Category: Guest Column

The Chardonnay grape can be traced back to at least the Middle Ages when it was cultivated by monks in what is today the Burgundy region of France. While Chardonnay continues to be produced throughout Burgundy as its primary white wine, today it is grown and available throughout much of the world’s wine growing regions, from the U.S. to Australia, Italy, Chile, South Africa and numerous other countries.

Chardonnay is diverse and its different styles are, like most wines, dependent in part on the growing climate, soils, and environmental factors (terrior.) In general, cool climates give more green apple and citrus notes, while warmer climates can impart more tropical fruit aspects. Then, of course, the winemaker can influence the resulting wine by what he or she chooses to do during the vinification process.

Cooler climate, crisp, clean, mineral-driven Chardonnay is usually produced by picking the grapes earlier when they have higher acidity, with fermentation in stainless steel tanks. There is very little, if any, use of oak barrels. This style usually results in lower alcohol levels of 12% to 13.5%.

Examples include:

• Burgundy: Chablis, Pouilly-Fuisse, Montagny.
• California: Jordan and Ramey (Russian River Valley) and Littorai (Santa Rita Hills)

Continue reading “WineLines: Chardonnay”

A colleague of mine once advised that, should I be the one ordering wine at a business dinner, I should always order Châteauneuf-du-Pape, because it is reliably good and everyone will be impressed that I could pronounce it.

At the time, I didn’t know the difference between red and white Zinfandel, so it was great advice. 

And it turns out to be a really interesting wine.  The name translates literally as “Pope’s new castle,” so named because the Catholic Papacy had moved to nearby Avignon, in southeastern France, in the 1400s.   The town of Châteauneuf-du-Pape is in the Rhône wine region and is known for its interesting terroir:  Vineyards are covered in large, round pebbles that absorb heat during the day and radiate it back to the vines at night.

The wine is also notable because its quality is regulated by local wine growers.  Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines are permitted to use a maximum of 13 grape varietals, but are mostly dominated by Grenache, often supported with Syrah.  A white version of the wine is also available, but in very limited quantities.

Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines are also noted for their distinct bottles, which can only be used by wineries that meet the local requirements.  Those bottles typically have a papal crest embossed onto the glass.

The wine itself is rich and bold, with notes of red fruits and earthy undertones reflecting the unusual terroir.  It also usually has a relatively high alcohol content.  Reasonably good bottles of the wine can be found in the $30-$50 price range.

Some wine snobs simply refer to it as “CDP” to avoid the matter of pronunciation. My advice is the same advice I received all those years ago:  Go for it, and enjoy.

Cheers!

-Submitted by Bill Good

(Image credit: Pixabay.com and Vinepair.com)

Jim wrote about Sauvignon Blanc last month, so I’m going to follow in the same vein. When you’re feeling adventurous (aren’t we all?) and want to try something different from the wine store for a summer day, here are some thoughts on white wines that are not Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, or Pinot Grigio. There are plenty of tasty bottles out there.

For starters, I suggest going to look for an Albarino. This is an ancient grape, long grown only in the North-West of Spain, Galicia, and adjacent areas of Portugal. Galicia is the source of a variety of excellent seafood, including fish, shrimps, and shellfish of all kinds. And Albarino pairs perfectly with seafood. It has stone fruit and citrus flavors, acidity, and minerality. Drink it young. Some is now grown outside Galicia, but no other region has yet to rival the Spanish versions. Don’t overchill it; it tastes best served around 55° to 60° F. There’s a similar Portuguese grape, Alvarinho, which is just as good.

Continue reading “WineLines: Different White Wines”

Having originated in the Bordeaux and Loire regions of France and having been grown there since at least the 16^th century, Sauvignon Blanc today is cultivated and enjoyed throughout the world. It is a green-skinned grape that does best in cooler climates where nights are cool and days are sunny. While the exact number of white wine varietals is a subject of debate, many wine authorities would agree there are at least 600, with Sauvignon Blanc ranking as one of the most widely planted and produced. In fact, of all commercially planted grapes, both red and white, Sauvignon Blanc ranked 7^th or 8^th during recent years in terms of vineyard acres.

Sauvignon Blanc is a global palate-pleaser, offering a range of styles. It appears on almost all restaurant wine lists, is widely available at wine shops and is frequently offered as a wine choice at social and business functions, clubs and cocktail parties. Part of this likely has to do with price, as you can find a good bottle of Sauvignon Blanc priced from $15 to $25, all the way up to higher-priced offerings running over $60.  But in my opinion, the more important factor in the success and love of Sauvignon Blanc is its stylistic diversity. Here are just three examples.

Continue reading “WineLines: Sauvignon Blanc”

Hey, you’d be upset, too, if you were sunning yourself on a nice California vine when off in the distance you saw a big black cloud of smoke, or worse – a wildfire — heading your way.

With increases in both frequency and severity of wildfires, California winemakers have at least three very big challenges to contend with.

First, they must figure out ways to mitigate the risk of fire and smoke damage to their grapes. It’s now becoming commonplace for wineries to install sprinklers, fire hydrants, and water storage areas on their property. Some have gone so far as buying sheep to eat the underbrush that contributes to fire spread; sheep manure also helps, as it turns out, to produce a more resilient soil.

Second, as a result of these – and other – added costs, winemaking has become more expensive. One Paso Robles winemaker reported that his property insurance costs have increased by more than 40% in the last five years, while the amount of coverage has declined by almost 80%. There are reasons why we pay $20 for a glass of good wine these days.

And third, winemakers have had to contend with the effects of smoke on their grapes. It turns out that smoke from wildfires contains lots of phenol compounds that can penetrate a grape’s skin and result in the wine having a “smoky” or even “ashtray” flavor.

In 2020, the worst year so far for fires in California vineyards, some winemakers simply gave up and threw out most or all of that year’s vintage. Others found other uses for their grapes – turned them into vinegar, for example, or distilled them into brandy, which was aged in oak barrels. And still other winemakers expanded their wine tasting efforts and learned, to their great surprise, that some customers really liked that ashtray taste.

Thankfully, there are efforts underway to better understand how smoke affects grapes and how to mitigate those effects. For starters, red wine is much more prone to developing that smoky taste because the skins of the grapes used for red wine are left on during the winemaking process. And there are new devices that can detect the presence of, and even remove, the phenol compounds most likely to disturb the wine’s natural flavors. 

For  now, however, perhaps the best we can do is come up with a better adjective for smoke-tainted wine than “ashtray.” 

Cheers!

-Submitted by Bill Good

(Image credit: Pixabay.com and Vinepair.com)

Finding fun quotations about wine is easy, like looking for hay in a haystack. Wineries have them on their notice boards. Cocktail napkins with wine witticisms abound. On a more serious note, many classic authors have also written about wine. Let’s start with William Shakespeare (“sack” corresponds to modern sherry):

• “Wine cheers the sad, revives the old, inspires the young and makes weariness forget his toil.” (Merry Wives of Windsor)
• “If I had a thousand sons, the first human principle I would teach them should be, to forswear thin potations and to addict themselves to sack.” (Henry IV)
• “Good company, good wine, good welcome, can make good people.” (Henry VIII)
• “A man cannot make him laugh – but that’s no marvel; he drinks no wine.” (Henry IV)
• “What three things does drink especially provoke? Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes; it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance.” (Macbeth)

Shakespeare was not alone in generating some great quotations about wine, and featuring characters who loved their wine. Here are quotes from some other great authors; it’s no accident that several are French, since the French may have had the most practice at drinking wine:

• “Ah, bouteille, ma vie, pourquoi  vous videz-vous?” (Moliere) Translated “Oh bottle, my life, why do you empty yourself?”
• “One should always be drunk. That’s all that matters .. But with what? With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you choose. But get drunk.” (Charles Baudelaire)
• “In vino, veritas.” (Pliny the Elder). Translation: “In wine, there is truth.”
• “La vie est trop court pour boire du mauvais vin.” (French proverb). Translation “Life is too short to drink bad wine.” The Wine Guys say “Amen”
• “Wine is bottled poetry.” (Robert Louis Stevenson)
• “Age is just a number. It’s totally irrelevant unless, of course, you happen to be a bottle of wine.” (Joan Collins)

Other famous people also needed to make their opinions on wine heard:

Continue reading “WineLines: Wine Quotations”