Consider the following as a primer for a summer school course in wine appreciation. Typically, attention spans are short at this time of year, so the subject of wines for summer drinking will be taught as if the students were economics majors with a single focus: ”How cheap can I get it?”
Economics is important, but so are topics from the humanities, such as philosophy, poetry and developing taste. (Don`t worry, Sen. Helms, no nudes or deviate art grace the labels to be shown in the art appreciation lecture.)
The philosophy is simple: Bring to wine a spirit of curiosity and willingness to explore beyond the boundaries set by your peers. That means, in this school, no chardonnay or cabernet sauvignon will be served.
These are the two most popular grape types in America and they dominate conversation and sales at Wine U. from September to June. But there are signs that even the wine trade is feeling frustrated at their pre-eminence and is chafing to find an audience receptive to other wines.
Not second rate
So why should you sign up to taste a bunch of second-string wines for less than $10?
For at least three reasons:
Second-string does not mean second-rate; other grapes make superb wines. Also, these wines may be even more pleasing than assertive, slow-maturing chardonnay and cabernet in certain circumstances and with various types of food currently popular in America. Finally, you can save money. Chardonnay and cabernet cost more (or should cost more) because the wineries have to pay considerably more to buy these grapes.
Remember, too, that buying the cheapest wine isn`t a bargain if you don`t like it. Nor will buying in volume (1.5 liter bottles, for example) save you money if part of the bottle spoils waiting for you to drink it.
Look to varietals
Generic wines blended from several types of grapes cost less and are fine for washing down dinner, but, in general, they lack the distinctiveness of varietals (made from at least 75 percent of a single grape). The great reds of Bordeaux and the expensive meritage wines of California are blends too. But in these wines the blending shapes an intricate, often fascinating personality. They are too complex and too costly for consideration here.
Times are tough for the wine industry. As a result, intense competition
(and, in some cases, desperation) have led to bargain retail prices for various chardonnay and cabernet bottlings. This is a good time to do some comparative shopping. Buy the bargains, by all means, but put them away until fall and instead consider it your term assignment to buy and taste at least one wine from each grape type presented below. (There are five whites and five reds. Specific recommendations for wines priced under $10 that represent good value for money can be found elsewhere on this page and on page 6.)
The white grapes are sauvignon blanc, riesling, semillon, gewurztraminer and chenin blanc. The red grapes are merlot, zinfandel, gamay, sangiovese and a bouquet of Rhone varieties.
Where to look
Finding wines made from these grape types is easy. Drinkable, soundly made wines are being produced all over the world, and there is a broad selection in Chicago-area wine shops. Most of the wine sold in this country
(more than 80 percent) comes from California. But for these bargain summer wines, we will look as well to Washington State, Chile, Italy, southern France and Germany. Central Europe has been providing us with cheap, drinkable wine for some time, but there are too many political distractions to expect major improvement in their varietals in the short term.
It`s often said that, when it comes to wine, Americans talk dry and drink sweet. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the dryness of varietal wines tends to be in direct proportion to cost (except for dessert wines) and inverse proportion to the volume of production. Inexpensive, large-volume varietal wines-white and red-are likely to have noticeable amounts of residual sugar. Pay more for a wine with only limited distribution and, probably, the sugar will be less or will be skillfully balanced by acid.
Don`t give up on a grape type such as riesling if the first wine you try tastes too sweet. Don`t throw in the towel on sauvignon blanc if a bottle tastes aggressively herbal. Other versions of the wine don`t. Use these experiences as points of reference and have a wine merchant point you in another direction.
To this end, group study-in the form of tastings with friends-is very helpful.
The grapes
Sauvignon blanc: This is the source of the refreshing, zesty, dry Sancerre and Pouilly-Fume wines of France`s Loire Valley. Blended with semillion in Bordeaux, it makes pricey dry wines and wonderful sweet ones. Italian versions can be clean and crisp or too simple. In California and Washington State, where it often is called fume blanc, sauvignon has multiple personalities ranging from dry to semi-sweet and aggressively herbacious to chardonnay imitators of no real distinction. Serve them well chilled with summer foods such as poultry and fish-smoked or poached, served by themselves or in salads. Also good with grilled vegetables.
Riesling: White riesling, usually called Johannisberg riesling in California, is the premier example of this grape. Native to Germany, it flourishes in many vineyard areas and in most of them produces feminine sweet or semi-sweet wines that smell and taste of flowers, honey and perhaps spice. (An exception is Alsace, where the wine is dead-dry and authoritative.) The key to success is balancing the grape sugar with acid or the wine may taste flabby and thin. An emphasis on innovative vineyard techniques and later harvesting is improving California`s medium-dry rieslings. The Central Coast and Santa Barbara areas show promise. The grape shows very well in Washington State, Oregon and New York. The 1990s from Germany are excellent and the `89s very good. The Germans produce low-alcohol, dry rieslings called trocken or halb-trocken. Serve semi-dry rieslings with asparagus and other vegetables, presented by themselves or in soups. They match well, too, with hot and cold pork, smoked meats and fatty fish such as salmon, tuna and herring. Also a good choice for aperitif sipping.
Semillon: Now a ”hot” grape, it is moving out of the shadow of its frequent partner, sauvignon blanc. A dull, chubby, almost generic wine in warm areas, it can develop an intriguing smell and taste in cool climates such as Washington and New Zealand. Australia also produces semillon of quality in Hunter Valley. Experiments with it as a sweet wine are ongoing. Semillon with wild salmon, hot or cold, is a match made in heaven. It also goes well with poached shellfish and fruit salads.
Gewurztraminer: The English wine writer Jancis Robinson wrote that this is ”the easiest grape variety to recognize and the most difficult to spell.” Lift a glass of gewurztraminer toward your nose and its rich scent will come to you. The aroma is often said to be ”spicy,” but the smell is more that of tropical fruit (lychees) or flowers (roses). In Alsace it has an intense grape flavor and is high in alcohol. Usually it is vinified dry, except for some remarkable late-harvest versions. In the U.S. it has done better in Oregon and Washington than in California. Pour gewurztraminer with salty and spicy Oriental food, with smoked salmon or lobster flavored with ginger.
Chenin blanc: The easiest assignment. Turn to the treatise by
”professor” Patrick Fegan on this page.
Merlot: Most often a blending wine until the success of St. Emilion and Pomerol wines from Bordeaux in recent years, they tend to be lower in tannins and higher in sugar than cabernet sauvigon. This makes them forward and quite fruity, allowing impatient consumers to drink them sooner and, because of their apparent sweetness, match them with spicy food. When merlot vineyards are allowed to overproduce, notably in California and Italy, the wines may be attractively priced but taste flabby and dull. Washington State is producing some very tasty merlot. Serve these wines with beef, lamb or duck by themselves or in salads or stews. Merlot can be compatible with mildly spicy Oriental or Southwestern fare.
Zinfandel: There`s an unsolved mystery about the origin of what some consider an American grape (others trace it back to Italy or Hungary) and almost as much mystery about how it should taste. Faced with big, rough zins, berrylike light zins and even jamlike, late-harvest zins, the consuming public turned to other grapes or drank their zinfandel vinified white and sweet. But ”red zin” is staging a comeback. At its best it is a bright, medium alcohol wine with berry and spice aromas and tastes. As with merlot, pushing production too far results in fat wines that are boring or aggressively alcoholic (”hot,” winemakers say). This is a wine that belongs with grilled food, especially steak. Serve it, as well, with Oriental beef and pork, barbecue and Italian red sauce dishes.
Gamay: This is as close as red wine of discernable character gets to being a lovable puppy. It reaches its zenith in the Beaujolais region of southern Burgundy. (This French favorite is no relation to California`s gamay Beaujolais, a distant relative of the pinot noir.) It should inspire thoughts of ripe red berries and be agreeable from the first sniff. Drink it-lightly chilled-with roast chicken or pork, with sausages and fresh fruit. Beaujolais prices have turned downward of late and the quality of the 1991 (superb) and 1990 (excellent) vintages makes the Beaujolais Villages category a very good buy. No need to age this wine.
Sangiovese: Chianti, the wine region near Florence probably is an even better known name than Beaujolais. But relatively few people have heard of sangiovese, the principal grape in many wines from Tuscany. It provides plenty of acidity and tannin, moderate alcohol levels and an earthy taste that make sinewy Chianti more versatile with food than the austere reds of Bordeaux. The region has benefitted over the past two decades from better clonal selection and control of yield in the vineyards and the introduction of more scientific techniques in the wineries. Sangiovese is blended with cabernet to make some expensive showcase wines and it is now being produced in California. But the best values for money are found in the Chianti Classico category. Pair these wines with simply cooked meats, roast or grilled veal chops, game birds, steaks or cheese. Rough-hewn wines from the more robust Chianti category go well with pastas or stews made with tomato sauce, even with barbecue sauce.
Rhone red varieties: Once only scholars knew the 13 grape varieties that may be blended to make the well-known Rhone wine, Chateauneuf-du-Pape. But with Chateauneuf selling at double-digit prices and a growing demand for robust, early-maturing wines to drink with assertively flavored foods, a number of these grapes have been doing solo turns. Syrah, mourvedre, grenache, cinsaut are among them. While Cotes du Rhone generic wines still are offered at moderate prices, the new source of bargain varietals are Provence appellations east of the Rhone and the Languedoc-Roussillon vineyards that stretch westward along the Mediterranean toward Spain. Production areas such as Val d`Orbieu, Corbieres, Minervois are coming to the fore. There are limited plantings in California as well. The characters of these wines vary considerably, but they share, in varying degrees, a lush fruitiness that makes them compatible with garlic- and pepper-rich meat and vegetable dishes. Seek guidance when shopping because when made from vines that have over-produced, the varietal character disappears.
3 WINE CRITICS` PICK THEIR SUMMER FAVORITES
Each of the Tribune`s three wine writers recommends a week`s worth of wines priced at less than $10. All represent very good value for the money. Prices are estimates.
Patrick Fegan:
Rioja blanco: 1990 Valdemar, $7.
Beaujolais Villages: 1990 Jadot, $7.50.
Tuscany red: 1990 Antinori Santa Christina, $7.50.
Alsace pinot blanc: 1990 Leon Bayer, $9.
Muscadet de Sevre-et-Maine: 1990 Daniel and Gerard Vinet, $9.
Tavel rose: 1990 Chateau de Trinquevedel, $9.
California rose: 1991 Joseph Phelps Vin de Mistral, $9.50.
Larry Stone:
Languedoc-Roussillon Minervois: 1989 Domaine Maris, $7.
Val d`Orbieu marsanne: 1990 Reserve St. Martin, $7.25.
Spanish sparkling: Codorniu Brut Classico non-vintage, $7.50.
Alsace pinot blanc: 1990 Hugel Tradition, $8.
Vouvray: 1990 Domaine de Baumard, $8.75.
Spanish red: 1987 Torres Sangre de Torro, $9.
German riesling: 1990 Dr. Fischer Ockfener Bockstein, $9.75.
William Rice:
California zinfandel: 1990 Sutter Home, $5.
California gewurztraminer: 1991 Fetzer, $6.50.
Washington State semillon: 1991 Columbia
Winery, $7.
Beaujolais Villages: 1991 Sylvain Fessy, $7.
California pinot noir: 1990 Mirassou Family Selection, $7.50.
Washington state fume blanc: 1991, the Hogue Cellars, about $8.
California merlot: 1989 Geyser Peak, $9.
