lgsjr – Page 36 – Power Tasting – The Wine Tasting Experience

Walking Through Vineyards, Part 2

In our last issue, we discussed the pleasures of walking through vineyards and also noted that most farmers aren’t crazy about the idea of tourists doing so. Here are various ways to get near or into a vineyard, some more official than others.

One way is to visit a winery that has set aside a few rows of vines for the express purpose of access by visitors. You’re most likely to find these near California wineries. Grgich Hills in Rutherford in Napa Valley and Dry Creek Vineyards in the eponymous region in Sonoma County are two examples of wineries that have these model vineyards. One of the advantages is that they have different sorts of red and white grapes growing right next to each other, so you can compare them. Of course, the best time to do so is in August and September, when there are grapes hanging from the vines.

The best way to learn about the vineyards is to take a winery tour that includes a walk though the vines. In fact, some wineries only offer tastings if you take a tour and build a walk among the vines into the tour. Stags’ Leap and Chappelet on Pritchard Hill, both in Napa Valley, are among those that arrange their tastings that way. There are some plusses and minuses, though. A guided vineyard tour offers particular advantage if your guide is a well-versed educator. You can get some valuable lessons by seeing why grapes grown in this kind of soil, near that water source, produce grapes that are used to make the wine you just tasted. However, you need to plan more time at the winery and be ready to hear the sales pitch at the end of the tour.

Weather can be a factor, too. We once took a tour at Chappelet on a brutally cold day in December (yes, it happens) and a few sips of Sauvignon Blanc among the barren vines was not enough to warm us up. We took another one in fall and it was the most beautiful view of the vineyard when the leaves of the vines had turned color.

In a Burgundy vineyard.

For the most part, American growers fence off their vineyards. The same can be said of producers in Bordeaux. But in Burgundy it’s different. The reason is a bit complicated, tied up in the inheritance practices of centuries gone by in that region. A person’s estate was divided among all of his, or occasionally her, children. As a result, each child received a few rows of vines in this vineyard and another couple in that one in the next town. Today, even in the most famous Burgundy vineyards such as Chambertin or La Romanée, there are many owners of each parcel of land. The vineyards can’t be fenced in because too many people have to have access to them. And so tourists are welcome (respectfully, please) to walk among the rows.

Better yet, you can take a picnic and enjoy it alongside a vineyard, which we have done many times. Once we had stopped at a charcuterie in Nuit St. Georges and then picked up a bottle in a wine store and then headed up the road. We found a quiet spot next to a vineyard owned by a Monsieur Dugat and settled ourselves in for lunch. (Don’t try doing that in Napa/Noma!) At that point M. Dugat happened to walk by. We were afraid he would ask us to leave, but he just eyed what we were eating and in particular wanted to know what we were drinking. “Oh, just a picnic”, Lucie replied in French. The farmer eyed our wine bottle and saw that we had chosen a nice premier cru so he said, “Quel pique-nique!” (What a picnic!) and went on his way.

The Salt Flats of Trapani

If you go wine tasting in Marsala (and you really should if you visit Sicily) less than two hours drive from Palermo, you will likely want to stop for lunch. You can try to find a restaurant in the town of Marsala, but to be honest the town is rather dull. The people in the wineries recommended a few places, but it seems they were only open for dinner. But then the server at Cantine Pellegrino suggested we drive up the road a short way, “only 10 minutes away” to Mamma Caura’s.

Mamma Caura’s restaurant on the beach in Trapani

As is often the case when you get advice from the locals, they don’t have a true sense of distance on roads they know so well. She then spoke the most dangerous words of advice: “You can’t miss it.” As long as we hugged the coast and watched for signs for the ferry, we’d be fine. And in fact, we were.

What she didn’t tell us is that the road itself was worth travelling. It took us past the salt flats of the next town north, called Trapani, where they take salt from the sea. (The most desirable salt in France is called fleur de sel and its Italian cousin is sale marino, which comes from Sicily’s western coast.) Sea water is pumped out of the Mediterranean into shallow, squares pools, or pans, set up on the shore where the water evaporates and leaves salt with mild flavor, moist texture, and tiny, irregular grain sizes. The salt is harvested and piled up into small hills that remind us North Americans of snow after a blizzard.

Salt has been made here this way for many centuries, even before the Romans. The pumps were driven by windmills (evidently a recurring theme in this issue of Power Tasting) and a few are still there, more for show than for practicality. Motorized pumps do the work these days.

Which brings us back to Mamma Caura’s. Yes, it was easy to find and it is on the beach near the ferry jetty that takes people to the nature preserve on San Pantaleo island. The food is simple but enjoyable. Indeed, what’s not to like on a very hot day when you enjoy a fresh and crispy tuna salad with a bottle of white wine (Donnafugata Anthelia, from the winery where we had just visited). And the view is wonderful! In front of you are the salt pans, the mounds of salt, and a magnificent windmill. A few boats round out the vista.

After lunch you can walk out to the windmill, learn more about the history and the process and buy some salt at the shop. It comes in small or large packages and in a variety of colors.

One word of caution, though. It can be very hot on the beach. We were there in mid-September, not the middle of the summer and we broiled, even under Mamma Caura’s outdoor pavilion. You should still go; just have a nice cold bottle of white wine with your lunch and enjoy.

Visiting Napa/Noma in June

This article continues our occasional series on the “best” month to visit Napa Valley and Sonoma County for wine tasting. Of course, there is no best month; they’re all great and each has its own special attraction. In past editions we’ve discussed January, February, April and October. It’s time to include a summer month.

Ah, June! The days are warm; the nights are short; the bees are buzzing and all’s well with the world. All surely is well in Napa/Noma. The vines are full of leaves and the aforementioned bees have done their job of pollinating the plants, so fruit is beginning to appear. What will be formidable grapes in a few months are only be tiny green berries, but the hope of great wine has been lit.

An afternoon in June at Château Montelena.

The weather will often follow its usual California pattern. Mornings will be grey and dank, sometimes downright cold. Then sometime around 10:30, as if on cue, the clouds will part and disappear leaving blue skies and bright sunshine. You’ll like it and so will the grapes. By midday it will start to get hot and by the middle of the afternoon there will be no doubt about it. Fortunately, when the sun goes down, the evenings will be pleasantly warm and you may want a sweater on occasion.

June 15, 9:00 p.m., Etude Winery in Carneros.

Many of the wineries have special events for their Club members in June. If you are a member of one or more, these make visiting in June even more alluring. If you aren’t a member, you might be able to participate in a barrel tasting or the opening of special bottles just because you’re there and it wouldn’t be polite to exclude you. But you may also find visiting hours curtailed for an event, so it’s best to call ahead if you plan to visit near the end of the day.

Tasting rooms can become quite crowded in June, especially on the weekends. You will see more tour buses, stretch limos and bachelorette parties at wineries. The locals have been enjoying good weather since March, even if the vineyards haven’t been at their best. Visitors from northern climes are drawn to Napa/Noma this month for the combination of scenery, temperature and fairly new releases of their favorite wineries. Try to come on weekdays and if that’s not possible, prepare to be patient and maybe schedule some appointment tastings. With an appointment, you will make sure you will be served the wines you are looking for. They may even set a table for you to avoid the weekend crowd.

Hotel reservations may be a bit harder to get in June and prices are certainly going to be higher than in cooler months. On the other hand, this is generally the first time in the year when you can come back from wine tasting and take a dip in the pool. [We particularly enjoyed doing that at the Wine Country Hilton which was, sadly, a victim of the 2017 fires.] The sun doesn’t go down until 8:30, so you have lots of time for a dip and maybe a sunlit aperitif too.

Many restaurants and groceries feature seasonal local produce. You’ll find some of the best strawberries, peaches and plums you’ve ever tasted. Santa Rosa’s Night Market is a great place to sample them. Again, it is always a good idea to make a reservation at the restaurant where you’d like to eat.

What is so rare as a day in June…in Napa/Noma Wine Country?

Martinelli Winery and Vineyards

Some people are really crazy about Pinot Noirs from the Russian River Valley. To be honest, there are some we like but overall we prefer Carneros, Santa Lucia Highlands and the Santa Rita Hills for American Pinot Noirs. All the same, a wine tasting trip to Sonoma County would be incomplete without visiting the Russian River AVA. Unless the eponymous river is raging in the spring, this sector has a gentle beauty as compared, say, with the majestic mountains of Alexander Valley nearby.

When you make that trip, make sure that you leave time to visit Martinelli (http://www.martinelliwinery.com/). It will be either the first or the last winery you come to off of Route 101, Sonoma County’s main highway, depending on where you start. It’s an easy place to spot along River Road; it’s a big red barn. And that barn says a lot about who and what Martinelli is. Too much of NapaNoma wine making has become the province of big corporations. A winery that has been in the same California family for well over 125 years gives you a reason to visit all by itself. A big red barn is emblematic of a family of farmers and it is the antithesis of what have become known as Napa Palaces.

Martinelli’s big red barn

The tasting room inside is cool, dark and full of history, much of it that of the Martinelli family. The sides of the bar are made from metal panels taken from an old locomotive. The bar itself is under wooden beams, reinforcing the fact that you’re in a barn. For those who like to shop, there is ample opportunity in the tasting room, a bit too much for our tastes. The Martinelli sign advertising the winery also mentions its gift shop, which is unusual. But all the knick-knacks don’t detract from the wine and wow, is there ever a lot of great wine to try.

The Martinelli tasting room

Essentially, Martinelli produces Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, Syrah and Chardonnay. Tastes differ of course, but it is fair to say that all of their wines are of a high quality. They grow grapes in nineteen vineyards, primarily in the Russian River Valley, of which they sell 90% of their grapes to other wineries. So what you get to sip out of a Martinelli bottle is what they consider to be their best.

To get some idea of the variety of wines available in their tasting room, a quick perusal of current releases listed on their web site shows 24 wines. We have found it worthwhile to focus on just one grape on each visit, to be able to sample the subtle differences in terroir that these wines represent. That list of current releases shows nine different Pinot Noirs and seven Zins. The demands of sobriety call for some degree of specialization on a visit.

The Martinelli family is rightly proud of their heritage and there are many stories they like to tell to elaborate on it. One favorite is the name of one of their oldest, most famous vineyards. It is on a very rocky, steep (60 degree) hillside. The founder’s son was told that only a jackass would try to grow anything on that hill. And so today, Jackass Hill produces some of Martinelli’s best loved Zinfandels.

A wine tasting visit to Martinelli will combine history and great wines. Why would anyone want to miss that?

Walking through Vineyards

Wine is an art form. It’s also an industrial process. And it all starts with farming. The art is something we understand. The second we’ve been taught through books and winery tours, and sort of get. But no matter how much we have read and heard about trellising, soil composition, canopy management and sun angles, we still don’t get it. All we know is that vineyards are pretty.

We like looking at them from a distance. We like getting close up, especially when the vines are heavy with grapes near harvest time. Our photo files are replete with pictures of dangling fruit. and if you are lucky enough to be in Wine Country just before the harvest, you’ll want these pictures, too. And we just like walking through vineyards.

For one thing, you get a sense of the incredible variety in the way grape growers carry out their craft. For example, in Beaujolais, they crop their vines close to the ground, whereas in California they are usually chest high. In Burgundy, they grow their vines quite high, so that two visitors can lose one another if they’re not careful. It’s something like the mazes that some corn farmers erect after their harvest. And in Valpolicella, they grow their grapes so high that the vines are over a visitor’s head.

The vineyard of Quintarelli.Giuseppe in Valpolicella

Then there’s the sense of history you feel in certain vineyards. There’s a little thrill you get knowing that wines have been made from the same produce you see before you, for years and years. That might be only 45 years in Long Island (Castello di Borghese) or 450 years (Chateau Margaux). And if you walk up the hill in Burgundy called the Corton-Charlemagne (where they grow grapes for a Grand Cru white wine) you are standing on ground owned by the Emperor Charlemagne, who lived in the 800’s.

Finally (and please don’t tell), if you’re in the vineyards at harvest time, you can sample a few grapes. You know those grapes you buy in the grocery store? They’re tasteless, sour things compared with wine grapes. The more alcoholic wines are made from sweeter grapes, which have more sugar of course. The grapes of Beaujolais (around 13%) aren’t shabby, but Zinfandels are small and often 14.5% or more and those grapes are super-yummy.

For some reason, the farmers are not wild about hordes of outsiders tromping through their fields. Maybe they just don’t like tourists getting in the way of workers, raising a lot of dust and messing with the grapes. So strolling through the vineyards is not always an activity appreciated by the proprietors. However, in a previous vacation in Burgundy, we picnicked in a different vineyard every day and no one ever came to tell us to leave. It was heaven! In the next issue of Power Tasting, we’ll give you tips on how you can take a walk in a vineyard.

Petits Creux & Grands Crus

This article is the latest in Power Tasting’s irregular series on interesting wine bars around the world. Previous issues have taken readers to locations in Paris, London, Copenhagen and Lisbon.

There is a street in Québec City called rue Cartier that is only five blocks long, but is the commercial heart of a sector that is very much Québecois. Not the Québec of monumental hotels and 18^th century architecture, but rather a reflection of the way the people of this French-speaking Canadian province live and think of themselves. For example, there are five boulangeries, where you can buy the best baguettes in North America, and as many pastry shops that dazzle the eye as well as the palate. There are trendy clothes shops, a French bookstore, two family-owned butchers, two pubs where you can watch all the hockey games and at least a dozen restaurants all spilling out into the street during the warm summer months.

And there is one wine bar, a “bar à vin”, called Petits Creux & Grands Crus (https://www.petitscreux.corsica), which translates roughly as “little snacks and great wines”. While it is open year round, its indoor space is rather small. PC&GC comes into its own after the last snows melt and before all the leaves fall, May through October.

Now, Québec City is a very French town as opposed to Montreal, which is more evenly split between francophones and English speakers. In the not so distant past, no one knew about rue Cartier except the locals. Québec City has always had plenty of tourists but they generally stayed in Vieux Québec, the Old Town, and were not seen in the residential and commercial areas. Today, you will hear English, Chinese, Italian and Spanish as you walk along rue Cartier (which doesn’t please Lucie, who is from Québec). The wait staff at PC&GC are adept at both French and English and we have heard conversations in other languages as well.

With Québec’s French heritage, you might expect this wine bar’s list to be heavy in Bordeaux, Burgundies and Rhônes and indeed there are plenty of those on its rather extensive list. But Marie-Pierre Colonna, the owner, is Corsican-American. So the spécialités de la maison are wines from Corsica, that island department of France floating in the Mediterranean. Its wines reflect its geography, with the sun producing big, flavorful, fruity wines in both red and white. The Corsican rosé served at PC&GC looks more like a light red than a slightly colored white, as found in Provence.

Many of the grapes in the Corsican wines are barely known this side of the Mediterranean. There are reds like Neullucciu from the north of Corsica, Sciacarellu from the south and a white grape used there called Biancu Gentile. (Sometimes these grapes are spelled with an “o” instead of a “u” but M. Collona speaks in the Corsican dialect.)

The “little snacks” as advertised in the wine bar’s name aren’t really that small. You can get boards with meats, cheeses, veggies or seafood but there is nothing much that you would call a nibble. They used to make their own potato chips that were served warm and very crusty but unfortunately they removed them from the menu. There are also a few main courses, some of which echo the Corsican theme of the bar.

Despite the influx of tourists, rue Cartier is still a focal point for the people of the surrounding neighborhood. One of the great pleasures of spending some time at Petits Creux & Grands Crus is watching the parade of the local people passing by. Sure, in one way it’s the same mix of young and old, men and women you’ll see anywhere. But these are the folks of Québec, with their distinctive history, beautiful language and joie de vivre. So take a glass or two of wines that you’ve never heard of, much less tasted, and pretend for an hour or so that you’re a part of this wonderful Québecois culture.

Wine Tasting vs. Tasting Wine

This occurred at a recent college reunion in New York, but it could have happened at any large gathering in any location. There was an event advertised as a wine tasting. About 500 people showed up at an outdoor plaza, under a tent on a hot summer day. The organizers had chosen fifteen or so wines, half red and half white (with one rosé thrown in for balance) from California, France, Italy, Australia and Spain. The wines were served at various stations, reds and whites intermixed, laid out in flimsy plastic cups for the taking. The white wines were on ice but someone had heard that red wines were to be served at room temperature. Well, the “room” in this case was a tent under the sun, so the reds were roughly 90^o.

This may have been an opportunity to taste a lot of wine, but it wasn’t a wine tasting.

Photo courtesy of C. E. Lovejoy’s Market

A wine tasting has form. That is not to say that wine tasting must be formal. In fact, some of the best are very informal, spent with friends over a dinner or a barbecue. But there must be some reason for drinking certain wines that gives the event some continuity and a reason for comparing the various ones being served. They may all be from a single producer, as happens in tasting rooms on a wine tasting trip. Or the same grapes from multiple producers in the same region. Or from different regions around the world. Or just different approaches to accompanying the meal being served. But a wine tasting is not: “Here are five different wines. Try them and say which one you like.”
A wine tasting has structure. Generally, that structure is from lightest to heaviest, topped off with a dessert wine. But it could also be from cheapest to most expensive (best done in a blind tasting). It might be fun to match up hillside wines against those from the valley-floor, of the same grapes. There has to be some reason to say, “Drink this one first, then this one, then this…”
A wine tasting has content. It might be fun to line up Petrus, Screaming Eagle and Grange next to each other. We’ve never been invited to a wine tasting like that and truly never expect to be. But in every tasting there ought to be some wines that are worth the attention for savoring and contemplation. What’s the point of a selection of plonk from around the world? That’s not to say that an unknown wine can’t shine among the big names; we’ve often been delightfully surprised by the Davids taking down the Goliaths. Still, the wines involved in a tasting should be carefully selected with some thoughtfulness about their quality.
A wine tasting has class. Oh, make that glass. While it is true that we’ll be happy to take some Chateau Margaux in a Dixie Cup, for the most part we want to enjoy wine in a well-made glass, not a plastic beaker better used for biological specimens. That shows respect both for the wines and for those invited to taste them.

At the event in New York, once it was clear that a real wine tasting wasn’t on offer that day, we poured three samples of a cold white wine into a single cup and cooled off under that hot sun.

I Don’t Like It

When you go into an American winery’s tasting room, in Long Island, California or elsewhere, you are likely to be offered tastes of a significant number of wines. Some will be on a less expensive list of the winery’s most popular wines and others may be on the “reserve” list, which they consider to be their best wines.

A few visitors may have such a broad appreciation for wine (or maybe a lack of appreciation) that they like everything they try. Most other people will like some wines and not others. And unfortunately, there may be some tasting rooms where some people don’t like anything. We’re sorry to say that in the past there were some wineries in Long Island that fell into the latter category, but in recent tastings we have found at least a few praiseworthy wines at all the wineries we visited. Still, there were none where we liked everything. With scant exception, the same can be said of almost every winery we have ever visited in the United States.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. No winemaker can please everyone and, we suspect, few even try. They aim to please themselves and we, the consumers, can either go along with them or buy someone else’s wine. When we are standing at the bar in a tasting room, we ought to use wines we don’t like as learning experiences.

Be polite. Remember what your mother told you and if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all. Pour out your wine and maybe ask the person you’re with what they thought. Move on.
Is the wine okay? Maybe the wine has just gone bad. On more than one occasion, we’ve been served corked wine in a tasting room, especially on busy days when the server may have been too rushed to check the bottle. The wineries are grateful if you point out that one of their purveyors is selling them tainted corks.
Ask yourself why you don’t like it. Maybe the wine is just not made in a style you like. For instance, we prefer deeper, rich Pinot Noir’s than the thin, acid ones that are popular in some regions. That doesn’t make us right, but it does validate the consistency of our taste. The point is to identify what it is about a wine you don’t like, so you can avoid wines like it in the future. It can be even more instructive if one person likes a wine and the other doesn’t. That enables both to pinpoint the offending (or positive) characteristics of the wine.
Try to remember other wines from that winery. They might just have had a bad year. For example, there is a world-renowned winemaker in Napa Valley whose 2011 offerings just didn’t make it in our opinion. It was a tough harvest across the region, so this winery wasn’t able to overcome the reduced quality of their grapes. They still make great wine in other years.
And if you don’t like anything…Not everyone who grows or buys grapes knows what to do with them. Because you are a wise and discerning wine taster, this winery must simply be sub-par. Oh, wait, there’s somebody down the bar buying a case. Well, there’s no accounting for taste, yours or theirs.

At the very least, figuring out what you don’t like will save you time and money in a wine store when you get home. Unfortunately, it may also cut you off from some good wines that might come with another harvest. Still, one of the reasons to go wine tasting is to figure out what you like…and what you don’t.

Macari Vineyards

Once you leave New York’s Long Island Expressway on your voyage to Long Island’s Wine Country in the North Fork area, among the first wineries you will come to is Macari Vineyards (www.macariwines.com). It offers a warm welcome and some of the better wines we have tasted in the region.

Macari’s vineyards were once a potato farm, as is true of much of the North Fork. It is still family-owned and run and it is, in a sense, still a farm since they raise a herd of cattle as well as growing grapes. They are exponents of biodynamic wine making,(which we don’t really understand, but we must say that biodynamic vineyards often produce excellent wines).

Macari has two tasting rooms: the original one in Mattituck and another in Cutchogue. The latter is only open in the summer tourist high season; Mattituck is open year-round. It is this one that is the basis for our comments, although the wines are the same in both locations.

The tasting room is quite large, with a high-vaulted ceiling that can absorb noise when things get busy on summer weekends. Yet despite the massive stone fireplace and all the exposed wood there’s somehow a sense of intimacy to the place. Displays of bottles of wine on boards stretched between barrels reinforce the rusticity of the setting.

The wines available for tasting shows Macari to its best effect. The reserve list includes a very creditable Sauvignon Blanc, a Syrah and the stars of the show: Macari’s Cabernet Franc and their Bordeaux blend, Bergen Road. These last two have depth and power that show how far Long Island wine making has come in recent years. Interestingly, although the blend of the Bergen Road differs from year to year, in the 2014 available now they have four of the five Bordeaux grapes, except Cabernet Franc. Also, for those like Lucie who enjoy a glass of Rosé, make sure to taste theirs. She loved it and find that it tastes like a rosé from Provence, which is quite a compliment.

They are well aware that Cabernet Franc is their flagship grape. Over the course of the summer, Macari hosts several events highlighting their twenty years of Cabernet Franc. This is the same grape that is used in the majority of the wines made in Pomerol, and unfair comparison to be sure, but an indication that Macari is aiming high with the wines that have garnered them their highest praise.

Macari’s porch and the pizza truck

Macari makes it easy to spend an extended time at their winery. As you enter their tasting room, there is a refrigerated cabinet with cheeses and charcuterie, which you can eat on their spacious and well appointed porch. If that’s not enough, the winery has arranged for a pizza-making truck to pull up alongside the building. And of course, you enjoy it with a bottle of Macari wine! We don’t think we’d make a special trip from Manhattan just for a pizza and a bottle of wine, but if we had a vacation home on the North Fork or the Hamptons, it would be a very tempting way to while away a baking hot summer afternoon in the shade of Macari’s porch.

Macari is one of the Long Island wineries that gives evidence to the potential of what the North Fork can produce. Macari Vineyards is offering a fine wine tasting experience today and the future of this winery is yet to discover.

Think Globally, Drink Locally

Some years ago, Steve was visiting his friend Adrian at his vacation home in Southold, in the middle of Long Island’s North Fork. One late afternoon, sitting on the veranda and sipping a local wine, the two fellows engaged in a hearty discussion about the value of Long Island’s experiments with wine production, still novel at that time.

Steve stated that the wines produced on the North Fork were nowhere near the quality of similarly priced wines from California, France or Australia. So what was the point of paying top dollar for poorer wines?

Adrian’s response was that it was worth supporting the local industry precisely so that the wine makers would have the opportunity to improve over time. At that point, many of the vineyards – and thus the vines – were ten years old or less. If no one bought their wines in their youth, the vineyards would never have the opportunity to reach maturity and potentially great wines would never be made.

Bedell Cellars

As we say elsewhere in this issue, we are finding that North Fork wines are beginning to meet the test of time, albeit more so at some wineries than at others. But the question at the heart of Adrian and Steve’s conversation remains: if there are better wines at similar prices from the world’s great wine growing appellations, is there any purpose for drinking wines from “lesser” regions? What in fact makes one particular section of Wine Country better or worse? Is it not just a matter of what we’re used to?

The original subject was Long Island’s wines but the same can be asked of, say, Santa Clara vs. Napa, Puglia vs. Tuscany or Languedoc vs. Bordeaux. Why not limit yourself to the best? In particular, for those of us who enjoy traveling for the purpose of wine tasting, is there any reason to make a trip to any but the “best” regions. We have come to the opinion that yes, it does make sense, with some reservations.

As a general statement, these regions are lesser known, rather than simply of poorer quality. In any given year, there are some great wines made in vineyards that are unlikely to show up in the pages of Wine Spectator, or if they do they’ll be in the voluminous lists in the back not the news articles up front.

In our recent voyages, we have discovered wines from regions we had previously either not known of or had disliked, such as Minervois, eastern Sicily and California’s Central Coast. In most cases, there will be a greater concentration of top-quality wines in better-known regions, so with a little homework in advance you can raise your odds of trying the better wines and skipping the underachievers. But if you don’t go, you won’t know.

Moreover, who’s to say what’s better and what’s worse? Tastes, especially in wine, change over time. It’s not that long ago that no one cared about Pinot Noirs from the Santa Rita Hills, Ripassos from Valpolicella or Shirazes from the Barossa. Now these are highly prized wines, attracting buyers and visitors from everywhere fine wine is appreciated. If nothing else, taking a wine tasting trip to a little known corner of Wine Country gives you bragging rights when and if that area gets recognition.

“Ah, yes, I remember when the growers were virtually giving away the wine and it was just small producers serving wine in their barns”. That’s us, talking about Napa Valley a few decades ago. Who knew then what a big deal it would be today?