The Ash Creek Papers

Try it, you’ll like it!  Or maybe you won’t.  That’s the conundrum… a seemingly endless sea of wine, different wines, different vintages, different labels.  It’s all so confusing.  And when all is said and done, it’s still a matter of trying something that is a new and different, or resigning yourself to opening the same bottle of wine each time.  Same wine each time?  How boring is that?

What to do?  You can certainly read up on stuff… Wine Advocate, Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast, International Wine Cellar, Decanter… excellent monthly publications.  You can learn a lot.  The New York Times has a column on Wednesday and the Wall St. Journal has one on Friday.  You can learn even more.

Good ratings from the monthlies and editorial endorsements from the weeklies are well and good; but you drink wine for your pleasure, not for Robert Parker of the Wine Advocate or Eric Asimov of the New York Times.  A great rating speaks for the quality of the wine, not whether you will like it.

Read all you want.  The best way to learn is to taste.  And the best way to taste is to take advantage of Wine Tastings when there is an opportunity to try several wines in comparison. Wineries are a sure bet; but it could also be at a shop that specializes in wines… or how about in the home?

Here are several ways to look at wine…

Vertical Tasting. This is looking at the same wine but in several vintages. There is no finer way to experience how wine evolves over time than to try the same Napa Cab, for example;  but in different vintages.  Maybe the current vintage was rated as better; but the vintage from three years ago is drinking better?  A text book on how wine improves with additional bottle age.

Horizontal Tasting. The same wine type, different producers, but in the same vintage. Perhaps all Cabernet Sauvignons from the 2005 Vintage; but from different zones… Rutherford Bench, Oakville, Howell Mountain & etc.  Or several Bordeaux from their great 2005 Vintage.  This type of tasting provides a clue as to the variables of vineyard and winemaking quality, and how both will have an impact on price.  And isn’t it fun to enjoy a more modest Bordeaux from the Cotes de Blaye than a Classified Growth from Margaux?

Same Grape, Different Country. Interest in Pinot Noir is at an all time high. But this varietal is known for its finicky disposition.  It is a varietal that is sensitive to both climate and soil and the wines produced from this fickle grape can be dramatically different region from region, country from country.  Differences abound in Chardonnay and many other varietals, too.

Blind Tasting. Putting several wines in bags to cover their labels is perhaps the best way to focus on the taste of wine.  Be prepared to be surprised.  Also know that it can be a bit unsettling to try something when you are stripped of your predisposed preferences… the “I-don’t-like-Merlot” can be in for fall when that is chosen as a favorite wine in the tasting flight. This is a humbling exercise, and it is the quickest way to level the playing field between experienced and inexperienced wine tasters.

Potpourri Tasting. A tasting doesn’t have to be overly organized.  The wines can simply follow the course of an evening, or the dinner being served.  Begin with a sparkling wine as an aperitif, enjoy a lighter white wine, follow it with a white with a more robust structured nature, then a couple of reds… a fresh red and then one with greater complexity, and then conclude with a dessert wine.  Hey!  It’s supposed to be fun!

Sure… reading about wine can’t help but develop an interest in wine… to add knowledge.  But if you want to learn about wine, you have to taste it.  Taste, taste and taste again. Assume that you will like some over others.  But the more you taste, the more you will understand why a certain wine, given the time of the year, given the food being served, given the company that you are sharing it with, given your mood, will be the right wine.  And often the right wine, given all the variables, will not be your “favorite” wine.

Wine is only boring when you treat it as just a form of flavoured alcohol.  Wine is all about variety.  OK.  Go taste! 

You say tomato, I say tomahto.  Yes, Syrah and Shiraz are the same grape varietal (and Petite Sirah – known as Durif in France– is a completely a different varietal and a story for a different day).

Its origin is traced back to one of the World’s oldest viticultural zones in Ancient Persia and to one of its principle cities, Shiraz.  How the vine found its way to the Rhone Valley, in what is today France, is somewhat in dispute. It’s a good possibility that the Phocaeans from Asia Minor who founded Marseille in 600BC brought the vines with them.  Or possibly it was introduced by the Roman Legions via Egypt and Syracuse.  Ruling the World builds a mighty thirst… Rome and their Legionnaires loved their wine.

Either way, by 71AD viticulture had certainly made its way to the central and northern portions of the Rhone Valley where Syrah would find a home in what would become known as Hermitage and Cote Rotie.  It is here that Syrah would find its greatest expression.

Hermitage produced dark, rich and brooding wines filled with complex aromas of black plum, violets, spice and an incredible meatiness… not for the faint of heart, nor for the casual imbiber.  In the 19^th Century, the Hermitage Vineyards set just to the north of the City of Tain, les Rocoules, le Meal, les Bessards & etc., were ranked along side of Ch. Lafite and Romanee-Conti as the finest wines of the World.

The house of E. Guigal would put the stamp of excellence in the Cote Rotie.  Their luxury bottlings of La Mouline, La Turque and La Landonne (known collectively as the “La La’s”) are harder to get than First Growth Bordeaux or Grand Cru Burgundy.

If the quality of this varietal remained just a creature of the Northern Rhone, then perhaps this story would not have been written.  And certainly the vine is seen elsewhere.  Syrah is planted in the Southern Rhone as well, where it is one of the red grapes that is used in the recipe for many Chateauneuf du Papes.  And in the huge region of Midi, use of Syrah as a blending grape is credited with raising up the over all quality of wine throughout the French south.

Where the grape has achieved its greatest lift has been in Australia, where it is known by its “other” name: Shiraz.  It is likely that James Busby brought Syrah to Australia as part of the 400 vine cuttings that he brought to that part of the world in 1832.  It was written, “Scyras… an excellent grapes, and promises to be at least equally valuable for red wine as the Verdeilho is for white.”

With an abundant grape yield, Shiraz became the most planted red varietal in Australia. But it was Max Schubert winemaker of Penfolds, taken by the wines of the Northern Rhone on a trip there in 1951, who would launch Syrah into Aussie stardom.  He began to tinker with the grape and produced an “experimental” wine he called Grange.  A huge wine, made in a rich fruit abundant style, more than any other wine, Penfold’s Grange caught the attention of the wine world.  Grange became a defining wine of what could be produced in Australia.

Giovanni Manetti of Italy also fell under the spell of Guigal’s achievement in the Rhone and brought back Syrah cuttings to his Estate, Fontodi, in Tuscany where his

Casa Via Syrah has earned huge praise in the critical press.

The same story can be repeated in Napa, where David Ramey, considered by many to be one of the finest makers of Cabernet Sauvignon, has taken a plunge into making Syrah.

Indeed, Syrah is capturing the imagination of wine growers from every corner of the globe.  It takes well to the steep rocky hillsides of the Priorat in Spain, to the soft hillsides of Stellenbosch and Paarl in South Africa (where it is also known as Shiraz), and to the “Super Tuscan” zone in Tuscany’s Bolgheri Coast.

For lovers of richly styled reds, Syrah stands with Cabernet Sauvignon as offering the satisfying depth regardless of growing region.  Greater finesse in the vineyards of the Northern Rhone, more lush fruit from the vineyards of Barossa. Wines to be savoured on their own merit, or enjoyed with hearty meat and game dishes.

It is ironic that on a night as a host, you may serve spectacular reds and whites during the course of a dinner, and if you take the extra step to serve a dessert wine, it will be that wine which will most be remembered. Why?  Because a dessert wine is so infrequently encountered – in the home or in a restaurant.

Even a quick look at some of the finest wine lists from some of the finest restaurants will reveal but a few entries on the dessert side.  Sometimes just Ch. D’Yquem, and nothing else (nothing wrong with Yquem; but more on that later).  Again, why?  The answer is simple… the wines are rarely ordered.

Perhaps the least understood wine as a category in the United States is dessert wine.

First, we think they are sweet and cloying and leave a syrupy coating in our mouth.  And this couldn’t be further from the truth.  High quality dessert wine is packed with lush sweet fruit flavours; but then they have a clean finish with a satisfying trace of its powerful sweetness.

Next, we don’t really understand the service. A dessert wine is part of the dinner. It is as much part of hospitality of the table as any wine that would have preceded it.  Its presence on the menu recalls a day when there was a leisurely graciousness to our dinning. 

And to reduce the world’s dessert wines to one label (even if it is Ch. D’Yquem) is nonsense. Every significant wine producing region makes dessert wine (granted some only for local consumption). Other than sharing sweetness as the common denominator, the world’s dessert wines are as varied as… well, the world.

In France, Bordeaux produces one of the best: Sauternes. Made from a blend of Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc, the producers will wait ‘til the grapes are “post ripe”to a time when autumn morning mists bring an airborne mold, botrytis cinerea, to the vineyards.  This mold attacks the skins of the grapes, bursting them, allowing for water content to escape and thereby concentrate the flavours and sweetness in the ugly shriveled grapes. The resulting wines are a honeyed nectar. It is here where Ch. D’Yquem reigns supreme.

Further to the north, the Vineyards of Alsace work a similar magic with Gewurztraminer, Riesling and Pinot Gris. The Late Harvest wines, called Vendange Tardif resemble the Late Harvest wines on the other side of the Rhine River.  And even more exotic are the botrytized Selection de Grains Nobles made from individual selected bunches of grapes.

In Germany the art of making sweet wine stands alongside of the renown German brew-making skill.  Working principally with Riesling, the Estates of Mosel and the Rheingau produce wines with varying degrees of sweetness.  Beginning with Spatlese (“late picked”), moving to Auslese (“selected harvest”), then to Beerenauslese (“selected berries”), and finally Trockenbeerenauslese (“selected dried berries”).  Each level represents a higher degree of minimum sugar level in the grapes picked at harvest. 

The ultimate wine produced in this method is Eiswein.  Not made in every vintage, Eiswein is made from grapes left on the vine and harvested during the night after a freeze.  During the winemaking, the icy content of the grape (water) is separated from the juice leaving an intensely sweet flavour base from which to make a tiny amount of wine. (This style of winemaking has caught on in Canada where other varietals like Vidal are also used to make their Ice Wine.)

Further to the East, long before Sauternes reached its present exalted status, the dessert wine from the Hungarian plain was prized in the Courts of Europe.  It all began when the Archbishop Drascovics presented Tokaji Aszu to Pope Pius IV as a gift at the Council of Trent in 1652. From there to Tsars and Kings, the wine became wedded to Royalty.

In Italy, Recioto di Soave is produced from grapes harvested in the fall, and then left to air day ‘til February.  The grapes, with a natural loss of 35% of their moisture, have concentrated sweetness and an intensity of flavour, are then pressed into wine. The wine is enjoyed by itself, or more typically with biscotti. A sip of wine, dip the biscotti into the wine… there is nothing better! Recioto soaked biscotti!

South Africa has Straw Wine (also air dried).  Argentina, Chile, Napa, Willamette & etc.  Really, there isn’t a place that doesn’t produce some type of dessert wine, whether made thru late harvesting or by air drying.

Return to your dinner table. When you serve dessert wine, regardless of the Country’s origin, you have instantly elevated eating to the highest level of dinning. You have just transported your evening to the Cunard Line… to crossing the Atlantic before WWII, when men and women dressed for dinner & when dinner was served in courses, beginning with an aperitif white, proceeding to a fuller white, reds matching to the courses of food and finishing with a dessert wine. And if the dessert wine was Ch. D’Yquem then you would know you had just reached the apex of the night.

Last bit of advice.  Whenever you can, buy the worst vintage of Ch. D’Yquem you can find… it will cost you less.  You can’t go wrong. Insiders know that even in lesser vintages, Yquem is a glorious wine… if the vintage is truly sub-standard, they don’t make wine.

Sometime after 48 AD the Roman Legions made it to St. Emilion and established vineyards to produce wine.  It’s a thirsty business, conquering the world. From these humble beginnings along the Gironde estuary and the Garonne and Dordogne Rivers, the history of the world’s greatest wine would be written… the wine we call Bordeaux.

It wouldn’t be until the 12^th Century before the wines of Bordeaux gained in exposure beyond its immediate region.  In 1152 when Henry Plantagnet, Duke of Normandy and two years later crowned King of England, took Eleanor of Aquitaine’s hand in marriage, Bordeaux and their vineyards became a territory of England.  Export of the wine the English called claret, would begin in earnest, and continue with only minor inconveniences like the 100 Years War to disrupt a robust trade.

If wars and acquisition coloured the story of Bordeaux, its history is carved in its land.  Bordeaux is close to the sea and threaded by rivers which act to moderate the climate.  A thick forest on the ocean side offers protection to the harsh salt winds. The stout bedrock is packed with minerals and yet the topsoil is quite poor; but perfectly suited for viticulture. Dionysus blessed this land.

The Rivers that cut thru Bordeaux establish rough boundaries where land, facings, proximity to the rivers all produce unique characteristics to the vineyards and wines that they would subsequently produce. Over time it became clear that the red varietals that were best matched to Bordeaux’s terroir were Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec. Each area, vineyard and wine estate would have its own “recipe” for the best mix.

It is a varied recipe indeed, although there are broad based similarities based on blend and location. 

On the “right bank” of the Dordogne are the Communes of St. Emilion, Pomerol and a host of “satellite” appellations. It is here that we find some of the most exclusive wines of Bordeaux: Ch. Petrus and Ch. Cheval Blanc. Merlot is the most important varietal on the right bank, with Petrus being made of 100% Merlot.

Between the Dordogne and Garonne is Bordeaux’ largest appellation: Entre-Deux-Mers which in main is planted to white varietals: Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon. Muscadelle and Ugni Blanc. Along the fringe of the Garonne itself is Premieres Cotes de Bordeaux `where red wine is also produced and where some of the best value Bordeaux can be found.

The “left bank” has three important sub-divisions. Graves, sitting just south the City of Bordeaux along the Garonne, further south is Sauternes and the Medoc, north of the City, is located along the Gironde Estuary.  Sauternes and its satellite, Barsac produce Bordeaux’ renown dessert wine, while the vineyards of Graves and the Medoc are planted principally to Cabernet Sauvignon.

Graves, so named for the gravelly content of the soil, is home to Ch. Haut Brion, which owns the distinction of being Bordeaux’ first wine identified and sold by the name of the estate. In 1663 Samuel Pepys wrote in The Diarist having tasted a wine in the Royal Oak Tavern, which he then described as “a sort of French wine called Ho Bryen that hath a good and most particular taste I never met with”.

Although insignificant in the early days of Bordeaux trade, by the 18^th Century wines from the Medoc began to emerge as being among the best from Bordeaux. Already the Estates of Lafite, Latour and Margaux were recognized for producing wines of distinction. It was the Classification of 1855 established by a group of wine brokers, however, that identified the Medoc as the preeminent region of Bordeaux.  Sixty-one Estates were placed into Growths… from First thru Fifth, placement being a reflection of the price of specific wines fetched at auctions over the previous 100+ years.  Rated as First Growth, not surprisingly, Ch. Lafite, Ch. Latour, Ch. Margaux and Ch. Haut Brion (the only Estate not coming from the Medoc), whose excellent wines were the most desirable vintage after vintage, after vintage.

In 1953 Graves established it’s own Classification, and St. Emilion followed suit in 1955.  The wines of Pomerol remain unclassified, although it is generally agreed that both Ch. Petrus and Ch. Le Pin make First Growth quality, and indeed their wines, given their tiny production levels, usually sell at higher prices than any of the other First Growth wines.

Beneath the pinnicle of the “officially” Classified Estates three other levels of ranking were eventually created: Cru Exceptionnel, Cru Bourgeois Superieur and Cru Bourgeois. And indeed there are thousands of Bordeaux Estates that are not part of any classification or ranking.

Tradition is all well and good; but changes in ownership, changes in vineyards, changes in winemaking teams and their philosophies all have certainly had a telling effect on the quality of wine being produced at an Estate, and if the same standard of pricing were to be applied, the Classification of 1855 would have to be revised.  Not only would we see a shuffling of the order; but certain Estates that would fall off, and others that would have to be elevated.

Well… what does all this mean?  For all the fancy history, impressive buildings — some Chateaux are indeed castles, although most are not — and their poetic names, are the wines really that good? It’s safe to say that for someone who loves wine, there will always be a small place for Bordeaux in your cellar… even if you prefer, say Napa Cabs or Aussie Shiraz.

But that side steps the issue.  The fact remains that the rest of the winemaking world turns to Bordeaux for inspiration and comparison… and they do so for a reason.  The wines are that good. And as vine cuttings of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot (and the other Bordeaux varietals) made their way around the planet to Napa, the Margaret River, Mendoza, Stellenbosch and Bolgheri, producers from those regions looked to do one thing… make the best wines possible, make wines that could compare to Bordeaux!

Is every wine from Bordeaux great?  Does every Bordeaux empty your wallet?  No and no.  Of the thousands of wines that find their way into the market, there will be wines that will disappoint, there will be wines perfect for every day enjoyment, there will be the hidden jewel that is surprisingly well priced for its superb quality, and there will be wines that are the finest wines made and that will stand any test of time.

Experiencing Bordeaux thru its wines is a magnificent journey.  It begins with opening a bottle.