Does Might Make Right?
The wine blogosphere has been awash with news of Randy Dunn’s letter to consumers telling them to essentially stop buying wines they like. At the heart of the matter is once again the controversy over high alcohol wines. If consumers like these wines so much that it has changed the way wines are being made all over the world, what exactly is wrong with them? The short answer is “nothing.” The longer answer is “they all taste the same.”
Varietal character, the terroir (where the grapes are grown) and the winemaker all contribute to the wine. These are the factors that determine what makes wine x taste different than wine z. When the alcohol starts to creep up past 15% many of these differences are drowned out by the sweetness of the alcohol.
This is not altogether different than what happens on the other end of a wine scale. By leaving a touch of residual sugar in an inexpensive wine, vintners can make wines labeled with varietal names that while not nasty because the sugar hides the flaws, but they have no actual varietal character.
And so it is with high alcohol wines, it becomes increasingly difficult to tell one from another, much less one variety from another.
These big alcohol wines are fruity, rich, easy drinking, and easy to enjoy. In fact they are all the things I like in my favorite wine, Zinfandel.
Zins are often high in alcohol, and since they are all about fruit, it suits them. Cabs are a different story. They have traditionally been all about structure, the delicate interplay between acidity, fruit and tannin. The market seems to be demonstrating that consumers feel Cabs should taste like Zins (ironically I recently tasted several Zins that were so oaked as to taste like Cabs).
Chardonnay too has not been spared the hike in alcohol content. For over oaked heavily lactic (buttery) Napa Chards this may be a good thing. The same can’t be said for regions such as Santa Barbara where Chardonnay traditionally has developed decent varietal character.
Many bloggers and wine writers are complaining that these wines don’t work well with food. I never thought Cab and Chard went all that well with food anyway, but I do hate to see Pinot Noirs with too little acidity and too much alcohol.
What worries Randy Dunn and so many others is that the consumers have shown a strong preference for these high alcohol styles. They fear that the days of individual expression in wine are waning. They needn’t fear.
Dunn’s wines are expensive, as are so many other really good wines. The cost alone keeps most consumers from every experiencing any wine of this level. Add in scarcity, and there just isn’t enough great wine to go around.
Most of these high alcohol wines are in the middle price range, or the lower end of the middle. Certainly there are some high priced wines that have adopted this fad, but then there have always been wines whose price tags are not borne out by their quality (Opus One is my favorite whipping boy in this category).
For top end producers I have a cliché for you to hold on to: If you make it, they will come. Keep making great wines, and there will always be a market for them. It will never be the mainstream market, but then it never has been.
As for berating consumers, it seems a silly thing for a winemaker to do – usually that is my job. I have been suggesting for years that you go forth and try something new. Something different. The joy of wine for me is the incredible variety of styles available. High alcohol wines may have shrunk the number of choices, but there are plenty of others to explore. There is an entire world of wine that you may never have experienced, but I won’t lie to you, some of them you will not like, but how will you know until you try?
Looking for a head start? Why not run out and get a Gewurztraminer from Alsace? These nearly bone dry wines have a heady aroma and are outstanding with most foods. Prefer red? I do, so it is quite understandable. When was the last time you drank a Spanish wine? What about something from your own home state?
Do you really love the high alcohol wines? Then drink one, don’t let me, Randy Dunn, or anyone else tell you that your taste is anything other than perfect exactly the way it is. It is your taste after all.
Varietal character, the terroir (where the grapes are grown) and the winemaker all contribute to the wine. These are the factors that determine what makes wine x taste different than wine z. When the alcohol starts to creep up past 15% many of these differences are drowned out by the sweetness of the alcohol.
This is not altogether different than what happens on the other end of a wine scale. By leaving a touch of residual sugar in an inexpensive wine, vintners can make wines labeled with varietal names that while not nasty because the sugar hides the flaws, but they have no actual varietal character.
And so it is with high alcohol wines, it becomes increasingly difficult to tell one from another, much less one variety from another.
These big alcohol wines are fruity, rich, easy drinking, and easy to enjoy. In fact they are all the things I like in my favorite wine, Zinfandel.
Zins are often high in alcohol, and since they are all about fruit, it suits them. Cabs are a different story. They have traditionally been all about structure, the delicate interplay between acidity, fruit and tannin. The market seems to be demonstrating that consumers feel Cabs should taste like Zins (ironically I recently tasted several Zins that were so oaked as to taste like Cabs).
Chardonnay too has not been spared the hike in alcohol content. For over oaked heavily lactic (buttery) Napa Chards this may be a good thing. The same can’t be said for regions such as Santa Barbara where Chardonnay traditionally has developed decent varietal character.
Many bloggers and wine writers are complaining that these wines don’t work well with food. I never thought Cab and Chard went all that well with food anyway, but I do hate to see Pinot Noirs with too little acidity and too much alcohol.
What worries Randy Dunn and so many others is that the consumers have shown a strong preference for these high alcohol styles. They fear that the days of individual expression in wine are waning. They needn’t fear.
Dunn’s wines are expensive, as are so many other really good wines. The cost alone keeps most consumers from every experiencing any wine of this level. Add in scarcity, and there just isn’t enough great wine to go around.
Most of these high alcohol wines are in the middle price range, or the lower end of the middle. Certainly there are some high priced wines that have adopted this fad, but then there have always been wines whose price tags are not borne out by their quality (Opus One is my favorite whipping boy in this category).
For top end producers I have a cliché for you to hold on to: If you make it, they will come. Keep making great wines, and there will always be a market for them. It will never be the mainstream market, but then it never has been.
As for berating consumers, it seems a silly thing for a winemaker to do – usually that is my job. I have been suggesting for years that you go forth and try something new. Something different. The joy of wine for me is the incredible variety of styles available. High alcohol wines may have shrunk the number of choices, but there are plenty of others to explore. There is an entire world of wine that you may never have experienced, but I won’t lie to you, some of them you will not like, but how will you know until you try?
Looking for a head start? Why not run out and get a Gewurztraminer from Alsace? These nearly bone dry wines have a heady aroma and are outstanding with most foods. Prefer red? I do, so it is quite understandable. When was the last time you drank a Spanish wine? What about something from your own home state?
Do you really love the high alcohol wines? Then drink one, don’t let me, Randy Dunn, or anyone else tell you that your taste is anything other than perfect exactly the way it is. It is your taste after all.
1 Comments:
To be frank (although actually, I'm Lia), I'm a little annoyed with the whole rage against high alcohol too. To me, it's the wine parallel of High Fructose Corn Syrup, or excessive sodium in food products. Mass food manufacturers know that the American palate adores the fake sweetness that HFCS adds to foods (it's in hot dog buns for cripes sake), and that if they throw in a few more spoonfuls of salt, all the better. But there is certainly no subtelty of flavor in those foods. And the people who eat them aren't looking for subtlety.
With food and with wine, we can either back off the quick fixes (most of the time) and allow our palates to pick up nuances, or train them to be dulled to anything but over the top tastes.
And that's not to say that, every once in a while, I don't like a big, juicy burger (on a bun that probably has HFCS in it) with a giant, lusty zin ;-).
Cheers,
Lia
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