I have been wanting to write about wine for some time. Wine enhances food and food enhances wine, so an interest in both is natural. I started writing and am getting a little carried away. In this entry I hope to introduce the topic of wine and lead you through some of the best types of wines produced in the US. In further installments we will talk about some of the wines of France, Italy, Germany and Australia and New Zealand.
Let’s Talk Wine
I, like most
Americans of my generation, did not grow up with wine. Wine was produced as early as 1630 in what is
now New Mexico and beginning around 1769, in California; however I think it is
fair to say, that up until the last thirty years or so, wine was not the drink
of choice in the US. This is in sharp
contrast to Europe, where wine has been a staple for hundreds or even thousands
of years.
Vitis
vinifera, the family of grapes best suited to wine making is a native of
Persia. The process of fermenting the
grapes was discovered accidently perhaps as many as 5000 years ago. The yeast spores needed to change the grape
sugar into alcohol were naturally present on the grape skins. Bunches of grapes picked one day and saved
for consumption the next didn’t taste the same and the euphoria they caused was
not available from the freshly picked grapes.
Nomadic people began to settle in places where they could grow grapes
and have the alcoholic euphoria whenever they wanted.
Over the
centuries, Europeans begin to develop what would become modern day techniques
for planting, cultivating, and pruning vines as well as the various methods and
steps used to produce wine. The wine
industry in the US was really spawned by immigrants who came to this country
from Europe. They brought the tried and
true methods of Europe with them and therefore avoided some of the painful
mistakes of their ancestors.
The
cultivating of vines, growing of grapes and the process of turning them into
wine is a complicated industry and one can spend a lifetime in pursuit of
knowledge regarding the industry. On top
of that, understanding the many types of wine produced and what influences the
way the wine tastes once it gets to your table is another layer of complexity,
and we haven’t even begun to talk about how wine influences the way food tastes
and vice versa. But alas, it is this
kind of talk that scares many people away from wine.
I began to
get seriously interested in wine in the early 1980’s when I began to travel to
Europe on business. Most of my trips
were in and out of Paris and I took every opportunity to sample the French
wines. I didn’t know much about them,
but I knew that I liked them a lot; particularly the Bordeaux’s and the White
Burgundy’s. We began to drink wine with
meals back at home in the US and discovered that there were some very elegant
wines being produced in the US as well.
Mostly they came from California.
I began to
subscribe to Wine Spectator and started buying and reading books on wine and
the process of producing it.
In 1998, we
moved to Sydney Australia and lived there a little over a year. We took in all we could of the Australian
wine culture. We learned to love the
unoaked Chardonnay, the Chardonnay/Semillon blends, and the sticky Australian
wines, like tawny port, but mostly the big bold Shiraz’s got our
attention.
After
retirement in 1999, we made a number of trips to Europe and each time tried to
do some tours of various wine regions. Over
the years we have visited and done tastings at a number of wineries in France
as well as in Italy. We also have done a
couple of trips with tastings and tours of many of the famous California
wineries.
While living
in South Carolina, the local branch of the University of South Carolina offered
a broad program of classes available to the large retired population in the
Hilton Head area. I took all of the wine
classes that they offered, including specific classes on Red Wines, White
Wines, Wines of Italy and Wines of Germany.
Much of what I am saying in this article can be directly attributed to
the notes and handouts that I got in those classes. They were really good short
courses and I learned a lot, but after roughly 35 years of being pretty
interested in wine, I have concluded that
with just a few basics you can be pretty proficient in selecting a wine
you might like. You will feel
comfortable going into the wine shop or ordering a bottle of wine in a
restaurant. But the main lesson with
wine is, drink what you enjoy!
If you will
indulge me, I will try to briefly give you some of the basics that I think will
help you to enjoy wine and make you confident when ordering. If you gain the confidence to order different
wines and try them you will expand what you like. I guarantee it!
There are
three basic types of wine. They are
table wine, sparkling wine and fortified wine.
Table
Wine
Table wines are
still wines or wines where all of the CO2 gas produced in the fermentation
process is allowed to escape. They can be red, white or rose’ and have alcohol
content of 7 to 14 percent. Dry table
wines are those where all of the sugar in the wine has been fermented into
alcohol. Sweet table wines still have
some of the residual sugar after fermentation.
Sparkling
Wine
Sparkling
wines are table wines that are carbonated.
Fortified
Wine
Fortified
wines have higher alcohol content than table wines, usually 17 to 22
percent. They include Ports, Sherries
and Madeira’s.
Next, let’s
talk about the various wine producing nations of the world and what kind of
wine they produce. By far, the largest
producers of wine are Italy, France, the United States, and Australia/ New
Zealand. Other producers of note in
Europe are Germany and Spain. South
Africa and Chile and Argentina are also major exporters of wine to the US. Virtually every country produces some kind of
wine, but if you know a little about the bigger ones you will be set.
Wines
produced in Europe are generally identified by appellation. That is, where the grapes were grown. For instance, in France a wine might be a Medoc. The Medoc is an area in Bordeaux. What you really need to know is that Bordeaux
wine is virtually all red wine produced by blending various combinations of
Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot grapes. Unfortunately,
if you want to drink a lot of wine from Europe, you will have to learn what the
various regions are in France, Italy and Germany and what the types of wine are
that come from those areas.
Wines
produced in the US and Australia and New Zealand are identified by
varietal. That is to say the type of
grape used to produce the wine. So these
wines will be called Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc,
etc. I think the US system is easier to
understand, but the Europeans have identified specific very small appellations
that repeatedly produce fine wines and they prefer to label in that way. The US is now divided into 230 appellations,
and they are noted on the bottle of wine, however, it isn’t necessary to try to
know all of these. After a while you
will learn that maybe you especially like Chardonnay from the Russian River
Appellation, but you don’t need to know much about the other 229
appellations.
Let’s talk
about the wines of the US first. They
are, I think, the easiest to understand and will be the easiest to find and
afford. Generally, the four most common wine grapes in
the world are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay and Riesling. Of these varieties, the first three are all
very common in the US. Riesling is grown
on a limited basis, but we will talk about that more when we get to Germany,
which is where the grape originated.
First let’s
talk about Cabernet Sauvignon. It
is the world’s most famous red wine grape.
It is considered one of the Noble wine grapes, along with the three
others mentioned above. This is because
all of these wines can be grown in various types of soil or climate conditions
and will still yield wines that have the same distinct characteristics. Cabernets from France, the US, Australia and
Chile will all resemble one another in some of their flavors and textures. In the US, Napa Valley has long been associated
with fine Cabernets.
Cabernet
Sauvignon : Characteristics
Appearance
Can be
purple and almost inky when young, turns slowly to ruby, then garnet and
finally mahogany as it ages in the bottle.
Colors, no matter the age, should be deep and opaque.
Aromas and
Flavors (these are characteristic and may vary by wine)
Blackberries Black Cherry Black Currant Cherry
Raspberry Black Pepper Clove Mint
Nutmeg Vanilla Cedar Coffee
Body
Wines can be
velvety and soft to harsh and tannic.
Tannins will mellow as the wine is aged and the wine will become full
and round. Tannins are compounds that
occur naturally in the skin, stems and seeds of grapes. The longer the juice of the grapes sits on
the skins and seeds in production, the more tannin will be in the wine. It is the tannins that make wine taste
dry. These tannins are antioxidants and
they are what allow red wines to be aged for long periods. California is one of the world’s best
producers of Cabernet Sauvignon, along with the Bordeaux region in France.
Merlot, another of the Noble grapes, is a
cousin of Cabernet Sauvignon. It was
originally introduced in Bordeaux in the early 1800’s as a blending wine to be
mixed with Cabernet. Merlot has gained
in popularity, however, as wine consumers have noted that wines made from the
merlot grape have many of the good characteristics of Cabernet, as they are
full, fruity and satisfying, without the harshness that tannins add to Cabernet
wines. Merlot is grown extensively in
California.
Merlot:
Characteristics
Appearance
Bright purple
color when young, although It soon turns to garnet and then brown. Merlot matures more quickly in the bottle
than Cabernet.
Aromas and
Flavors
Plum fruitcake currant cherry chocolate
Spice earthy leather tobacco pepper
Nutmeg cloves vanilla
Body
Can be
generous, subtle, and velvety. Less tannic
than Cabernet, fleshy. Round, smells
fruity and sweet without the edge of Cabernet, softer and warmer.
Chardonnay is another of the Noble grapes. Chardonnay is the canvas on which winemakers
can test various styles and techniques because it is flexible and
versatile. From cool climates, when it
is aged in stainless steel, it mirrors it’s terroir, from under lemony, nutty fruit. In warmer climates, it becomes richer, fuller
and even tropical. When aged in Oak
barrels (the characteristic California approach) it absorbs vanilla, spice and
cream flavors. Chardonnay is grown in
literally every wine growing area in the world, but California is known worldwide
and one of the finest producers of the variety.
Sauvignon
Blanc, also
sometimes called fume’ Blanc in California, is meant to be drunk young. It is sharp, tangy, and reminiscent of green
fruit or grass. It is a popular wine,
but I would go with the Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. It is the wine that put New Zealand on the
world wine map.
Pinot
Noir is capable of
producing great red wines, despite the fact that it is one of the most
difficult grapes to grow. It does better
in cooler climates. The vines need to be
pruned to yield concentrated flavors but too much pruning yields light colored
wines with weak flavor. Pinot Noir was
originally cultivated from wild vines, particularly around the Burgundy area in
France. About 70% of all wine planted in
Burgundy is Pinot Noir. In California,
experimentation has produced some good Pinot Noirs in Caneros, Monterey and the
Anderson Valley, but Oregon is the home of the finest Pinots in the US, with
some of the best coming from the Willamette Valley.
Pinot
Noir Characteristics
Appearance
Colors range
from light to deep and opaque, purple/red to garnet
Aromas and
Flavors
Spicy cloves plums leather wood smoke
Floral menthol cedar toasty coffee raisins
Tobacco black pepper violets truffles
Strawberry cherry
Body
Like its
appearance, the body of Pinots can range from lighter to some of the very
heaviest of red wines.
Let’s
summarize what we have said about wines from the US. It is this simple. Buy Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot from
California. They come in multiple price
points and produce some great wines.
Chardonnay from California is some of the finest in the world,
especially if you like the oaky, buttery taste that is the classic California
approach. If you like Pinot Noir and don’t
want to pay for the classic Burgundies from the Cote D’Or, buy Oregon Pinot
Noir, especially from the Willamette Valley.
Typically for other varietals, I go to the country that is famous for
their production. We will talk about
some of those wines in later installments when we discuss the wines of France, Italy, Germany, etc.
