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The Wine's the Thing
Mitch Kornfeld
4/18
King Cab, Part V --
Cabernet Sauvignon Hops a Few Oceans
Last time I was in Italy so I'll start out by hopping over a stretch of
the Mediterranean and visit Spain. Spain, like Italy, is the Old World so it
has a great deal of acreage and many indigenous varieties, as well as
many wine-growing regions. The use of Cabernet Sauvignon in Spain is
somewhat similar to its use in Italy but on a smaller scale. The difference
is the Spanish didn't have the image problems with their wines that the
Italians did with cheap Chiantis, and whatever problems they did have they
did not react by calling in the cabernet heavy cavalry.
Sure, there are
commercial considerations in the picture, some cabernet must have been
planted in Spain because of the cachet of the variety, but they didn't overdo
it, and its use appears to be more honest experimentation than anything
else.
Experimentation is an apt word because in order to try Spanish wines made with
cabernet the "average" consumer will be experimenting with wines from regions
within Spain that are not exactly household names, such as Navarra, La
Mancha, (all right, so maybe that one is a household name) Penedès, Priorato,
Ribera Del Duero, and Sardon Del Duero. Rioja is the best known wine region
in Spain and though they are not exactly hidebound by tradition over there,
they do have a history, and a track record, and undoubtedly some pride, so
they haven't embraced bringing in cabernet or other Bordeaux varieties. This
is understandable. If you said the leading wine region in France was
Bordeaux, and you suggested to the Bordelais that they should plant some
Tempranillo, Sangiovese, or Nebbiolo (the best native varieties of
Spain and Italy) to upgrade their wines, what do you think they would say?
Enough said.
So if you are looking for Cabernet Sauvignon from Spain you
have to look outside of Rioja. This is generally a good thing for the
consumer as the lesser known regions usually aren't able to command the
prices that the famous regions do, but that can change, and relatively
quickly too. I remember when you could get a good Pinot Noir from the then
(early 1980's) virtually unknown region of Santa Barbara County (California)
for eight dollars. These days you can hardly touch them for under twenty,
and they can go for much more.
Most cabernet plantings in Spain are relatively recent but there are some
varietal Cabernet Sauvignons (as opposed to blends) that have been around a
while, notably the Torres Gran Coronas Reserva and the Cabernet Sauvignon
from Jean Leon. They have been on the scene since around the late 1960's.
They are both from the Penedès region, and they will both set you back about
$20. A couple of other Cabernet Sauvignons you might find come from Bodegas
Albet I Noya, also in Penèdes, and from Marqués De Griñon, in La Mancha.
They will probably be closer to $30 a bottle.
Using Cabernet in blends is popular among Spanish producers. Most often,
but not always, they blend cabernet with Tempranillo -- 60/40 appears to be a
popular ratio. An up and coming winery named Abadia Retuerta, from the
Sardon Del Duero region makes a wine named Rivola that is 60% Tempranillo and
40% cabernet. A wine named Gran Creacion, from Bodegas Hermanos Morales
(Morales Brothers Winery) in La Mancha is also a 60/40 Tempranillo/cabernet
blend, and a wine named Vega Sindoa, from Bodegas Nekas in Navarra is 60%
cabernet and 40% Tempranillo. These last two wines are both under $10. (I
last saw the Vega Sindoa at Union Square Wines for $8.99.) The Vega Sindoa
has the percentages of the cabernet and the Tempranillo prominently displayed
on the front label. I find that really refreshing, especially after looking
at Italian labels. The wine is very refreshing too. I don't detect any oak
(I've tried the '97 and the'98) but the wine is quite fruity and really
tastes good. It's a real charmer, a perfect bistro wine, and an excellent
value.
There are new and exciting wines coming from Spain these days. The
situation is analogous to Italy and the ascendancy of the Super Tuscans. In
Tuscany they either use Sangiovese by itself or they blend it with French
varieties. In Spain they make 100% Tempranillos or they blend with French
varieties. The French varieties are of course led by Cabernet Sauvignon.
Both countries also make varietal Cabernet Sauvignons and Bordeaux variety
blends, usually with cabernet in a leading role. The Spanish wines are less
well known than the Super Tuscans so they are usually better values. Do
yourself a favor and seek some out before they really get discovered.
Now it's time to cross an ocean and the equator and visit South America,
specifically Chile and Argentina. I'll start by discussing some
commonalities between the two countries then delve off into specifics.
The first thing that Chile and Argentina have in common (to a large
extent) is the weather. Chile's weather is similar to California's. It's
basically sunny all summer. Argentina is even sunnier. It is on the other
side of the Andes Mountains and the barrier provided by the mountains keeps
the Pacific rains from reaching. It is said that Mendoza Province,
Argentina's wine making center, enjoys 350 days of sunshine a year. The
Andes also provide for another commonality, and that's ample water run-off
for irrigation. That's one of the reasons we see all of that Chilean fruit
during the northern hemisphere's winter. Unfortunately what's good for
commercial fruit production isn't good for wine quality. Irrigation can give
nice big yields, but for wine, quantity varies inversely with quality. In
other words, you can't make a high quality wine with grapes that are bloated
with water. When the yields start coming down we will see better wines from
the southern part of South America. With that said, one can find good wines
that are made not so far from Tierra Del Fuego. Now let's look at the two
countries individually and see if we can find a few of them.
Chile will always command some interest as a wine-producing nation
because it is the only country in the world that produces all of its wine
from Vitis Vinifera vines grown on their own roots. That statement may
require some explanation. If you already know the explanation just skip down
to the two hypothetical test plots.
Vitis Vinifera (the wine bearer) is the name of the species of the grape
vine that makes all of the fine wines we know and love, all the Cabernet
Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Riesling, you name it. It is all
one species and all the familiar varieties are just that, varieties of the
one species. However, with a capital "H," virtually the world over, with rare
exceptions, and with the major exception of Chile, all the Vinifera vines are
grafted onto roots of different species of the genus Vitis. These roots
originally came from the United States, specifically the northeast United
States. This is because these roots are resistant to a particularly nasty
parasitic insect that is also from the northeast United States called
phylloxera, scientifically phylloxera vastatrix, phylloxera the destroyer.
It attaches itself to the roots of the vines and will eventually suck the
life out of the plant. It's said that an infestation of phylloxera will not
affect the quality of the wine, but I'd call killing the plant affecting the
quality. Phylloxera inadvertently traveled to Europe from the U.S. in about
1860 where it wiped out the vineyards. The only solution was to graft
Vinifera vines onto American rootstocks that had evolved with phylloxera and
were resistant to it. In other words all the famous wines of Europe, all of
France, Italy, Germany, and Portugal, are basically grown on the same type of
rootstock that produces Welch's grape juice. This applies worldwide except
for Chile. Phylloxera has never gotten by the barriers of the Andes and the
oceans. This is how come wine lovers understand why your baggage is checked for fruits and vegetables from other countries.
When I first started studying up on wine in the early and mid 1970's I
came across references to pre- and post-phylloxera wines. Apparently there
was quite a debate and not a few people who thought that
pre-phylloxera wines were superior. The debate was pretty much moot even
then, but if you want to drink a wine made from Vitis Vinifera grown on its
own roots (again, with rare exceptions) you have to drink a wine from Chile.
In theory there is one way to settle the pre- and post-phylloxera debate,
though I have the feeling that it would only start it again, as there are no
absolutes in matters of taste, and that's to plant two test plots in Chile.
One plot would be of ungrafted Vinifera and the other would be of grafted.
If they are harvested at the same level of ripeness and made into wine in the
exact same way, that should show which is better. This of course is
completely hypothetical as I don't see any Chilean doing this because if the
wine made from the grafted vines turned out to be better there would go
Chile's claim to fame, so it's not about to happen.
So, you ask how are the Chilean wines, and the Chilean Cabernet Sauvignons? They're good, sometimes quite good indeed, but they are definitely not
great. I've been hearing about the potential of Chilean wines for quite a
while but they still have not gotten to the promised land of top quality. I
have my reservations about using numerical ratings for wines (I advise
reading the reviews rather than relying on the numbers) but in this instance
they are useful for illustrative purposes. I usually see Chilean wines
receiving ratings in the mid-80's with the occasional 90 or 91. These
ratings are not much better than those garnered from wines made on Long
Island, New York. The first modern winery on Long Island started planting
grapes in 1973, so Chile had a head start of well over a century. With a
head start like that they should be doing better. The predictions have been
that they will do better and I have to agree with those predictions. Foreign
investment, notably French and American, have picked up since General
Pinochet left office in 1987, and those investments will pay off (actually
they're already paying off). Also, the international marketplace with its
proverbial and powerful invisible hand will force the Chilean producers to
improve quality. Meanwhile keep in mind that an $8 bottle of
Cabernet Sauvignon that tastes like Cabernet Sauvignon is a good thing.
One to try for $8 or $9 that is good, reliable, and not hard to find is
the Casillero del Diablo Cabernet Sauvignon from Concha y Toro. They've just
changed the label and the bottle (to Bordeaux style from Burgundy, I much
prefer Bordeaux, they are way better for stacking), but you'll recognize the
devil (diablo) either way, he looks just like Martin Brodeur in full uniform.
Well actually he doesn't, but I've been a New York Rangers fan for a good
four decades (and I'm ready for them to win The Cup again in 2048, they win
every 54 years, unlike the Red Sox), so what do you expect?
Some other good Chilean cabernets that are down around $10 are made by
Casa Lapostolle, Cousino Macul, Dallas Conte, Errazuriz, Miguel Torres (The
same Torres that makes wine in Penedès, Spain -- their inexpensive bottling is
called Santa Digna), Mont Gras, Montes (Curico Valley Reserva), Santa
Carolina (Maipo Valley Reserva) and Los Vascos. These firms usually make
Reserve versions of these cabernets. The bottlings from Concha y Toro go
under the name Don Melchor Private Reserve (they're about $40). The
Errazuriz is called Don Maximiano Estate Reserva (about $25). The Los Vascos
is simply called Reserva (about $15). The Cousino Macul is called Antiguas
Reserva. The Casa Lapostolle is called Cuvée Alexandre (about $18) and the
Santa Rita Reserve cabernet is called Casa Real (about $16).
Some of the best Cabernet Sauvignons of Chile show the results of foreign
investment. Vina Almaviva is a joint venture between Concha y Toro and
Chateau Mouton Rothschild, the famous First Growth Bordeaux. Sena is a joint
venture between Errazuriz and Robert Mondavi Winery, an outfit of some renown
from Napa Valley, California. Unfortunately the wines are pricey. The Sena
is about $60 and the Puente Alto from Almaviva lists for $87. There are also
a few other top cabernets from Chile. Montes makes a wine called Alpha M
(about $60). Vina Quebrada de Macul makes a wine called Domus Aurea (about
$50), and Miguel Torres makes Manso de Velasco Reserva (about $35).
It has been said that vintage years aren't that important for Chile and
Argentina as they get plenty of sunshine every year. As long as one is
buying $8 wines that is sound advice, but at $50 I'd confine my
purchases to the higher quality vintages -- 1997 was very good, and 1999 looks
to be excellent, but 1998 experienced heavy rains. It turns out that 1998
was one of those El Nino years (or was it La Nina, I forget; in any case I
wish they would come up with more non-sectarian names for the phenomena, but
we'll Passover that one).
Crossing the Andes we come to Argentina, where they don't have $60
cabernets, at least not yet. I recently saw a piece in the financial section
of The New York Times (Saturday, March 10th if you feel compelled to look it
up) about how foreign investment is starting to come into the Argentine wine
industry in a big way, so those big price tag Cabernet Sauvignons will start
arriving in about another decade. Meanwhile we can expect to see more wines
exported from Argentina, which is a good thing because they have a nice
variety of some good wines, all at reasonable prices. (Looking for a good,
and different, picnic wine? Try an Argentine Torrontes. It tastes like a
baby Gewurztraminer at $6 a bottle.) Generally, quality is a little behind
Chile, but so are the prices. The best wines are only about $20, and the ones
we commonly see are in the $7 to $10 range. As with Chile, Cabernet
Sauvignon is their best wine. Unlike Chile, and just about everywhere else,
their most abundant varietal red is Malbec. Malbec is one of the five red
Bordeaux varieties. Outside of Argentina everyone agrees it's either number
four or number five of the five in terms of quality, but its found a home in
Argentina, where it does at least as well as anywhere in the world. (By the
way, Chile is the only place where they grow the sixth red Bordeaux variety,
that's right, sixth. Can you name it? Answer at the end.) You might come
across a good $8 Malbec from a firm by the name of Norton. It's guaranteed
to make a Honeymooners fan having a hamburger happy.
Argentina's best producer of Cabernet Sauvignon, and probably their best
all around winery, is Bodega Winert. After Weinert the best cabernet
producers that you are liable to find are Catena, Etchart, Toso, and Valentin
Bianchi. At the lower price ranges look for: Chateau Mendoza, Finca
Flichman, Navarro Correas, Norton, and Trapiche. Again, a cabernet rated in
the 80's (okay, maybe the low 80's) that costs $7 to $10 is not a bad thing.
Not everyone is made out of money.
For the last stop on this world tour I'm going to hop another ocean and
go to Australia. (I was going to do cabernet in the state of Washington, but
I've decided to save that for another time. For now suffice it to say
Cabernet Sauvignon makes their best wine too.) Though there are some
excellent cabernets from Australia, Cabernet Sauvignon is not their best red,
that distinction belongs to Syrah, which the Australians call Shiraz (and
from what I've read pronounce it "She-razz," though I've never heard anyone
say that). Syrah is a noble variety but I don't think that it's as flat-out
excellent as Cabernet Sauvignon.
The reason Syrah/Shiraz makes better wine
in Australia than cabernet is the Australian climate. Australia is mostly a
hot place and Shiraz does better in warmer temperatures while cabernet does
best in the middle temperature ranges (as temperature relates to wine
grapes). This makes sense when you consider that cabernet is a native of
Bordeaux, which has a moderate climate, while Syrah hails from the Côtes du
Rhone, which is in southern France, which is famous for warmth and
fun-in-the-sun. If you ever see a map of Australian wine regions you'll
notice that they are concentrated in the southernmost parts of the country,
where the climate isn't so torrid. There are even wines made in Tasmania,
which is south of Australia proper, though I haven't seen any on these shores
just yet, and there have been no sightings of Martin Brodeur on any labels.
Although Cabernet Sauvignon is a late ripening variety, the heat of
January in Australia isn't great for high quality cabernet. What cabernet
needs is sunshine from a long growing season, and though heat and sunshine are
obviously related, they are not necessarily the same thing. The Australian
heat gives you ripe grapes, but it also gives you grapes with low acidity.
(Not to be confused with low pH, which describes high acidity.) Acidity is
necessary to help wine age. Australian cabernets aren't great agers, at
least not when compared to Bordeaux, or for that matter the Napa Valley. I
would treat them as I do any other low acid wine (California Zinfandel comes
to mind) and enjoy them for their youth and fruitiness and their good
cabernet taste.
Three to five years old is about right for most of them and
the better ones should be just fine at eight to ten years old. These are
"New World" wines, fruity and open and oftentimes ready to drink when you
bring them home. You might try opening a bottle from the currently available
1998 vintage, one very good year. In addition to varietal Cabernet
Sauvignons, Australia produces many cabernet blends. Shiraz/cabernet and
cabernet/Shiraz are the most common, but you will also come across
Shiraz/cabernet/Merlots, cabernet/ Merlot/Shirazes, and "standard" Bordeaux
blends (i.e. cabernet/ Merlot/Cabernet Franc) and just about every possible
combination in between. The Aussies provide no shortage of variety.
Depending on where you are reading this, it is now a good time to buy
Australian wines. There's a good vintage for reds on the market (1998) and
the Aussie Dollar, apparently known by any and all as "the Aussie," is weak
these days. This is another thing I gleaned from reading the financial pages
recently. I find myself perusing financial news more and more. This is
something I used to never do. I disagree with dear old Dad who says I must
be getting more conservative. I know that isn't happening. Sometimes I'm
just keeping track of the progress of my technology stocks (if you can call
it progress). Besides, how am I ever going to get enough filthy lucre (Have
you ever noticed that no one ever calls it clean lucre?) to start my own
winery if I don't develop a little financial savvy?
Australian wines have always been noted for their value. This is
certainly a good a time as any to give them a try. The following are some of
Australia's better Cabernet Sauvignons. If they have a proprietary name it
will be after the hyphen and name of the producer. Prices, where available,
do vary:
Balvanes ($35), Bowen Estate, Chain of Ponds-Amadeus ($25), Chapel Hill
($20), Chateau Reynella-Basket Pressed ($25), Evans ($15), Leasingham
-Classic
Clare ($35), and -Bin56 Clare Valley ($15), Lindemans-St. George ($30),
Michelton ($20), Penley-Phoenix ($25), Penfolds -Bin 707 ($80),
and -Bin 407
($25), Petaluma (Named for a small city north of San Francisco.), Peter
Lehman ($20), Rosemount -Show Reserve ($24), and -Southeast Australia ($11),
Taltarni ($20), Tapestry-Bin388 ($28), Wolf Blass -President's Selection
Black Label, -and Yellow label ($12), and Wirra Wirra-Church Block ($20).
(The Penfolds Bin 707 is the most famous if you really must know. I haven't
tried it but the one time I tasted the Bin 407 I was impressed.)
And now the answer to today's question. The "sixth" red Bordeaux
variety is called Carmenère. In Bordeaux it was wiped out in the 1870's and
1880's by phylloxera and something called odium (powdery mildew), but it
survived in Chile. Apparently it was mislabeled as Merlot, but good old
modern science has straightened things out. You can find it if you look hard
enough. Concha y Toro is making one now. The Caliterra "Primus Merlot" is a
Carmenère. I loved the '95. The '99 should be excellent (it's in the high
teens).
After all of those New World wines, next week's installment will be about
a tasting that featured, you guessed it, European wines.
© Mitch Kornfeld 2001
All rights reserved
Send your comments or questions to...
mitchk@unionsquarejournal.com
Previously by Mitch Kornfeld...
King Cab, Part IV -- Italy
(04/04/01)
King Cab, Part III -- California
(03/21/01)
King Cab, Part II -- Bordeaux
(03/07/01)
King Cab, Part I -- Some Basics
(02/27/01)
For a Big Red, Think Petite
(02/18/02)
Tannic Monsters from the ID
(02/08/01)
New York Wine and Restaurant Deals
(01/30/01)
Dad's Cardinal Zins and Other Clichés
(01/20/01)
Some Basics for a Winter's Eve
(01/12/01)
And if They're Spanish That's Fine
(01/05/01)
Hello Carbon Dioxide (12/29/00)
Wines for Christmas (12/22/00)
Nouveau Beaujolais, Etc.
(11/24/00)
Going to a Tasting 101
(12/01/00)
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