News and Views About Wine and The Good Life in Southern California, and Beyond.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Hot Wines and “Fruit Bombs”
by Frank Mangio
Wine has long been a civil drink for just about as long as history. It can be found in most adult gatherings as people sip wine, exchange pleasantries and use wine as a catalyst for occasions from a small family gathering to large elegant weddings. To underline this cultural tradition, the latest worldwide retail sales figures show wine increasing to 27 billion dollars compared to 18 billion in 2000.
What started out as a whisper has now mushroomed to grab more ink in the trade publications: the alcohol content of certain California wines is starting to creep up. What really caught my attention was a letter to the Wine Spectator from the respected and widely known vineyard owner from Napa, Andrew Beckstoffer.
I walked and tasted Beckstoffer grapes a couple of years ago, in the Dr. Crane and To Kalon vineyards off the 29 near Oakville. They were perfectly balanced with hang-time orchestrated for under 15% alcohol in red wines. Lately, wines from a number of California appellations have been bottled too “hot,” are lighting fires on the palate, and are clearly “fruit bombs.” These wines are not made as a complement to food, but are made to appease certain influential wine critics who drop strong hints that these higher alcohol, overripe “fruit bombs” will automatically get higher ratings.
Beckstoffer in his alert letter said “I really don’t think that veteran winemakers want to make these wines. I believe they are pressured by new owners to get scores ….we need wines that compliment food and present the subtleties of our various terroirs and regions.”
A fellow columnist of mine and a long-time wine writer, Robert Whitely, co-incidently wrote on this very subject last week. He wondered aloud whether consumers who are running up sales of these type of wines, really want wines with high alcohol, so he put the question to his constituents. He found out that he touched a nerve with his readers. “Never in my 17 years as a wine journalist have I seen such an outpouring from readers on a single subject. A majority of readers who responded are fed up with the high octane wines” he declared. Many readers decried the fine print, tucked-away information on alcohol content on the label. Some feared that if the trend continued, wine would be just a bar drink and not for family and special occasion table consumption.
Labels:
fruit bombs,
high alcohol wine,
mumm napa,
red wines,
robert whitley
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