April 11, 2009
South of the Cote Chalonnaise is the Maconnais, a large area of low-lying hills, woodlands, farmland and meadows. The Maconnais is principally a white wine region, producing oceans of basic, fairly cheap Bourgogne Blanc, much of it at cooperatives. A step above these utterly simple quaffing wines are the Maconnais best-known wines – Macon, Pouilly-Fuisse, and St Veran. There are no Grands Crus or Premiers Crus in the Maconnais.
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April 10, 2009
A few miles south of Cote d’Or is the Cote Chalonnaise. There are five main wine villages here: Mercurey, Bouzeron, Rully, Givry, and Montagny. In addition to wines from these villages, much basic Bourgogne is also produced here. There are no Grand Cru vineyards in the Cote Chalonnaise. There are, however, numerous Premiers Crus.
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April 10, 2009
For decades, zinfandel was the most widely planted red grape in California until cabernet sauvignon surpassed it in 1998. Now number two in acreage, zinfandel is a chameleon. It can be (and is) made into everything from white wine to sweet port-style wine. But the zinfandel knowledgeable wine drinkers rave about – true zinfandel – is mouthfilling dry red wine crammed with jammy blackberr, boysenberry, and plummy fruit. Made in this traditional style it can be thick, chewy, and notorious for (temprorarily) staining one’s teeth the color of cherry Kool-Aid.
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April 9, 2009
Everything about Spain seems hot – music, machismo, flamenco, religion, passion. Little suprise then that we imagine vines growing on the hot plains over which Don Quixote once rode. But Spain’s most famous red grape, tempranillo, is not the heavy-footed blockbuster one associates with hot climates. Tempranillo, fact, is usually a fairly refined red wine. When young, it bursts with cherries. After being aged – commonly for two years or more, usually in old American oak – tempranillo takes on an earthy sweet vanillin flavor.
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April 7, 2009
If any one grape has a physical effect on the mouth, it is nebbiolo. Massively structured and adamantly tannic when young, nebbiolo can simply close your palate down and cause your taste bugs to shrink away. There’s a reward for being patient with this young brute, however. With age, nebbiolo becomes a delicious combination of suppleness and power.
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April 7, 2009
The gamay grape is the source of the French wine Beaujolais (and Beaujolais Nouveau), oceans of which are washed down in Parisian bistros every year. Of all the important red grapes, gamay is utterly the simplest. Its blatant fruity flavor is a dead ringer for melted black cherry Jell-O. Because of its unihibited fresh fruitiness and lack of tannin, gamay is meant to be served slightly chilled.
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April 6, 2009
Barbera is the Eliza Doolittle of red grapes. For decades, it was a rather coarse, unsophisticated quaff. Then in the 1980s several winemakers in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy gave barbera the My Fair Lady treatment. By planting it in better sites, limiting the yield, and aging the wine, they discovered that barbera could be a mouthfilling, rich wine packed with just about every black fruit flabor imaginable: blackberry, black cherry, black raspberry, and black plum. The wine also has a vivacity, a vibrancy that comes from grapes’ high natural acidity.
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April 5, 2009
A Los Angeles restaurateur once described viognier this way: “If a good German riesling is like an ice skater (fast, racy, with a cutting edge), and chardonnay is like a middle-heavyweight boxer (punchy, solid, powerful), then viognier would have to be described as a female gymnast – beautiful and perfectly shaped, with muschle but superb agility and elegance.”
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April 4, 2009
Depending on where it is grown, pinot gris can taste strikingly different. In the Tre Venezie in Italy, pinot gris – pinot grigio – is often a simple, light, crisp wine; however, some small producers make versions that are so intense and dramatic, they might appear to come from an entirely different grape. Then there’s the fact that Italian pinot grigio bears no resemblence to the majestic, opulent, sometimes spicy pinot gris of Alsace, formerly known as tokay-pinot-gris. In Germany, pinot gris (called grauburgunder or rulander) can be something else again – broad, even Rubenesque (by German wine standards).
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April 3, 2009
Pinot blanc generally makes good, not great wines. Many California versions taste like modest versions of charonnay. They fit the bill precisely when you want a soft, easy-drinking white.
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