Wine Whine #7

March Whine

First, let me welcome to the “Whine” Jay Thomson of Ottawa, Kimberley Mosher of Toronto, Sergei Aalto of Antigonish, Gerard Gleize of Aix-en-Provence, and David Case from the Great State of Maine. I now even have a couple of people on my distribution list whom I have never met.

I don’t know how many of you really read these blurbs. However, I was encouraged to get a couple of questions in my inbox. Also, I have been challenged for snubbing white wines, and for my constant denigration of wines from Germany.

So this month I shall say a little bit about white wine and a bit about German wine. Last month’s blurb was about the pairing of food and wine. This time I shall write about the importance of the vessel from which you drink. And, of course, I’ll make some recommendations from Cellar Offering 187, which many of you will have received by e-mail or snail-mail in the past couple of days.

Questions: One reader noted that grapes grown in the Okanagan Valley were high in sugar content and asked if that made B.C. wines sweeter than those from Ontario. Grapes from the Okanagan are indeed high in sugar content. However, when grapes are fermented the sugar is converted to alcohol. If all the sugar is converted the wine is dry. If there is some residual sugar the wine is sweet. The Vintner usually decides when to stop the fermentation and thus how sweet the taste will be. So although grapes with high sugar content do not necessarily make sweet wines, grapes with lots of sugar do tend to ferment into wines with loads of flavour.

I was also asked how B.C. wines stack up against those from the rest of Canada. Unfortunately for me B.C. wines are rarely marketed in Nova Scotia so I generally don’t have the opportunity to drink that many of these great wines. On the other hand, whenever I have had a chance to drink wines from B.C. I have usually been impressed. In fact, I think Ontario would not stand a chance in a blind “wine-off.” The climate in B.C. is simply better for growing grapes.

German Wines: Wines have been produced in Germany for 100’s of years. Why then do they have such a bad reputation? There are two reasons. (1) Tradionally German wine makers saved their best grapes for sweet wines. By law the terms Kabinet, Spatlese, Auslese, Beerenauslese, Eiswein and Trockenbeerenauslese indicate progressive sweetness (and progressive prices). If you see any of those terms on the label you will know that the wine will be sweet and probably not be to the liking of anyone from North America.

(2) Germany, like many other countries, produces a lot of low grade bulk wines. For reasons about which I can only speculate German vintners dumped barrels of low grade wine in Canada in the 60’s and 70’s (in addition to flogging these poor wines to the unsuspecting American soldiers stationed in Europe). The absolute worst wine imaginable is something called Liebfraumilch and this accounts for 1/3 of all German exports. Yet, in Germany itself the wine is totally unknown. Those of you who are over 50 may remember a particularly disgusting label called “Blue Nun”. Certainly one glass was enough to make a modern sister more blue than having her Superior decree a return to the habit. Also the Germans are less skilled at marketing than even the French. Both countries should take lessons from Australia, but then that’s a rant for another time.

There are, nonetheless, some decent German wines, especially the Rieslings. I am told that one can also get decent Pinot Noir from Germany, but I have not had that experience. If any of you want to recommend a particular good German wine, I’ll be happy to try a bottle. ‘Till then, however, I’ll keep loading up on wines from Argentina, California, Chile, France and Spain.

White Wine: About 1/3 of the World’s wine is white. Most wine lovers drink both red and white wine. The occasion and the food match will determine the choice. On the other hand, most of us generally prefer one or the other. Since I am a red wine drinker, I hesitate to talk about whites. Yet, I was flattered by a reader who asked me about white wines. I shall attempt, therefore, to give the beginner’s guide to white wine (really this is the daycare version).

There are 1000’s of varieties of white grapes. I’ll mention three of the most common. If you like your wine to taste crisp, clean and a little acidic, try a Sauvignon Blanc If you like your white wine to be a little fruitier, in particular more citrus like, try a Riesling from Australia. On the other hand if you like your wine to be less aromatic and less acidic, try a Chardonnay. Perhaps the best Chardonnay’s come from northern Burgundy. Unfortunately they are expensive. But, if you pick your Chardonnay from the New World you must be very careful. Check the label and see if the wine is “oaked” or “unoaked”. Californian wine makers frequently age their Chardonnay in oak barrels. This makes the wine taste buttery (and brings out a gag reflect in some). This has led to another one of those ABC slogans (those on a European bus tour usually end up wanting anything other than an ABC; i.e.,“Another Bloody Cathedral” whereas many wine lovers frequently ask for ABC; i.e., “Anything But Chardonnay”) By the way, a well-oaked Chardonnay does go well with hot lobster dipped in butter. Otherwise go for the “unoaked.”

Does the wine glass matter? Those of you who remember the old romantic Hollywood movies will have seen Gary Grant or Rock Hudson popping the cork of a bottle of “Champagne” and after the wine stopping overflowing down the side of the bottle (and perhaps down his pantleg) Rock would pour the wine into two sherbet dishes. We all know that Rock Hudson knew little about sweet young females. He also knew little about wine. First, the cork should have been pulled with a whisper and not a pop. Second it should have been served in a tall fluted glass, thereby keeping the carbon dioxide (bubbles) from escaping. Flat champagne is about as good as a glass of Keith’s left on your hot summer deck for an hour.

The question is, does the choice of glass matter for a glass of Cabernet? The answer is YES, IT DOES.

The Austrian glass make Riedel has become a huge international company by marketing different glasses for different varietals. They recognized that the shape of the glass determined, among other things, where on the tongue the wine would hit. Thus, they would want a tannic wine to land on the back of the tongue, but a more acidic wine to hit the sides of the tongue. Riedel has been hugely successful, which is perhaps why the famous Waterford Crystal has gone into receivership (and the upstart Nova Scotia Crystal is also in financial trouble). So for Cabernet Sauvignon (with lots of tannins) the bowl should be only slightly wider in the middle than at the rim. This sends the wine way back in your mouth. A pinot glass will be quite wide in the middle of the bowl and the glass at the rim will be relatively narrow. Thus, the wine ends up at the middle of the tongue.

On the other hand, one can’t take Riedel too seriously. Otherwise one would need to rent an airplane hanger just to store all the glasses they would like you to buy.

So what is my advice? Let’s keep it simple. First, do you buy cheap glasses made from ordinary glass, or do you put out the big bucks for lead crystal? Because crystal is not as smooth as ordinary glass, supposedly more of the wine legs cling to the side of your glass, giving a greater surface area to create the wine aroma. I think this is mostly bullshit, but then I don’t work for Riedel. Second, the lead in crystal allows the glass some flexibility. For that reason crystal glasses break less frequently than cheaper glasses. But, are you going to break 10 or 15 times as many cheaper glasses? I doubt it.

On the other hand, it is really important to have a large enough bowl on the glass to allow you to get your nose down into the escaping aromas. Also the surface area of the wine must be big enough to let those aromas escape up your nose. So you need big glasses.
Last year while in Florida we visited a very good snowbird friend who had laid in a bottle of one of my favorite Chilean Cabs for our visit. Unfortunately, the wine was served in a glass thimble. Guess it would have been gauche to have brought my own glass.

Also, a glass should also have a decent stem (so your hand doesn’t touch the bowl and overheat the wine). Did you ever notice that brandy snifters have stubby little stems? That’s because you want your hand on the bowl to actually warm the brandy. But I digress.

Finally, really cheap glasses (and unfortunately the kind you find in many Canadian restaurants) have a little round rim. That’s so the low-grade glass will be less likely to chip. Unfortunately, that rim acts as a dam when you tip your glass, sending the wine everywhere in your mouth except onto your tongue. The other night we accompanied our “2 for 1” meal with a bottle of the house recommended Bonarda. We got two glasses with the dreaded rounded rims. Then we noticed that a couple at the next table got their wine decanted and served in Riedel glasses. Guess they didn’t have the Bonarda. I saw this trick in Spain a few years back but this was the first time in a Canadian restaurant that I had seen the declaration to all present that this table is drinking cheap wine, while at this other table sit the sophisticated.

Offering 187: If you are not a member of the Opimian Society, you can now stop reading and go pour yourself a glass. For those who are members, I’ll make only a few recommendations this time as there are no bargains in this particular Offer. First, just so I can claim that I once recommended a German wine my suggestion in 4960 Piesporter Goldtropoechen Riesling. My second and only real recommendation this time is an expensive (# 4967) Austrian Pinot Noir that will astound you. I had a case of this a couple of years ago and can say that I never drank better Pinot (at least for the brief life of the case). From the Italian section I’ll recommend # 4974 Negroamaro, IGT Salento. If you are not familiar with this varietal you should be pleasantly surprised (much less acidic than most Italian wine).

As always I invite your comments, rebuttals, general shots. Now go have a glass of Malbec.