The undisputed king of red wines, Cabernet is a remarkably steady and consistent performer throughout much of the state. While it grows well in many appellations, in specific appellations it is capable of rendering wines of uncommon depth, richness, concentration and longevity. Bordeaux has used the grape since the 18th century, always blending it with Cabernet Franc, Merlot and sometimes a soupçon of Petite Verdot. The Bordeaux model is built around not only the desire to craft complex wines, but also the need to ensure that different grape varieties ripen at different intervals or to give a wine color, tannin or backbone.
Elsewhere in the world-and it is found almost everywhere in the world-Cabernet Sauvignon is as likely to be bottled on its own as in a blend. It mixes with Sangiovese in Tuscany, Syrah in Australia and Provence, and Merlot and Cabernet Franc in South Africa, but flies solo in some of Italy’s super-Tuscans. In the United States., it’s unlikely any region will surpass Napa Valley’s high-quality Cabernets and Cabernet blends. Through most of the grape’s history in California (which dates to the 1800s), the best Cabernets have been 100 percent Cabernet. Since the late 1970s, many vintners have turned to the Bordeaux model and blended smaller portions of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petite Verdot into their Cabernets. The case for blending is still under review, but clearly there are successes. On the other hand, many U.S. producers are shifting back to higher percentages of Cabernet, having found that blending doesn’t add complexity and that Cabernet on its own has a stronger character.
At its best, unblended Cabernet produces wines of great intensity and depth of flavor. Its classic flavors are currant, plum, black cherry and spice. It can also be marked by herb, olive, mint, tobacco, cedar and anise, and ripe, jammy notes. In warmer areas, it can be supple and elegant; in cooler areas, it can be marked by pronounced vegetal, bell pepper, oregano and tar flavors (a late ripener, it can’t always be relied on in cool areas, which is why Germany, for example, has never succumbed to the lure). It can also be very tannic if that is a feature of the desired style. The best Cabernets start out dark purple-ruby in color, with firm acidity, a full body, great intensity, concentrated flavors and firm tannins.
Cabernet has an affinity for oak and usually spends 15 to 30 months in new or used French or American barrels, a process that, when properly executed imparts a woody, toasty cedar or vanilla flavor to the wine while slowly oxidizing it and softening the tannins. Microclimates are a major factor in the weight and intensity of the Cabernets. Winemakers also influence the style as they can extract high levels of tannin and heavily oak their wines.
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Wine in its simplest form is fermented grape juice. Then, why do they vary so much in price and taste? Have you ever found yourself in front of a bewildering amass of wine bottles at your local wine store trying to select the right one for a special occasion? So, how do you unravel some of the mystery behind it to make your holiday shopping easier?
If you are an avid wine drinker, you could spend some time trying to understand wines. You could become the wine expert that everyone seeks advice from. First, learn how to read the label on a bottle of wine. Typically, most French wines are not labeled by varietal i.e. Cabernet, Merlot etc., however, most of the new world wine is labeled by varietal. New world wines are produced outside the traditional wine-growing areas of Europe.
The new world includes Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States. Old world wine regions are Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain. Each one makes vastly different styles of wine even within their own borders. The term “old /new world” is used to describe general differences in cultivation and winemaking philosophies. In old world regions, tradition, the role of unique pieces of land, and the climate are more important versus in the new world, where science and the role of the winemaker are more often emphasized.
A Bordeaux wine is any wine produced in the Bordeaux region of France, and is almost 80% red, and is a blend. Permitted grapes are Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Malbec. Typical top-quality Chateaux blends are 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc & 15% Merlot. This is typically referred to as the “Bordeaux Blend.” Burgundy is one of France’s main wine producing areas. It is well known for both its red and white wines, mostly made from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes, respectively. Beaujolais & Beaujolais Nouveau are red wine made from Gamay grapes produced in the Beaujolais region of France. Beaujolais Nouveau is the most popular. It is fermented for just a few weeks. It is officially released for sale on the third Thursday of November. This is a heavy favorite, served at harvest celebrations and at Thanksgiving.
Antoney Manipadam is a Certified Sommelier, pursuing the Master Sommelier Certification. He Owns and operates Lake Mary Cork&Olive;, the best wine store in Lake Mary, Florida. Website:
Wine may have been with us for over 8,000 years, but France was the center of all things wine until roughly 40 years ago. France still produces excellent wines, but so do many other locations across the planet. You can experience them by sampling reds and whites from each and comparing the different offerings.
The French know wine and the world acknowledged as much. While you could find wines in other areas like Italy, nobody could challenge the quality of the wine in France. Well, at least that was the prevailing opinion until a certain blind tasting happened. The Judgment in Paris in the late 1970s showed that other regions, in this case California, could produce quality wines as well. Wine experts were unable to distinguish between French and California wines and actually gave their highest marks to a California vintage. The world of wine was forever to be changed.
The importing of wine vines and knowledge around the world led to an explosion of wine producing regions. Modern agricultural practices and mechanisms helped further the cause as well. Before you knew it, Argentina was producing wine that compared nicely to some of the better known regions. In fact, many countries were producing quality wine that had never done so before.
A fun thing to do is to gather the wine drinkers amongst your friends and family. Every week or month, hold a wine tasting party focused on wines from a particular region. Hand out wine journals so you can keep notes on the vintages so that comparisons can be made. Slowly, but surely, work your way across the world of wines. The goal isn’t so much to identify the “best” wines as it is to expose yourself to new and interesting variations.
What are the key wine regions in these modern times? Well, the standard bearers like France, Italy and California are still at the top of the heap. That being said, make sure to try wines from South Africa, Chile, Australia and Argentina as well. You just might discover a wine you can’t stop talking about!
Thomas Ajava writes for – where you can buy wine journals that make great for friends and family as well as wine tasting parties and trips.
Australia has become a world leader in domestic and exported wine. What began as a few vineyard cuttings over 200 years ago has now flourished into an amazing industry – the fourth largest in the world!
Australia exports over 450 million litters of wine each year across the globe. The burgeoning wine industry has been an economic boon for the country. Not only have the +2,000 vineyards provided jobs, wineries have increased employment in other areas and improved tourism as visitors come to Australia to tour local wineries.
Australia’s wine is considered to be some of the most exquisite and delicious wine produced in the world, but it took many decades to reach that point.
The First Cuttings
Grapes are not native to Australia. The first vineyard cuttings were brought into the country when Australia still served as a penal colony. In 1788 Governor Phillips attempted to harvest the grapes for personal use but his efforts failed.
Fortunately, others succeeded where the governor failed. In the following years Australia began to see an influx of settlers who began to attempt to cultivate grapes using new processes. This is seen as the true beginning of Australia’s wine industry.
By 1820 the first winemakers in Australia were offering their products for sale inside the country. It was very
popular and quite chic to be one of the first to sample ‘home-grown’ or domestic Australian wine in the early part of the 19th century.
Across the Pond
In 1822 Gregory Blaxland burst onto the Australian wine scene and changed it forever. Mr. Blaxland was the first Australian vintner to attempt to export his product. He did so with great success and even garnered rewards, including the first award ever awarded to an Australian wine in an overseas exposition.
After Mr. Blaxland set Australia’s name on the winemaking map its popularity began to grow worldwide. In the mid 19th century a bottle of Australian wine was sent by ship to Her Majesty, Queen Victoria.
One of the best known and oft related stories in wine history concerns an Australian wine. In 1873 at the Vienna Exposition judges tasted wine from different countries without knowing which country the wine was from. This is called a blind tasting. A French judge pronounced his favour upon an Australian wine but immediately withdrew in protest once he was made aware of the provenance of the wine. His reason? Only a French wine could be of such a high quality!
More settlers flooded into the country and found opportunities in the winemaking industry. The first vineyards were mainly backyard operations but with the new manpower and fortunes of the recent arrivals entirely new winemaking regions were identified, improving the country’s winemaking operations.
An Unfortunate Event
The Australian wine industry was devastated in the 1890’s by an epidemic of phylloxera. This is a plight similar to aphids that completely destroys all vegetation. Vineyards around the country were destroyed.
The country worked for many decades to rebuild their wine industry. It struggled for years on sweet and fortified wines. But, in the late 1970’s production was once again up and running at world leader standards.
A True World Leader
The most popular wine in Australia would have to be the Penfolds Grange. This incredible wine has won many competitions through the years. The 1955 vintage was allowed to age until 1962 before being submitted to competitions. Since that time it has won over 50 gold medals.
A wonderful wine culture has emerged in Australia. Wine bars, and boutique wineries are found around the continent and very popular with all ages. Locals and tourists enjoy holidays at Australian wineries where they can tour the winery and see the wine being made. Australia also is home to several large wine events including Taste Australia and the Margaret River Wine Region Festival.
No matter where you are in Australia you will find grapes being grown for winemaking. The main wineries are found in the south, in Victoria, and in New South Wales because of the cooler climate. But, even visitors to the hot centre of Alice Springs will find a local winery to cool things off.
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The Trials and Tribulations of Australian Wine Game
There is little doubt that the Australian wine-grower has had a tough time of it lately. If it`s not climate change playing havoc with the ripening cycles and rain fall averages, it`s the strength of the Aussie dollar relative to the US dollar – totally devastating the export value of the average bottle of good old Barossa shiraz…
There is however another aspect to the trials and tribulations of the industry which is becoming more and more apparent – brand Australia is no longer the coolest kid on the wine block with the groovy sneakers and matching i-phone.
There was a time not too long ago when the UK supermarkets were bulging with good value Australian reds that were being consumed in near-alarming amounts along with the weekend take-away Chicken Tikka dinners and Coronation Street episodes so beloved by the average British household.
At the time, it was cool to rag the French and Bulgarians for lousy low-end wines and every visiting Australian winemaker was treated like Mick Jagger on a come-back tour every time they touched down at Heathrow.
These days, it`s the Chileans and Argentineans who have elbowed their ways into the hearts and minds of most UK and US wine shoppers, and it`s hurting back home in a big way.
It has to be said that the average bottle of South American wine is cheaper to produce by a country mile than most Australian wines. They are also producing new and exciting varietals such as Malbec and Carmenere (like Shiraz but mostly sweeter and denser). With most trends the cycle highs and lows are always extreme, and currently my antipodean hackles are being raised by the amount of negative international press we are getting in the global marketplace. Some of the bad press is justified as it is fair to say that the impact of Robert Parker`s preference for certain styles of wines have moulded a lot of Australian winemaker’s product – only to be left high and dry as the global consumer is nudged toward alternate countries styles and varietals.
As Victoria`s Secret Super-Model Heidi Klum is famous for saying of fashion “One Minute You are In and the Next Minute you are Out…”
There are green grass-shoots of hope amongst all of this.
Firstly it has forced a lot of producers to take a look at what they produce and how they produce it. Regions are being examined a lot more closely to understand exactly what varietals work best in a specific place – so Riesling out of Clare, Shiraz out of Barossa and so on. This is a good thing and can only result in more carefully considered wines which have the best chance of showing what they can do best.
The next thing is that it has started to produce interesting and hereto unknown varietals out of Australia, like Spanish sourced Savagnin or also called Traminer (a style like Sauvignon Blanc) – which really gives the South Island of New Zealand a run for its money with Sauvignon Blanc. Heathcote is producing some pretty sexy Tempranillo and I tasted a 100% Mouvedre from Coonawarra the other day which would make angels weep.
Winemakers are also travelling more – making wines in different countries and learning more about consumer styles and trends. I was lucky enough to spend some time with Two Hands winemaker Matt Wenk last month – in Singapore to meet, greet and drink with expats at a recent Austcham event. What was brought home to me in a big way was his commitment to the notion that a winery was at its best if drawing grapes from multiple regions and making the most of the chosen varietals – the experts call this Regional Differentiation. I reckon it is here to stay and will be the foundation of the rebirth of the Australian wine industry in years to come.
I manage an online wine e-tail portal in Singapore – servicing most of South East Asia. Our specialty is New World Wines into Singapore, Hong Kong and China.
A “connoisseur” – according to Oxford – is an “expert judge in matter of taste”. For sure you know what you like and dislike, so already that makes you a judge. As for being an expert, you have “to have special knowledge of or skill in a subject”. OK, this might require a bit of work but I can assure you it is much easier than most connoisseurs would have you believe.
Realize first that the key to being an expert in wine is to know precisely what aspects to look for in any bottle you uncork. The average novice has a vague idea at best. Consequently, despite the fact that both persons have the same discerning abilities, no matter how much wine the novice drinks, it won’t improve his ability to judge properly.
So what we will do here is to spell out in plain English the basic but quintessential virtues that make for a good bottle of wine. I think this will help you evaluate every glass of wine and form an expert opinion with ease. I am going to take you through just three fundamental areas of appreciation, namely Typicity, Quality and Age-worthiness. Mastering them is all that stands between you – a wine novice – and you – a wine connoisseur.
Style and Typicity
The style of wine from Bordeaux will and should be different from Napa Valley or Chile, otherwise wine would be a terribly boring hobby. No one style rules supreme in the wine domain. Typicity which describes how accurate the rendition of the style that the wine is supposed to manifest, is very important quality.
An average wine connoisseur is familiar with about 30 styles of wine. It doesn’t take long for a novice to achieve that. All you need to do is to taste a lot. Your palates have excellent memory even if your mind struggles to find more Giga bytes to store a lot of facts and figures. Very soon, when you open a bottle of Brunello di Montalcino, all your senses will automatically receive a download of tasting expectations. And even if the wine tastes very good it would be a disappointment if it doesn’t reflect the quality of its roots. So questions like “Are Australian wines better than French?” are really missing the point.
Quality
With the topic of style down pat, we can take a look at quality of taste. It is actually quite easy. I just need your mind to zoom in on five key areas. Your senses will then render an expert opinion on whether the stuff is good, bad or ugly. The five areas are:
Consistency
Intensity
Vigor
Balance
Finish
Consistency is about tactile qualities that leave a rewarding palate impression, not about flavors. Wine writers like to use the term Body to describe the weight of a wine. Full-, medium- and light-body describe how heavy and light a wine feels on the tongue. But size isn’t everything so in addition to body, we’re also looking for texture of smoothness and silkiness. The great Burgundy wine of Chambertin is well known for its remarkable combination of a full body and a velvety texture.
The flavors of a wine might come in low, medium or high intensity, much like the volume of music played on a stereo. Great wine comes with an appropriate level of intensity just high enough to capture your undivided attention yet not excessively so as to drown out everything else. It is such deft touch that separates the great Australian wine – Grange (Hermitage) – from many expensive baubles out of the same region.
Vigor comes from acidity without which the wine would taste dull and flat if not downright boring. Great chefs often squeeze a splash of lemon juice to finish off a dish. The presence of the same kind of fresh acidity adds crispiness to a wine making it taste racy with a bit of welcomed levity. The great Italian Barolo from Piedmont are endowed with this quality and so are some of the lovely Sauvignon Blanc white wines from New Zealand.
Balance is the quintessential quality of a great wine. A wine is out of balance if one component sticks out like a sore thumb. Most frequently encountered flaws that throw a wine out of balance are excessively high alcohol which makes the wine taste overly dry and astringent (“hot” in wine jargon) and in white wines especially Chardonnays, excessively woody (“oaky” in wine jargon) and buttery which effaces the fruit flavors in the wine. The great Château Lafite-Rothschild is benchmark for balance par excellence.
The word “finish” refers to the length and quality of the aftertaste. In a long finish, flavors linger on for nearly a minute. But length isn’t everything if the aftertaste fails to maintain its balance. Some long finishes fall apart giving way to a distinctly sour or bitter impression. Length doesn’t always bring satisfaction.
Age-worthiness
To achieve greatness a wine must first undergo the arduous challenge of time. Most wines are not made with greatness in mind. For them, time is an insidious revelation of their mediocrity. For the best of breeds, age imbues in them depth and complexity of flavors. That distinguishes the wine from the merely good. Knowing this, fastidious connoisseurs relentlessly scour the town for old vintages pricey as some old bottles could (and should) be. Novices on the other hand go for brand names and sometimes settle for wines that are far too young to drink, rarely getting their money’s worth. After all, it is the ability of wine to improve with age that positions it above all the other beverages.
By now, you have endued yourself with more than enough knowledge to be your own expert judge on every bottle you drink. If you feel lacking a bit in exposure and experience, then just drink and drink and drink some more. But drinking the same stuff over and over again won’t help. Best advice is for you to refrain from ordering the same wine night in and night out. Your time is best spent with a new fancy every evening. Promiscuity is inextricably married to connoisseurship. Even if you can’t divorce yourself from the “usual” at least be adventurous with different vintages of the same wine. Every year produces a different version of the same wine. This too is part of the myriad of fascinations that the world of wine has to offer.
Whether you are an assiduous restaurateur, a gregarious hobbyist or just a raver with a penchant for the finer things, wine is certainly an affair worth pursuing. This is one relationship which allows you to define all the rules. It can be a languid sidekick or you can take it seriously with a lot of respect and understanding. Ultimately it probably won’t love you back and it certainly won’t stop demanding more of your time, attention and alas, money. If this sounds like a raw deal, then perhaps this is one affair you should sidestep.
But imagine if that’s not a problem for you, what else in life can offer an reward so prodigious as something different and exciting to look forward to every single night?
Tim Drake is resident wine journalist in Asia, contributing to magazines and broadsheet in wine and the lifestyle that this beverage has created for the modern world.
Everybody loves a good scandal, and this one`s got government officials scurrying for cover like sprayed cockroaches – from Barcelona to the Barossa…somebody has stuffed up big time…
Like with the rugby, the global dominance of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc is annoying for every good Australian wine-grower and it is heartening to see the growers trying new regions, clones and varietals to come up with a contender to the good old Marborough cats-pee and capsicum concoctions of New Zealand.
One of the countries the Australians looked to for alternatives was Spain and in particular, the Albarino grape.
To cut a long story short, the Australians shipped the varietal in, planted it, labelled and started selling it…..then a few years later somebody in the corridors of power finished his tea break, looked at the Australian Albarino clone under a microscope and found out that in actual fact the stuff is NOT Albarino – it is something called Sauvinee Blanc (The word Sauvinee has a fabulous Spanish twirl over the “e” but I have given up looking for it on my laptop).
The Australian authorities are blaming the Spanish authorities who are denying any liability and the farmers, quite rightly are howling for blood, after investing in the varietal and its potential positioning in the global market. I first fell over the grape at an ANZA Wine Club Spanish night, and the first thing that came into my Chorizo and Grenacha addled-mind at the time was – “holy hell this stuff is good Sauvignon Blanc.”
It has the same acid – maybe a bit more refined. It generally has that same crisp acid potential that we demand from our Sauvignon Blanc together a fair slug of lush tropical fruit. It seems in short, a great Sauvignon Blanc alternative for those interested in the next-best-thing in aromatic whites, and how cares what its called – so long as it tastes good?
I have chosen a version from each side of the fence on this one to recommend.
From Australia, my flavour of the moment is Jim Irvine’s Albarino/Sauvignee Blanc from the Barossa.
From Spain – the source of the Scandal – Eidos de Padrinan Albarino 2008 from Spain.
As a twin pack in a history lesson its loads more fun than learning about the Magna Carta any day…
I manage an online wine e-tail portal in Singapore – servicing most of South East Asia. Our specialty is New World Wines into Singapore, Hong Kong and China. robert@wineexchangeasia.com
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