supposedly “better” wines than the “regular” wine, commanded much attention and thus a higher price. The higher prices were based on scarcity rather than higher quality.

I once attended a dinner at which bottles of 1945 Chateau Mouton-Rothschild Reserve du Chateau were served side by side with the “regular” bottling. The wines were served blind to a group of excellent tasters. Most preferred the “regular” bottling to the Reserve.

If the “reserved” wines represented a wine that the chateau owner wanted to have for himself and his friends, is it not possible that that wine differed to a degree from the “regular” wine? It certainly seems likely, else why have a special “reserve” bottling, if they were identical? And if that is so, isn’t it likely that these “reserve” bottles were made to please only one person: the Chateau owner. Most probably tasted better younger. Some were probably made to taste better when they aged.

I am not suggesting that the earliest “reserve du chateau” wines were not as good as the normal bottles that were sold. But considering that quality is in the eye of the beholder, and considering that wine evaluation 100 years ago wasn’t as worldly wise, broad or encompassing as it is today, who is to say that just because a wine was bigger and more concentrated (or drank better at an early age) that it was better than the regular wine?

Indeed, we know that most of today’s California reserve wines are oakier, weightier and more “impressive” when they are young, but are they better? Will they age better? Most of these wines can’t be consumed when young because of higher tannins, and thus require aging for a long time. Many have excessive alcohol to go with that load of fruit and don’t age that well. In fact, in blind tastings of older reserve bottlings of Cabernet, the regular wines show at least as well as the reserves, and occasionally are better. (At a blind tasting I attended in 1986, the 1974 Mondavi Napa Cab was almost unanimously preferred to the 1974 RM Reserve!)

The Curious Questions of “Old Vines” and “Low Yield”
Myth: Old vines make better wines.
Truth: This myth may have been created by the following rather odd sequential logic:
1. Fact: The smaller the amount of fruit off a vine, the better the resulting wine. This is generally accurate, since huge production results in diffuse flavors. More concentration of flavors comes from smaller production, and this usually makes for a more flavorful and better wine.
2. Fact: Older vines usually produce smaller amounts of grapes. As vines age, they lose their vigor and ability to produce large crops, so they naturally produce smaller crops. Thus:
3. Assumption: Old vines make better wine than young vines.

This assumption is so widely believed to be a fact that it has led many California wine makers to put the term “old vines” on their labels, indicating that the wine maker (or the marketing department) believes solidly that there is a direct correlation between quality and vine age. That is, older vines make better wines than younger vines, so we might as well advertise it.

So, then, how do we account for reports that are being widely circulated around the California wine industry: the best fruit produced by a vine in its early (first 20) years is produced in its first few years of full harvest, and that quality declines slightly but noticeably after that?

Moreover, there is no scientific proof that older vines always produce better fruit--or more to the point, better wine. We know that older vines yield less fruit, but when young vines have been trellised and pruned and treated intentionally to yield only a fraction of the fruit it would have on its own, the result can be high fruit (and wine) quality. That clearly indicates that what is at play here is not old-vine production, but merely low yield.

To add more confusion, there are specific situations where higher yields produce better wines than lower yields! It is true that 10 tons of Chardonnay growing on a one-acre vineyard will usually not produce a better wine than the same vineyard growing, say, four tons of fruit. But there are numerous California vineyards where growers have found that their best fruit is achieved at six tons per acre, and that four tons from the same acre makes a lesser quality wine.

A classic example: The Louis Martini Winery in Napa Valley owns a 70-acre hillside Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard in Lake County, planted in the late 1980’s. The vines were trellised and pruned to take advantage of a temperature pattern that was calculated based on daytime temperatures. Farmed to produce four tons per acre, a common target in such temperature areas,

the grapes were disappointing, showing green, herbaceous, underripe flavors. Further research revealed that the hillside was not high enough to take advantage of evening cooling breezes, and that valley-floor heat from the daytime rose in the evening, and that nighttime temperatures in the vineyard were so high that grapes reached sugar maturity earlier than they reached flavor maturity.

“To get the hang time we needed [for fuller flavor development],” said Mike Martini, “we had to increase tonnage to six tons [per acre]. And that made a better wine.”
Also, a famed vineyard in the Alexander Valley that has produced superb Chardonnay for years reportedly averages eight tons per acre (admittedly an extreme situation) and that at some lower crop levels, quality seems to tail off.

So clearly it is sometimes possible to make a better wine from higher tonnages. Which answers the self-proclaimed experts who constantly harp about lower yields always making better wines. Usually, perhaps, lower yield does lead to higher quality. But always? No. The evidence is clear: the best fruit is produced from a balanced vineyard. Balance is achieved in various ways. An “unbalanced” vineyard that produces only 1 ton per acre can make pretty terrible wine whereas four tons from a balanced vineyard makes infinitely better wine.

The Maverick ‘Brett’
Another myth: Brettanomyces in red wine can be horrible, but a trace adds complexity. (“Brett” is a bacterial infection which gives a wine an unusual and inappropriate “musty” smell and taste. It comes from contaminated corks and is synonymous with a “corked” wine.)

Truth: You can believe that if you want, but without a lab test, no one -- not even skilled wine makers -- can tell by aroma and taste whether a wine has a trace or a load of brett. Filtering could have removed the bacteria, but the aroma would remain and may even become stronger. Moreover, a more “complex” aroma from a “trace” of brett does not change the fact that a large brett population also changes the tannin structure of the wine. It mutes the fruit and makes the wine harder and less likely to age well. Some forms of “complexity” are clearly unwanted.

Why Wine Makers Don’t Debunk Myths
The myths stated here are, for the most part, fully understood by wine makers and grape growers. There is a great degree of interaction between wine makers, and they share these ideas with each other. Then why are such myths allowed to persist in the writings about wine around the country? Let’s look at a little fictitious scenario that’s probably pretty close to reality.

1. A wine writer writes a column in which a myth is stated as fact, with no qualifiers, no explanation, no indication that there might be another opinion.
2. A wine maker, preparing to make a sales trip to the city in which this wine writer writes, reads this article and is surprised that the myth has been stated as fact.
3. The wine maker arrives in the city on his sales trip, arranges to have dinner with the wine writer and pour a few of his latest releases.
4. At the restaurant: seated on one side of the table is the writer, notebook at the ready. On the other side are the wine maker and the local sales representative. The writer is there to sample and evaluate the four bottles of wine on the table. The wine maker is there to provide salient quotes for the article that he hopes will be one of the results of this sales trip. The sales guy will make sure the writer gets the production figures and prices.

Isn’t this the perfect time for the wine maker to say something about the error in the wine writer’s column of a few weeks earlier? Not a chance. The wine maker figures (probably correctly) that the writer has an ego as bruisable as a Gravenstein apple, and to tinker with that ego in the hope of getting the writer to mend the error of his ways is unthinkable. What if the writer takes offense at being corrected? And takes it out on the winery by giving the wines a bad review? So the wine maker says nothing and myth goes on.

All About Barrels: Why and How They Enhance Wine

2007-04-23T20:37:00.000-05:00

The origins of barrels for wine storage

Most of us are familiar with museum specimens and replicas of archeologically-recovered clay pots and amphorae from Greek and Roman sites: these clay-based vessels predate wooden containers for storage of wine and other liquid goods. But the existence of straight-sided, open wooden buckets, employing the craft of the cooper, is documented in Egypt as early as 2690 BCE (Before the Christian Era). Fully-closed barrels were first developed during the Iron Age (800-900 BCE), and by the first century BCE were widely in use for holding wine, beer, milk, olive oil, and water.

As trade and transportation developed, shippers discovered that sealed wooden containers were vastly superior to relatively fragile clay vessels, and the craft of cooperage -- barrel-making -- was launched, developing in direct proportion to the growth of trade. Wooden casks of barrels had largely replaced their clay counterparts by as early as the second century CE .

The most significant advantages of wooden barrels were, first, their strength: being made of wood and set round with hoops (first also made of wood, later of metal) that bound the joints of the barrels into a double arch; second, the barrels themselves were like wheels and could be easily rolled from one resting place to another; third, it became evident that certain goods - like wine - actually benefited from being stored in wood.

This third advantage forms the basis for the entire modern cooperage industry, and in fact is the only real reason for its continued existence in a world where stainless steel and non-reactive synthetic materials outweigh all other advantages that barrels ever possessed.

Why do we still use barrels?

If the practice of using wooden barrels for wine storage had not been common throughout the long period of years when wooden barrels were the only practical containers for wine, it is highly unlikely that today’s vintners would ever have thought of adding the dimensions of oak flavor to their wines. So we may say that it is a happy, historical coincidence that wine and wood marry together to form a richer, more complex flavor and texture than wine would have were it stored in a totally non-reactive container.

Now, what does an oak (and oak is -- almost without exception -- the only kind of wood used for fine wine storage) barrel impart to wine that improves and enhances it? We’ll look at two ways that wine benefits from its contact with oak.

First, for red wines, controlled oxidation takes place during barrel aging. This very gradual oxidation results in decreased astringency and increased color and stability. It also evolves the fruit aromas to more complex ones. Through a program of topping the wine (filling up the barrel) while it is in the barrel and racking the wine from barrel to barrel to clarify it, just enough oxygen is introduced to the wine to have these beneficial effects over a period of many months.

Second, oak wood is composed of several classes of complex chemical compounds, each of which contributes its own flavor or textural note to both red and white wines. The most familiar of these are vanilla flavors, sweet and toasty aromas, notes of tea and tobacco and an overall structural complexity of tannin that mingles with the tannin from the fruit itself (in the case of red wines). The specific compounds creating these delightful nuances in the finished wine are: volatile phenols containing vanillin; carbohydrate degradation products containing furfural, a component yielding a sweet and toasty aroma; “oak” lactones imparting a woody aroma; terpenes to provide “tea” and “tobacco” notes, and hydrolysable tannins which are important to the relative astringency or “mouth feel” of the wine.

The chemistry of the oak barrel can impart differing amounts and qualities of flavor and texture depending upon the barrel manufacturing techniques and type of oak used. American oak (Quercus alba) versus French oak (Quercus robur), sawn versus hand-split, air-drying vs. kiln drying of the staves, and the use of boiling water, steam, natural gas, or wood fire to bend the staves are among the most important variables in the manufacturing process. As you can imagine, the barrel makers and wine makers all over the world hold widely differing opinions on the best way to make a barrel! One thing we can all agree on is that barrel making is an extremely complicated craft - there are no amateur barrel makers!

The Cooper’s craft

The word “cooper” originates from the barrel makers of Illyria and Cisalpine in Gaul, where wine was stored in wooden vessels called “cupals,” and the maker was a “cuparius.” If your surname is “Cooper” or “Hooper” you can bet that some of your ancestors were employed in the time-honored craft of cooperage.

Organized coopers’ guilds originated in Rome well before the Christian Era. They grew and flourished throughout medieval Europe and reached the apex of their membership in the late 19th century, before dwindling rapidly in the years following World War I, as other materials, first metals and then synthetics, replaced the wooden vessels formerly used throughout the household for washing, churning, eating, cooking, and storage.

To understand why this profession is so highly skilled and specialized -- with an apprenticeship even today of seven years’ duration -- let’s go through the steps required to make a wine barrel. Keep in mind that both the procedure and the tools have remained relatively unchanged for the past three thousand years.

How to make a wine barrel

First, get yourself a tree. Not just any tree of course. Cutting down that messy sycamore in the front lawn that has been plaguing you since you moved in won’t work. You’ll need a Quercus robur, one of the more than four hundred species of oak trees that grow around the world. The Quercus robur can easily be found in central and eastern France, where they are grown in government-owned and managed forests, and where you can purchase one at a periodic auction. You will want a tree from a forest located in a cool climate, where the tree grows slowly, thus producing a wood with a tighter grain than those that grow more quickly in the region of Limousin. So you should do your shopping in the forests of Troncais, Allier, Nevers, or Vosges. There are other sources for good oak, such as Slavonia and even Russia, but the most prestigious barrels are made from French wood.

The forest should be planted with very close spacing, a condition that promotes tree growth with straight grain and no knots. These differences in tree structure produce noticeable differences in tastes imparted to the finished wine, and are an important part of how a winery achieves its ultimate style goals for each wine fermented and/or aged in barrels.

You’ll want your tree to be at least 100 years old for your purpose, with a straight, unblemished trunk, about five feet in circumference. It doesn’t really matter how tall the tree stands, because you’ll be using only the part that extends from the ground to the first lateral branches, and if you do a good job, you should get at least 2 and at most 4 barrels from your tree.

Next, you’ll need to measure the tree trunk into usable lengths for the barrel staves. Staves are the narrow strips of wood that are formed into the holding sides of the barrel. You have a choice of making either a Burgundian barrel (piéce) or a Bordeaux barrel (barrique). Both shapes of barrel will hold approximately 60 gallons of wine. The slight differences in shape and size between the Burgundian and the Bordeaux barrels don’t seem to have any definitive reason except that of tradition.

It may be that because most Burgundian cellars are underground, the barrels work better if they are slightly rounder and therefore roll more easily and are shorter to fit better through inside doorways. Or it may be that white wines fermented in Burgundian barrels have more sediment collect in them from the lees (expended yeast cells) and that the bigger bulge in the barrel concentrates the sediments more effectively. But type of wood and method of making are the same for both piéce and barrique.

At Simi, Burgundian or Bordeaux-shaped barrels will be used at our Winemaker’s discretion for Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, or Sauvignon Blanc. His/her choice is based on the particular style characteristics each cooperage imparts to its barrels. For instance, if a certain lot of grapes has good ripe fruit character but not much spiciness, he might use a François Fréres barrel (piéce) to add that dimension. For wine that lacks length of finish, he may use a Taransaud (barrique), and for wine that needs more weight on the palate to be well balanced, he might choose a Damy barrel (piéce). Each lot of wine, be it red or white, will be enhanced in balance and enriched in flavor and structure by the barrel in which it is fermented and/or aged. But a barrel that begins its life with white wine in it always will be used for white wine, and the same for red wine barrels. Never the two shall mix!

You will have to hand split the logs into halves, then quarters, then eighths, and finally into the exact stave size. You could get twice as many useable staves if you were to saw the logs, but this tends to raise the tannin and astringency of the oak to an unacceptably high level.

You can take a break now, because you'll need to allow the hand-cut rough staves to dry for three to five years in the open air. Open-air drying (as compared to the more rapid kiln drying) decreases the possibility of barrel leakage, and leaches more tannins from the wood, resulting in a softer, finer finished wine. Although the wood must dry, it will be rotated on the stack of rough staves and periodically sprinkled with water so that the final level of humidity in the wood is about 15 per cent. Now you have good air-dried rough staves.

Now that you have good, air-dried rough staves, you can begin to form the finely finished staves. You’ll cut them to a precise length and taper them at the ends, so that they fit together snugly when the barrel is curved into shape. Then you’ll hollow out the inside flat part of the stave. To assemble the barrel itself, you’ll fit the staves onto a frame, and then arrange the staves around an iron hoop. The barrel at this stage resembles a teepee, splaying out from the hoop at the top. In order to shape the barrel, you must bend the staves so that they can, in turn, be bound into another iron hoop at the bottom. Simi prefers that you use an open fire of oak wood chips rather than boiling water, steam or a gas fire. The wood chip fire helps provide a toasty flavor to the wine that will age in the barrel. You'll toast the barrel without a lid on it for about 40 minutes at 320 - 325 F. But these are just guidelines: Coopers toast barrels according to their own sense of what will be best, because each cooper has the expertise to extract the best possible characteristics.

You’ll custom make flat ends for your barrel and fit them into grooves at top and bottom of the side staves. Next, remove the temporary hoops, and set permanent ones into place. Then scrape and sand the barrel, so that the exterior is smooth. Now pour cold water into the barrel, and add air pressure to test for leaks. Finally, imprint the barrel proudly with your cooper’s brand, and send us a bill for - depending upon the rate of exchange - 550 to 650 dollars.

When your barrel arrives at the winery

Your barrel’s life has just begun when it arrives at the winery. It will probably be one of a ship’s container load of 150 barrels, and will reach the winery between June and August. Your barrel has arrived with its bung hole (opening in the side for the wine to be moved in and out) sealed by a wooden bung and a piece of burlap. This prevents contamination from entering the barrel while allowing for enough air transfer to keep the inside of the barrel fresh and dry.

No matter how much care you’ve taken in making your barrel, we will still do a thorough inspection of each barrel that we receive. It is essential to make sure that the barrel is sound - it should smell good and be clean inside. The wood inside, both for toast level and smoothness of finish must meet our expectations, and of course, it must be completely tight so that it will never leak.

All incoming barrels are subjected to two different kinds of inspection. The first is one in which our Cellarmaster tests the structural integrity of your barrel by checking the fit and finish, stave length and thickness, bung hole size and fit and by noting any external cracks or splinters.

Our Enologist then scrutinizes the inside of every barrel in the shipment, to make sure that you’ve toasted your barrel to the level that we’ve specified (light, medium, or heavy), to see if there are any blisters or char caused by overheating or excessive humidity during the toasting process, and to inspect the wood grain consistency and tightness of fit. He also checks to see if you have used any paste or reeds (the plant material used between the staves in the ends of the barrel) to repair small cracks or holes and to determine if the reeds are intact. Finally, he notes any uneven planing on the inside or any internal knots.

Your barrel has passed the test! Now we will mark the barrel to identify the varietal and the vineyard origin of the wine that will be stored in the barrel, as well as a complete history of any and all treatment given to the barrel during its life at Simi. Then we stencil the barrel with a cooperage designation and the year the barrel was delivered.

When the crush begins, and grapes come into the winery to be pressed and fermented (Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc) or fermented and then pressed (Cabernet Sauvignon), the cellar crew goes into action, rinsing the barrels and soaking the heads (end pieces). Then they pump five or six gallons of hot water into the barrel and seal it with a silicone bung. After rotating the barrel to each end for about twenty minutes, they pull the bung. If the barrel is completely liquid tight, a vacuum should have been created as the water cooled, and an audible rush of air will prove that your barrel is sound.

Your barrel is now filled with wine (Cabernet Sauvignon) or juice for fermentation (chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc) and from this time on, will undergo a regular, rigorous program of monitoring by the Cellarmaster for the rest of its useful life. These programs of inspection and cleaning, both while the barrel contains wine and when it rests empty before another harvest, ensure that your barrel continues to enhance the wine and that it never develops any problem that could impair the quality of the wine.

But nothing lasts forever, not even a well-made barrel. At Simi, we use white wine barrels for six or seven years and red wine barrels for five years. After that time, the oak has little or no beneficial flavor components left to impart to the wine, and the barrel becomes essentially a neutral container. But it is still a sound container for wine, and we usually sell it to some other winery who wishes to use it for storage purposes. The final phase in your barrel’s life is when your barrel is cut in half and sold for flower planters, at about ten dollars per planter.

But although your barrel is no more, the wine that was aged in it is still being enjoyed, and the connoisseur taster is exclaiming about its rich notes of toast, vanilla, almond, caramel, and clove. These are all nuances of complexity added to the wine from the barrel you made so many years before.

Oak Aging and Wine

2007-04-23T20:36:00.002-05:00

Most of us know that the majority of fine wines are aged in oak barrels. But why? What are the advantages? Are there any disadvantages? Are there different kinds of oak? Why are they different? What do these differences mean? What’s it all about?

Aging Wine Before It is Bottled
After fermentation is completed and wine is racked several times to remove the largest solids, the young wine is usually rough, raw and “green” and needs to settle for a period of time. This aging can be done in neutral containers such as stainless steel, cement lined vats, old large casks, etc. or it can be done in small relatively new wood barrels which are not neutral, but which will influence the developing wine.

Oak Barrel Influence - the basics
Subtle flavors are imparted to wine as it ages in the barrel. Different types of oak (French and American being the two most widely used) from different regions (Limousin, Nevers, Troncais, etc.) give differing levels of flavor to the wine (most often described as vanilla).
Wine, as it rests in the barrel, goes through subtle chemical changes, resulting in greater complexity and a softening of the harsh tannins and flavors present at the end of fermentation. The effect of specific wood on different wines is the subject of great discussion and experimentation among wine makers throughout the world.
A barrel essentially does two things: it allows a very slow introduction of oxygen into the wine; and it imparts the character of the wood into the wine. (This diminishes as a barrel gets older. You usually get 50% of the extract that a barrel has on the first use, 25% the second and less after that.)

TERROIR (ter-wah)

2007-04-23T20:36:00.001-05:00

Terroir is a term that is crucial to the understanding of quality wines and the differences between them. Yet many wine lovers do not understand terroir. Many have not even heard of it. The following is an examination of the term as it relates to French and American wines. We’ll begin with a modified excerpt from the excellent wine writer Hugh Johnson as he defines the term. Then we will discuss it as it relates to a general French area (Bordeaux) as well as a specific Chateau (Latour). We’ll conclude with a lengthy discussion of the current wine scene in California as it relates to terroir.

Definition
English has no precise translation for the French word terroir. Terrain comes nearest, but has a much less specific, let alone emotive, connotation. Perhaps this is why many wine loving Anglo-Saxons mistrust it as a Gallic fantasy; a conveniently mysterious way of asserting the superiority of French soil and landscape and the unknowable peculiarities that give French wines special qualities.

Yet there is no mystery about terroir. Everyone -- or at least every place -- has one. Your garden and mine have terroirs; probably several. The front and back of your house almost certainly offer different growing conditions for plants. That is all terroir means.

At its most restrictive the word means soil. By extension, and in common use, it means much more. It embraces the dirt itself, the subsoil beneath it, its physical properties and how they relate to the local climate -- for example how quickly it drains rainwater, whether it reflects sunlight or absorbs its heat. It embraces the lie of the land: its degree of slope, its orientation to the sun, and the tricks of its microclimate that spring from its location and surroundings.

Thus if the foot of a slope is frost-prone, the fact is an aspect of the terroir. Warmth or mist arising from nearby water is another -- mist can encourage botrytis and make golden sweet wines possible. Cooling afternoon or evening breezes off a body of water, such as is the case in many coastal areas of California, will also have a great effect. An east slope that catches the morning sun may have identical soil to a west slope that warms up later in the day and holds the evening rays: its terroir is different -- and its grapes will be subtly different too.

So are two plots of soil that nature made identical, but one of which has been pampered and the other neglected. Investment in cultivation has a marked effect on terroir. This is part of the exorbitant price of the best vineyard land (Grand Cru in France). It was the best situated in the first place; then nurtured for centuries.

An extension of this aspect of terroir is the view held by some organic wine growers that the term should also apply to all the flora and fauna of the land, whether visible or microscopic. Some claim that chemical treatments which kill microfauna denature the terroir. This would apply to tiny inhabitants of the soil as well as the indigenous yeasts, which almost certainly impart their territorial character to the wine.

Next month we will take a closer look at the terroir of Bordeaux. However, the first methodical identification and definition of different terroirs we know about (and still profit from) was done by monks in the Middle Ages, most famously by the fanatical Cistercians in Burgundy. They are said to have “tasted the soil” in their efforts to understand its secrets. Their efforts were not just directed at making the best wine. They were obsessed with the consistent differences between plots of land. To make wines that were as distinctive, as recognizably unalike as possible was their passion -- handed down to us in the jigsaw pattern of crus that makes study of the Côte d’Or so perplexing today.

Hangovers - Causes, Prevention, and Remedies

2007-04-23T20:35:00.002-05:00

We almost always consume alcohol in moderation. On rare occasions, some of us overindulge. I thought it might be interesting to explore the topic of remedies for “the day after.” Much of what follows is taken from the internet; these aren’t exactly peer reviewed publications.

What causes hangovers? (The following have been suggested by numerous sources)
1. Dehydration - Alcohol is a diuretic, ie a drug that increases urination and flushes fluids from the body. Drinking coffee the next morning may increase this problem as coffee is also a diuretic (however, caffeine has a possible advantage, which will be discussed later).

2. Mild poisons in the drink - A hangover may be a toxic reaction or even a mild form of alcohol poisoning. Complex organic molecules such as methanol and acetone are found in some drinks and are said to be responsible for hangovers rather than ethanol (alcohol). This view is supported by researcher Dr. Ian Calder of the National Hospital for Neurosurgery (London).

3. Too much alcohol depletes the body of necessary substances required to stay healthy, including blood sugar, vitamins and minerals.

4. “There’s good evidence emerging that the chief cause of hangover is acute withdrawal from alcohol,” says Mack Mitchell, M.D., vice president of the Alcoholic Beverage Medical Research Foundation in Baltimore, and assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University. “The cells in your brain physically change in response to the alcohol’s presence; when the alcohol is gone, you go through withdrawal until those cells get used to doing without the alcohol.” Couple that with the effects alcohol has on the blood vessels in your head (they can swell significantly), and you end up living through a day after that you’d rather forget.

Which form of alcohol is worse?
From worst to best: bourbon, whiskey, brandy, rum, red wine, white wine, gin and vodka. The British Medical Journal did tests that showed drinking bourbon whiskey is twice as likely to cause a hangover than the same amount of vodka.

What about Wine? (The following has appeared in the popular press. Who knows if it's true?)

1. A bad harvest. If you are drinking wine that comes from a country where a small change in the climate can make a big difference to the quality of wine (France, Germany, New Zealand), then in a bad season the wine contains many more substances that cause hangovers.

2. Drinking it too young. Almost all red wines and Chardonnay are matured in oak barrels so that they will keep and improve. If you drink this wine younger than three years there will be a higher level of nasties that can cause hangovers. If left to mature these nasties change to neutral substances and don’t cause hangovers. As a rule of thumb, wine stored in oak barrels for six months should be acceptable to drink within the first year. If the wine is stored for twelve months or more in oak barrels, it should then be aged at least four years. Some winemakers have been known to add oak chips directly into the wine to enhance flavors (especially in a weak vintage and especially in cheaper wines); this can take years to become neutral.

How to Avoid a Hangover
A hangover once is a hangover never wanted again. But it doesn’t mean that you have to avoid alcohol to have a fun night out and feel good the next day. So how do you avoid it all?

1. Of course the best and safest way to prevent hangovers is to limit yourself to 1-2 drinks.

2. Drink slowly. The slower you drink, the less alcohol reaches the brain (even if you end up consuming more). The reason is simple math: Your body burns alcohol at a fixed rate—about an ounce an hour. Give it more time to burn that alcohol, and less reaches your blood and brain.

3. Drink on a full stomach. “This is probably the single best thing you can do besides drinking less to reduce the severity of a hangover,” Dr. Mitchell says. “Food slows the absorption of alcohol, and the slower you absorb it, the less alcohol actually reaches the brain.” The kind of food you eat doesn't matter much. Eating well before you go out, during alcohol consumption, and sometimes after is important. Breads and pasta particularly slow absorption of alcohol into the blood stream. So do milk and other dairy products.

4. Take some extra vitamin C before retiring. Some even suggest taking extra vitamin C for a few days before imbibing a lot.

5. Drink the right drinks. What you drink can play a major role in what your head feels like the next morning, according to Kenneth Blum, Ph.D. The chief villains are congeners. “Congeners are higher order alcohols. (ethanol is the one we commonly call ‘alcohol’ but there are many others.) They are found in essentially all alcoholic beverages,” Dr. Blum says. “How they work isn’t known, but they’re closely related to the amount of pain you experience after drinking.”

6. The least perilous concoction is vodka. The most perilous is bourbon. Cognac and other brandies as well as single malt scotches are close behind. These are followed by blended scotch and other whiskeys and champagnes of all kinds (here it’s the bubbles that are the problem). Red wine can be a problem, but for a different reason. It contains tyramine, a histamine-like substance that can produce a killer headache. Gin and white wine are almost as benign as vodka, but in sufficient quantity, any form of alcohol can do you in. Avoid sweet tropical mixed drinks such as zombies and pina coladas, Also, avoid eating sugary foods such as cookies, cakes and chocolate. You tend to drink more than you realize, because the sugar makes it difficult to sense how much alcohol you are consuming.

7. Avoid the bubbly. And that doesn’t mean just champagne. Dr. Mitchell and Dr. Blum agree. Anything with bubbles in it (rum and Coke is just as bad as champagne) is a special hazard. The bubbles put the alcohol into your bloodstream much more quickly. Your liver can’t keep up; the alcohol overflow pours into your bloodstream.

8. Be size sensitive. With few exceptions, there's no way a 110-pounder can go one-on-one with a 250-pound drinker and wake up the winner. So scale down your drinks. To come out even, the 110-pounder can handle about half the alcohol of the 250-pounder.

9. A new over-the-counter supplement called Zeo is now available. We sell it. An Initial report from one of our employees (who shall remain nameless) is that it seems to help.

10. Take Alka-Seltzer at bedtime. “There's no hard scientific data on this, but my own clinical experience and that of a lot of others says that water and Alka-Seltzer before going to bed can make your hangover much less of a problem,” says John Brick, Ph.D. Others claim that two aspirin tablets (which is really Alka-Seltzer without the fizz) can also help. However, non-prescription pain relievers can be tough on the stomach, especially when there is alcohol in the system. Plain water is always a good idea for rehydration. Some recommend flat ginger ale.

Once you have a hangover, how can you minimize the effects?

From the medical professionals:
There is no one thing that cures a hangover except time. But there are a few things you can do to relieve the symptoms—the headache, nausea, and fatigue.

1. Drink fruit juice. “Fruit juice contains a form of sugar called fructose, which helps the body burn alcohol faster,” explains Seymour Diamond, M.D., director of the Diamond Headache Clinic in Chicago, Illinois. A large glass of orange juice or tomato juice, in other words, will help accelerate removal of the alcohol still in your system the morning after.

2. Eat crackers and honey. Honey is a very concentrated source of fructose. Believe it or not, sauerkraut juice is said by some to neutralize congeners. (More proof that sometimes the cure is worse than the disease!)

3. Get some pain relief. A headache is invariably a part of the package that goes with a hangover. “You can take aspirin, acetaminophen, or ibuprofen but you don’t want anything stronger,” Dr. Diamond says. “With more potent pain relievers, you run the risk of habituation, and you don’t want the first problem to start another problem.”

4. Willow bark is a natural, organic pain reliever, according to Kenneth Blum, Ph.D., chief of the Addictive Diseases Division at the U. of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio. “It contains a natural form of salicylate, the active ingredient in aspirin.”.

5. Drink bouillon. Broth made from bouillon cubes or any homemade soup broth will help replace the salt and potassium your body loses when you drink, Dr. Diamond says.

6. Replenish your water supply. “Alcohol causes dehydration of your body cells,” says John Brick, Ph.D., chief of research at the Center of Alcohol Studies of Rutgers State University of New Jersey. “Drinking plenty of water before you go to bed and again when you get up the morning after may help relieve discomfort caused by dehydration.”

7. Take B-complex vitamins. Drinking drains the body of these valuable vitamins. Research shows your system turns to B vitamins when it is under stress—and overtaxing the body with too much booze, beer, or wine definitely qualifies as stress, says Dr. Blum. Replenishing your body with a B-complex vitamin capsule can help shorten the duration of your hangover.

8. Eat amino acids. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein. Like vitamins and minerals, they can also be depleted by use of alcohol. Dr. Blum says that replenishing amino acids plays a role in repairing the ravages of a hangover. Amino acids are also available in capsule form at most health food stores.

9. Have two cups of coffee. (I know this contradicts previous advice, but you didn’t expect consistency, did you?) “Coffee acts as a vasoconstrictor—something that reduces the swelling of blood vessels that causes headache,” Dr. Diamond says. “Coffee can do a great deal to relieve the headaches associated with hangovers.” But don’t drink too much.

10. If you have a headache, cool/cold compresses may help.

11. Eat a good meal. If you can tolerate it, that is. A balanced meal will replace the loss of essential nutrients, explains Dr. Blum. But keep the meal light; no fats or fried foods. Toast, cereal, fruit and yogurt are easier to digest than eggs and dairy. (Chicken soup, anyone? It may not help, but it couldn’t hurt!)

PANEL OF ADVISORS: a) Kenneth Blum, Ph.D., is chief of the Addictive Diseases Division of the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio; b) John Brick, Ph.D., is chief of research in the Division of Education and Training at Rutgers State University of New Jersey’s Center of Alcohol Studies in Piscataway, New Jersey; Seymour Diamond, M.D., is director of the Diamond Headache Clinic and the inpatient headache unit at Louis A. Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. He also is executive director of the National Headache Foundation. He has co-written several books on headaches. c) Van Lierer, Ph.D., is director of research and owner of Decision Systems, a research and development firm in Stanford, California. He is a former cognitive psychologist at Stanford U; d) Mack Mitchell, M.D., is a vice president of the Alcoholic Beverage Medical Research Foundation in Baltimore, Maryland, and assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University.

From the Nutritionists:
Try some of the following herbs before and after drinking to reduce toxins and free radicals produced by them as well as herbs to nourish the nervous system. V-8 juice along with cucumber is an excellent carrier for your herbs and the two alone will help to replenish salts, vitamins, minerals and water your body is screaming for.

1. Willow bark; 2) Scullcap; 3) Ginseng; 4) Chamomile; 5) Green Tea; 6) Nux vomica; 7) Kava and Valerian (take these two only after all the alcohol has cleared your system.)

The New “International” Wine Style

2007-04-23T20:35:00.001-05:00

Careful tasters and readers may have noticed recently that the style of many wines has been changing. Whether it’s the new versions of Barolo, Chianti, Rioja, Shiraz, Cabernet, or even Bordeaux, there is a discernible trend toward uniformity that upsets traditionalists, but that is otherwise overlooked. The following is an interesting article on the subject and a response to that article. There is merit to both sides of the argument. As usual, I have taken minor editing liberties and have added a few opinions [in brackets].

The International Style - by Mark Arvanigian
One thing we frequent tasters all know, yet discuss all too little, is the highly subjective nature of wine enjoyment. Each of us appreciates different qualities, differently. That which is “good,” therefore, may not always be better to us all. Professional wine makers and enologists can find many types of “flaws” and are becoming increasingly adept at irradicating them. Flavor characteristics that I have enjoyed in premium wines, such as the mustiness wrought by Brettanomyces, have been minimized or eradicated in modern wines. Some would say, rightly, that this is as it should be: Brett is technically a flaw in wines.

But is it just me, or are premium wines from all quarters increasingly lacking in personality? I have recently tasted, from the current or very recent vintages, offerings from very reputable producers of high-end California red wines. My conclusion is that they all make the same wine. The essential components seem to be overtly ripe, rich fruit (cassis, cherry, plum) with varying degrees of depth, and almost nothing else. To add insult to injury, the fruit is often of the sort that tastes artificial, with an alcoholic or faintly chemical finish. To my palate and way of thinking, this sort of polished, one-dimensional product is very much the child of the so-called “international style” of wine making.

“So what?” you say. That trend, with its focus on clean flavors, fruit and polish has dramatically raised the quality of all varietal wine. Wine writers laud that the across-the-board increase in quality more than compensates for the boredom of a few erudite wine geeks.

Well, I’m not so sure, and I am not sure that the wine press has indeed been responsible for the very real rise in overall quality, particularly at the lower end. This should probably be attributed to the workings of the market, and to the introduction of new technology to the winery. The average wine drinker is not, after all, reading the Wine Advocate. Instead, they are buying grocery store wines, produced in vast quantities, for early consumption. These people are buying the latest technology in a bottle. Their lot has improved because of it.

For those of us who taste wine early and often, however, the wine press has had an appreciable effect; the principal disadvantage is tedium. The wines they advocate (and, I would argue, are making into a stylistic trend) can be full, rich, jammy, silky, whatever - but they will always lack interest to those who remember the way it used to be. Modern wine makers (especially in California and Australia, though, sadly, the trend is spreading) are churning out wines utterly lacking in personality, and which therefore fail to inspire much interest. They lack individuality, and leave a hollow feeling on the taster’s palate, in his mind, and, increasingly, in his wallet.

Those of a more egalitarian bent say that the needs of the many (quaffers) outweigh the pastime of the few (collectors). I respectfully disagree. If the wine novice thinks that he will, in the years to come, be able to broaden his wine experience easily by trading up in price, I am sorry to be the bearer of ill tidings. It is becoming increasingly difficult to gain a range of new flavors and textures not found in lower-end wines by simply spending more money. There are few California Cabernets in the $25 range offering flavor revelations not found in a good $15 version. Likewise, turning in your $25 Cab for a $40, reserve-level wine may leave you with a heightened sense of “no-big-deal.” Caveat emptor is the guiding principle in today’s wine shop, except among solid brands at low-risk prices. Ironically, it may be that the wine buyer is safest at the $10 level! [Arvanigian overstates his case here. Most $15 Cabs are seriously lacking, and there are many “big-deal” wines available, albeit at some big-deal prices.]

I am not exactly a Philistine in this brave new global world. Hungary, New Zealand and South Africa are and should be considered right alongside Bordeaux, Burgundy and Napa by writer and consumer alike. By and large, this is a good thing. However, if these new regions produce wines without any connection to place, which lack any trace of local individuality, what is the use of introducing them at all, other than economic? By drinking commercially acceptable, commercial-tasting cabernet-merlot-chardonnay, wine drinkers will gain little insight into traditional styles. Once the wine-producing world has replanted the countryside, many traditional varietals may be lost. And replant they most certainly will, for vintners will realize that the kudos of the press - including the elusive score of ‘90’ or above - and the money it brings will come most easily that way. And so the cycle spins.

Does this mean that traditional wines fail to achieve high scores and status? Of course not, but many of the great producers of traditional-style wines that have been embraced by wine writers were stars long before the press came along. Thus, Heitz Vineyards can accept a few dis-appointing scores while producing wine like they always have: they were famous for making great Cabernet before Wine had a “Spectator” or an “Advocate.” Yet most vintners do not have that luxury. They know that the industry is incredibly competitive. The seal of approval from important sectors of the wine media is an important part of the marketing process.

I am not without regard for the press. Wine journalists are valuable sources of information. In particular, the coverage and reporting on the quality of particular vintages and overall trends in viticulture have served as the eyes and ears of many of us unable to keep close tabs on such things. Nonetheless, the press also is responsible for the “100 point scale,” which argues, curiously, that the qualities of a wine can be quantified numerically. As with every objectification of the subjective, someone’s preferences prevail, and become something of a standard. Generally speaking, that preference has been for wines that produce clean, rich fruit; rich mouth feel; and soft tannins. This has become the benchmark. The attraction of this approach is obvious: it favors the casual drinker, who makes up the great portion of the wine market, and who cares little for complexity or true character. This is aided by the simplicity of the quantification approach, i.e., for most casual wine drinkers, higher score = “better” wine. The Wine Spectator even calls their tasting section a “Buying Guide,” so as to erase any confusion over how the consumer should use their scores. Thus, wines with high scores ring up sales, and the wine world is led a merry chase, in search of a number.

And so we come to the crux of the matter: are wine makers producing a style of wine which meets the broad standards of excellence/acceptability set down by the industry’s chief marketing wing, the media? It seems that they are. Every retailer and wholesaler worth his salt understands that a ‘90’ in the Wine Spectator is one of the chief signs of a wine’s marketability. Of course this be overstated: image, price, track record, and value for money are factors, just as they have always been. Yet increasingly it is the press that is driving fine wine sales. Can this have any other effect than to modify wine making in favor of a preferred style? Vintners are increasingly corporate employees. They have generally succumbed to the lure of The Score, and because these scores can be most easily achieved by making a certain type of wine, with definable characteristics, many wines are made which resemble each other greatly.

Just look around at some of the wines you've tasted lately. Can you still find wonderful traditional-styled Chianti Classicos? Sure. More and more of them, however, are eschewing structure, distinctiveness, personality - and ageability - in favor of fruit-driven richness. Many of these wines are absolutely luscious. Fewer of them show an individuality of style, and fewer still make you think while you taste. These wines tend to resemble one another. Maybe this makes sense in a world of modern, clinical wine making. I really don’t know. But I do think that the truth of the existence of this general trend becomes clearer with each successive vintage, and in most of the world’s traditional wine making regions.

Obviously, the trend toward “blah” should concern the connoisseur of fine wine. However, it should also be of real interest to the casual consumer. Taken to its logical conclusion, this trend could be a tangible barrier to his search for high quality, reasonably priced wines that also display reasonable levels of character and individuality. In short, many who have begun drinking lower priced wines over the course of the so-called Wine Boom will eventually, we hope, want to trade up. What they likely find when they make their move will be wines far inferior in interest and character to those which seduced many of us some years ago. Some would say that this is already a real problem: price inflation in California wines has not led to the panoply of interesting wines that had been predicted, just more technically correct ones. The string of recent outstanding vintages cannot hide the fact that great California wines are still not as good as their French counterparts. What are being produced in voluminous quantities there are rich, fruit-driven, sometimes wonderfully tasty wines. Mostly in the “international style.”

Wine Contains Sulfites? So what!

2007-04-23T20:34:00.000-05:00

What are sulfites?
Sulfite is a word used to describe forms of sulphurous acid, including sulphur dioxide. Sulfites have been used since ancient times for many purposes, including the cleansing of wine receptacles by both Romans and Egyptians. As food additives, they have been used since the 17th century and approved for use in the United States as long ago as the early 1800s. They are currently used for their preservative ability, which includes controlling microbial growth, blanching certain foods, and preventing spoilage of certain perishable foods, beverages and pharmaceuticals. It is their antioxidant and anti-microbial properties that have gained them an important role in wine making. The sulfites either inhibit or kill bacteria or wild yeast, thus encouraging rapid and clean fermentation of wine grapes. Sulfites are also a natural and minor by-product of yeast fermentation and thus are produced during the wine fermentation process.

Who is allergic to sulfites?
The FDA in the US estimates that one in 100 people is sulfite sensitive to some degree, but for the 10% of the population who are asthmatic, up to 5% are at risk of having an adverse reaction to the substance. More importantly, the most significant sulfite sensitivity reactions occur in susceptible asthmatics. From a public health standpoint, the subgroup of greatest concern is the sulfite-sensitive asthmatic population. Of those, the ones in whom the most severe reactions have been reported are steroid-dependent and are taking such drugs as prednisone or methylprednisolone. Most of these individuals have been cautioned by their doctor to avoid sulfite-containing foods or beverages. The number of asthmatic patients that are included in this sulfite sensitive group is estimated to be 500,000 in the United States. The USFDA requires labeling of foods containing 10 ppm or more of sulfites.

What are the symptoms of a sulfite reaction?
The symptoms of a sulfite sensitivity reaction vary from mild to life-threatening. The most common symptoms are mild and involve a skin rash accompanied by redness, hives, itching, flushing, tingling and swelling. Respiratory symptoms include difficulty breathing, wheezing, and stridor. Gastrointestinal reactions involve nausea and stomach cramps. Much less common but more serious signs and symptoms of sulfite sensitivity are low blood pressure, shock, extreme difficulty breathing, and loss of consciousness. As noted above, these symptoms of a severe reactions are most apt to occur in the steroid-dependent asthmatic person.

I get headaches, stuffy nose, and rosy cheeks from red wine. Is this an allergic reaction?
Technically, this is not an allergic reaction. What is being described is usually referred to as the “red wine headache syndrome.” This is not related to the sulfite content of the wine but probably due to other substances contained within the wine such as histamines, tyramine, and phenolic flavonoids. Aside from the discomfort of the headache, these symptoms do not appear to be a risk for progression to a more serious reaction. Studies have suggested that these headaches can be avoided or minimized by taking either aspirin, ibuprofen, or acetaminophen prior to drinking wine.

I can drink only white wines. Do red wines have more sulfites?
Actually, red wines may have less sulfites. In 1993 the European Union passed regulations permitting higher levels of total sulphur dioxide in dry white wine than in dry red wine and an even higher level in sweet white wines and rose wines. The higher level in the sweet wines are necessary to prevent the further fermentation of the higher levels of residual sugar. If you have a problem with red wines as compared to white wines, it may be related to the “red wine headache syndrome” [which was described last month]. Or, you may just be unfortunate enough to have an idiosyncratic allergy to one or more naturally occurring chemicals in some red wines. Experiment with small quantities of various wines until you find some that don’t bother you.

Red Wine Headache vs. Sulfite allergy

2007-04-23T20:33:00.002-05:00

Many people complain of getting headaches after drinking red wines. Although some of these people had one bad experience from drinking lousy wine or simply overindulging and now blame all red wines, there seems to be enough anecdotal evidence to suggest that others experience a real physiological reaction after drinking many red wines. As serious a problem as this is, it is impossible to get government funding to study how those who are sensitive to red wine could more safely enjoy it. In the next few months we will examine this issue from the perspective of several writers and researchers.

The Puzzling Red Wine Headache - By Marian Burros
For some people, a glass of red wine is an invitation to a roaring headache. After a few episodes of headache and queasiness, those who suffer them may banish wine from their tables for life. The symptoms are part of a syndrome known as Red Wine Headache, or RWH.

“The red wine headache is a real if poorly understood phenomenon,” says an article in the June issue of the Harvard Health Letter. That is a masterpiece of understatement. There are many theories about what causes the syndrome, but few facts. Dr. Fred Freitag, associate director of the Diamond Headache Clinic in Chicago, said no one really knows what leads a patient to develop this type of headache.

It may be caused by “compounds found in grape skins. They are either naturally occurring or produced through fermentation,” Dr. Freitag said. He would postulate no further. “It’s not as if there are hundreds of thousands of dollars for funding” studies to determine the cause, Dr. Freitag said. There is actually a stigma to studying the subject. “I’ve entertained the idea of looking for grants to study this and I've been told, ‘Don’t go there, it’s bad P.R.,’” Dr. Freitag said. Bad publicity comes to those who would study drinking? Carry Nation is with us yet.

Sulfites used to take the blame for RWH. About 20 years ago the Food and Drug Administration determined that about 1 percent of the population is allergic to sulfites and required that wines containing certain levels of the compound be labeled “contains sulfites.” Many people have assumed, incorrectly, that the labeling is designed to warn people who get a red wine headache. [In fact, sulfite sensitivity is a true allergy. Sufferers experience an allergic reaction, but not a headache. RWH is something else.]

Scientists have pointed out, however, that many sweet white wines contain more sulfites than red wines — yet do not cause headaches in those who suffer from RWH Additionally, dried fruits usually contain sulfites but you never hear of dried fruit headaches. Sulfites can cause an allergic reaction [breathing problems], Dr. Freitag said, but they give headaches only to asthmatics.

Other experts think tannins are at the root of the headaches. Tannins are the flavonoids in wine that set one’s mouth to puckering. The Harvard Health Letter notes several well-controlled experiments showing that tannins cause the release of serotonin, a neurotransmitter. High levels of serotonin can cause headaches and that may happen in people who also suffer from migraine headaches. But that does not explain why people who do not get migraines get RWH. Dr. Marion Nestle, chairwoman of the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies at NYU, added that no one complains about tea, soy, or chocolate headaches — though all contain tannins.

A third school of thought blames histamines. Histamines are 20 - 200% higher in red wine than in white, and those who are allergic to them are deficient in a certain enzyme. Some experts believe that the combination of alcohol and that deficiency can cause the headaches. But a study of 16 people with an intolerance to wine, reported in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (Feb 2001) found no difference in reactions to low- and high-histamine wines.

A fourth suggestion is that prostaglandins — substances that contribute to pain and swelling — may cause RWH. [More on this next month!] Yet for most people who suffer from RWH, the hypotheses are irrelevant. They want to know what to do about the problem. Some Web sites suggest prevention: for histamine sensitivity, pop a non-sedating antihistamine like Claritin or take an aspirin to stop production of prostaglandins.

Dr. Freitag frowns on this. To lick the problem, he advises a potentially long, painful, and costly experiment. A sufferer of the headaches himself, Dr. Freitag finds that he can drink some reds and not others. “Try different brands, different grapes, different countries of origin. That’s the only way you are going to find out.” Drink a half a glass of red wine; if it is going to give you a headache, it will do so within 15 minutes. If there is no reaction, stick with that wine for the evening, keeping your alcohol consumption to no more than two glasses. Keep a journal.

And don’t confuse RWH with the headache that comes six hours after a full evening of drinking. That’s called a hangover!

A Possible Solution
[We now look at an informal study suggesting that aspirin may be helpful if taken before drinking wine. Because RWH is frequently and incorrectly blamed on sulfites, we will start a brief discussion on sulfites.]

In 1981 Herbert Kaufman, M.D., reported that the prophylactic ingestion of aspirin prevented the red wine headache syndrome, RWH, (Lancet 1981; 1: 1263). He also noted that once RWH begins, aspirin has little or no effect in altering the headache. Five years later, in a non-controlled study, Kaufman reported that aspirin inhibited the immediate and late phases of RWH, and the proposed mechanism was through interruption of prostaglandin synthetase (Immunology and Allergy Practice; 7: 279-84). In a new controlled study, Kaufman and Dwight Starr, M.D., Mt. Zion Hospital and Medical Center, examined, through blind evaluation, various inhibitors of prostaglandin synthetase (IPS) drugs, aspirin, Acetaminophen, and Ibuprophen, to test if the RWH could be prevented by the prophylactic use of these specific medications.

During the first stage, twelve subjects (nine females and three males) with a history of RWH were challenged with red wine, and all experienced RWH. The subjects returned one week later, stage two, and were given inhibitors of prostaglandin synthetase or placebo one hour prior to wine ingestion. The two who received the placebo were not protected. Kaufman and Starr reported that ten of the subjects who were premedicated failed to develop the RWH; two given Acetaminophen developed a "second phase'' RWH 6-10 hours after wine ingestion.

Kaufman and Starr conclude that RWH may be due to a metabolic defect and corrected by prostaglandin synthetase inhibitors. Mechanisms of correction remain unclear. Source: H. Kaufman and D. Starr, Prevention of the Red Wine Headache (RWH); A Blind Controlled Study. In New Advances in Headache Research, 2nd edition, ed. F. Clifford Rose. Smith-Gordon, 1991.

Syrah = Shiraz = Petite Sirah?

2007-04-23T20:33:00.001-05:00

When we featured the Concannon Petite Sirah as our Wine of the Month, enough questions were raised to warrant an article on Syrah, Shiraz, and Petite Sirah. Are they equivalent? Are they even related?

One thing is clear. Syrah and Shiraz are equivalent. “There’s no difference at all,” responds Australian-born winemaker Daryl Groom of Geyser Peak Winery in Sonoma County. “Shiraz is a different name for the same grape variety as Syrah.”

Legend has it that Syrah was originally grown in Shiraz, an ancient city of Persia, now Iran. Ultimately the grape found its way to France’s Rhône Valley where locals put a French twist on its pronunciation. But there is no proof of an Iranian connection. In Australia, where Syrah is called Shiraz, winemakers maintain that they are simply using it’s original name. Shiraz has been grown in Australia since the mid-1800s and is the most widely planted red wine grape there today. Despite an identical botanical nature, French Syrah and Australian Shiraz typically reflect different styles of winemaking. “They’re at opposite ends of the spectrum,” observes Groom, who gave up his enviable position making Penfolds Grange, Australia’s most famous Shiraz, when he moved to California in 1989. He bucks the trend and calls his California wine Shiraz.

Australian Shiraz is traditionally grown in Clare Valley, Barossa Valley, and McLaren Vale, regions that are hotter and drier than France’s Rhône Valley. “There is a richness that comes from the Australian climate,” Groom says. “It’s a more up-front, jammy style.” When combined with aggressive American oak, Australian Shirazs’ forward, fruit-driven style can work quite well. The best French Syrahs, such as E. Guigal’s Côte-Rôtie La Mouline and Paul Jaboulet Aîné’s Hermitage La Chapelle, certainly show no lack of richness or ripeness, but they often display more earthiness, along with a leaner and pe rhaps denser structure.

Australian winemakers often press Shiraz juice off the skins early before fermentation is complete. The wine then goes dry (finishes fermenting) in American oak barrels. This process can deliver a soft, smoky edge. French winemakers (and most American ones) generally favor longer skin contact which can accent tannins.

“I didn’t know Syrah wasn’t supposed to taste like Australian Shiraz,” says Bonny Doon’s Randall Grahm, a California Rhône-varietal pioneer in the early 1980s. “People still don’t know it’s not a warm-climate grape,” he adds caustically. Grahm’s French bias is well-known, but he underscores the different approaches to making grand wines from the same grape.

Groom believes that California Shiraz has the potential to be as good as the best from his homeland. “As we figure out what works best, the wines will improve. In Australia, they have more mature vines. That will take some time here,” he notes. California wines labeled Shiraz (Simi, Wattle Creek, Voss, and Seven Peaks, and Geyser Peak) are made by Australian- or New Zealand-born winemakers. But it would be simplistic to say California Shiraz mirrors Australian Shiraz; there are too many climatic and winemaking variables that come into play.

While Syrah and Shiraz may be interchangeable, Petite Sirah in California was long thought unrelated to Syrah. A generation of wine educators and retailers dutifully explained to consumers that Petite Sirah was a misnomer. Recent DNA research by Dr. Carole Meredith at the UC-Davis, however, shows they are related after all. Meredith determined that 90 percent of what is called Petite Sirah in California is really Durif, a grape developed in France in the 1880s.

Durif was created from a seed parent grape called Peloursin, but the identity of the pollinating grape was unclear until DNA-typing positively identified it as Syrah. “Peloursin is definitely a parent of Petite Sirah, as is Syrah,” Meredith says. Though it never caught on in France, Durif was widely planted in California early in this century and referred to by most growers as Petite Sirah. Known for its dark hue and firm tannins, it has often been used as a blending wine to give color and structure. On its own, Petite Sirah also can make a hearty, age-worthy wine, but few experts consider it as complex as Syrah itself.

So the short answer is: Syrah = Shiraz, and both are related to, but not identical to, Petite Sirah.

Wine Matches for Grilled Fare

2007-04-23T20:32:00.002-05:00

GRILL-FRIENDLY REDS:
Zinfandel will be able to handle a wide variety of red meats. This bold red wine bellies up to meaty, smokey flavors allowing the varietal’s black pepper spice, acidity, and ripe tannins to carry the meat’s fats and texture to a new dimension. A Zin will also work well with barbecue sauce, steak sauce, and mild salsas - if there is too much spice in the sauce the two will compete and both the wine and the sauce end up as losers.

Merlot is the spicy sauce answer to the above dilemma. With the characteristic fruit-forward flavor profile, this varietal will support the spice and not aggravate it. Grilled pork chops, chicken, and garden-variety salads with lighter dressings also mingle well with Merlot.

Shiraz/Syrah is another varietal that makes the grill-friendly wine list. This varietal is delicious with just about any red meat. Offering dynamic, somewhat aggressive fruit flavors, balanced with more mellow tannins and a softer-fuller body - this wine’s place to shine is definitely at a barbecue gathering! Rhone Syrahs tend to have a smokier flavor characteristic and lend themselves extremely well to smoked brisket.

Cabernet Sauvignon is made for steaks with a higher fat content. Burgers of beef or turkey will also pair well. The tighter tannins are significantly mellowed by the meat’s fat producing a palate pleaser to remember! Top your burgers with bold cheeses, like blue or sharp cheddar, and this varietal gets even better!

Pinot Noir is a flexible varietal that is known for being extremely food-friendly. It can go from grilled fish to a juicy burger in a single sip! Pinot Noir is an ideal candidate for grilled fish (especially salmon), burgers, and chicken. If you aren’t sure what wine will work with your grilled dinner, Pinot Noir will likely be your best bet.

Chianti comes in styles ranging from light to quite full. Like Pinot Noir, it is an extremely versatile wine.

GRILL-FRIENDLY WHITES:
Chardonnay, especially if not too oaky, will work wonderfully with grilled fish (including shellfish), chicken with creamy sauces, and grilled corn on the cob with lots of butter!

Riesling is the perfect varietal for grilled bratwurst, shrimp, barbecue chicken, grilled pineapple and a variety of grilled veggies.

Sauvignon Blanc has an herbaceous quality that supports marinades and sauces with similar attributes. For example, grilled chicken that has been doused in Italian dressing or a citrus marinade will be unbeatable with a Sauvignon Blanc. Likewise, roasted peppers, veggies in fresh herbs, and grilled fish with dill & lemon will all be highlighted by a Sauvignon Blanc.

Gewurztraminer (especially Alsatian) offers a balance to spice with its slightly to moderately sweet character. This varietal would be a great choice to go with blackened Mahi Mahi or grilled Cajun chicken with fresh mango salsa. Also consider Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris.

Others: Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris (Pinot Grigio), and dry rosés.

Generally red wines go well with grilled red meats - basic burgers, steaks, ribs, etc. These meats can be somewhat salty, a bit smokey, and tend to be a touch sweeter due to marinades, sauces, condiments, and cooking times. Lighter meats and sauces are apt to go better with white wines that share similar flavors as the foods they are meant to accent. If you are having a backyard barbecue, offer a few whites and a few reds, and let your guests mix and match to see which flavor pairs suit their preferences. They are no hard and fast rules when it comes to pairing wines with your grilled foods.

Wine and Cheese

2007-04-23T20:32:00.001-05:00

Which wine goes best with which cheese is very much a question of personal taste. The truth is that there are so many wines and so many cheeses that it would take an encyclopedia to list and pair them all. Wine is often at its best with cheese, but not all wines go with all cheeses. Just as with other foods, certain cheeses are best suited to certain wines. Red wines, for example, are generally considered best with most cheeses, but whites go especially well with goats’ milk cheese and cooked cheese dishes. It also is not surprising that the wines of a specific region will generally pair extremely well with the cheeses native to that region.

Especially full-bodied and powerful red wines - Blue cheeses such as French and Danish blue, Gorgonzola, Roquefort and Stilton; soft goats’ milk cheese

Medium to full-bodied red wines - Asiago, Manchego, Gorgonzola, Parmesan. Some say Brie and Camembert, but I find that these cheeses can make any wine taste odd.

Medium-bodied reds - Munster, Edam, Port Salut, Emmenthal, Swiss, Jarlsburg, Gruyere

Fruity and light reds - Cantal, cream cheeses

Light dry reds and whites - Goats’ and sheep’s milk cheeses, young Cheddar, cooked cheese dishes, Fontina, Gouda, Bel Paese

Robust and full-bodied white wines - Gruyere and Cheddar

Rosé and medium-bodied whites - Gouda, Port Salut, Herbed Cheeses

Sweet dessert wines - Parmesan, sweet Gorgonzola, Cheddar, hard or soft goats’ milk cheeses, Stilton (with Port).
When NOT to serve cheese and wine together: The only time wine should not be accompanied by cheese is at a serious wine tasting. Cheese smoothes the rough edges of certain wines, especially young reds, and tends to overemphasize the value of the wine and gives a false impression of its true quality. Put another way, cheese can hide a wine’s defects and make it taste better than it really is. Professionals have a saying: “Buy on bread, sell on cheese.”

Wine and Food

2007-04-23T20:31:00.002-05:00

Although mixed drinks are very popular, wine has become the social beverage of choice for many people. What wine you drink at a party is of little concern beyond red vs. white and that it should be of decent quality. Serious wine is best served with food. but when it comes to choosing a wine to go with food (or in my case, food to go with a particular wine), it can get much more complicated.

The topic of pairing wine with food has delighted and maddened untold millions for centuries, so have no illusions about finding the perfect answer here. In fact, there is no perfect answer. That is really the point. Food/wine pairings are guidelines that have worked for most people most of the time, but clearly not for everyone nor all the time. Mood, ambiance, subtle variations in the ingredients of a dish, and the specifics of how a dish is prepared all affect which wines would best be paired with it as well as how well it will pair with a specific wine. And that doesn’t begin to address personal preferences and order effects. The selection of a wine for a certain dish will be influenced by both the food and the wine that came before it, if any.
Before you throw up your hands in despair and just reach for the rosé (It goes with everything, doesn’t it?), consider that there are some guidelines that have stood the test of time. They come from various sources. But consider also that they are only suggestions. Don’t be a slave to the “experts.” Experiment! You may come up with your own personal favorite combinations.

New Clue to Red wine’s Heart-Protecting Effect

2007-04-23T20:31:00.001-05:00

Scientists in the UK have identified “oligomeric procyanidins” as the likely ingredient in red wine’s polyphenols that contributes to heart health and longevity. And some red wines contain more procyanidins than others.

Dr. Roger Corder, from Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry in London, and his associates cultured human blood vessel cells and exposed them to 165 different wines to identify the polyphenols with the most potent effect on blood vessels. They found that procyanidins suppress production of a protein called endothelin-1 that constricts blood vessels. High-performance liquid chromatography identified oligomeric procyanidins as the specific phenolic constituent responsible for this effect.

People living in Nuoro province, Sardinia, and southwest France have higher than normal average longevity. And wines from those regions, Corder and colleagues found, had a 2- to 4-fold higher inhibitory effect on endothelin-1 and significantly higher oligomeric procyanidin levels than other wines. Traditional winemaking methods and use of the flavonoid-rich grape Tannat commonly grown in southwest France result in high levels of oligomeric procyanidins in the local wine.

The Art of Wine Tasting

2007-04-20T00:29:00.000-05:00

Do you simply drink wine, or do you taste wine? Anyone can drink wine, but it takes practice to be able to recognize and distinguish a wine's characteristics.

Wine In Your Home
A lot of people enjoy a glass of wine, but for some, wine plays a more prominent role. Adding a wine cellar to your home, whether it is simple shelves in your basement or a high-tech climate controlled room, takes your wine expertise to a whole new level. But don't fall into the trap of thinking that adding a wine cellar will increase your property value.

Wine for Your Health
Several recent studies suggest that drinking red wine in moderation can help maintain your good health. Taking your medicine has never been more enjoyable! Better cardiovascular health, lowered blood pressure and decreased cholesterol levels are only a few of the benefits of moderate red wine consumption.

Wine Secrets Revealed
If you are new to the wine arena, you may be confused by the jargon on wine labels, not confident when ordering wine at a restaurant or making a selection for a special occasion, and unsure what the difference is between a rosé and a blush wine. Learn about Wine Types and how to choose wines.

Wine Vintage Charts
Find a really good older wine to share at a wine tasting from a vintage chart. What are vintage charts? Vintage charts are easy reference guides to the excellent, the good and the not so great wines from various wine regions.

Food and Wine
Ever wonder why some wines complement certain foods so well? Why shouldn't you drink a red wine with fish? What type of wine should you serve at your next dinner party?

Spoiled Wines
A good wine is smooth and delightful, leaving you feeling as content as a purring feline. Occasionally you may come across a wine that tastes off, musty or moldy. Rest assured, this is not the way a wine should taste! The two major causes of wine decline are cork taint and oxidation.

Wine is Cool: How Sideways Made it Happen

2007-04-20T00:26:00.000-05:00

I must admit, before the film came out, I did could not tell the difference between my Cabs and my Pinots. In fact, I seldom paid any attention to any Cabs and Pinots. They all tasted like a poor mixture of alcohol and a bunch of old grapes. Wine was wine and I left it at that. I preferred my imported beer cold and my selections bold. Beers like Guinness, Hoegaarden, and Stella Artois became a far more palatable choice for me than any wine. Sideways, however, changed everything.

Ever since 2004, there has been a sudden resurgence in the consumption of wine in America, especially in California. It is no secret: Wine is the coolest thing in the entire country. And like any other cool element, wine is taking the same trajectory as cool shoes, cool clothes, cool cars, and cool professional sports teams in being a fad with a short life span. In fact, wine has been so cool as of late that it might soon become un-cool again.

We can all partly blame Hollywood film director Alexander Payne and writers Jim Taylor and Rex Picket for the demand in popularity of wine. When Sideways character Miles, an expert wine drinker in the film, shouted obscenities regarding his displeasure to Merlot wine and spoke generously of the Pinot Noir grape, sales of the Pinot wines all over California rose while sales of the Merlot slightly went down. When characters Jack and Miles stepped into the Sanford Winery for a wine tasting scene in the film, the Santa Barbara county winery soon enjoyed an increase in sales and notoriety. Indeed, there is a direct correlation between this Hollywood blockbuster and the fashion that is wine.

Walking through a local supermarket, I could not help but notice the number of wines being displayed for promotion at the front of the store near the checkout lines. If this were say, 2003, things would be much different. Instead of promoting a Russian River Valley Chardonnay at the storefront, they would have promoted a Gatorade Lemon-Lime four pack. In fact, wine is so popular that even generic supermarkets, which would rarely have a wide array of exquisite wine in their collection, now offer online guides on their web pages dedicated to all things wine, its fancy French terminology, and how one should drink them. Ralphs (http://www.Ralphs.com) now has what they call the Food & Wine Pairing Tool: Your Online Wine Steward.

Supermarkets are not the only ones taking advantage of the fashionably hip wine culture. Various new wine bars and wine shops have opened their doors in Southern California (and if they are not new they are certainly speaking louder now than ever before). These establishments often host daily or weekly wine tastings. Throw on a large flat-screen television screen, a couple intelligent looking cute brunette servers, and some post-modern artwork, wine establishments are increasingly becoming places for younger yuppies and recent grads to pass time.

Following the 2004 Sideways film, I took four wine trips; one to Santa Barbara County and three to Napa Valley and its surrounding areas. During the Santa Barbara wine trip, I can remember pulling into a congested parking lot with many young, urban, yuppie guys and their girlfriends while anxiously walking towards the entrance of the Sanford Winery. Clearly these people would not have existed if characters Jack and Miles from Sideways never visited the Sanford Winery in the film. Once inside, the main room was cleverly decorated with numerous Sideways memorabilia as well as film-related posters. You could even hear some guys saying, "Hey honey, you see. This is where that movie Sideways was shot. Isn't it cool?" But, don't get me wrong. I am not making fun of these people for I was one of them myself that afternoon at the winery. If it wasn't for the film, I would have probably never driven out to the Sanford Winery. The issue at hand, however, is the fact that I am astonished at how easily popular films can manipulate opinions, start fads, and even make something like wine one of the coolest things on the planet.

Ever since Sideways, I have become noticeably keen about wine and its culture. I can accurately tell the difference between a Cab and a Pinot. I can talk to you about the different temperatures that different grapes need to be grown at and which portions of California are ideal for different grapes. I can comfortably carry on a conversation with the wine server at the tasting room and speak about the need for a more buttery aftertaste on the chardonnay or perhaps which type of chocolate would go best with their holiday Port. I can often be seen at various wine gatherings in and around my network of friends and local wine shops. Wine is cool and I want to be where cool is.

Talking wine is exciting and tasting it is even more exciting. But just as everything else, all good things must come to an end. Wine, after all, is a fashionably hip statement and will soon give way to something else; perhaps a lemon-lime flavored Gatorade (okay that was a joke). Since 2004, I have been an enthusiastic wine drinker. Sideways successfully made wine what it is today in setting a growing trend. But because I believe wine is merely a fashion statement and don't like to be seen as a trend follower, I have changed my course. I recently changed the name of my wine party to a cocktail party for more versatility and I often refrain from pacing up and down the wine aisle at Trader Joe's looking for the best bottle under $8.99. Chances are you can now catch me at a social gathering holding a glass of gin (usually Tanqueray) and tonic instead of some Merlot or Shiraz.

Vinotherapy

2007-04-20T00:01:00.000-05:00

The benefits of drinking a glass of wine a day are now widely known, but you may not have heard the latest research that implies that wine and grapes are good for your skin and are now being used as a beauty treatment.

Beauty in the glass
This may seem like a recent discovery but the use of grapes in skincare treatments dates back to the court of the French King Louis XIV. It was then stylish to apply aged wine to the face to create a radiant complexion.

The beauty industry accepts that great skin is not just a result of luck or having good parents passing on their good genes but is also a consequence of many environmental factors. Cigarettes, pollution, alcohol and UV rays cause skin to look dull and grey. These factors contain “free radical” molecules that can cause premature ageing.

The benefits of vinotherapy is gaining a worldwide following as modern medicine is learning about wine fermentation and rediscovering the secrets of grapes and their amazing properties for use in beauty treatments.

The secrets of the grape
Grape seeds and grape skins contain polyphenols which are substances rich in vitamin E. Scientific research has proven these have the power to strengthen the skin's natural protective defenses and effectively fight off the effects of pollution.

Resveratrol is contained in grape vines which acts like a natural antibiotic to protect the vines against ultraviolet light and keep the vine looking healthy in the sun. Research has found out how to extract this from the vines and use this in skin treatments, as it firms the surface, improves elasticity and stimulates cell multiplication.

Not only that but the grape is rich in vitamins, minerals, acids and trace elements.

Decrease the signs of aging
But before you fill your bath with wine and jump in... these active molecules are very unstable and will actually turn red and smell bad as it gets old.

If you don’t want these problems your safest bet is to visit one of the many exclusive vinotherapy spas around the world on your holidays.

How to Host a Wine Tasting Party That's Not Lame

2007-04-19T23:42:00.000-05:00

For a wine geek like myself, almost any wine tasting peaks my interest. I don’t care much about the surroundings or circumstances. I’ve found myself sitting at an old card table in someone’s garage, tasting a number of very nice wines, and had a great time. I have also found myself sitting at a huge mahogany conference table in a private suite at some swank hotel, also tasting some great wines, and having a great time. I can enjoy both, and everything in-between. But when YOU decide to host a wine tasting or wine party, you need to keep one thing in mind. Make it fun.

Many people just hear the term “wine tasting” and they suddenly picture themselves sitting next to some geek at a large oval table, swirling wine and taking tasting notes for 2 hours. This is enough to make a possible guest of your so-called “tasting”, schedule a dentist appointment just to get out of it.

I always recommend a far more casual and fun tasting that will guarantee 95% of your friends a great time. Drop any plans to have everyone sit down all together at a table. Turn up the music a bit and for god’s sake, invite some women. Most all guy tastings suck, unless you call it a business meeting.

Below is everything you need to know to get that wine party organized and ready to roll. Have fun and enjoy the wine.

Rule #1
Invite guests who may have the same general interest and experience level. A complete wine geek at a casual tasting, may take it upon himself to start lecturing and giving extremely boring insights on the history of wine. Casual wine drinkers don’t need to be forced into conversations with this guy at your gathering. So, screw him. Don’t invite the wine geek.

Same rule applies to the person who only drinks Heineken and can’t stand holding a wine glass. This will be the guy who asks, “What’s this stuff made from again?” while he plugs his nose and chugs glass after glass to get his buzz on. Screw him too. Don’t invite the folks from the two extremes.

Keep the gathering focussed on the folks who are interested in trying new stuff and the friends you know who would love to try a variety of wines in a fun atmosphere.

Rule #2
The location of the gathering is important, as is the location of the wines being poured at the party. I think there needs to be plenty of space for folks to move around and mingle, and if all goes well an impromptu dance floor may be generated around 11:00, so have some space.

I like to have the wines separated on a few different tables preferably at separate ends of the room. It keeps people moving and spreads thing out. Things get too congested when 12 to 20 open wine bottles are all occupying one table. Your guests will be pouring their own wine, so get ready for spills.

Greg’s Observation
Something always gets broken. Just deal with it. If nothing gets broken then these folks are way too stiff and refined. Usually it is a glass or two. Sometimes a bottle is dropped or knocked across a table, so white tablecloths and carpets beware. The more bottles placed on one large table, the more knocked around.

Rule #3
Establish a theme for the tasting. No, not costumes or togas. A theme of what wines will be poured. A free-for-all tasting with guests bringing anything they pick up last minute at the package store never works. Just ask yourself what you have been drinking lately. Then decide if you want to branch out, or stick with some wine regions that you are familiar with. If you have been drinking a fair amount of California Chardonnay’s and enjoy them, why not have an Oregon Chardonnay vs. California Chardonnay battle. It is always a good way to get a taste of the differences. Here are some other theme possibilities. Remember that the possibilities are endless.

Red Bordeaux vs. Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
White Burgundy vs. California Chardonnay
Chianti vs. California Sangiovese
Northern Rhone Reds vs. Australian Shiraz
Napa Cabernet vs. Sonoma Cabernet
Red Bordeaux vs. Meritage Red Blends
Red Burgundy vs. Oregon Pinot Noir

The list could go on and on and it definitely doesn’t need to be one region against another. Remember to also choose a price range for the selections. If you are hosting the event and also supplying all the wine, then you are a better person than me, and go nuts with the price if you so desire. However, if you are having guests each bring one bottle, fill them in on the price range you have chosen. $20-$30 a bottle may cover most situations. The Bordeaux vs. Napa Cabs may prove to be more interesting with a higher price tag. Your tasting, your call.

Take the time of year into consideration when planning the theme. A hot July night may not be the best time for big heavy reds, and an all Sauvignon Blanc tasting in the middle of a snowy December may seem misplaced also.

Two general tasting terms you may want to know are, Vertical Tasting and Horizontal tasting. These are tasting terms used regularly in the wine world. A Vertical Tasting consists of tasting wines from several different vintages or years, that were produced by one winery. A nice example of this would be tasting Cabernet Sauvignon from Joseph Phelps Winery spanning the “90”, “91”, “92”, and “93” vintages. This would let the tasters see how each vintage compared to the next and also judge the aging process.

A Horizontal Tasting consists of tasting wines from the same vintage or year, represented by several different wineries. A nice example of this would be tasting Cabernet Sauvignon from Joseph Phelps, Caymus, Robert Mondavi, and Pine Ridge all from the “1990” vintage.

Greg’s Observation
Some guests are going to get bored with taking tasting notes, while some may have never started. So don’t try to make an accurate conclusion on which wine won the contest. This is a casual tasting, so concentrate on all the wines the first time around. If you are the host at least try to get a chance to get some good tasting info on all the wines that interest you. Then, drop the tasting sheets and concentrate on the blonde over by the fireplace.

Rule #4
Provide some food. The host should put out some hors d’oeuvres, cheese, fruit, unsalted crackers, bread or other munchies you may have prepared for the evening. Have some back ups ready because guests may get hungry again a couple hours into the event. It is an option of course to match the wine theme with a food theme. Italian dishes with Italian wine, etc, etc.

Check list of party supplies.

Bottled H2O-Room temperature bottled water is good, and lots of it. Why room temp? If it is too cold it can numb you tongue a bit and that may effect you wine tasting. Guests may also use it to rinse their glasses between wines if a new wine glass is not provided for each wine.

Wine Opener-That would suck to have all that wine in front of you, and no way to get at it.

Spit Buckets-Yep, some guests will spit a bit since they are tasting so much wine. These buckets may also be used to pour water into, if folks are rinsing their glasses. I’ve seen small fish bowls used, metal Champagne buckets, and Tupperware bowls. You may have to let some folks know that it is proper and o.k. to spit.

Pens and Tasting note sheets-Supply these for yourself and the folks that may want to take notes on the wines. Click here for the DamnGoodWine.com tasting sheet (coming soon). We recommend using it for all your tastings, and for just taking notes on your daily drinking.

Wine Glasses-A 12oz. (or bigger) glass for everyone. Some hosts rent glassware and actually provide a new glass for every person, for every wine. It is a nice touch but can be a bit of a hassle to rent a bunch of glasses. If you are going to insist that each guest reuses the same wine glass through out the evening then provide enough bottled water. Did I already say that with item #1?

Food-Get it prepared in advance.

Music-Make sure you have a good selection.

Choosing Wine to Match Food

2007-04-19T23:37:00.000-05:00

Creating the perfect mix between wine and food can be a challenge if you are not entirely sure what you are doing. With such an array of wine and food available there are always many options to consider. When planning a dinner, choose combinations that are popular with a wide range of people. You should always ensure that the wine does not overpower the dish, and you also need to avoid flavor transferring. This occurs when a flavor is passed from the wine to a meal, as it can result in an unpleasant taste.

White Wine: When creating a wine and food combination, Chardonnay is best complimented with Veal, Salmon, grilled cheese and white sauce. You should avoid spicy foods with this drink. Gewurztraminer is ideal when matched with Pork, Chinese foods and Swiss cheese but must be avoided with light foods. Pinot Grigio is not an ideal option for Tomatoes and spicy food as this combination may create a rather unpleasant taste. Riesling is a very dry wine and perfect when teamed with Veal, Shrimp, cream sauces and Turkey. Sweet food should be avoided with Riesling and Sancerre however.

Red Wine: In a perfect world a food recommendation would be included on the back of a wine bottle. Fortunately we can give you the insiders tips to getting a wine and food combination just right. Barberra red wine is perfect with Pizza, pasta, lasagne and lemon chicken. When eating fish or tomatoes, Cabernet Sauvignon should be avoided. This wine is better suited with chocolate, roast lamb, steak and duck. Merlot is perfectly matched with grilled meats such as barbecue meat and chicken. Avoid sweet food with this wine. Pinot Noir is not well matched with spicy foods such as Indian, instead it is ideal with Salmon, tuna, lamb and duck. Shiraz is great with a meal of barbecue, peppered red meats and sausage but should be avoided with fish.

In general, wine is best served at a chilled temperature, as it is able to breathe and create the perfect mix of aromas that will delight the senses and impress your guests. Each type of wine has a glass that coordinates with it. If you do not have a cupboard full of every wineglass imaginable though, use the next closest looking glass. The reason that there are so many types of wineglasses available, is that each one is designed to emphasise the full aromas and tastes within a given type of wine. If the wine is not served in quite the right glass, all these aromas and flavors may not be fully realised.

How much to serve: Wine should be opened and served carefully, especially red wine as this may create a nasty mess if spilt on white clothing or dinner wear. Do not overfill glasses. It is best to serve a small amount of wine at first, as this will allow the remainder of the wine in the bottle to breathe. White wine should have an average serving of three ounces, spirits one ounce and red wine four or five ounces. Serving smaller servings will help the wine last longer and will allow guests to savour it over a greater length of time.

Temperature Guidelines: Normally a bottle of wine may take up to three hours before it is appropriately chilled in the refrigerator. Serving the wine at the correct temperature may be a difference of whether the wine will be ideal to drink for maximum aroma and taste, and may make or break a charming dinner experience for you and your guests. A great way to chill your wine to perfection fast and easily is to place your bottle into a bucket filled with ice and a sprinkling of salt. Push the wine into the depths of the ice to quickly chill the bottle. The more expensive the wine the warmer it can be served. White wines especially the dry sorts are best served at lower temperatures however. And, lastly heavy wines are best served at the room temperature.

Wine and Chocolate

2007-04-19T23:33:00.000-05:00

The perfect pair? The lights are down and the fire is lit. The mood is set. You even have that special treat ready that makes this night romantic:chocolate fondue. But what to drink? Champagne? No. Not to mention how outdated that seems, the bubbles go straight to your head. You scan through your wine collection and pick out one of your favorites. The chocolate is perfect with it's rich and creamy taste and velvety smooth texture. You reach for your wine galss and take a sip. Your mouth dries out instantly. It's almost insulting to the chocolate and wine to have paired them so badly. What otherwise would've been a very good Merlot, now tastes like a you've been sucking on a rubber band.

This has been the question of chocolate lovers for quite some time now. What wine goes well with chocolate? Well acording to Plump Jack's Wine retail store in San Francisco, CA, any Port or Dessert Wine would be the best. They suggest a Banyuls, French Port, Domaine De La Rectorie which they sell by the 1/2 bottle. This port is good with just about any kind of chocolate. It can be consumed with Chocolate Decadence Cake or M&M's. Another good wine is a Bonny Dune Framboise. This pairs very well with chocolate because of it's raspberry flavoring.

Of course these wines may not be available in your area. So the next to best thing to do is to look for any kind of dessert wine or port with fruity flavors with high residule sugar. But what if you don't like the taste of sweet wines? There is always an alternative...

Cabernets are the perfect alternative to dessert wines and ports. Cabernets pair well with chocolate because they already have a hint of cocoa in them including blackberries and spice. Please steer free of the Cabernets that have a lot of oak flavor in them. The oak tends to interfere with the sweetness of the chocolate and thus makes for a bad combination.

The science of pairing wine and food together is that there is no science. It's all subjective and it depends on individual taste. Yet there are those who have already gone through the trouble of doing most of the research.

Alcohol Content in Wine

2007-04-19T14:33:00.001-05:00

Almost a year ago, I took on the topic of alcohol in wine, observing that wine, as an "adult beverage," indisputably contains alcohol, noting that this can be both a blessing and a curse. Moderate consumption is harmless, even beneficial for most of us, while excess is a bad idea. Period.

But one thing's certain: Wine without alcohol isn't wine, and for me at least, based on the dismal quality of the small niche of commercial non-alcoholic wine, I would rather turn to fruit juices, coffee or tea or sparkling water when mood or circumstances suggest avoiding alcohol.

Today, let's take a look at a related issue. In an E-mail note, a Texas reader says, "Not that I am against alcohol in reasonable doses, but a high-alcohol wine tends - to my palate at least - to overwhelm, to detract from whatever subtle qualities it may otherwise possess. Am I wrong in suspecting that there is an emerging pattern of alcohol creep, notably in reds?"

I think he's right. While the trend isn't universal, many wines are creeping upward in alcohol content. As recently as the 1980s, it was unusual to see a red wine much over 13 percent alcohol, with whites lagging a percentage point or so behind. Within this range, a percentage point is considered insignificant enough that regulatory authorities in the U.S. permit a margin of error of 1.5 percent: A wine labeled 12.5 percent may actually contain anything from 11 to 14 percent.

But some wines nowadays seem to start at 14 percent and go up from there. This seems particularly true of Zinfandel, but I see it in other New World reds and even bigger Chardonnays; and the phenomenon is not entirely unknown in Europe, where the Gourt de Mautens Rasteau (to pick a random example) is made so big and strong that it could pass for a blockbuster Australian Shiraz.

In fairness, I don't believe this evolution is based on marketing or aimed at attracting customers by providing a wine with more "punch." Rather, it's an inescapable result of wine chemistry: If wine is vinified to dryness, then very ripe grapes, having a higher sugar content, will ferment until their alcohol content reaches a surprisingly high level. Riper fruit, higher alcohol: The equation is simple and direct.

The growth of the wine industry in wine regions with long growing seasons and rare frost has made ripe or even overripe fruit easy to attain in California and Australia; and modern vineyard technology also helps ensure ripening even in more moderate Old World climates.

Should this concern consumers? Maybe. If a high-alcohol wine is well made, a high level of fruit extract and body seems to offset the high alcohol. I've tasted Turley Zinfandels at 17 percent that simply did not taste like they contained that much alcohol, although no one would ever mistake them for a classic-style Bordeaux! But there's no dispute that high alcohol can manifest itself as an imbalance that detracts from the finesse and subtlety of the wine.

Decanting Wine

2007-04-19T14:27:00.001-05:00

Performing the ceremonial rituals of wine consumption can be a fascinating journey for the wine enabled. From pulling that evening’s perfectly aged bottle, to gently pouring the wine into your best crystal decanter, to swirling the wine in your Riedel Sommelier glassware; it is not just the wine itself that provides all the pleasure throughout an evening. For some, it is a performance done to satisfy a savant like desire. For others it is a fancy display applauded by one's friends. At the same time, it is usually done with a specific reason and purpose sometimes unknown to the casual observer.

Let’s take wine decanting for example. Regardless of the ritualistic reasons, do we really know why we should, or should not, decant a wine? This is a wine lover's dilemma only solved through years of sommelier training and practical experience. Think I'm lying? Well, you are right, I am lying. With some simple explanations most anyone who has enjoyed a little wine from time to time can easily learn the value of decanting a wine, and why they are doing it, or why they should not do it.

There are a few differing opinions on the matter, but most agree that the reasons for decanting a wine can change based on the wine being decanted. If it’s an older wine, the usual text book answer of what wine decanting does suits us just fine. It would say that decanting is used to remove wine from the bottle in such a way that the sediment is not disturbed and remains at the bottom of the bottle. This is desirable because sediment has a bitter flavor that should not be mixed in the glass with the wine you are drinking. In my opinion it is acceptable if the wine is a little bit cloudy due to the sediment getting mixed up a touch, but the larger particles will certainly be noticeable and will detract from the taster’s experience of the wine. This is especially true with wines that are not fined and filtered. This essentially means there are more particles in a wine that will end up settling down to the bottom, so decanting this type of wine is especially useful.

Others would say decanting is most often used to aerate a wine, or to let a wine breathe. Through decanting, a large surface area of wine gets exposed to oxygen. This will help smooth out the rough tannins in a younger wine and bring the darker fruits out into the bouquet and palate. This is usually done for younger wines that haven’t developed to their full potential yet.

I believe both reasons are valid, and will decant my wines for both of these reasons. Even the older wines benefit from breathing a bit, though it might not take as long for a wine to fully come around if it is older. Sometimes just five or ten minutes in a decanter is enough for aged wines. Younger wines however can sometimes benefit with an hour or more in the decanter. It is arguable, but not unheard of, for a wine becoming even better the next day after 12 or more hours, though usually it will have turned to vinegar by then. I personally do not experiment like this, unless it is by mistake. If I decant a wine but can not finish it and want to save it for the next day, I will use some type of system that cuts the wine off from any more contact with oxygen. It’s difficult to stop the aeration process completely however, so drink up within a few days at most.

Decanting will usually not harm a wine, but as I started to mention, there are exceptions. It sometimes can be disastrous at times if you aren't prudent about your drinking window once the wine is opened or if a "splash decant" is performed on an older wine. These older vintages that have had a lot of time to age can be very delicate and susceptible to any harsh treatment. It is said that doing a "splash decant" on a particularly old wine can harm its structure and break apart the complex flavor chains that get created with time as a wine ages. One of the main reasons for aging is the creation of these complex flavor chains, so destroying them certainly isn’t a good result of decanting.

Further, if an older wine is gently decanted, it sometimes can not stand too much oxygen for any length of time before starting to break down into a more vinegar like drink. The fruits will disappear and it will seemingly taste thin and acidic. Leaving a delicate wine like this in the bottle will help prevent too much exposure to oxygen.

If you are new to wine, get out there, buy a decanter that catches your eye, and get decanting. Leave a comment if you have any questions. I'd be happy to answer them for you if I can. If I can't, the members of VinoCellar.com will be more than happy to give it a shot in the wine forums.

If you are already a seasoned decanting specialist, leave a comment about why you decant your wine. I’d love to hear your opinion.

Napa Valley Wine

2007-04-19T14:19:00.000-05:00

Napa Valley is widely considered one of the top wine regions in California, and all of the United States with a history dating back to the nineteenth century. The Mediterranean climate and geography of the valley along with the surrounding hills and mountains are conducive to growing wine grapes. Several microclimates exist within the area due to various weather and geographical influences. The open southern end of the valley floor is cooler during the growing season due to the proximity of San Pablo Bay while the sheltered, closed northern end is often much warmer. The valley floor is flanked by the Mayacamas Mountain Range on the western and northern sides while the Vaca Mountain Range is on the eastern side. Several smaller valleys also exist within these two ranges. The floor of the main valley gradually rises from sea level at the southern end to 362 feet above sea level at the northern end in Calistoga at the foot of Mount St. Helena. The eastern side of the valley tends to be more arid due to the fact that winter storms tend to drop much more precipitation on the western mountains and hills. The soil in the southern end of the valley consists mainly of sediments deposited by earlier advances and retreats of San Pablo Bay while the soil at the northern end of the valley contains a large volume of volcanic lava and ash. Several of the small hills that emerge from the middle of the valley floor near Yountville are indicators of the region's volcanic past.

In 1861 Charles Krug established Napa Valley's first commercial winery in St. Helena. Captain Gustave Niebaum established Inglenook Winery in 1879 near the village of Rutherford. This was the first Bordeaux style winery in the USA. Inglenook wínes won gold medals at the 1889 World's Fair in Paris. By the end of the nineteenth century there were more than one hundred and forty wineries in the area. Of those original wineries, several still exist in the valley today including Beringer, Charles Krug, Chateau Montelena, Mayacamas, Markham Vineyards, and Schramsberg.

Prohibition and Phylloxera
Viticulture in Napa suffered a setback when Prohibition in the United States was enacted across the country in 1920. Furthering the damage was caused by an infestation of the phylloxera root louse which killed many of the vines throught the valley. These two events caused many wineries to shut down and stalled the growth of the wine industry in Napa County, California for years. Following the Second World War, the wine industry in Napa began to thrive again.

Modern Era
André Tchelistcheff is generally credited with ushering in the modern era of winemaking in California. Beaulieu Vineyards (BV) founder and owner Georges de Latour hired Tchelisticheff in 1938. He introduced several new techniques and procedures to the region, such as aging wine in small French Oak barrels, cold fermentation, vineyard frost prevention, and malolactic fermentation.

Brother Timothy; a member of the Christian Brothers was also very instrumental in the creation of the modern wine industry in Napa. After an earlier career as a teacher, he transferred to the order's Mont La Salle located on Mount Veeder in the Mayacamas Mountains east of Napa in 1935 to become the wine chemist for the order's expanding wine operations. The Christian Brothers had grown grapes and made sacramental wine in Benicia, California during Prohibition, but decided to branch out into commercial production of wine and brandy after Prohibition ended. The science teacher was a fast learner and soon established Christian Brothers as one of the leading brands in the state's budding wine industry; Brother Timothy's smiling face in advertisements and promotional materials became one of the most familiar images for wine consumers across the country.

In 1965, Napa Valley icon Robert Mondavi broke away from his family's Charles Krug estate to found his own winemaking operation. It was the first new large scale winery to be established in the valley since before prohibition. Following the establishment of the Mondavi estate, the number of wineries in the valley continued to grow rapidly, as did the region's reputation.

In 1976, the region got a boost from the Paris Wine Tasting of 1976, which featured a Napa Valley Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon besting several famous French labels in a blind tasting format. The results of this tasting cemented the region's reputation of its ability to produce world class wines.

A second outbreak of phylloxera was discovered in the valley in 1983 in a vineyard planted with AxR1 rootstock. Many growers seized upon this outbreak and used it as an opportunity to switch to varieties that were better suited to the climate and soil. By the late 1990s nearly 75% of the affected vineyards had been replanted with phylloxera resistant rootstock. The growers in the region are currently channeling their energy to battle the Glassy-winged sharpshooter; a non-native pest that carries Pierce's Disease.

Today Napa Valley features more than two hundred wineries and grows many different grape varieties including Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Merlot, Zinfandel, and other popular varietals. The Valley is visited by as many as five million people each year, making it the second most popular tourist destination in the state, second only to Disneyland.

Introduction to Italian Wine

2007-04-19T14:10:00.000-05:00

Each year, it is not uncommon for Italy to find itself at the top of a number of wine-related lists, not the least of which ranks it as the largest producer, exporter and consumer of wine in the world. This fact is all the more impressive when you consider that Italy is not a very large country - indeed it is less than three-quarters the size of California. Even considering the roughly 8 billion bottles of wine it produces each year, the country manages to stay true to wine styles that go back four thousand years. As a result, Italy not only has more local grape varieties than any other country, but it also has some of the most distinctive wines on Earth.

One of the major considerations with Italy's unique wine style is the wide range of diverse cultures that exist throughout its twenty wine regions. Each of these cultures has a robust sense of pride that translates directly into wine making. At best, understanding Italian wine is intimidating, at worst it seems all but impossible.

Like any journey of significance it's best to take it one step at a time. While Italian wine is both vastly complex and inconsistent, there are some concrete starting points.

First, let's take a look at the general qualities of Italian wine:

Italian wines tend to be high in acidity - This is because wine with a strong showing of acidity tends to pair better with food. No surprise then that the food oriented cultures of Italy have opted for wine that compliments their amazing dedication to cuisine! This means white wines tend to be crisp and red wines tend to be firm.

Subdued, earthy aromas - One of the overriding characteristics of Italian wine is the touch of the land that one can smell and taste in every bottle. The nose might have hints of mushrooms, soil, minerals or grass. These qualities are commonly referred to as an earthiness that prevents the wine from competing with food.

Medium Body - Though there are some excellent heavier wines in Italy (such as Barolo), the majority are more medium bodied in nature. Again, more suitable to the wide array of food dishes that perform better when not overwhelmed by a heaviness.

Distinctly Italian Grapes - While Italy does grow most of the grapes found throughout the world, it also has many, many local varieties that are only grown in their respective regions. Nebbiolo, for example, is the grape used to make Barolo and is only found in Piedmont and Lombardy. Because the Italian climate is perfect for grape growing, many varieties have evolved over thousands of years to respond specifically to one region. As such, it is extraordinarily difficult to try and transplant them to different countries.

Major Red Grapes
There are over twenty major types of red grape varieties in Italy, but we can start with what are arguably the most important three:

Sangiovese (san joe VAE sae) - Planted in plenty throughout the country, particularly in Tuscany and Umbria, this is the major grape of Chianti and the popular Super-Tuscan wines. Medium in body, the grape typically carries strong tannin, high acidity and flavors of herbs and cherries.

Nebbiolo(nehb be OH loh) - Specific to the Piedmont region, this grape makes two of Italy's most notorious wines: Barolo and Barbaresco. These wines are a shoe-in for anyone building a cellar because they age particularly well. The grape is full-bodied with high acidity and strong tannin, invoking flavors of strawberries, mushrooms, tar and truffles.

Barbera (bar BAE rah) - This grape runs neck and neck with Sangiovese as the most planted in the country. It is a lighter grape with little tannin and high acidity. The fruit flavors tend to be more pronounced than in other varieties and as such it is an excellent summer red and great on its own.

Important Italian Whites

Pinot Grigio(pee noh GREE joe) - The Italian version of Pinot Gris, this white grape has won widespread acclaim all over the world. Though not as rich as its French counter-part, it carries flavors of peach with a high-acid, minerally quality.

Trebbiano (trehb bee AH noh) - Though undeniably common in Italy, it has also suffered from casual growing habits. It is primarily known for producing inexpensive whites that are crisp and bland. It is a wine that at best pairs well with food, particularly shell-fish, and rarely can be enjoyed on its own.

Tocai Friulano (toh KYE free oo LAH no) - Fans of Pinot Grigio tend to be pleasantly surprised by this grape. With characteristic Italian crispness and acidity, it can also carry rich and full textures that are more complex than is typical for whites. It grows primarily in the Friuli region.

Verdicchio and Vernaccia - These grapes have some of the same body, crispness and acidity as Trebbino, but with a bit more spunk. Richer flavors and aromas including hints of lemon and sea air are common. They are typically un-oaked.

One could spend a lifetime learning all there is to know about the dozens of grape varieties grown in Italy, particularly when you explore how they are best paired with foods from their respective regions. Further articles will explore some of the rules governing wine production in Italy, including how to sift your way through wine labels, but having a familiarity with the major grapes listed above will form a firm foundation for discovering the distinctive personalities of Italian wine!

The best pizza/wine match

2007-04-19T14:05:00.000-05:00

"Pizza wine" and wine for pizza aren't necessarily one and the same.

A "pizza wine" is shop talk for easy-sipping plonk of no particular distinction. It's relatively cheap, tastes good and works well with casual foods and informal settings.

It's a wine "you wouldn't feel guilty opening on a Tuesday night," said Mike Baker, manager of Wine Discount Center in Chicago. advertisement

Wine for pizza can be deliciously different.

Though it should be affordable enough to down a glass while sprawled on the couch, the wine also should be something to remember even after stuffing the pizza box into the garbage can. Choosing such a wine can take some thought, but that's probably appropriate given the food you're pairing it with is pizza.

"This is Chicago, after all; we take our pizza seriously," said Ray Denton, wine manager at Binny's Ivanhoe Castle in Chicago.

Pairing wine with Chicago-style deep-dish pizza can be a challenge. Consider the tomato sauce, gutsy toppings, the high collar of crust and a thick blanket of cheese.

Perhaps that is why Todd Hess, wine director for Sam's Wines & Spirits in Chicago, said he would drink beer with pizza, specifically "an ice cold Pilsner Urquell" from the Czech Republic.

"The tomato is the difficult thing," he said. "The tomato sauce has a lot of acidity and sugar, which is why beer works so well. A wine has to have reasonably low acidity and lots of fruit. It also has to be heard over the milky proteins of the cheese."

When asked to name wines that go well with pizza, a number of Chicago-area wine merchants didn't blink or cock an eyebrow in derision. Indeed, they treated the question as though weighing which wine would work best with foie gras.

A wine from Italy came to mind first for most. Perhaps the adage "Italian wine for Italian foods" was at work here. But the merchants diverged on specific recommendations.

For example, Mike Maracich, co-owner of The Twisted Vine in Orland Park, suggested a "nice light Chianti" that would help cut the tomato sauce.

Hess said a Chianti is "not bad," but worried the Tuscan wine's "acidity tends to be made more shrill by the tomato sauce." For him, reds from the southern Italian region of Apulia, the "heel" of Italy's boot, work better. They are "ripe, spicy, fruity and delicious," he said.

Other Italians to consider include inexpensive barberas, rosso di Montalcino from southern Tuscany or a dolcetto d'Alba from Italy's Piedmont region.

Brenda Fotopoulos, co-owner of Randolph Wine Cellars in Chicago, touts a Sicilian wine, Val Cerasa Etna Rosso, because the "earthier tones" work well with sausage, mushrooms and other toppings.

Outside of Italy, wine merchants point to hearty, assertive reds, including shiraz from Australia and California zinfandel.

"A zinfandel would be my first choice," Denton said. "Rancho Zabaco Dancing Bull is a terrific value. It's not super big, but it's got some fruit and some pepper and some spice."

Non-traditional pizzas - "white" pies or those with unusual toppings - can call for more unusual choices. Champagnes work well off the salty spark of white pies, Denton said. Baker recommends an Alsatian pinot gris with a veggie pizza or an Austrian gruner veltliner with an artichoke or asparagus pizza. An Italian chardonnay "not quite as buttery or oaky" as a Californian chard works for Maracich of The Twisted Vine. Or, choose an Italian Gavi, a white wine made with the cortese grape, he said.

How much to pay for wine with pizza? Baker suggests looking for bargains in lesser-known wine regions of Italy.

"The further south you go, the more money you save," he said.

Denton follows a simple rule: "You shouldn't pay more than what the pizza costs. So, if you're eating a Tombstone (brand of frozen pizza) you're looking at $10 or under."

The top five wines
We conducted an informal tasting of nine wines recommended by area wine merchants for drinking with pizza. Our "palate cleansers" were two deep-dish pies, one sausage and one spinach, from Bella Bacino's in Chicago. Some of the wines seemed to pair more naturally with the pizza than others.

Ratings key: excellent, very good, good, fair

• 2001 Rancho Zabaco Dancing Bull Zinfandel ($7). With its fruit backed up by some tannic muscle, this sassy California wine was our favorite. And the cheapest. Though robust, the fruity zin worked well with the pizza's sauce and the cheese. Very good.

• 1999 Manzone Dolcetto d'Alba La Serra ($6). Bright, with almost cherry-like aroma (reminding us of cough syrup), this import from Italy's Piedmont region offered an intensity and a fruity acidity that held up well. Very good.

• 2001 Falesco Vitiano ($9). Sometimes, it's the little things that count. With this wine it was the tiniest spark of acid that seemed to work so well with the salt in the pizza. This Umbrian blend of sangiovese, cabernet sauvignon and merlot grapes was dry but with a nice hit of fruit. Good.

• 2001 Cataldi Madonna Montepulciano d'Abruzzo ($13). This wine from Italy's Abruzzo region matched the pizza well, perhaps too well. One taster felt the wine "disappeared" behind the fennel of the sausage, while another complained of a bland flavor. Good.

• 1999 Val Cerasa Etna Rosso ($10). A smoldering Mt. Etna adorns the label of this Sicilian red, whose fiery color in the glass was more vivid than any of the others. Too bad the flavor didn't have a personality to match. Tasters liked this wine for its balance of fruit and tannin, they just wanted more pizazz. Good.

• 2001 Torre Quarto Puglia Rosso ($10). Tannins are astringent elements in the wine that can, when judiciously exercised, whip a wine into shape. For some tasters, this southern Italian offered a good flavor for pairing with pizza, but others found the wine's astringency to be distracting. Good.

• 2002 Fattoria Laila Rosso Piceno ($12). A blend of montepulciano and sangiovese grapes, this wine from Italy's Marche region shows a bit too much restraint, although one taster said it was "perfect" with the spinach pizza. Another thought the fruit-forward wine held up well to the sausage. Good.

• 2001 Ridge Sonoma Station Zinfandel ($21). "Too elegant for pizza?" asked a taster, who found this zin to be "good, but not wow." This blend from 12 vineyards in Sonoma's Dry Creek, Russian River and Alexander Valleys lacked the desired punch and left a bruise from the price. Good.

• 2001 Icardi Barbera d'Asti Tabarin ($11). An intriguing note of tobacco on first taste of this Piedmontese wine was followed by a long astringent pull that seemed to fade away on the finish. "A bit off-putting," one taster noted. Fair.

Why Terroir is Essential To Wine Evaluation

2007-04-19T14:02:00.000-05:00

In the quest for great wine, we at Appellation America give credence to both varietal as well as regional character. And yet these factors seem to be completely ignored in many areas of wine evaluation. A key reason that we buy different wines, and not the same wine all the time, is for the sake of variety. If all wines tasted about the same, there would be no need to buy more than the one you like best.

Since most people who call themselves wine collectors buy wines which achieve high scores in a revered wine publication, the question of difference among wines is a key factor in how they decide what to buy. You may have seen the cartoon (drawn by artist Bob Johnson) in which the guy at the tasting bar says, “This wine is repulsive,” and the clerk tells him that the wine just got a 98 from a wine magazine. The guy replies, “I’ll take a case.”

So the fact that these people may not like a wine on first taste doesn’t necessarily mean that they begin to ignore the reviewer. It may mean that they begin to learn to like the style of wine he likes. And if the reviewers are ignoring certain valid styles of wine and rewarding only the narrow bandwidth of style they prefer, otherwise excellent wines are being ignored.

A problem here is that few people taste before they buy and those who do often have so little schooling in the breadth of wines available that they wouldn’t appreciate a “classic” wine from a region about which they know little.

Cases in point are everywhere. The first time wine lovers try a Chinon, a Brunello, or a Cahors, they might have raised eyebrows and asked rhetorically, “What’s this stuff?” No, they’re not easily understood, but all have their adherents.

Few people I know purchase a range of single bottles of just-released wine, taste them all with similar wines about which little is known, and then try to make a decision about which wine will justify an outlay of cash. This takes a lot of work, and the short-hand method is to simply to buy by the numbers.

But tasting the wine before buying is no guarantee of a good consumer decision, especially if the tasters all go by weight. To many people, the key factor in what wines to buy is power. For me, weight is one of the least important aspects of a fine wine, and one that ought to be considered only after other elements are present in the wine. Balance is critical for all wines, both those we’ll consume now and those intended to be aged.

But another crucial factor that adds value to a wine for us is regionality -- the ability of a wine to show graphically where it came from and what it says about its site. It is this very factor that appears to be completely missing in the glossy magazines and private newsletters that review wine based almost solely on weight.

I once was asked if I could tell from a smell and a taste where a particular wine came from. I said it was difficult, especially these days when wines are being made so similarly in terms of over-ripe components. Today, it’s hard to tell the difference between some Pinot Noir and Syrah.

To be sure, varietal character is certainly a more vital aspect of a wine’s personality, so I give added value to a wine that offers a distinctive regional character, especially if that character is one that is fairly identifiable, and typical of the area. Accordingly, if the major reviewers are giving high scores to Cabernet Sauvignons that smell like Syrah, it’s evident why they may be willing to completely ignore the even more subtle elements of regional character.

This is a topic that is hard to discuss since the elements which comprise terroir can be subtle. It certainly means less in the United States than it does in Europe or even Australia. The Aussies in particular demand and appreciate the regional characteristics in their own wines. They see the substantive differences between Shiraz from Coonawarra, Hunter and Barossa. They find, and truly understand, the different characteristics of Riesling from Clare, Eden, Coonawarra and Barossa. In some ways, it speaks to their sophistication; the fact that they can dissect wines and appreciate them on different levels.

Similarly, Bordeaux used to be a place of regional mandate in a wine. A St.-Estephe was harder than a Margaux, and you just accepted that fact, and reveled in the mystery and the difference. As scores became more and more the dominant means of “describing” a wine, the need to see terroir issues as essential in the appreciation of a wine declined. Now some Volnay producers aim to make a wine that has the weight of Echezeaux.

In California, the distinction between a Russian River Valley Pinot Noir and one from Santa Lucia Highlands has been one of the least looked-at issues, especially when one wine gets a 92 and the other an 87, making the former wine “better” than the latter. Yet if one were to pour the two wines blind for various groups of qualified wine judges under differing criteria, look at how the results could be skewed.

Group One is told only that the two wines scored 92 and 87. In evaluating the wines, the wine with the greatest intensity would be identified as the 92, for that is (generally) how scores are achieved.

Group Two is told that the two wines represent different growing regions, and are not told which growing regions they are. In that case, the wine with the stronger pyrazine character (bell pepperish) scores lower, and thus the one with less of that component would be rated higher. Pyrazine taken out of context is not, in and of itself, a particularly inviting characteristic to most wine judges.

Group Three is served both wines and the tasters are told that one is from Russian River, the other from Santa Lucia Highlands, and that their evaluation ought to include the issue of varietal and regional character, which in each case is slightly different.

In this scenario, I suspect that the wines would be seen as about equal, not five points apart, since the elements that distinguish them from each other are a significant aspect of the criteria under which the judges are seeing and evaluating the wines.

Indeed, I see regionality as a vital aspect of the evaluation of any wine. Good judges should use regionality to justify a rating for each wine. But regionality is not automatically a part of most American wine judges’ psyche. Weight, richness, and “hedonistic” appreciation of a wine’s flavors seem far more the dominant aspects of most evaluations we see or read about.

True, we have a fallacy here. If judges are judging wines in a truly double-blind setting, then they cannot know the region from which each wine comes, and thus for them to rate a wine highly as typical of a particular region is risky. What if the wine doesn’t actually come from the region the judge assumes it did?

Yet the Australians have a perfect justification for awarding a gold medal to a Shiraz that seems like it’s from the Hunter, even though it turns out later to have been from the Barossa. They simply say that the wine was made “in the Hunter style.”

Does this translate to the United States? What if a Russian River Pinot Noir has a strong pyrazine-y aroma? If I am evaluating wines double-blind and I assume that such a wine is from the Central Coast, and I forgive it that component, and then the wine turns out to be not from the region I assumed, wouldn’t that be an incorrect evaluation?

Perhaps. But at least the concept of regionality played a role in the wine’s evaluative process. Such judgments can be enlightening because they give credit to wines that are distinctive. Maybe it was because the wine came from a unique plot of Russian River soil that is more Central Coast-like. And the reviewer could, in the description of the wine, say that it has this distinctiveness, which is one of the justifications for a higher-than-usual ranking.

Of course this requires that the reviewer factor regionality into his or her review of the wine, making terroir an issue in the final evaluation. And to this date, no one is speaking of the distinctive differences between Cabernet Sauvignons from Howell Mountain, Rutherford, and Spring Mountain, and how they differ from Cabs from Yountville, Santa Lucia Highlands, Stags Leap, and Chiles Valley.

Indeed, such a topic almost never comes up when wine lovers are discussing Napa Valley Cabernets! As wine gets riper and riper, we see the regional character less and less. These days, it’s a non-issue. If two invitees each bring a bottle of wine to a dinner party, the first matter under discussion is:

“This wine got a 94.” “Oh, really? Well, this one got a 96.”

And that is about all the wine lovers know about what they are drinking. What is sad is that wines with distinctive regional characteristics seem not to be accorded high scores. However, even sadder is that wines with no regional character seem to dominate the high-score lists.

Reading a French Wine Label

2007-04-19T13:53:00.000-05:00

Most French labels are models of clarity. The status of the wine will be obvious: look for the words 'Appellation Controlee", "Vin Delim-ite de Qualite Superieure", or "Vin de Pays", to establish region of origin and status. Table wines carry none of these terms, but must use the words "Vin de Table".

Each label includes the address of the person or firm bottling the wine. In the case of vins de table, this is sometimes a post code to avoid con-fusing the consumer by stating a name which is the same as that of an AOC. The first two digits of a French post code give the departement in which the wine was bottled - not made, note, but bottled. This can give a clue to the style of a table wine. Many negociants are based in Bordeaux (33 is Gironde), or the Loire (44 for the Pays Nantais, 49 for Angers and Saumur). A 21 code indi-cates the Cote-d'Or departement, with 71 for the Macon and Chalon dis-tricts and 69 for Beaujolais. Mer-chants in Chablis use the code 89.

It is risky to deduce too much from the code, but wines do appear that are made from young vines in AOC vineyards. These can only be called "Vin de Table", and if this is suspected (or heavily hinted by words like "Jeunes Vignes" on the label) a glance at the code will give a clue to where the wine comes from. It could, of course, have been trucked across France and merely bottled there. The risk is the buyers'.s

German Wine

2007-04-19T13:47:00.000-05:00

German wine is produced in many parts of Germany, and due to the northerly location have produced wines quite unlike any others in Europe, many of outstanding quality. Despite this it is still better known abroad for cheap, sweet, low-quality mass-produced wines such as Liebfraumilch.

The wines have historically been predominantly white, and the finest made from riesling. Many wines have been sweet and low in alcohol, light and unoaked. Historically many of the wines (other than late harvest wines) were probably dry (trocken), as techniques to stop fermentation did not exist. Recently much more German white wine is being made in the dry style again. Much of the wine sold in Germany is dry, especially in restaurants. However most exports are still of sweet wines, particularly to the traditional export markets such as Great Britain. Red wine has always been hard to produce in the German climate, and in the past was usually light coloured, closer to rosé or the red wines of Alsace. However recently there has been greatly increased demand and darker, richer red wines (often barrique aged) are produced from grapes such as Dornfelder and Spätburgunder, the German name for pinot noir.

Perhaps the most distinctive characteristic of German wines is the high level of acidity in them caused both by the lesser ripeness in a northerly climate, and by the selection of grapes such as riesling which retain acidity even at high ripeness levels.

Many wines in Germany are produced using biodynamic or organic farming methods. Chaptalization is allowed only up to the QbA level and all wines must be fermented dry. In order to balance the wine, unfermented grape juice, called Süssreserve, may be added after fermentation to balance the wine.

History
The Romans started cultivating vinifera vines in Germany in 100 BC. Later, the Church began to play an important role in Germany and selected the vineyard sites and experimented with different vines. At one point, the Church controlled most of the major vineyards in Germany. In the 1800s Napoleon took control of all the vineyards from the Church, including the best, divided and secularized them. Since then, the napoleonic inheritance laws in Germany broke up the parcels of vineyards further leading to cooperatives as no one has enough land to sell an own brand of wine.

Geography and Climate
The main wine-producing climate lies below the 50th parallel. Above this line the climate becomes less conducive to wine production, but there are still vineyards above this line.

Because of the northerly climate, there has been a search for suitable grape varieties (particularly frost resistant and early harvesting ones), and many crosses have been developed, such as Müller-Thurgau in the Geisenheim Grape Breeding Institute. Recently there has been an increase in plantings of riesling as local and international demand has been demanding high quality wines.

The wines are all produced around rivers, mainly the Rhine and its tributaries, often sheltered by mountains. The rivers have significant microclimate effects to moderate the temperature. The soil is slate to absorb the sun's heat and retain it overnight. The great sites are often extremely steep so they catch the most sunlight, but they are difficult to harvest mechanically. The slopes are also positioned facing the south or south-west to angle towards the sun. The vineyards are extremely small compared to new world vineyards. This makes the lists of wines produced long and complex, and many wines hard to obtain as production is so limited.

Grapes
German vineyards overlooking Lake Constance in Meersburg.Overall nearly 135 grape varieties may be ciltivated in Germany. 100 are released for white wine production and 35 for red wine production. According to the international image, Germany is still regarded to be a region for white wine production. Sine the 1980ies the demand for German red wine is constanly increasing. This resulted in a duplication of the vineyards assigned for the production of red wine. Nowadays nearly 35 % of the vineyards are cultivated with red grapes. Some of the red grapes are also used to produce Rosé.

Opening a Bottle of Champagne

2007-04-19T13:43:00.000-05:00

Champagne is not intended to be opened just for special toasts and important occasions. The bubbly refresher complements any meal from brunch to a midnight snack. It is a real treat just sipped by itself especially when relaxing with a few good friends. A good champagne can make any occasion memorable.

There's no special talent needed to open a bottle of champagne or sparkling wine without injuring your guests. The secret is chilling the champagne and turning the bottle instead of pulling the cork. Here's a simple lesson...

Make Sure the Champagne is Cold
Start off by chilling the bottle. The best serving temperature is around 45 Fahrenheit, that would be about 7 Celsius. If you put your hand on the bottle it should feel very cold not just cool.

A good method for making sure you get the right temperature is to fill your ice bucket, or any deep container if you don't have a special one for wines, and let the bottle sit for 15 to 20 minutes. Adding just a bit of water to the ice in the bucket will actually help cool down your bubbly. There's an explanation based on physics and heat transference, but all you really need to know is that it works.

It's important to have a chilled liquid. Champagne that is too warm will foam and spill when you uncork the bottle. You'll lose some of the bubbly and make a mess. Of course, it also tastes much better at the right temperature! You don't want to make it too cold though, or you'll lose some of the flavor of the wine.

Loosen the Wire Cage
Once you've gotten the bottle chilled to the right temperature, get a kitchen towel and dry off the bottle a bit so you can get a good grip. Hold on to the towel, you'll need it later! Take the foil off the top of the bottle so that the wire cage is totally free of foil. There are two schools of thought on dealing with the wire cage. Some prefer to loosen it and others go all the way and remove it.

The only danger to removing the wire protector entirely is that some bottles have enough pressure built up to have the cork pop when the cage is taken off. This shouldn't happen, but you may have shaken the bottle a bit too much while handling it...or if it was not stored in optimal conditions it may have built up a bit too much pressure while waiting to be opened. Leaving the wire cage in place will keep the cork in place until you're ready to remove it.

Use the Towel
Now that you've loosened the wire cage that surrounds the cork, it's time to use that towel you're holding. With the bottle upright, drape the towel over the top of the bottle. With the towel there, even if the cork does pop out, it will be caught in the towel... it also catches any champagne that spills -- if the uncorking ceremony is not perfect.

Turn the Champagne Bottle
Lay the thin part of the towel draped bottle in your hand and get a good grip on the cork. You might want to support the neck of the bottle and grip the cork with your palm and fingers and rest your thumb on the cork... just as insurance. You'll hold on tight to the cork until it is completely removed from the bottle of champagne.

Now, with your free hand get a good grip on the fat part of the bottle. Slowly turn the bottle while you hold onto the cork... don't give in to temptation and yank the cork when you feel it loosen. Just... gently... turn the bottle of sparkling wine or champagne until you hear a little "pop" -- this method doesn't make that loud noise that people associate with champagne on New Year's Eve. The noise comes from the carbon dioxide escaping. That's the gas that makes the bubbles. A loud pop means that you've let out too much of the gas - usually with a good bit of the champagne!

The soft pop you'll hear means that you've preserved the bubbles in your champagne and you're ready to reveal your handiwork. Like a magician, whisk the towel away, still holding the cork, and present your guests with the opened bottle. Be prepared for the accolades.

While this may be impressive, the next part is even better.

Pour the Champagne
This isn't beer and you don't want a good head on it. The secret is to pour just a bit, about an ounce or two fingers worth, of the sparkling wine into the glass. You'll want to use a tall champagne flute or tulip-shaped glass to get the best results. Wait for the initial foaming bubbles to subside, then pour again until about two-thirds of the glass is full. This method will avoid the mess of the foam spilling over the sides of the glass. Keep the bottle in the ice bucket whenever you aren't pouring.

Drink the Champagne
This part you can probably manage without instructions. Just one tip that the cellar masters at Moet share with people who tour the winery. Don't hold the glass by the bowl. Use the stem. It's natural to move your hand up and support the bottom of the bowl where it meets the stem. This warms the champagne quickly -- not a good thing!

You can serve the champagne with oysters and crackers or fruit. Light cheeses are a perfect match. My grandfather's favorite was cutting up strawberries and adding them to the champagne in the glass. It gives the champagne a fruitier taste and eating the strawberry pieces is heavenly. Of course, if you intend to make a punch, mimosas or a fruit concoction, a less expensive brand of champagne is fine. You may even want to use a sweeter sparkling wine such as an Asti Spumanti.

Champagne is made for you to enjoy. So open a bottle and have some fun!

Wine and Food Pairings

2007-03-23T11:06:00.000-05:00

It’s simpler than you think. Years ago, it was red wine with beef and perhaps a robust pasta and white wine with chicken and fish. This is fine to use as a general guideline but the main thing to remember is to drink what you like. Have said that, there are some good pairings I’ll write about in this article.
It’s simpler than you think. Years ago, it was red wine with beef and perhaps a robust pasta and white wine with chicken and fish. This is fine to use as a general guideline but the main thing to remember is to drink what you like. Have said that, there are some good pairings I’ll write about in this article.

It’s fun to pair wine with food to make a meal more enjoyable. The light-bodied wines go best with lighter foods and the heavier wines with heavier, very flavorful foods. The body of a wine is how powerful and weighty it feels in your mouth.

As you pair wine with beef, wild game, barbecued meats, and/or pastas in a heavy red sauce select a heavy-bodied, flavorful red wine. Consider these wines – a Syrah, Merlot or a Cabernet Sauvignon (my personal fave). If you’re serving light seafood dishes, poultry, ham and mildly flavored cheeses look to the lighter wines. For a red wine, these would be a Beaujolais, Burgundy or a Pinot Noir. If you prefer to serve a white wine, consider a Pinot Blanc, Chardonnay or a Sauvignon Blanc. Rose Wines also go well with the lighter fare.

And, sometimes you throw the rules out completely. I serve White Zinfandel during the cocktail hour of my dinner parties with no thought at all of whether it goes well with the appetizers I’m serving. It’s what many of my friends like so that’s good enough for me. Of course, there are also other reds and whites available at my “bar” should anyone bother to check. And, I usually serve both white and red wine at my dinner parties.

Pairing by regions also works well. A nice Chianti goes well with hearty Italian dishes. An Italian import, Bolla Soave, (my mother’s personal fave) goes nicely with lighter chicken dishes and salads.

For dessert you’ll want a sweet wine like Sherry, Port and Muscats. I don’t care much for dessert wines but I will often serve a sparkling, fruity wine with dessert. Or, even a very rich burgundy paired with very rich chocolate dishes. Muscats are very sweet and don’t pair well but both Sherries and Ports go well if the dessert is not sweeter than the wine. A well-known farmstead cheese maker and client of mine, pairs Port with many of his white cheddar cheeses – delicious. You’ll often find Port served with Stilton cheese. Sherry pairs nicely with nutty desserts also.

Here are a few guidelines about which wine goes well with what food dishes.

Steak – Merlot, Zinfandel, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon

BBQ Meats – Zinfandel, Syrah, Chianti

Salmon – Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Riesling, Chardonnay, Bolla Soave, Burgundy

Shellfish – Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay, Chablis, Bolla Soave

White Fish – Chardonnay, Beaujolais, Pinot Noir, Gewurztraiminer

Pasta in Red Sauce – Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Chianti, Burgundy Pinot Blanc

Keep in mind, these are only guidelines not rules. Enjoying the wine you like is the most important “rule” of all.

Become a Wine Aficionado

2007-03-23T11:05:00.002-05:00

Wine is known to be the "Fruits of the Gods". Wine is also a multi-million dollar import and export industry. Many cultures enjoy wine at an early age. There are festivals in different countries around the production of wine.

I recently have written two articles titled "Top Red Wines of 2006 on Any Budget" and "White Zinfandel or Merlot: How To Choose The Right Wine". Both articles received great reviews but readers needed something more. Those who have never tasted wine in their life did not want to have a bad experience, so I have written this guide on how to become a wine aficionado or at least a wine drinker.

Style of Wines
In my article "White Zinfandel or Merlot: How To Choose The Right Wine" I talk about the thirteen different types of wines. There are different types of sparkling wines, white wines, red wines, dessert wines and rose wines. Don't quote me on the exact number of wines because a vineyard always seems to be producing a new style each year.

Tasting Wines
There are several types of wine being produced around the world. Italy, France, United States, New Zealand, South Africa, and Chile are one of the many countries that are producing wines. Each vineyard produces a distinct tasting wine from its vineyard.

I remember my first experience with wine. I was sitting down to an Italian meal and decided to try my first glass of red wine. The style of wine that I chose was Chianti because I knew that Chianti wine is a famous Italian red wine. I gasped when I took my first sip because it was so rich and dry that it knocked my socks off. I don't want this to happen to you because I don't want you to turn away from the experience of wine with a good meal.

The best thing to do is to introduce your palette to the different types of wine. That's just a fancy way of saying your taste buds. If you normally drink soda with dinner, try a red wine, white wine or rose wine spritzer. A spritzer is a wine mixed with club soda. You will have the sweetness of the club soda along with the taste of the wine.

Another way to learn about wines is to go to a local wine tasting event. By simply going to the event, you will be able to taste that vineyards new production of wine. Most vineyards produce several types of wines, so you will be able to try them all for free. If you like a style of wine, take note of it and then try different vineyards with the same style.

For example my father in law loves Mirassou Vineyards. I personally like fruity wines, so after trying the Sauvignon Blanc, I might want to try something a little dryer and tannic like the Chardonnay.

In short just make an effort to try a new wine. Many stores, like A.G. Ferarri in the bay area have samples of their wines available daily. You could try their house wine and then move on from there.

Educate Yourself
There are many ways to learn about wine and the different tastes. The bay area has a television show and website called In Wine Country. The show and website showcases different vineyards.

Ask your friends and family about wine. I learned about wine from my aunts and I learned about beer from my uncles. Three of my aunts are not only wine drinkers but they served wine at their previous jobs. Ask around, you will never know who the wine expert in your family is.

Magazines are a great source of education about wines. The major wine magazines are Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast, Decanter, Food and Wine. There are many magazines that feature different types of wines. The magazines that I mentioned are known to give you information on award winning wines, new vineyards, food, and wine innovators of the world.

Forums are another way of learning about wine. Yahoo itself has over 400 groups about wine tasting alone. Lets not forget about the forums that vineyards and wineries have on their own websites. The education is endless if you do a little research.

Last but not least is my favorite way of experience wine and that's in my home. The Traveling Vineyard has consultants that will introduce you to wines right in your home. As a host, you will receive a free bottle of wine. Now who doesn't love a free bottle of wine?

All in all, I hope that this article has help in expanding your horizons in the world of wine. Just like any love, the love of wine is not for everyone but I hope you enjoy the time you spent experience the search.

Proper Wine Storage

2007-03-23T11:05:00.001-05:00

Even if you don't have a full wine cellar, and maybe only enjoy theoccasional glass or two, get the most out of your wine with properstorage. Since cost is not necessarily a determinant of quality, don'tforget to properly store those inexpensive bottles of wine as well. Youwill be rewarded with wine that will keep for years. Controlling thefollowing conditions will lead to proper storage.

Light. Wines are composed of many different chemical components. Some ofthese are affected by light, especially direct sunlight. Exposing yourwine bottle to sunlight for long periods of time can adversely affect thetaste, ruining the entire bottle. Even if your bottle is dark, that doesnot mean that light cannot penetrate through to the wine. Store yourbottles away from direct light.

Storage angle. You will often see many fancy wine storage cases for salewhich keep the bottle on its side. This is not just for looks or spacesaving solutions! Wine bottles should be stored at either a 45 degreeangle (cork down) or horizontally (on its side). The reason for this is tokeep the wine in constant contact with the cork. If you store your bottlesvertically, then the air space around the cork will cause it to shrink andallow air to come into the bottle.

Temperature. The ideal temperature for wine storage is between 50 and 55degrees Fahrenheit. Keeping the wine in this temperature range will allowit to age properly. Too cold and the wine will take too long to age, andmay become cloudy. Too hot and the wine will age too quickly and lose itsflavor. You also want the temperature to remain constant. Temperaturechanges can cause the cork to shrink or expand, which can let air into thebottle. This is why many wine cellars in are lower portions of homes,since the below ground temperature will remain more constant. There arealso specialized wine storage units that are temperature and humiditycontrolled.

Humidity. Like temperature, too much or too little humidity can affectyour wine. Humidity that is too low can cause the cork to dry out, whichcan then shrink and introduce air into your wine. If you are a winecollector interested in a wine's potential value, be aware that humiditythat is too high can cause your label to mold or peel. The label'scondition can be a big factor in the future resale value of your bottle. Too much humidity will not affect the wine itself. Recommended humidity levels are about 70 percent.

Cleanliness. Now if after reading the above tips, you get an idea to storeyour wine in a musty basement, think again. Cork is a very absorbentmaterial, so any musty or moldy odors can penetrate the cork and taintyour wine. Also, any type of food should be kept away from your bottles,especially anything with a strong odor, such as onions or cheese.

Once opened, your wine will stay good for a day or two - or up to threedays in the refrigerator. If you will not be finishing the bottle duringthis time, you will want to use a special wine stop which will pump outexcess air from the bottle.Setting an area up for your wine storage can be as simple or as complex asyou would like to make it. As long as you follow the tips for storage, youcan be sure that your wine will be the best it can be.

The New Diet for Wine Lovers - the Sonoma Diet

2007-03-23T11:02:00.000-05:00

The newest diet is called the sonoma diet and it is taking the world by storm. It was created by Dr. Connie Guttersen and it was born in California's wine country. This diet promises to be unique because no food categories are off limits. It emphasizes a balance of whole grains, protein, healthy fats and produce. When following it, you will be preparing easy to prepare meals that are gourmet-quality meals.

Dr. Guttersen also teaches nutrition at the world known Culinary Institute of America. The diet is explained in full detail in her new book, appropriately called "The Sonoma Diet". In the introduction to this book, Dr. Guttersen writes: "The Sonoma Diet is like no other. You will loose every ounce of excess weight that you need to. But at the same time, you will enjoy eating more than you ever have in your life. Meals are a celebration, not deprivation."

The book includes 300 recipes. All of the recipes are filled with what is called the 10 power house foods. These foods are the core of the diet and have been scientifically proven to help one stay healthy. The foods are as follows:

1. Extra Virgin Olive Oil. It has been proven to help keep the heart healthy.

2. Almonds. They have been proven to help suppress one's appetite and help protect one from diabetes and cancer. These are incorporated into the recipes as well as a healthy snack. For a snack, a handful is suggested. For women that would amount to 12 to 15 almonds, and twenty for a man.

3. Bell Peppers.

4. Tomatoes.

5. Broccoli.

6. Spinach, which is high in folic acid.

7. Naturally sweet fruits such as strawberries. Strawberries are high in vitamin C.

8. Blueberries. Blueberries are suppose to be great for one's memory.

9. Grapes, which is found in wine.

10. Whole grains, (such as breads, cereals, and brown rice) Whole grains have been proven to be the key to weight loss.

The diet consists of what they call three waves. The first wave is the first 10 days of the diet. During this time, you are not allowed any unhealthy foods, especially sweets. Your body will get use to not eating these types of foods and you will begin to loose weight around your waistline. The foods you will eat during this time will consist of the following: lean meats, fish, beef, poultry, vegetables, and an a lot of whole grains such as brown rice. You are not allowed any fruit or wine during this time because your body will be learning to adjust without sugars. If you are 35 or more pounds overweight, during these ten days they say you will loose 5 to 7 pounds and if you only need to loose ten or so pounds you will loose about 2 pounds. Your average daily calorie intake will be 1200 calories per woman and 1500 per man.

Wave two is the next step and the most important step. During this step you will be losing the weight you need until you reach your ideal weight. You will be eating the same diet except now you can add a nightly glass of wine (preferably 6 ounces) and some dark chocolate. You can now also have unlimited fruits and vegetables. Your average calorie intake will be about 1500 per woman and 1800 per man. You will also loose on average 1and half pound per week.

Wave three is your goal period. This is the period where you have all ready gotten used to the lifestyle changes and the commitment. Hopefully, these changes will continue throughout your life.

With this diet there is no measuring. The book explains that you should eat your breakfasts off of a 7 inch plate and your lunches and dinners off an 9 inch plate. The book even goes on to explain how you should place your food onto the plates.

The book is sold throughout the country and even on Amazon. The cost is generally $24.99. You can even order it on line at their home website http://www.sonomadiet.com.

Is this the diet for you? Maybe, especially if you like wine and flavorful foods. But with any diet it takes dedication and commitment on your part. There is no easy way to loose weight, but this may be a tasty way.

A Free Dating Site for Wine Enthusiasts

2007-03-22T20:00:00.002-05:00

With membership growing in leaps and bounds, WineLoversMeet.com provides an innovative social networking environment for wine enthusiasts.

Anyone in the singles circuit knows how difficult it is to meet others who share the same common interests. With online dating being as vast as it is, niche dating sites have been making their way on the scene. "The concept of an online dating site specifically designed for wine enthusiasts adds a whole new dimension to the experience," says Frank Buonanotte, founder of WineLoversMeet.com. "On a first date, people usually try to determine if they have anything in common with the person they're with. Why not start off already knowing that you do?"

WineLoversMeet.com offers more than just online dating. There is also a tremendous amount of content relating to wine and wine events. Members have access to wine news, articles about wine, a wine forum, wine facts and information for beginners. It also has the feel of an online community with instant message capability and blogs.

You don't have to be a wine connoisseur to become a member. WineLoversMeet.com is a place for beginners and experts alike. For more information or to sign up for a free membership, go to www.WineLoversMeet.com.