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Wine & Grapes
By Gus Clemens
Beaujolaise Part 2
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Last week, Beaujolais problems. This week, reasons to drink this wine and suggestions which to buy.
Beaujolais is distinctive because it is made with Gamay grape and becomes wine using carbonic maceration where sugar turns into alcohol inside the intact grape berry. In practice, both carbonic maceration and standard yeast-driven conversion occurs, but mix of techniques produces deliciously distinctive wine.
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Beaujolaise Part 1
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Beaujolais is wine region where French label laws, clever marketing, and Californiated [cq] confusion collided to sour people on great value. Today, first of two parts on Beaujolais.
Background: Beaujolais is made in Beaujolais region of Burgandy using Gamay grape and fermentation called “carbonic maceration” that produces wine with profuse fruit flavors and vivacious aromas. Often described as white wine that happens to be red.
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Moscato d’Asti
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Italy produces more sparkling wines from more grape varieties than any other country.
Unfortunately for many Americans, Italian sparkling means plonk [cq] marketed as Asti Supmante in 1980s. Please, get past this. There are many wonderful, well-made Italian wines with carbonation.
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Terroir
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Which is more important: grape or place the grape grows? Depends on who you ask and how much argument you want.
Music analogy to frame the discussion: variety of grape is the song; place grape grows is the singer.
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France wine regions Part Three
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French make more wine than anyone else, some so sublime it defines wine at its best, some absolutely terrible. To help find your way with French vin, third of three-part primer; today, niche regions.
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France wine regions Part Two
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French make more wine than anyone else, some so sublime it defines wine at its best, some so mundane French distill it into biofuel. Navigating those extremes is a challenge, so second part of three-parter, this week featuring two less-well-known regions offering great values.
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France wine regions Part 1
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French make more wine than anyone else, some so sublime it defines wine at its best, some so mundane French distill it into biofuel.
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Petite Sirah
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California, epicenter of image, got it wrong with Petite Sirah. Big, bold, black, loaded with tannins—there is nothing petite about Petite Sirah wine.
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Country Specialties
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Buying wine: intimidating. So many choices and prices. We hunker in our wine foxhole, timidly buy familiar bottles.
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Syrah / Shiraz
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Syrah dates to Roman times, but the grape's fame begins in 1700s in the northern Rhône region of France where it is the main wine grape. In the southern Rhône, Grenache is the main grape, Syrah the blending grape.
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Viognier
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If you are relatively new to wine - experienced enough to search for alternatives to Chardonnay, not ready for big, bold reds-suggestion: Viognier.
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Sauvignon Blanc
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Sauvignon Blanc is one of three major white wine grapes - Chardonnay, Riesling are the others-and one that pairs best with garden salads and fish. One of few wines that shines with sushi.
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Carmenere
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Chile provides some of the best wine values today; Carmenere is Chile's signature grape.
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Malbec
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Malbec: immigrant grape that found fame and glory in the Americas.
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Wedding season-Champagne 101 time
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Champagne and sparkling wines made using methode champenoise get their fizz from second fermentation in the bottle.
Each bottle holds a secret that makes it distinctive. After a year in bottle-three or more years for premiums-yeast of the second fermentation is frozen in the bottle's neck and removed (a process called "disgorgement"). Then "dosage"-a mix of sugar, wine, sometimes brandy-is added and the bottle corked.
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Sangiovese
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Sangiovese grapes produce superb wines. They also can make shrill swill that gave wicker baskets a bad name.
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Champagne Name
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What's in a name? In the case of Champagne, a bubbly brouhaha. By international agreement, Champagne is produced exclusively in France's 70,000-acre Champagne region using one specific method (méthode champenoise). Only France? Aren't there American champagnes? By quirk of U.S. law, some American winemakers describe their sparkling wine as "champagne."
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Varietal wines
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There are more than 5,000 varieties of wine grapes (Vitis vinifera). Only about 230 are used to make quality wine. Only about 80 account for the bulk of production.
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Riesling
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Normally, you do not associate white wines with aging. Enjoy them young, with frisky spring flowers in the nose and green fruits on the tongue.
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Zinfandel
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If you enjoy rooting for scrappy underdogs, Zinfandel is your wine. Zin came to United States from Croatia, and by the end of the 1800s, the vigorously growing, disease-resistant vine was the most widespread variety in California.
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White Zinfandel
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Wine snobs roll their eyes in disdain, but for one in ten wine drinkers, White Zinfandel—the winemaker's mistake that proved golden—is their wine of choice.
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Meritage
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"Meritage"— what is it, and why is it so pricey?
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Merlot
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As undisputed star of the 1990s varietal red wine boom, Merlot plantings in California soared from 2,000 acres in 1985 to more than 50,000 today.
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Chardonnay
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Chardonnay is a green-skinned grape variety used to make white wine and Champagne/sparkling wines. It is the world's second-most grown white wine grape, behind Airén, the staple of Spanish wine making, but it is grown in more places than any other wine grape.
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Wine San Angelo Drinks
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Wine snobs may rhapsodize about pulling cork on a supple Cab-Merlot blend from France or a buttery Chardonnay from the Texas Hill Country, but when San Angeloans drink wine, they are most likely to drink wines that are sweet, cheap, and come in a box.
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Gewurztraminer
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It’s hardest-to-pronounce wine grape: Gewurztraminer (guh-vyrts-trah-mee-nuhr). Fortunately, you can refer to it as just plain “Gewurz” (guh-vyrts). And it is the next big thing in the wine world.
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Cabernet Sauvignon
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Cabernet Sauvignon may be the world’s most recognizable red wine grape.
It forms the backbone of French Bordeaux-style, where it blends with Merlot and Cabernet Franc, and sometimes with Malbec, Petit Verdot, or Carménére.
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Pinot Noir
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After the movie Sideways dramatically increased awareness of Pinot Noir in 2004, sales increased by 30 percent. Boom times continue for the source grape of some of the world’s greatest red wines and finest Champagnes.
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