The Booklovers' Guide to Wine

by Patrick Alexander

  Similarly, Fitzgerald, hailed as the “chronicler of the Jazz Age,” was expected to follow his first novel with a string of best-sellers, but proved a disappointment. His talents were dissipated in less successful novels and a string of short stories for magazines, and hack-work for Hollywood. However, with his glamorous and opulent lifestyle and productive literary output, he seemed full of promise at the time, and it is only with hindsight that we sense our disappointment both for the wine and the writer. Nonetheless, despite the mediocre bottles of Merlot, and the pages of mediocre writings, some masterpieces stand out. Château Petrus, a Merlot wine from Pomerol, is one of the greatest—if not the most expensive—wines on the market, while Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is still regarded as one of the greatest and most popular American novels ever written.

  Mission: The Mission grape is the name given to the European grape first introduced into the New World by the Spanish Conquistador Herman Cortez in 1524. Cortez insisted that in return for land, all Spanish settlers had to plant a vineyard with the original vines he had brought from Spain. Vineyards were planted in Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, and Chile, where the vine was named Pais and remained the most common wine varietal in Chile until the twenty-first Century. In Argentina and Bolivia, the same grape is known as Criolla Chica. When the Spanish moved north, into what is now California, they took these original vines with them, and planted vineyards at each of the twenty-one missions they founded along the Pacific coastline, from San Diego to San Francisco. Since nobody knew what else to call these grapes, they were called Mission grapes, and were used to make the first wine in North America.

  Since all the Spanish Atlantic Fleets sailed from Cadiz, the ships would have been provisioned locally with food, wine, and other supplies. The local vine in the Cadiz region is the Palomino grape from which Sherry is made. Recent DNA testing has shown that these original American grapes—whether known as “Pais,” “Criolla,” “Mission,” or “Spanish Black,”—just like the Listán Negro grapes of the Canary Islands, are all descendants of the Palomino grape of Cadiz, grown in vineyards first planted by the Phoenicians in AD 1100—more than three thousand years ago!

  The other vine that Cortez imported was Muscat of Alexandria, a white wine grape that is considered to be the oldest unmodified varietal in the world. These two grape varietals are the parental source of all South American grape varietals.

  In a detailed DNA analysis of all South American vines entitled “Determining the Spanish Origin of Representative Ancient American Grapevine Varieties” by professors Alejandra Milla Tapia, et al., they make the following conclusion:

  “Genotypic analysis of ancient grapevine accessions from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, and the United States reveals that most correspond to two ancient cultivars still cultivated in Spain: Muscat of Alexandria and Listán Prieto (or Palomino). The latter is grown throughout North and South America under different names such as País, Criolla Chica, Negra Peruana, Misión, and Mission. Most remaining ancient American cultivar genotypes analyzed correspond to hybrid progeny of Muscat of Alexandria, Palomino / Listán Prieto, or both. We conclude that these two cultivars are major founders of ancient American viticulture.”

  Montepulciano is a red Italian wine grape that is most noted for being the primary grape behind the Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG) wine Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, and the DOC wines Colline Teramane, Rosso Conero, and Rosso Piceno. It should not be confused with the similarly named Tuscan wine Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, which is made predominantly from Sangiovese grapes and is named for the village it is produced in, rather than for the grape it is made from.

  The grape is widely planted throughout central and southern Italy, most notably in Abruzzi, Latium, Marche, Molise, Umbria, and Apulia, and is a permitted variety in DOC wines produced in twenty of Italy’s ninety-five provinces. Montepulciano is rarely found in Northern Italy, because the grape has a tendency to ripen late and can be excessively “green” if harvested too early. When fully ripened, Montepulciano can produce deeply colored wines with moderate acidity and noticeable alcohol levels.

  Moschofilero: This pink-skinned grape from the high plateau of the Greek central Peloponnesian peninsula produces notably aromatic white and rose wines which are light, crisp, and low in alcohol. With fresh scents of limes and roses, this makes the perfect al fresco wine for summer picnics.

  Mourvèdre / Monastrell is a late-ripening red grape variety that is widely planted along the French and Spanish coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. It is used in the Rhône river valley of France, where it is typically blended with Syrah and Grenache in wines such as Côtes du Rhône and Châteauneuf du Pape. Mourvèdre performs well in warmer growing areas and well-drained (even stony) soils. Its wines are medium-bodied tannic wines high in alcohol, deeply colored and full of fruit (cherry and berries). Thanks to the tannins, it can improve for up to ten years when stored properly. In Australia and California, Mourvèdre is increasingly being blended with Grenache and Syrah in a Rhône-style blend known as GSM.

  Müller-Thurgau: Müller-Thurgau is an alternative but inferior grape to Riesling that growers have been using in Germany. Unlike the long ripening time of Riesling, this grape variety only requires one hundred days to ripen, can be planted on more sites, and is higher yielding. However, this grape has a more neutral flavor than Riesling and, as the main ingredient of Liebfraumilch, its reputation has taken a beating together with that particular wine. Germany’s most planted variety from the 1970s to the mid-1990s, it has been losing ground for a number of years to Sylvaner and Riesling. Dry Müller-Thurgau is usually labeled Rivaner. For a while, Müller-Thurgau was planted all over New Zealand with disastrous results. Any bottle of German wine which is not labeled “Riesling” is probably made from Müller-Thurgau.

  Muscadet/Melon is a white French wine. It is made at the western end of the Loire Valley, near the city of Nantes. More Muscadet is produced than any other Loire wine. It is made from the Melon de Bourgogne grape, often referred to simply as Melon. As a rule, in France, Appellation D’Origine Contrôlée wines are named either after their growing region or after their varietal (the latter in Alsace only). The name ”Muscadet” is, therefore, an exception. The name seems to refer to a characteristic of the wine produced by the melon grape varietal: vin qui a un goût musqué, wine with a musk-like taste. The sole varietal used to produce Muscadet, Melon de Bourgogne, was initially planted in the region sometime in or before the seventeenth century. It became dominant after a hard freeze in 1709 killed most of the region’s other vines. Dutch traders who were major players in the local wine trade encouraged the planting of this varietal, and distilled much of the wine produced into eau de vie, brandy, for sale in Northern Europe.

  Muscat/Moscato: The Muscat family includes many varieties of grapes that produce big crops and make wines that are generally sweet and very floral. The fact that Muscat wines are so hardy and hearty and able to survive in the driest and most difficult conditions, explains why they are considered to be the oldest grapes in the world. It is known as Moscato in Italy and Moscatel in Spain. It is the grape used to produce Asti Spumante, the sweet sparkling wine from Italy, as well as Tokaji, the sweet botrytized wine of Hungary. Grown mainly in Piedmont, it is used in the slightly sparkling (frizzante), semi-sweet Moscato d’Asti. Not to be confused with Moscato giallo and Moscato rosa, two Germanic varietals that are grown in Trentino Alto-Adige of northeastern Italy.

  Muscat of Alexandria is considered to be one of the oldest genetically unmodified vines still in existence, and along with Palomino, was one of the two grape varietals first brought from Spain by the Conquistadores. Muscat of Alexandria is still an important wine in South America, especially Bolivia and Argentina, where, along with Palomino, it is the parental vine of most American varietals such as Torrontés (see Mission).

  Musqué (C.K. Scott Moncrieff): Musqué is not an actual grape varietal; it is a Fre
nch term used to describe certain sub-varietals, or clones of grapes, which are highly aromatic. Just like the Muscat family of grapes, the Musqué wines are perfumed and decidedly floral. Chardonnay Musqué or Sauvignon Blanc Musqué are notably perfumed versions of the original grape. Gewürztraminer is perhaps the most well-known example of a Musqué varietal, being an aromatic clone of the Traminer grape originally found in the northern Italian region of Tyrol.

  Because it is not an actual varietal itself, merely a version of the original, then the literary pairing should be with a translator rather than the original writer. C.K. Scott Moncrief was a much-decorated soldier in the Great War, and was also an inter-war British intelligence agent as well as being a close friend of most of the literary figures of his time. It was Moncrieff who created the very first, and many argue, the very best, translation of Proust’s A la recherché du temps perdu. Joseph Conrad, among others, said that Moncrieff’s translation was even better than the original. Certainly, no translator would ever match the lush and honeyed silkiness of Moncrieff’s sweet and sumptuous prose.

  Nebbiolo (Baudelaire): Nebbiolo is an Italian red grape known for its success in the Piedmont region of Northwest Italy, where it is used to make Barbaresco and Barolo. These DOCG wines are noted for their powerful and full-bodied flavors, as well as their ability to age well. Although it is rightly regarded as the jewel in the crown of Piedmont, Nebbiolo is a difficult grape variety to cultivate, and is not considered a significant varietal in other growing areas.

  Nebbiolo is acclaimed as the most noble of Italy’s varieties. The name (meaning “little fog”) refers to the autumn fog that blankets most of Piedmont where Nebbiolo is chiefly grown, and where it achieves the most successful results. The wines are known for their elegance and power, with a bouquet of wild mushroom, truffle, roses, and tar. Traditionally produced Barolo can age for fifty years-plus, and is regarded by many wine enthusiasts as the greatest wine of Italy. Unfortunately, both Barbaresco and Barolo have been discovered by Robert Parker and, as usual, the curse of his blessing is that the prices of both wines have soared astronomically.

  Like the Nebbiolo grape, the French poet Charles Baudelaire was regarded as being difficult and demanding. Although his poems have been translated into other languages, they have never been adopted by any other culture—any more than the Nebbiolo grape has been much-planted outside of Piedmont. But despite their rough and unrefined appearance, both the wine and the poet have the ability to inspire, and even to make the heart sing with thoughts of divine love:

  My nectar falls in your fertility,

  A precious seed whose Sower is divine,

  So from our love is born rare poetry,

  Thrusting towards God the blossom on its vine!

  Nero d’Avola ( Lampedusa): Nero d’Avola is the preeminent wine of Sicily, and the name translates as “the black grape of Avola,” a town on the south coast. As the dark, purple color suggests, the wine is full-bodied and voluptuous, velvety in the mouth with a taste of plum and cherry. It ages extremely well and can be matured for a long time in the barrel. Long ignored as a “peasant” wine, it is finally receiving the international attention it deserves. Prince Don Fabrizio Salina, the hero of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s great novel, The Leopard, sadly observes the decline of the feudal aristocracy in the face of modern changes. As the revolutionary forces of Garibaldi advance, he reflects that, “I belong to an unlucky generation, astride between two worlds and ill-at-ease in both. And what is more, I am completely without illusions.” His sole consolation is to drink Nero d’Avola, a wine as dark, voluptuous, and intoxicating as his nephew’s beautiful fiancée, played by Claudia Cardinale in the movie version of the novel. The Prince and his fellow aristocrats are long “gone with the wind,” swept away from the modern world, but Nero d’Avola continues to fortify and delight.

  Pais: The traditional red grape of Chile. (See Mission.)

  Palomino: (Also known as Listán Prieto.) Palomino grapes are grown in the Jerez-triangle, close to the Southern Spanish city of Cadiz. This is a white wine grape used to produce Sherry. As a result of both varietal and terroir, Palamino grapes fermented in this specific location produce a unique yeast called “Flor,” which coats the surface of the wine and is responsible for the dry and delicate “fino” and “manzanillo” styles of Sherry. (See also Mission, and Fortified Wines.)

  Pedro Ximenez is the sweet grape of Andalucía in the subregion of Montilla-Moriles, further inland from Cadiz. It is used by itself or blended with the Palomino grape to produce the sweetest Sherry, and is labeled PX. Before fermentation, the grapes are often left to dry in the sun for a few days, thus raisinating them and concentrating the sugars.

  Petit Verdot: One of the six varietals traditionally blended to make classic Bordeaux, to which, in small amounts, it adds structure. Unfortunately, because it ripens very late in the season, often too late to be used, it is increasingly being left out of the blend.

  Picpoul /Piquepoul: This is an ancient vine found all over Languedoc, and can produce both red and white wines, though the white varietal is much more common. The name literally means “lip-stinger” because of its high acidity. It is mainly used for blending to add crispness, though it is often bottled unblended as the tart but lemony Picpoul de Pinet.

  Pinot Blanc/Pinot bianco grapes are used to produce light, dry, pleasant white wines. It is grown in Alsace (France), Northern California, Italy, Germany, and Austria. It has been grown in Burgundy and was sometimes mistaken for Chardonnay. The two varieties look very similar, and there are some similarities in the wines they make. Pinot Blanc is often referred to as “poor man’s Chardonnay.” These wines should be consumed young before the fruit flavors diminish. In Austria, the Pinot Blanc grape is known locally as Weissburgunder—white Burgundy, again like Chardonnay.

  Pinot Gris/Pinot Grigio: The grape variety is known as Pinot Grigio in Italy, Pinot Gris in France, and Rulander in Germany. In general, it produces wines of average quality—an everyday drinking wine and a popular alternative to the more full-bodied Chardonnays on the American market. By far the best Pinot Grigios come from Northeast Italy in the Venezia region, where the grapes are protected from harsh winter conditions by the Alps. It makes wines that are delightfully refreshing, well-balanced, and with subtle floral aromas. These inexpensive wines are perfect with antipasti.

  As a hugely mass-produced wine, it is often bland and mild, but in a good producers’ hands, the wine can prove more full-bodied and complex. The main problem with the grape is that to satisfy the commercial demand, the grapes are harvested too early every year, leading to bottles without character and reinforcing the wine’s reputation as Chardonnay’s bland and boring sister at the typical wine-and-cheese gathering.

  Pinot Noir (King Solomon & Pablo Neruda): Pinot Noir grapes are tightly clustered, dark purple, pine cone-shaped bunches of fruit, whose name probably refers to the French words for “pine” and “black.” Pinot Noir is one of the most difficult grapes to grow and make into fine wine. It is also one of the very best when it is done properly. It has very specific requirements for its growing conditions: it needs warm days and cool nights. If Pinot Noir receives too little heat in the growing season, its wines are thin and pale. If the growing season is too warm, the wines have an overripe, cooked flavor.

  The contrast between the classic wines of Bordeaux with the fruit-bomb Cabernets of Napa Valley is even more extreme when the delicate Pinot Noirs of Burgundy are compared with the vulgar jammy quality of the New World versions. It is only in Oregon and some parts of New Zealand, where climatic (and even cultural) conditions are similar, that Pinot Noirs can attain the magical delicacy of Burgundy’s Côte de Nuits.

  As anyone who has seen the movie Sideways will already know, Pinot Noir is a grape that inspires great passion. The acclaimed wine critic Jancis Robinson calls Pinot a “minx of a vine,” and legendary winemaker André Tchelistcheff declared that
“God made Cabernet Sauvignon whereas the devil made Pinot Noir.” Other critics, however, offer a completely different perspective. Joel Fleischman of Vanity Fair describes Pinot Noir as “the most romantic of wines, with so voluptuous a perfume, so sweet an edge, and so powerful a punch that, like falling in love, they make the blood run hot and the soul wax embarrassingly poetic.” Master Sommelier, Madeline Triffon, calls Pinot Noir “sex in a glass,” while Peter Richardson of OenoStyle christened it “a seductive yet fickle mistress!” Robert Parker has said of Pinot Noir “When it’s great, Pinot Noir produces the most complex, hedonistic, and remarkably thrilling red wine in the world.” The children’s author, Roald Dahl, once wrote that “to drink a Romanée-Conti [Pinot Noir] is like having an orgasm in the mouth and nose at the same time.”

  A grape which can inspire such passions can be paired only with a writer of sublime and sensuous sensitivity, such as King Solomon and his Song of Songs:

  “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine … How graceful are your feet in sandals, O queenly maiden! Your rounded thighs are like jewels, the work of a master hand. Your navel is a rounded bowl that never lacks mixed wine. Your belly is a heap of wheat, encircled with lilies. Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle. … You are stately as a palm tree, and your breasts are like its clusters. I say I will climb the palm tree and lay hold of its branches. Oh, may your breasts be like clusters of the vine, and the scent of your breath like apples, and your kisses like the best wine that goes down smoothly, gliding over lips and teeth. I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me. Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the fields, and lodge in the villages; let us go out early to the vineyards, and see whether the vines have budded, whether the grape blossoms have opened and the pomegranates are in bloom. There I will give you my love.”