Before we really get started, I feel the need to share my latest revelation. The other night, I started to read a new book and thought it sounded somewhat familiar but not entirely. As I continued to read, I found it very enjoyable and intriguing. I read the entire book before realizing I’d just read it a couple months before.
The negative side of that is, I’ve come to realize my memory isn’t what it used to be—not even close. (What was I just going to say?) The positive side of this little episode is, I now realize how much money I can save by not shopping at Amazon anymore. All I need to do is read a book, put it away for about two weeks while I read another one, and start all over again on the first book.
I never had time to do much reading, other than professional stuff, before I retired, so it’s a joy to have this opportunity. And since I’m under orders from my cardiologist to exercise regularly, my personal carrot is to only let myself read while riding my recumbent bike. That way, I get my required exercise and get to find out who killed whom (or, with my Vince Flynn books, to see how terrorism really affects politics—fiction yes, but also probably quite real). It’s all right to finish your ride with a glass of cold Sauvignon Blanc…and you’ll be doing your homework.
I recently returned from a successful steelhead fishing trip in Oregon. But, as you’d expect, the vineyards and wineries didn’t escape my eye. You all know I’m the world’s greatest Pinot-phile (yeh, right!), so I’ll just observe that they all seem to think that, just because it says “Pinot Noir” on the label, it must be worth $40 or more. Sounds like our Russian River wineries. Just because the vines only produced 1.5 tons per acre, and only 1,000 cases were made, it has to be expensive—right? Back to my philosophy that wine price is related to availability, not necessarily quality.
I also noted something that will eventually come back and bite them in the butt: They’re producing three distinctly different styles of Pinot Noir. I found the fruity, cherry Pinot; the French Brett style; and one that’s relatively nondescript other than it’s light red wine. Unless Pinot drinkers are radically different from average wine consumers, this lack of consistency will eventually cost sales.
We should have learned that lesson with Sauvignon Blanc’s grassy versus fruity conflict, or a few years ago with Zinfandel’s high octane and low octane debate. The latter is still somewhat of a problem, but I think the 16 percent (or more) alcohol wines will give way to vodka cocktails very soon. Big wines—those that are high in alcohol, tannic, and so on—have a place in our wine cellar, but then we have to figure out when to drink them (certainly not with a meal, because they will become the meal). I don’t want to encourage consumption of European wines, but virtually all of them are less than 13 percent—frequently far less—because European wine is made to go with food.
Talk the talk
We all know wine people like to speak in their own language, and I recently ran across some interesting (and useful) terms. I won’t go through the entire list, but here are a few.
When a wine is called “fruity,” your choices are: “citrus”—grapefruit or lemon; “berry”—blackberry, strawberry, raspberry, black currant (frequently referred to as cassis) and cherry (red or black); and “tropical”—pineapple, lychee, melon and banana. There’s also the “dried fruit” side, which includes: strawberry jam, raisin, prune and fig. You might also find “spicy” characters, which include licorice (anise), black pepper, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. Moving away from fruit and spice, there are “floral” characters, like geranium, violets, rose and orange blossom.
There are lots more—both good and bad—but I’ll only toss out “herbaceous” or “vegetative,” which are generally considered a negative (but not always) and include cut green grass, bell pepper, eucalyptus and mint. I should also mention that, many times, all of these wonderful aromas are completely masked by oak. Over-oaking is one of the most consistent negative traits I find in wine. I’d prefer to gnaw on an oak 2×4 covered with butter than drink many “Reserve” Chardonnays. Every time I see “reserve” on a label, I’ve come to think it means the winery made enough money the previous year to buy some new oak barrels, and now it wants to show them off. Bring the saw and the glass, and we can have some.
Some of the other negative aromas can be broken into chemical, sulfur, petroleum and mold. The pungent chemicals include ethanol, acetic acid, sulfur dioxide, armpit and medicinal. As I’m sure you can imagine, none of these are pleasant. From the sulfur side, we have burnt match, cabbage, skunk, garlic, mercaptan, natural gas, hydrogen sulfide (aka rotten eggs), rubber and sweat. You can also get moldy smells, earthy smells and, again, above all, oak—French, American or other countries. The oak essence might have come from barrels, slats in the tank, chips or concentrate.
With all these possible aromas and smells, the fun part is the end product: Do you like it or don’t you? Don’t be a slave to your favorite wine writer, just drink it if you like it and throw it away if you don’t. I’ve said many times that, if everybody liked the same kind of wine, we’d only have Gallo with a red crusher, a white crusher and a tank in the middle to make Rosé.
While on the topic of wine aromas, it’s fun to have a blind wine tasting. After tasting each wine, have everyone write down their descriptor words. If you get more than two matches, I’d be surprised. Is it any wonder even professional judges seldom agree? I’ve been on panels where the vote for a single wine has been two golds, two bronzes and no award. Explain that one!
Enough is enough! Get out there and do your homework.
