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Fine Print : All information in this article has been "adapted" (we spell checked!) without permission but with much gratitude from the Wine Spectator website; which in turn, excerpted it from James Laube's book "California Wine," (with some additions by James Molesworth) undoubtedly with permission and possibly more corporeal expressions of gratitude than ours. All italicized words are ours. CABERNET
SAUVIGNON The undisputed king of red wines (personally I like Pinot Noir better but who's asking me?), Cabernet is a remarkably steady and consistent performer. Bordeaux has used the grape since the 18th century (no, really!), always blending it with Cabernet Franc, Merlot and sometimes a soup on of Petite Verdot. The Bordeaux model is built around not only the desire to craft complex wines, but also the need to ensure that different grape varieties ripen at different intervals or to give a wine color, tannin or backbone. Elsewhere in the world (which we all know is nowhere as important as France, but we'll talk about it anyway) --and it is found almost everywhere in the world--Cabernet Sauvignon is as likely to be bottled on its own as in a blend. It mixes with Sangiovese in Tuscany, Syrah in Australia and Provence, and Merlot and Cabernet Franc in South Africa, but flies solo in some of Italy's super-Tuscans. In the United States, it's unlikely any region will surpass Napa Valley's high-quality Cabernets and Cabernet blends (surprise, surprise, have you checked out the weather there lately?). At its best, unblended Cabernet produces wines of great intensity and depth of flavor. Its classic flavors are currant, plum, black cherry and spice. It can also be marked by herb, olive, mint, tobacco, cedar and anise, and ripe, jammy notes (mmmm!). In warmer areas, it can be supple and elegant; in cooler areas, it can be marked by pronounced vegetal, bell pepper, oregano and tar flavors (a late ripener, it can't always be relied on in cool areas, which is why Germany, for example, has never succumbed to the lure). It can also be very tannic if that is a feature of the desired style. The best Cabernets start out dark purple-ruby in color, with firm acidity, a full body, great intensity, concentrated flavors and firm tannins. Cabernet has an affinity for oak and usually spends 15 to 30 months in new or used (but clean) French or American barrels, a process that, when properly executed imparts a woody, toasty cedar or vanilla flavor to the wine while slowly oxidizing it and softening the tannins. Microclimates (whatever those are) are a major factor in the weight and intensity of the Cabernets. Winemakers also influence the style as they can extract high levels of tannin and heavily oak their wines.
MERLOT Merlot is the red-wine success of the 1990s: its popularity has soared along with its acreage, and it seems wine lovers can't drink enough of it. It dominates Bordeaux (and THAT is quite a task, Bordeaux being French and all), except for the Médoc and Graves. Though it is mainly used for the Bordeaux blend, it can stand alone. In St.-Emilion and Pomerol, especially, it produces noteworthy wines, culminating in Château Pétrus. In Italy it's everywhere, though most of the Merlot is light, unremarkable stuff. But Ornellaia and Fattoria de Ama are strong exceptions to that rule. (we tried to find pronunciation guides for all the names, but apparently nobody finds this necessary) Despite its popularity, its quality ranges only from good to very good most of the time, though there are a few stellar producers found around the world. Several styles
have emerged: Merlot is relatively new in California, dating to the early 1970s, and is a difficult grape to grow, as it sets and ripens unevenly. Many critics believe Washington State has a slight quality edge with this wine. As a wine, Merlot's aging potential is fair to good. It may be softer with age (more than we can say about our own aging process, has anyone heard about osteoporosis?), but often the fruit flavors fade and the herbal flavors dominate.
PINOT NOIR
Pinot Noir, the great grape of Burgundy, is a touchy variety. The best
examples offer the classic black cherry, spice, raspberry and currant
flavors, and an aroma that can resemble wilted roses, along with earth,
tar, herb and cola notes (it smells a LOT, LOT better than that description).
It can also be rather ordinary, light, simple, herbal, vegetal and occasionally
weedy. It can even be downright funky, with pungent barnyard aromas. In fact, Pinot Noir is the most fickle of all grapes to grow: It reacts strongly to environmental changes such as heat and cold spells, and is notoriously fussy to work with once picked, since its thin skins are easily bruised and broken, setting the juice free. (if you haven't figured it out yet, we're talking about a high maintenance type relationship here) Even after fermentation, Pinot Noir can hide its weaknesses and strengths, making it a most difficult wine to evaluate out of barrel. In the bottle, too, it is often a chameleon, showing poorly one day, brilliantly the next (does this remind anyone of Joe?). The emphasis on cooler climates coincides with more rigorous clonal selection, eliminating those clones suited for sparkling wine, which have even thinner skins. These days there is also a greater understanding of and appreciation for different styles of Pinot Noir wine, even if there is less agreement about those styles--should it be rich, concentrated and loaded with flavor, or a wine of elegance, finesse and delicacy? Or can it, in classic Pinot Noir sense, be both? Even varietal character remains subject to debate. Pinot Noir can certainly be tannic, especially when it is fermented with some of its stems (that's interesting), a practice that many vintners around the world believe contributes to the wine's backbone and longevity. Pinot Noir can also be long-lived, but predicting with any precision which wines or vintages will age is often the ultimate challenge in forecasting. Pinot Noir is the classic grape of Burgundy and also of Champagne, where it is pressed immediately after picking (that makes sense, no point hanging out with a touchy grape too long) in order to yield white juice. It is just about the only red grown in Alsace. In California, it excelled in the late 1980s and early 1990s and seems poised for further progress. Once producers stopped vinifying it as if it were Cabernet, planted vineyards in cooler climates and paid closer attention to tonnage, quality increased substantially. It's fair to say that California and Oregon have a legitimate claim to producing world-class Pinot Noir.
SYRAH or
SHIRAZ Hermitage and Côte-Rôtie in France, Penfolds Grange in Australia--the epitome of Syrah is a majestic red that can age for half a century (and can be well worth the wait, especially if you've got some good wines to drink in the meanwhile). The grape seems to grow well in a number of areas and is capable of rendering rich, complex and distinctive wines, with pronounced pepper, spice, black cherry, tar (ask Joe about this tar thing, I thought only cigarettes and highways had tar, but Joe's the expert so maybe he'll have an answer), leather and roasted nut flavors, a smooth, supple texture and smooth tannins. In southern France it finds its way into various blends, as in Châteauneuf-du-Pape (cha-TOO-nee-oof DEW pappy) and Languedoc-Roussillon (lang-U-ED-ok ROU-silly-on). Known as Shiraz in Australia, it was long used for bread-and-butter blends, but an increasing number of high-quality bottlings are being made, especially from old vines in the Barossa Valley. In the United States, Syrah's rise in quality is most impressive. It appears to have the early-drinking (it goes well with breakfast foods, being quite partial to a sunny side up) appeal of Pinot Noir and Zinfandel and few of the eccentricities of Merlot, and may well prove far easier to grow and vinify (I like that word, don't you? vinify, like vilify, but not.) than any other red wines aside from Cabernet.
The origins of this tremendously versatile and popular grape are not known for certain, although it is thought to have come from Southern Italy as a cousin of Primitivo (of the Corleone family, you be careful what you say now). It is the most widely planted red grape in California (though Australia has also played around with the grape). Much of it is vinified into white Zinfandel, a blush-colored, slightly sweet wine. Real Zinfandel (but if you like the white kind, don't let anyone tell you what's real and what's not), the red wine, is the quintessential California wine. It has been used for blending with other grapes, including Cabernet Sauvignon and Petite Sirah (it's exactly what you think it is, related to the Syrah - they've even done DNA tests! - but not quite as major of an event). It has been made in a claret style, with berry and cherry flavors, mild tannins and pretty oak shadings. It has been made into a full-bodied, ultra ripe, intensely flavored and firmly tannic wine designed to age. And it has been made into late-harvest and Port-style wines that feature very ripe, raisiny flavors, alcohol above 15 percent and chewy tannins. Zinfandel's popularity among consumers fluctuates (yeah, they can be as moody as Pinot Noir). In the 1990s Zinfandel is enjoying another groundswell of popularity, as winemakers took renewed interest, focusing on higher-quality vineyards in areas well suited to Zinfandel. Styles aimed more for the mainstream and less for extremes, emphasizing the grape's zesty, spicy pepper, raspberry, cherry, wild berry and plum flavors, and its complex range of tar, earth and leather notes. Zinfandel lends itself to blending. Zinfandel
is a challenging grape to grow: its berry size varies significantly within
a bunch, which leads to uneven ripening. Because of that, Zinfandel often
needs to hang on the vine longer to ripen as many berries as possible.
Closer attention to viticulture (derived from Vito culture, see reference
to Corleone family above) and an appreciation for older vines, which
tend to produce smaller crops of uniformly higher quality, account for
better balanced wines. |
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