Grape Lore
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Grape Lore |
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Some at least of the items that appear below have been taken from our quarterly newsletter
Splicing the Mainbrace.
Click on any of the following to go right to that article.
Here's to Amarone
Armagnac
Pinot Noir
What's In a Name: Splicing the Mainbrace
Wine Serving Temperature
Zinfandel Origins (updated
15 April 2003)
The best known wines from northeastern Italy’s Veneto region are Valpolicella (red) and Soave (white). Both are nice quaffing wines that, when well made, pair well with a wide variety of foods. Both are generally priced to appeal to the pocket as well as the palate.
But the real glory of Veneto wines is Amarone, the massive red wine that pairs so well with roasts and well-flavoured stews and game. Where Valpolicella and Soave (and most other table wines from Europe) have 10 – 13% alcohol by volume, Amarone routinely comes in at 15%+. No wimpy flavours here! And Amarone is typically held for up to five years between vinefication and release to the market. Yet Amarone is made from the same grapes as Valpolicella: Corvina, Molinara, and Rondinella. What makes the difference?
Mature Corvina, Molinara, and Rondinella grapes are spread out on wicker mats or shelving to dry after they are harvested. The drying may take some months and may be accompanied by botrytis development. Botrytis is the rot that gives the super-richness to Sauternes from Bordeaux and to some Australian sweet wines like DeBortoli Noble One (#931782, 375ml, NLC, $34.10). After drying, what is left are shriveled, raisiny grapes just full of rich flavour. They are pressed and fermented in the usual way, but, of course, being dried out they yield much less juice (and hence wine) than normal grapes. The wine is matured in wooden casks until it is ready for bottling and release.
The result is what Larousse calls "dry yet stunningly opulent wine." Here are wines with power and elegance combined with rich and persistent fresh fruit and a velvety texture that last well into maturity. They are great with game and heavily flavoured beef dishes, but worth a try with well-aged Parmesan cheese or, after dinner, with walnuts or hazelnuts.
Nova Scotia wine lovers can select from among several fine examples of Amarone including Amarone Classico Cantina Sociale Valpolicella Negrar (#44784, 750ml, NS POW, $28.13), Amarone Classico Fratelli Bolla (#352757, 750ml, NS POW, $49.42), and Amarone Classico Capitel della Crosara Montressor (#935122, 750ml, NS POW, $63.21). Make a dinner party, invite in friends, and try all three.
The name of our bi-monthly company newsletter derives from nautical terminology and custom. A mainbrace is the line with pulley used to hoist the mainsail of the sort of wooden sailing ship traditional to Atlantic Canadian waters. The term "splicing the mainbrace" refers to the Royal Navy custom of rewarding a ship's crew for a job particularly well done by serving everyone an extra tot of rum. To do this, the Captain gave the order, "Splice the Mainbrace!" As a beverage alcohol agency in Atlantic Canada which is committed to doing the job particularly well for our clients around the world, what could be more natural than to associate ourselves with the notion of Splicing the Mainbrace?
Everyone knows that, as a rule, white wines should be served chilled and red wines at room temperature. Alas, adhering to this rule probably means that, most of the time, we serve reds too warm and whites too cold. Once upon a time, before central heat became common, "room temperature" (especially in the winter) was a bracing 14 - 16(C. This is not a bad temperature for red wines, but many of us now keep our rooms at 20-22(C (often more during the summer). At this temperature, most red wines taste heavily of alcohol and some are decidedly astringent. Once upon a time, when refrigerators were ice boxes, or white wine was chilled in water and ice just before serving, it was likely to be served at a user-friendly temperature. Today, the white wine chilled in the refrigerator is almost certainly too cold to taste at its best. Most refrigerators run at about 7(C, which is fine for sparkling wines but much too cold for anything else. What to do, you ask, if rooms are too warm and fridges too cold? Consider the humble ice bucket, ideally deep enough to swallow a wine bottle (if not, immerse the bottle neck down first for a few minutes, then reverse it). Use ice with lots of water and time your chilling based on 3 minutes in the bucket for every 2(C of temperature drop. So if you have wine at a room temperature of 22(C and want to cool the wine to 16(C (about right for a robust red) you need to keep the wine in the bucket for about 18 minutes before serving. Most wine writers would agree on an ideal wine serving temperature list more or less as follows: Sparkling wine 7(C Simple whites / rosés / dessert wines 10-14(C Fine whites / light, fruity reds 14-16(C Serious reds / ports 16-18(C These are, of course, only rough guidelines. Your palate and preferences (and your willingness to heft a thermometer when you could be quaffing wine) will determine how closely you want to follow them. But try reds a little cooler and whites a little less chilled and taste the difference. Cheers!
Many countries have what could be called a signature grape variety, one that cries out the country's name. For Australia it is Shiraz, for South Africa Pinotage. Spain has Temperanillo and Italy Sangeovese. And the signature grape of the United States is undoubtedly Zinfandel. In the early modern history of California wine making, Zinfandel was used to produce rough and ready jug wine much beloved as accompaniment for full bodied pasta dishes, in short, good spaghetti wines. These are the wines that Jancis Robinson characterizes as ". . . dry, sturdy, unsubtle, but vigorous reds with an optimum lifespan of 4 to 8 years." Zin. was also used for composing blush wines, the so-called white Zinfandels. More recently, a new generation of wine makers have been making very elegant and sophisticated up-market wines from Zinfandel grapes. These are a far cry from the "rough red" Zins. of yesteryear. The renaissance of Zinfandel has prompted a good deal of curiosity about the origins of the variety. There is considerable certainty about where, for example, Cabernet Sauvignon came from, but the origins of Zinfandel are less clear. Early on, it was thought that Zinfandel had been brought to the United Stated from Hungary in 1849 by Agoston Haraszthy, a vinicultural pioneer in California. But a grape called Zinfinal (almost certainly the same as Zinfandel) was being shown in Massachusetts agricultural fairs as early as 1834. Then the quest for Zinfandel's roots shifted to Italy. The Primativo grape from Apulia in southern Italy produces a wine very similar to Zinfandel. So close is the taste, in fact, that some Italian producers have shipped Primativo wines to the U.S. calling them Zinfandel. And recent DNA typing shows that Primativo and Zinfandel are the same grape. But Primativo apparently is not the "ancestor" of Zinfandel. Indeed, the reverse is probably true since there is no record of Primativo being grown in Apulia as far back as 1849, let alone 1834. It was probably brought to Italy from the United States sometime in the last hundred years or so. The fact that Primativo and Zinfandel share a peppery taste, high yields, and, under certain circumstances, a high alcohol potential, led to a search for other grape varieties (with similar characteristics) that might be the common ancestor of Primativo and Zinfandel. The hunt has now settled on Plavac Mali, a Croatian varietal which has all of the characteristics of the U.S. and Italian varietals and can be traced back many centuries in its native habitat. To date, as far as we can determine, no DNA testing has been done to confirm the connection among Zinfandel, Primativo and Plavac Mali, but the circumstantial evidence is strong. So, for now at least, if you are asked where Zinfandel came from, answer, "Croatia's Plavac Mali grape." You won't easily be proved wrong. Cheers!
Zinfandel update - In April 2003, trade magazine Harpers
reported that Primitivo is not Zinfandel. While the two grapes are
genetically identical they are not the same. Primitivo means 'first grape' and
always ripens around 10 days earlier than Zinfandel when planted in the same
place. Among other differences Primitivo does not raisin as rapidly but it
ripens more steadily without grapes ranging from rosé to raisin on the same
bunch. Looser bunches also mean that Primitivo is less prone to botrytis.
Pinot Noir is among the most difficult of all grapes. Thin skinned, low in tannin, much given to mildew, rot and viruses, it challenges the skill and perseverance of both grape growers and winemakers. Pinot Noir is a capricious grape. It has many clonal varieties some of which show large differences in their characteristics. This adds to the winemaker's difficulty in producing wines that are definably "Pinot Noir." Perhaps it is because it is so hard to achieve Pinot Noir excellence that so many winemakers are driven to try. While Pinot Noir is the dominant red grape of Burgundy, where it has been grown for centuries and where it has reached its greatest reknown, it is also planted in Alsace, the Loire, Germany and Austria (where it is called Spätburgunder), Croatia (where it goes by the name Burgundac Crni), most of central and eastern Europe including Hungary (where it is called Nagyburgundi), Switzerland, Italy (where it becomes Pinot Nero, or Pignola, or Blauburgunder), California, Oregon, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. It is also used extensively in Champagne, California, and Australia as one of the base grapes (along with Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier) for making sparkling wines. At its best, Pinot Noir has a nose full of the nuanced tastes of one or a combination of ripe red fruits such as raspberries, cherries, strawberries and red currants. The wine often has an earthy, gamy character which has been called "barnyard" or "wet saddle" or "truffles and undergrowth." It has a sweet fruitiness in the mouth and a long, pleasant finish. Traditional foods to serve with Pinot Noir include game, chicken made with red wine sauces, and salmon.
Last updated April 15, 2003