Standing Up for Sweet Wine

I'm more than a little cranky tonight. It's been a really tough day, lots of arguments at work and in social and family life as well.

So, since I'm in the proper mood, here's a little rant that needs to be gotten off my chest.

What the hell is so wrong with sweetness in wine anyway? Look, I'm not talking about selling grape juice spiked with high fructose corn syrup with a touch of alcohol dumped in, but I'm getting a little tired of the assumption that sweet means bad, that liking a sweet wine is an indication of an infantile or ignorant palate.

Okay, so I'm actually worked up about this because I got stuck with a bottle of truly awful Gewürztraminer after a horrendous day. I'm snubbing a nearly full glass of it as I'm writing this. How did this happen? Well, it's painful to admit, but it happened because I let the anti-sweetness snobbery guide my choice. So, shame on me!

Where did I absorb such notions? Well, to start, I've heard over-and-over again the disdain held for little old ladies who want to drink sweet red wine and then proceed to get completely schnockered. I heard about them in the wine-tasting rooms of the Biltmore (where apparently whole busloads of them pull up, gulping down every free taste they can get). I've heard about these same ladies in various blogs, and I've heard about them from wine merchants. I never hear about them spoken of in positive tones, that's for sure. And yes, from the sound of it, some of this behavior is pretty annoying.

Humans like sweetness. Before you can get a baby to like any other flavor, you can get them to like sweetness. Saltiness follows, and then sour, and then bitter. This is why things like beer and coffee (both have bitter components) are aquired tastes. And, if you think about it, having an educated palate means you have acquired tastes. It means you've paid enough attention to your senses that nuance, elegance, and adventure in the form of the use of a wider range of flavors appeal to you, and that you can make sense of and appreciate more types of things.

I think the problem with sweetness is this: Liking something that is sweet is a no-brainer, for most people. So, a lot of people who are not paying attention to their wine at all will like sweet and be repelled by dry or tannic wines. But, an educated palate will notice the interplay between flavors much more, and place greater importance on this interplay than on the levels of the most basic building block flavors. This is the basic theory behind all wine and food pairing, and anyone who's stumbled on a great combination (chocolate-dipped strawberries), or a terrible combination (toothpaste and orange juice), begins to understand the importance of context. And, sometimes, there are wines that simply require some level of sweetness to properly showcase their flavors.

I'm not saying that a good dry gewürztraminer can't be done. Honestly, I don't know enough about the varietal to be able to say. But I do know that the dryness is a big reason this particular specimen disappointed me so thoroughly. (Its smell of canned fruit cocktail didn't endear me to it either.) However, there were some floral notes and some honey and tangerine that a touch of sweetness would have brought out, and the wine would have gone from yucky to, well... not great, but acceptable.

And, I admit, there is a part of me that reads articles describing marketing strategies like these that assume women are, well, what I said earlier: infantile and ignorant. Of course this offends me, and I don't want to be anything like most of the women in the article. For instance, this quote: "I saw 'Sideways,' " she said. "I thought, man, I've been drinking merlot all these years. I'm an idiot!"

She doesn't like merlot because of Sideways? Good. More Pomerols for me. But I admit: loathing her so much meant that my judgement got clouded. To truly be her opposite, I should have intelligently bought good wine instead of trying to artificially cultivate a refined image.

(And, well, to be fair, I thought the joke was pretty funny, but I can't imagine avoiding merlot because of it.)

Hat tip: I found the article on Professor Bainbridge's blog.

Bickering is Dull and Uninformative

Okay, to be honest, I haven't read any of David Shaw's wine columns. I have no idea of he's any good or not. I also know that he writes on more political topics, but no comment there either. This column, cherry-picking quotes from Shaw's columns, strikes me as pretty unfair though:

Wine is an expensive hobby. (But let me tell you, I'm so glad my hobby isn't flying planes! I've got a friend who's taking pilot classes, and he's spent over 6 grand in the last year. Ouch!) I can't afford what Shaw can put into his hobby, but if I could spend 60+ dollars on bottles on a regular basis, I would. And frankly, there's no shame in not being able to afford it either. Taking good care of yourself and having fun while living within your means is something that you can be proud of, no matter what your income. Also, can we get over the blogger/journalist feud already? (And this more far-reaching than just the wine blog community...) I read blogs all the time, I read papers all the time. I read them because I like information and commentary, not because I like infantile bickering about who's better. Reading the cranky scribblings of bloggers and journalists, journo-bloggers, and blogo-journalists, (all of whom I like) taking swings at each other has gotten pretty tiresome. How 'bout some substance instead?

I can't help but think the columnist is just picking on Shaw because of his own personal issues related to money and the blogger/journalist feud.

How to choose a wine shop?

So I learned last week that my local wine shop is going to be sold. The owner wants to move on to doing other things, the store is profitable but he wants to do something else in life. On the one hand I understand, but on the other hand I'm just crushed because he's been a wonderful guide to me, and I just don't know where else I will go for wine. Total Wine has a huge selection, but the staff just don't know all that much about wine generally, and though it's not their fault because the selection is so huge, they don't know much about what is on the shelves either. The little wine shop was great because I could stop in, tell him my budget and what I was in the mood for, and usually get a mini-lecture about the grape, region, and method. The advantage of a place like that over a huge place is that your salesperson has tasted every single thing on the shelves. This kind of service is absolutely valuable to me, and worth paying another buck or two on the bottle because I don't buy nearly as many bottles that don't fit my tastes.

I'm also reacting to it personally too... I'm still new in the city, and the wine shop owner was really the first person that I talked to with any regularity. It's a bit sad to see the first friendly face leaving.

Anyway, all this means that now I have to shop around for a new wine shop. Maybe that will be a good thing and push me to learn more about wine opportunities in my area.

2003 Domaine Paul Autard Côtes du Rhône

I'm dead tired tonight after having slept only 2 hours, so dinner is extremely simple: a rosemary and olive bread with butter on top, an "everything and the kitchen sink" vegetable soup with some kielbasa sausage chunks in it, and this côtes du rhône. I popped it last night. It's pretty darn drinkable, but I admit, I expect a bit more for the price level.

Impressions:

The wine is very clear, and a ruby color red. Mainly smells of cherries with just a touch of vanilla. Drinking it, it's medium bodied, has a nice smooth texture, a bit of pepper spice, and there isn't nearly as much cherry flavor as the scent would lead you to believe. In fact, here we get to the flaw: it's got a bit of a harsh edge, something hard to put my finger on. It seems a bit "hot" to me, which might be part of the issue with an alcohol level of 14 percent. It's not extraordinarily high, but maybe it's more than this wine can take? Or, is this being influenced by unfairly comparing it to the 10 percent Gewürztraminer I was drinking the day before? There's also an acrid note in the wine... I get this fairly frequently, and I wonder if it isn't a problem with sulfur dioxide? (I really would love to do a tasting sometimes of "things that go wrong in wine" - cork taint, sulfur dioxide, issues of bad smells from fermentation problems, etc - just so that I could identify them more confidently!) Sometimes I very much like the bit of acrid edge, when it integrates well with everything else going on, so I'm not sure it's actually a "problem" and more of an issue of things being out of balance. Also, a couple of other côtes du rhônes I've tasted have had some nice earthy aspect to them, like mushrooms or dirt, something along those lines. I just didn't pick up that many flavors in this one. Perhaps that's my fault, not the wine's, as I am definitely very tired tonight. It sounds like the wine is terrible, and it's certainly not, just average.

(I am beating myself for not doing proper tasting notes on the Gewürztraminer: I went so cross-eyed with delight I drank the whole bottle without ever setting pen to paper!) It was a 2003 Georg Naegele Auslese from the Schlossberg vinyard of Hambach (Pfalz region), and it was extremely beautiful. Very clear, a deep pinkish gold color. I have heard the descriptor 'leechee fruit' to describe Gewütraminer many times, and it certainly applied in this case. Also honey, and flowers, with a lovely light syrupy texture with only the barest hint of carbonation (a little tingley effect that I really like). Worth the 20 bucks! This was a great sipper during a lovely spring evening's sunset. Heavenly.

Recommended Web Site

This web site is a wonderful source of information, with articles on many wine-related topics:

NB: This is a commercial site, with wine-related products for sale. The articles are not about the products. I haven't tried the products, so I have no idea about them, and I have no connection of any kind with the company. The articles are fun and informative though.

My favorite tidbit:

"Cats urine does exist in wine! Well its smell anyway. Caused by the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde compound p-mentha-8-thiol-3-one, this sulfur containing compound smells exactly like cat's urine when in a particular concentration range. When weaker, it exudes the herbal scent of lantana bush, whilst when strong, it has an aroma that can be likened to blackcurrants. And where do you find it? That's right, in the variety where wine tasters see it the most, Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon (and of course in cat's urine)." (From an article on the web site "Sniffing Out the Secrets of White Wine Aroma" )

A Grab Bag of News

Well, sorry for such slack posting here lately... let me tell you, it's been a wild ride. Busy, busy, busy!

I got engaged on March 26th, in Las Vegas. It was wonderful! My darling proposed on a gondola in the Venetian and then took me to dinner at Zefferino Ristorante. The food was fantastic: I had the prosciutto di Parma e melone and then "Chilean Sea Bass Pan seared with White wine, Lobster meat, Fresh Tomato, Basil and touch of cream garnished with Leeks" while my darling had a basic caesar salad and filet mignon. The food was fabulous. I have to admit, I was a little rattled and distracted (every time I looked at the engagement ring during dinner I got happily tearful all over again) so I picked a dry and a bit fruity Italian sparkler (prosecco) and stuck with that throughout the meal. I wish I could tell you more about the wine, but in all honest truth I was too stunned to give it much thought. I do remember that it was very good and matched well with both courses. :-)

The same goes for the wine we had picked up earlier in the day. Being a wine fanatic, while in Las Vegas I naturally made a point of stopping in to 55 degrees Wine + Design. A lot of other bloggers have talked about the shop, so I won't go into too much detail, but I will say that I recommend them highly. The staff were friendly, the selection was impressive, and they even have a special way of packing bottles (inside an inflatable cusion that doubles as a bag) that makes it easy to travel with the wine without worrying about breakage. They had what I was looking for: an Australian semillion that was a few years old in a price range I could afford.

I ended up with a 1999 Quartetto from the Clare Valley for about twenty dollars. Again, I was a bit distracted, so I don't remember much about the wine, though it was very good. The quick impression was dry, mellow character, a hint of the nutty flavor older semillons are supposed to have (and that made me so curious) and tropical fruit, especially pineapple. I'd love to get my hands on another bottle so I could properly taste it.

So let's see, what else... I'd had a post for Wine Blogging Wednesday (this is several WBW's ago now!), which Andrew of Spittoon had so kindly reminded me of, but then Blogger ate it and I didn't have time to rewrite it. In any case, the unusual red grape that I found was Aglianico, and I drank a stunning 1998 from the DOC of Aglianico del Taburno (Fontana Vecchia's Vigna Cataratte Riserva) that was full of black cherries, plums, cinnamon, cola, lots of tannic muscle but a very smooth mouthfeel and very well balanced. It was 27 dollars, much more than I normally pay for a wine, but it was worth every penny. I drank it weeks ago, and I'm still thinking about this wine, it was so good. The aglianico grape is one of the oldest winemaking varieties, going back to the Roman empire, and there are some vintners in the region that specialize in making wine similar to what the Romans had back then.

So you can see, I've been busy! But, I really hope to get back to posting regularly now that things are calming down a tad.

Holy Crap!

Hey France, what the heck is going on?

I've heard of terrior-ists in the wine community, but terrorists?

In other news, sorry for the long absence guys! I've been very busy with all kinds of things... as for one of them, I am happy to announce that I am now engaged! More soon...

EDIT: Tom of Fermentations has a great post on this topic. (Oh, and note his blog's new address!)