WineWhine # 15
February, 2010
Welcome to the WineWhine: Cecelia Taylor of Ottawa, Ontario; Reg Savage of Woodstock, N.B.; and Alejandro of Magda Wine Tours of Mendoza, Argentina.
This month I begin a series on French wine. My consultant on this project is my very good friend Gerard Gleize of Aix-en-Provence, France. Gerard is very knowledgeable on all French wines, but in particular the wines of Burgundy. However, his nose is not quite up to the level of discernment of that of his beautiful wife Marie-Claude. C’est la vie! I once saw Marie-Claude take a glass of red wine and comment correctly that the wine was fine but it shouldn’t have been served in a glass that had been stored in a cabinet where the wood had been oiled.
Also, this month I will translate of few of the silly phrases that one sometimes finds on the back of the bottle and I shall give my usual recommendations on what to buy from the latest Opimian offering.
Whine Quote: “Wine is like opera. You can enjoy it even if you do not understand it.”
The French Wine Label: Ever since I started writing this blog I have been intending to try an introduction to French wine. Since this is a difficult task I have been putting it off for over a year. However, what follows is an attempt to help some of my fellow North Americans initiate themselves into the mysterious world of French wine labels.
France remains the largest producer and exporter of wine in the world. For at least a century French wine was considered to be the very best in the world. In the past 3 or 4 decades French wines have been challenged by the great wines of the Napa Valley and even more recently by the more moderately-priced upstarts from Australia, Argentina and Chile. Nonetheless, France remains a country that produces good wines, very good wines and great wines.
Yet, when I go out to a friend’s house for drinks or dinner I am almost never served French wine (unless I go to E. Langille’s place, but then he is a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres et un Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Academiques and is therefore obliged to promote things French).
There are perhaps a couple of reasons for Canadians in particular to avoid drinking French wine. First, most good French wines are not available at our local stores and we must seek them out at places like the Port of Wines. Second, French wine labels are very difficult to understand. Seldom is the varietal given. Many French wines are blends of several varietals. Chateauneuf-du-Pape is a blend of 11 grapes. Not only is there no information on what grape you are drinking there is no good overall system of guaranteed quality, such as the Reservas and Gran Reservas from Spanish-speaking wine countries. Finally, if you are used to drinking big, bold wines from the New World (such as Shiraz from Australia or Malbec from Argentina) French wines may seem thin and lacking in zest. Get past that reaction, however, and you will discover a world of subtle complexity.
What the label says: French wine laws are very strict. Wines are labeled by specific areas and wines from an area are tightly controlled in terms of the varietals used and even the proportions of each varietal in a blended wine. About 35-40% fall under a system of name control called the AOC. On a label you will see the name of an area, such as Bordeaux, inserted between the words Appellation and Controlee. There are at least 350 areas or regions that have Appellation Controlee laws. Unfortunately for the uninitiated there are AOCs within AOCs. Thus within the Appellation B
ordeaux Controlee area there are smaller areas with their own AOC designation. For example Appellation Haut Medoc Controlee indicates a wine from an area within Bordeaux. Then within the Haut Medoc area you find even smaller areas such as St. Julien. An Appellation St. Julien Controlee label means the wine came from St. Julien which is within Haut Medoc, which is within Bordeaux. Then, of course, the label may also indicate the specific winery such as in the picture which shows a wonderful bottle of 2002 Chateau Gloria which Gerard gave me this past summer.
In Medoc there is an even finer distinction which dates back to 1885 whereby certain (about 60) Chateaus are given the designation Grand Cru Classe. While this term is important, the specific meaning varies somewhat by region, so a Grand Cru in Medoc does not have the exact same meaning as it does in St. Emilion where the term Premier Grand Cru designates the very top wine.
What is important about all of this is that the smaller the area designated the better the wine. Thus the Chateau Kirwan Grand Cru Classe (shown in the picture) is better than some other, but not all Chateaus. It is better than a wine simply labeled Margaux, which is better than a wine labeled Haut-Medoc, which is better than a wine labeled Bordeaux. Unfortunately, there is nothing on the label to tell you that the Margaux is a wine from a much more restricted area than a wine simply labeled Bordeaux. The French just assume you know. Also, the quality of wine from a particular region varies considerably with the specific vintage due to the variable sun and rainfall from year to year. However, there are guides to successful vintages such as http://www.millesimes.fr/vintage.php.
Advice: Invest in a good book. To start I suggest Oz Clarke’s Pocket Wine Guide which is available in many bookstores and is easier to use than the better known Pocket Wine Book by Hugh Johnson. Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia is well worth the money and has lots of information on French wine. My favorite, however, is Hachette’s Dictionary of Wine: All the French wine appellations from A-Z, which is available used online at Chapters Indigo.
Other Designations: Below the Appellation Controlee wines are 3 more levels: Vin Delimite de Qualite Superieure (also by region or area), Vin de Pays, and at the very bottom Vin de Table. In choosing a French wine pick an Appellation Controlee or a Vin Delimite. Don’t ignore these designations because sometimes a VDQS or even a Vins de Pays is better than an AOC. This is because the designation stays for a long time and when the vineyard passes to the next generation the son or grandson may not be so skilled in making the wine. In any event, choose the smallest area you can afford. A wine labeled, for example, Appellation Bordeaux Controllee is probably not a good value.
More about Bordeaux: In my above attempt to describe French wine labels I have used only examples from Bordeaux. This is in part because of all the large wine areas in France (Loire Valley, Champagne, Alsace, Burgundy, Beaujolais, Rhone Valley, Provence, Languedoc-Roussillon) Bordeaux is the best known in the English-speaking world, with the possible exception of Champagne. Remember, however, that the Brits call Bordeaux Claret.
Of the more than 150,000 vineyards in France about 22,000 of them are in Bordeaux. Bordeaux is the area in southwest France which surrounds the Gironde River and its tributary the Dordogne. As an aside some of the very best restaurants in all of France are in the city of Bordeaux and some of the most spectacular scenery is up the Dordogne towards the town of Rocamadour.
Bordeaux wines are always blends with the dominant grape being either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot. Among the other varietals in the various blends are Cabernet Franc and Malbec. Because of this Bordeaux wines are perhaps more familiar tasting to North Americans than are the Pinot Noirs from Burgundy, or the Syrahs from farther down the Rhone Valley.
It should be noted, however, that most good Bordeaux need time in the cellar. The grapes are not picked fully ripe (unlike in the case of South America) thus it takes time for the tannins in the thick Cabernet skins to soften. So, don’t buy a good Bordeaux and expect to be able to drink it right away.
On the left bank of the Gironde are the important areas of Graves and Medoc. Within Haute Medoc are the famous areas of Margaux, St. Julien, Pauillac and St. Estephe. In these great wines Cabernet is the dominant grape.
On the right bank are the famous areas of Pomerol and St. Emilion. Blends from these areas are dominated by Merlot and as such the wines are softer and less tannic than those on the left bank.
Between the two rivers is an area strangely named Entre-deaux-Mers which produces mainly white wine dominated by the Semillon grape.
If you are starting a cellar it is worth the money to lay down a few bottles from any of the communes listed above.
Wine Label Foolishness: Most non-French bottles have two labels. On the front label you will find the year, the name of the winery, the country or region of origin and perhaps the alcohol percentage. The information on the back label will be more varied. There may be information on whether or not the grapes were hand-picked, the ideal temperature to serve, what foods make good matches, whether the wine is organically grown, etc.
The back label, however, may also contain a lot of marketing nonsense. Here are some actual phrases found on back labels along with my translations:
“It is an excellent company for any outdoor, post game, or family party” Translation: If this is the only bottle you have, open a beer.
“Made from grapes from the best viticultural areas” Translation: The producer bought up leftover grapes from several different producers and blended a truly awful wine”
“Reminds you of colors radiating from a precious ruby” Translation: There is nothing good to say about the taste of this wine.
“Named for the ….tribe who were indigenous to this area” Translation: Since there is nothing positive to say about the wine we might as well slander some poor group by association.
“Blended from grapes picked from new vines” Translation: You buy a new car, buy wine from old vines.
Opimian Offering # 193: This month’s offering has wines from the Rhone, from Argentina and from Chile.
Rhone: # 5423 2008 Domaine Gilles Flacher, AOC Saint Joseph. Expensive but a wonderful Syrah. I bought a case of the 2004 and it was/is magnificent.
# 5432 2008 Chateau de Montmirail AOC Gigondas. Gigondas is a village next to the vineyards of Chateauneuf-du-Pape and is very similar but slightly cheaper.
Argentina: Several wines from two different wineries are offered. I have had great luck with the wines from Bodegas O’Fournier but I am unfamiliar with the wines of Bodegas Mauricio Lorca. You might like to try one of the Tempranillos. Argentinean Tempranillos have a different taste than the more well-known ones from Spain.
Chile: This month wines are offered from Casa Nueva, from Vina La Rosa (Cornellana) and from Villard. I strongly recommend any of the Cornellanas and just as strongly recommend against the Casa Nueva. I have had some poor wines from this vineyard. Villard makes great Pinot Noirs.
Don’t forget the WineWhine tasting on February 13!
February, 2010
Welcome to the WineWhine: Cecelia Taylor of Ottawa, Ontario; Reg Savage of Woodstock, N.B.; and Alejandro of Magda Wine Tours of Mendoza, Argentina.
This month I begin a series on French wine. My consultant on this project is my very good friend Gerard Gleize of Aix-en-Provence, France. Gerard is very knowledgeable on all French wines, but in particular the wines of Burgundy. However, his nose is not quite up to the level of discernment of that of his beautiful wife Marie-Claude. C’est la vie! I once saw Marie-Claude take a glass of red wine and comment correctly that the wine was fine but it shouldn’t have been served in a glass that had been stored in a cabinet where the wood had been oiled.
Also, this month I will translate of few of the silly phrases that one sometimes finds on the back of the bottle and I shall give my usual recommendations on what to buy from the latest Opimian offering.
Whine Quote: “Wine is like opera. You can enjoy it even if you do not understand it.”
The French Wine Label: Ever since I started writing this blog I have been intending to try an introduction to French wine. Since this is a difficult task I have been putting it off for over a year. However, what follows is an attempt to help some of my fellow North Americans initiate themselves into the mysterious world of French wine labels.
France remains the largest producer and exporter of wine in the world. For at least a century French wine was considered to be the very best in the world. In the past 3 or 4 decades French wines have been challenged by the great wines of the Napa Valley and even more recently by the more moderately-priced upstarts from Australia, Argentina and Chile. Nonetheless, France remains a country that produces good wines, very good wines and great wines.
Yet, when I go out to a friend’s house for drinks or dinner I am almost never served French wine (unless I go to E. Langille’s place, but then he is a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres et un Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Academiques and is therefore obliged to promote things French).
There are perhaps a couple of reasons for Canadians in particular to avoid drinking French wine. First, most good French wines are not available at our local stores and we must seek them out at places like the Port of Wines. Second, French wine labels are very difficult to understand. Seldom is the varietal given. Many French wines are blends of several varietals. Chateauneuf-du-Pape is a blend of 11 grapes. Not only is there no information on what grape you are drinking there is no good overall system of guaranteed quality, such as the Reservas and Gran Reservas from Spanish-speaking wine countries. Finally, if you are used to drinking big, bold wines from the New World (such as Shiraz from Australia or Malbec from Argentina) French wines may seem thin and lacking in zest. Get past that reaction, however, and you will discover a world of subtle complexity.
What the label says: French wine laws are very strict. Wines are labeled by specific areas and wines from an area are tightly controlled in terms of the varietals used and even the proportions of each varietal in a blended wine. About 35-40% fall under a system of name control called the AOC. On a label you will see the name of an area, such as Bordeaux, inserted between the words Appellation and Controlee. There are at least 350 areas or regions that have Appellation Controlee laws. Unfortunately for the uninitiated there are AOCs within AOCs. Thus within the Appellation B
ordeaux Controlee area there are smaller areas with their own AOC designation. For example Appellation Haut Medoc Controlee indicates a wine from an area within Bordeaux. Then within the Haut Medoc area you find even smaller areas such as St. Julien. An Appellation St. Julien Controlee label means the wine came from St. Julien which is within Haut Medoc, which is within Bordeaux. Then, of course, the label may also indicate the specific winery such as in the picture which shows a wonderful bottle of 2002 Chateau Gloria which Gerard gave me this past summer.In Medoc there is an even finer distinction which dates back to 1885 whereby certain (about 60) Chateaus are given the designation Grand Cru Classe. While this term is important, the specific meaning varies somewhat by region, so a Grand Cru in Medoc does not have the exact same meaning as it does in St. Emilion where the term Premier Grand Cru designates the very top wine.
What is important about all of this is that the smaller the area designated the better the wine. Thus the Chateau Kirwan Grand Cru Classe (shown in the picture) is better than some other, but not all Chateaus. It is better than a wine simply labeled Margaux, which is better than a wine labeled Haut-Medoc, which is better than a wine labeled Bordeaux. Unfortunately, there is nothing on the label to tell you that the Margaux is a wine from a much more restricted area than a wine simply labeled Bordeaux. The French just assume you know. Also, the quality of wine from a particular region varies considerably with the specific vintage due to the variable sun and rainfall from year to year. However, there are guides to successful vintages such as http://www.millesimes.fr/vintage.php.
Advice: Invest in a good book. To start I suggest Oz Clarke’s Pocket Wine Guide which is available in many bookstores and is easier to use than the better known Pocket Wine Book by Hugh Johnson. Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia is well worth the money and has lots of information on French wine. My favorite, however, is Hachette’s Dictionary of Wine: All the French wine appellations from A-Z, which is available used online at Chapters Indigo.
Other Designations: Below the Appellation Controlee wines are 3 more levels: Vin Delimite de Qualite Superieure (also by region or area), Vin de Pays, and at the very bottom Vin de Table. In choosing a French wine pick an Appellation Controlee or a Vin Delimite. Don’t ignore these designations because sometimes a VDQS or even a Vins de Pays is better than an AOC. This is because the designation stays for a long time and when the vineyard passes to the next generation the son or grandson may not be so skilled in making the wine. In any event, choose the smallest area you can afford. A wine labeled, for example, Appellation Bordeaux Controllee is probably not a good value.
More about Bordeaux: In my above attempt to describe French wine labels I have used only examples from Bordeaux. This is in part because of all the large wine areas in France (Loire Valley, Champagne, Alsace, Burgundy, Beaujolais, Rhone Valley, Provence, Languedoc-Roussillon) Bordeaux is the best known in the English-speaking world, with the possible exception of Champagne. Remember, however, that the Brits call Bordeaux Claret.
Of the more than 150,000 vineyards in France about 22,000 of them are in Bordeaux. Bordeaux is the area in southwest France which surrounds the Gironde River and its tributary the Dordogne. As an aside some of the very best restaurants in all of France are in the city of Bordeaux and some of the most spectacular scenery is up the Dordogne towards the town of Rocamadour.
Bordeaux wines are always blends with the dominant grape being either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot. Among the other varietals in the various blends are Cabernet Franc and Malbec. Because of this Bordeaux wines are perhaps more familiar tasting to North Americans than are the Pinot Noirs from Burgundy, or the Syrahs from farther down the Rhone Valley.
It should be noted, however, that most good Bordeaux need time in the cellar. The grapes are not picked fully ripe (unlike in the case of South America) thus it takes time for the tannins in the thick Cabernet skins to soften. So, don’t buy a good Bordeaux and expect to be able to drink it right away.
On the left bank of the Gironde are the important areas of Graves and Medoc. Within Haute Medoc are the famous areas of Margaux, St. Julien, Pauillac and St. Estephe. In these great wines Cabernet is the dominant grape.
On the right bank are the famous areas of Pomerol and St. Emilion. Blends from these areas are dominated by Merlot and as such the wines are softer and less tannic than those on the left bank.
Between the two rivers is an area strangely named Entre-deaux-Mers which produces mainly white wine dominated by the Semillon grape.
If you are starting a cellar it is worth the money to lay down a few bottles from any of the communes listed above.
Wine Label Foolishness: Most non-French bottles have two labels. On the front label you will find the year, the name of the winery, the country or region of origin and perhaps the alcohol percentage. The information on the back label will be more varied. There may be information on whether or not the grapes were hand-picked, the ideal temperature to serve, what foods make good matches, whether the wine is organically grown, etc.
The back label, however, may also contain a lot of marketing nonsense. Here are some actual phrases found on back labels along with my translations:
“It is an excellent company for any outdoor, post game, or family party” Translation: If this is the only bottle you have, open a beer.
“Made from grapes from the best viticultural areas” Translation: The producer bought up leftover grapes from several different producers and blended a truly awful wine”
“Reminds you of colors radiating from a precious ruby” Translation: There is nothing good to say about the taste of this wine.
“Named for the ….tribe who were indigenous to this area” Translation: Since there is nothing positive to say about the wine we might as well slander some poor group by association.
“Blended from grapes picked from new vines” Translation: You buy a new car, buy wine from old vines.
Opimian Offering # 193: This month’s offering has wines from the Rhone, from Argentina and from Chile.
Rhone: # 5423 2008 Domaine Gilles Flacher, AOC Saint Joseph. Expensive but a wonderful Syrah. I bought a case of the 2004 and it was/is magnificent.
# 5432 2008 Chateau de Montmirail AOC Gigondas. Gigondas is a village next to the vineyards of Chateauneuf-du-Pape and is very similar but slightly cheaper.
Argentina: Several wines from two different wineries are offered. I have had great luck with the wines from Bodegas O’Fournier but I am unfamiliar with the wines of Bodegas Mauricio Lorca. You might like to try one of the Tempranillos. Argentinean Tempranillos have a different taste than the more well-known ones from Spain.
Chile: This month wines are offered from Casa Nueva, from Vina La Rosa (Cornellana) and from Villard. I strongly recommend any of the Cornellanas and just as strongly recommend against the Casa Nueva. I have had some poor wines from this vineyard. Villard makes great Pinot Noirs.
Don’t forget the WineWhine tasting on February 13!
