The Booklovers' Guide to Wine

by Patrick Alexander

  The Bonny Doon Winery also produces an interesting Grenache wine, Clos de Gilroy, also known as “The Proust Wine.” Gilroy is a town just south of Santa Cruz, which is known as the “Garlic Capital” of the world. The label of Clos de Gilroy features a picture of Marcel Proust and a reference to the famous opening sentence of his seven volume masterwork, In Search of Lost Time: “For a long time I would go to bed early.” The label on the bottle includes the line: “For a long time I would go to bed aioli,” meaning smelling of Gilroy’s oil and garlic sauce. This is not the only link between Proust and wine; Virginia Woolf once said of reading Proust, “the pleasure becomes physical—like sun and wine and grapes.”

  Paso Robles: In the past twenty years, Paso Robles wineries have grown from less than twenty to more than two hundred. Robert Parker believes that it is a wine-growing area of considerable potential, and its growing importance is reflected by the recent decision to sub-divide it into eleven AVA subregions. Known originally for its hearty Zinfandels, Paso Robles has also been long-recognized for its Bordeaux-style Cabernet Sauvignons. The most recent trend in the region is for GSM-style wines, with plantings of Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre, and Carignan, as well as Viognier and Rousanne. The emerging popularity of the region’s focus on Rhône wines led it to become the first site of the annual “Hospice du Rhône” conference on Rhône-style wine. Today, Paso Robles Wine Country is receiving attention for its unique Paso blends. These wines are unique to the area and include varietal blendings that do not follow the traditional rules of more conventional winemaking.

  Santa Barbara: Famous, of course, for its Pinot Noirs as immortalized by the 2004 movie Sideways, set in the Santa Maria Valley, Santa Barbara is also famous for its full-bodied and oaky Chardonnays, which can fetch the highest prices in the state. Like nearby Paso Robles, Santa Barbara is building a reputation for its Northern Rhône-style wines with its planting of Viognier and Syrah.

  Oregon

  Although the early pioneers planted grapes to make wine on the Oregon Trail as far back as 1847, because the state did not have the history of the Spanish Missions, winemaking was never as important as it was in California. With the arrival of Prohibition in 1920, whatever winemaking existed was wiped out for the next forty years.

  Just as the wine industry in California started to revive in the 1960s, so too people started opening wineries in Oregon and experimenting with quality wines at that same time. It soon became apparent that while the more southerly valleys of California had the perfect conditions to compete with Bordeaux, the more northerly valleys of Oregon had the cooler and wetter conditions to compete with Burgundy. Following California’s 1976 success in the Judgment of Paris, a bottle of 1975 South Block Reserve Pinot Noir from David Lett’s Eyrie Vineyards was entered into the Gault-Millau 1979 Wine Olympics and won top prize, being voted among the best Pinot Noirs in the world.

  Since the 1980s, Oregon, particularly the Willamette Valley, has been recognized as a world leader for Pinot Noir. Even the French acknowledge the quality of Oregon Pinot Noirs, being far more like the reds of Burgundy than the more alcoholic, fruit-forward Pinots from California.

  At forty-five degrees north, Oregon is on the same latitude as Lyon in southern Burgundy, and not only has Oregon’s Governor been officially welcomed in Burgundy, but one of Burgundy’s most respected négociants and winemakers, from the Joseph Drouhin family, has purchased land in the Willamette Valley where they produce elegant and refined Pinot Noirs that age gracefully. The close relationship between Oregon and Burgundy continues to expand, and Oregon is increasingly being recognized for its Chardonnay—Burgundy’s other wine—which again, is far less fruity and oaky than Californian Chardonnay.

  Washington

  Most people, especially those living in South Florida, think of Washington State as being in the far, distant north, far too cold to make wine. In fact, at forty-seven degrees north, Seattle is on the same latitude as Beaune in central Burgundy, and Washington, with 670 wineries, is second only to California in the production of American wine.

  Most of Washington’s wine is produced in the dry, almost desert-like conditions of the eastern part of the state, irrigated by the mighty Colombia River. Although visitors to Seattle may think that Washington is permanently raining, the eastern side of the Cascade Mountains is protected by the “rain-shadow,” and provides perfect conditions for growing vines. Although the state’s largest and best-known producer, Château Ste. Michelle, is located just an hour’s drive outside of Seattle, most of its grapes are actually grown further east and trucked back over the Cascades after harvesting. Walla Walla in southeast Washington, bordering on Oregon, produces some of the state’s best Cabernets, Merlots, and Syrahs—truly great wines at very reasonable prices. Château Ste. Michelle offers a full range of varietals, but its crowning glory is to be found in its whites; the Sémillons compare with the best from Bordeaux and the Rieslings with the best from Germany.

  As in California and Oregon, modern wine production began in the late 1960s, and by 1988, Château Ste. Michelle was named “Best American Winery.” The following year, five Washington wines made the Wine Spectator’s “Top 100 List”. But despite its successes and despite its large production, the wines of Washington are not so well-known outside the state. One of the reasons is that people think of Château Ste. Michelle as being a French or Californian wine, and the other reason is that people confuse the state with Washington, DC. “Which side of the Potomac are your vineyards?” they ask. Another possible reason that Washington remains unrecognized is because it does not have a signature wine which identifies it. Australia has Shiraz, Oregon and Burgundy have Pinot Noir, Germany has Riesling, New Zealand has Sauvignon Blanc—but Washington has no identifying varietal. If anything, Washington has focused on Merlots, but the 1990s craze for Merlots has long abated.

  Although it was UC Davis which first started serious research into winemaking, Oregon State University and Washington State University have both contributed to the continuing research, which has resulted in those states’ recent oenological successes.

  Chapter

  6

  VARIETALS

  “Having spent so much of my life with Shakespeare’s world, passions and ideas in my head and in my mouth, he feels like a friend — someone who just went out of the room to get another bottle of wine.” — Patrick Stewart

  Terroir refers to the soil, the climate, and the cultural traditions of the place where a wine is made—in the same way that varietal refers to the specific variety of grape used. These are both French expressions which represent two rival schools of thought concerning the most important influence on the quality of the wine. Terroir was discussed in the previous chapter.

  There are hundreds of different varieties of vine in the world, but it is only the Vitis vinifera, originally from the Middle East and Europe, which provides the hundreds of different grape varieties from which wine can be made. In this guide we examine just the most common—the top seventy out of the hundreds of different possible varietals. A few “international” varieties have become so popular that they are now grown everywhere in the world, from Europe to North America and New Zealand. Most other “regional” varieties remain identified with the geographic regions in which they originated.

  Over the past twenty or thirty years, there has been a remarkable change in the quality of grapes being cultivated around the world, as the high-yielding but low-quality grapes used for jug wine are being replaced with the lower yielding grapes used for high-quality wines. As recently as 1990, the most-cultivated grape in the world was Airen, used mainly for blending or distilling, but twenty years later, it had been replaced by Cabernet Sauvignon. Other jug wine grapes, like the Soviet Union’s Rkatsiteli, the Turkish Sultaniye, Carignan, Cinsaut, and even Trebbiano, have been replaced by Merlot, Chardonnay, Syrah, Tempranillo, and Pinot Noir.

  T
he world’s most planted varietals

  1990

  2010

  1. Airen

  1. Cabernet Sauvignon

  2. Garnacha tinta

  2. Merlot

  3. Rkatsiteli

  3. Airen

  4. Sultaniye

  4. Tempranillo

  5. Trebbiano Toscana

  5. Chardonnay

  6. Carignan

  6. Syrah

  7. Merlot

  7. Garnacha tinta

  8. Cabernet sauvignon

  8. Sauvignon blanc

  9. Monastrell

  9. Trebbiano Toscano

  10. Bobal

  10. Pinot noir

  Figure 8: World’s top varietals

  Alphabetical list of major varietals—some paired with great writers

  The following list of seventy of the world’s leading grape varieties for making wine is arranged alphabetically. Some of the better-known varietals have been paired with writers, mainly poets and novelists. The pairings are entirely personal and mostly whimsical, but serve, I hope, to catch those elusive qualities of a wine which are so difficult to capture with mere words. Where appropriate, I have put the name of the writer in parenthesis, following the name of the grape.

  Airen (Barbara Cartland): Airen was, until very recently, the world’s most planted grape. Like Ugni Blanc in France and Trebbiano in Italy, it produces vast quantities of undistinguished white wines which are used for blending with other, better varietals, or for distilling into industrial alcohol. Grown mainly in Spain, it is gradually being replaced with red varietals, especially Tempranillo.

  Dame Barbara Cartland, until her death at the age of ninety-nine in 2000, was one of the world’s most prolific writers. Despite the success and popularity of her 723 books, most of her writings, like Airen wines, are considered to be undistinguished.

  Agiorgtiko: This is the most-widely grown red varietal in Greece, and its thick-skinned berries are capable of a wide range of styles, from light to full-bodied reds. Grown most notably in the Northeastern Peloponnesian region of Nemea, the wines have succulent tannins, which enable the wines to age well in oak. Delicious with goat roasted over an open flame.

  Aglianico: Originally planted near Rome by the Ancient Greeks and whose name is a corruption of Hellenic in Latin, this was the grape used for the production of the legendary Falernian wines so treasured and celebrated by the Romans. Even today, in southern Italy, it is valued as a noble grape, like Sangiovese in Tuscany or Nebbiolo in Piedmont. Jancis Robinson, wine critic, regards this vine as, potentially, producing one of Italy’s finest wines.

  Albariño/Alvarinho (J.R.R. Tolkien): Albariño is a variety of white wine grape grown in Galicia (Northwest Spain) and across the border in Northern Portugal, where it is used to make varietal white wines and Vinho Verde. It is believed to have been brought to Iberia by German Cistercian monks during the twelfth century as they participated in the pilgrimage to St. Jacques de Compostela. Its name Alba-Riño means “the white [wine] from the Rhine,” and was probably a Riesling clone originating from the Alsace region of France. The highly floral aroma of the best Albariños recall the Gewurztraminer and Riesling grapes, also from Alsace.

  The literary pairing of Albariño with Tolkien is irresistible. Consider the image of hooded monks setting off from their walled monastery on the banks of the Rhine, and crossing the Black Forest to the land of the Franks. There would be perilous days crossing the bleak mountain passes of the Massif-Central before reaching the Spanish border near San Sebastien, and then the long, winding journey along the rocky shoreline of Asturias and Galicia. All the while, they would be carrying their precious offering, the root stock of their delicate vine to be planted, like the body of Saint James, at the end of the Camino de Santiago, near Cape Finistere, the end of the world.

  In The Hobbit as well as in The Lord of the Rings, there are several versions of Bilbo Baggins’ walking song:

  Roads go ever, ever on,

  Over rock and under tree,

  By caves where never sun has shone,

  By streams that never find the sea;

  Over snow by winter sown,

  And through the merry flowers of June,

  Over grass and over stone,

  And under mountains in the moon.

  Albariño wines are fresh and energetic, representing a call to adventure with a floral perfume suggesting the distant magic of wizards, elvish princesses, ancient runes, dragon’s gold, and faery lands forlorn.

  Alicante-Bouschet: A cross between Petit Bouschet and Grenache first cultivated by a French farmer called Henri Bouschet in 1866, when farmers in the Rhône valley were struggling to combat the mysterious arrival of Phylloxera. Because of its ease of growth, productivity, and very dark color, it soon became one of the most planted grapes throughout Southern France, and the twelfth most-planted in the world. It was during America’s Prohibition that the grape’s popularity really reached its peak, when California’s vineyards were ripped up and replanted with acres of Alicante-Bouschet. Its thick skin and extremely dark color meant the grapes could survive the bruising rail journey to New York, where the grapes were auctioned for “home winemakers.” The color of Alicante-Bouschet grape juice is so dark that it was claimed you could paint the side of a barn with just one coat. In Europe, this quality made it popular for blending with paler and weaker wines.

  Alicante D.O. is a wine region around the town of Alicante on Spain’s Mediterranean coast. The wines are traditionally made with Mourverdre and Grenache grapes.

  Aligoté: Aligoté is always referred to as Burgundy’s other white wine, Chardonnay’s ugly sister. Any Burgundy AOC wine is, by definition 100 percent Chardonnay, and therefore there is no need to mention the varietal on the label. However, if the wine contains Aligoté, this must be clearly stated. The advantage of Aligoté over Chardonnay is that it requires less sun, and thus can be planted lower in the valleys which receive less hours of sunlight. Usually in Burgundy, Aligoté is the cheap white wine which is mixed with blackcurrant liquor to make Kir, a late afternoon aperitif. The big surprise about Aligoté is that Maitre Aubert de Villaines, the famous vigneron and legendary owner of France’s greatest vineyard, the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, also has his own small vineyard next to his private residence in the village of Bouzeron, which he works himself. The vines that de Villaine grows and bottles are 100 percent Aligoté, with a yield of only 2.5 tons per acre (45 hl/ha). The wine is so good that it has its own appellation, Aligoté-Bouzeron AOC.

  Arneis: A crisp and aromatically floral white wine variety from Piedmont, which has been grown there since the fifteenth century. It is also sometimes known as the “white Barolo,” referring to the powerful red Nebbiolo wine from the region. Growing in international recognition, it is becoming more popular in US restaurants.

  Assyrtiko (Homer): Assyrtiko is a Greek white wine native to the fabulous and legendary wine-producing island of Santorini, whose volcanic and pumice soils produce a long-lasting, bone dry wine with a refreshing taste of lime and honeysuckle. Because of the harsh Mediterranean winds, the vines grow low to the ground in a circular protective basket shape. Finally, like other Greek wines, Assyrtiko is becoming increasingly recognized and available on the international marketplace.

  Although modern Assyrtiko vines are produced to make a dry style of wine, traditionally they were used to make a passito, or raisinated wine. This syrupy-sweet dessert wine is probably how Homer would have drunk it, diluted with water. In most of the ancient world, sweet white
wines were always the most valued, partly because they aged better and were higher in alcohol, but also because the ancient diet offered very few sources of sweetness. Homer, of course, is famous for writing of the “wine-dark sea,” which is puzzling, since most of the wine he would have drunk was white and the Aegean is famously blue. Scholars still argue over the meaning of the phrase, but one theory is that since the Ancient Greeks never drank their wine neat, the resin and water they diluted it with would have darkened the color.

  Barbera is a red Italian wine grape variety that is the third most-planted red grape variety in Italy (after Sangiovese and Montepulciano). Like the Nebiolo grape, it is mainly cultivated in Piedmont and Southern Lombardy, most famously around the towns of Asti, Alba, and Pavia. It produces good yields and is known for a deep color, low tannins, and high levels of acid (which is unusual for a warm climate red grape). Century-old vines which somehow survived the Phylloxera blight of the nineteenth century still exist in many regional vineyards, and allow for the production of long-aging, robust red wines with intense fruit and mild tannic content. The best-known appellation is the DOCG Barbera d’Asti. When young, the wines offer a very intense aroma of fresh red and blackberries. In the lightest versions, notes of cherries, raspberries, blueberries, and black cherries are in wines made of riper grapes. It used to be said that the wines of Barbera were “what you drank while waiting for the Barolo to be ready.” With a new generation of winemakers, this is no longer the case. The wines are now meticulously vinified; aged Barbera is called “Barbera Superiore.” Sometimes the wines are aged in French barrels, becoming “Barbera Barricato,” and intended for the international market.