lgsjr – Page 9 – Power Tasting – The Wine Tasting Experience

Dealing with the Weather in Wine Country

Not surprisingly, climate is one of the major factors in terroir, the totality of the environment in which wine grapes are grown. A vineyard may have the best soil, the perfect exposure to the sun and excellent drainage, but if the growing season is too hot, too cold, too dry or too rainy, the resulting wines will suffer. In our travels, we have wilted with the heat and humidity, shuddered in cold fog, frozen in ice storms and, of course, luxuriated in balmy sunshine. Sometimes all in the same day!

One of the beauties of wine tasting trips is that Wine Country, with a little judicious planning, you can be sure to have great weather. Some years ago, Power Tasting published a series on wine tasting in Napa/Noma, one month at a time. And indeed, there are reasons to visit there all year long. The same may be said of most of the better winemaking regions of the world, including Burgundy, Bordeaux and even Long Island’s North Fork.

Napa Valley in February. Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Many times we have travelled to California in December and found ourselves in temperate days and cool nights, basically sweater weather. But there was one December when it was colder in Napa Valley than it was in New York. The parking lot at our hotel was a sheet of ice. We were used to doffing our heavy coats in Wine Country, but not that time.

Wine grapes grow especially well if they are in an area with overnight and morning fogs that burn off and are replaced by sunny, hot afternoons. In many parts of northern California, the shift from fog to sun is not gradual; it takes about fifteen minutes to go from grey to blue, usually around 10:30 in the morning. So if we set off earlier than that, we bundle up with long sleeves and coats, only to find ourselves overdressed by the time we reach our second winery.

It’s not just California where the weather can be so changeable. The south of France is famed for the mistral, the chilly wind that blows across the Mediterranean from Africa during the winter and early spring. No one told us that it can sometimes occur as early as September. So when we went there to experience the harvest, we were totally unprepared. The weather did hasten the vendange though.

There is the other extreme as well. There have been many trips when we have sweltered. There have been occasions that we retreated from the vineyards to dive into the pool at our hotel. The managers of European wineries are more sensible than us Americans. They close for lunch from around 1:00 until 3:00, then stay open until 6:00 or so. They go to lunch, so we visitors have to as well. Very civilized.

So before heading to Wine Country for a wine tasting trip, we try to remember to consult the weatherman. And then, if we expect heat, we also pack a sweater. And there are short-sleeve shirts in our luggage in winter. A packable light down jacket is often a great idea in any season. There’s just no telling.

Hot Wine Tasting

There are multiple meanings to “hot wine”. Around Christmas time, it is popular in some circles (not ours) to drink mulled wine, spiced and heated. The trendy wine that everyone seems to be drinking these days may be called a “hot” wine. (Non-alcoholic, so-called wines are “hot” these days. Yecch!) And wines with a lot of alcohol, that sting your mouth, are also called hot wines.

In Power Tasting’s last issue, we gave tips on dealing with the alcohol. In this issue, we want to focus on what’s in the glass rather than who’s behind the wheel. If you are fond of wine tasting trips, as we are, you are more likely these days to encounter wines that pucker your mouth, more so these days than ever before. So, here are a few things to think about if you’re not a fan of hot wine.

Some grapes just don’t make it. Photo courtesy of One Green Planet.

Winemakers are driving up the levels in many areas. Bordeaux, for example, almost uniformly made wines that were 12.5% alcohol by volume (ABV). Today, they are in the 14% to 15% level, matching northern California. One factor was the taste preferences of one man, Robert Parker. He liked (and presumably still likes) big, bold wines. Many growers in both Bordeaux and Napa Valley sought his approval and his magazine’s ratings and so pushed both ripeness and alcohol upward.
And climate change is another big factor. It’s no secret that the world is getting hotter. Winemakers we have spoken with tell of changing to more resistant grapes or moving their vineyards to higher altitudes to keep a better balance of ripeness and alcohol. It may prove worthwhile, especially at better wineries, to taste the current releases and also try some library wines if available, just to see how the winemakers have dealt with increasing warmth. Even if a tasting room won’t offer these older wines for sampling, they will tell you the amount of alcohol in some of the older bottles.
Consider the flavor, not the alcohol level. There is a rough equation that says more time on the vine means more sugar means more alcohol. But more time on the vine also leads to greater ripeness of the grapes and thus more flavor. In areas with naturally high temperatures, such as Paso Robles, alcohol levels can be extreme, sometimes tasting overripe. At the other extreme, in northern climes such as in Alsace, low-alcohol wines may taste drab and a little flabby. Vineyard managers and winemakers attempt to find the perfect time to harvest, with maximum savor and manageable alcohol. As you taste, you are in effect serving as the jury as to how well they did.
Alcohol levels haven’t increased everywhere. Champagne makers still keep their wines in the range of 12% to 12.5%, as do those who make Prosecco. Rieslings tend to be under 13%. And many sweet wines have less than 10% alcohol. (Careful with these latter wines, though. Many dessert wines, such as Port or Tokay are fortified with additional alcohol.)

Châteauneuf-du-Pape

Of course, there’s a wonderful Rhone wine called Châteauneuf-du-Pape. It comes from the vineyards around a Provencal village called, well, Châteauneuf-du-Pape. In French, it means “the Pope’s new castle”. The town was there before the Popes arrived in the 14^th century, due to the Babylonian Captivity that split the Catholic Church over matters of…oh, you probably don’t care. It seems that the 14^th century Popes didn’t actually live there (they were in nearby Avignon) but one of those Popes built a castle and town has been named for it ever since. The castle survived for many centuries until more than half of it was destroyed by the German army at the end of World War II. The remains dominate the village to this day.

The castle ruins atop the village of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

The village of Châteauneuf-du-Pape is located on a hill, with winding streets that lead up to and around the castle ruins. If you visit Châteauneuf-du-Pape your objective will likely be to go wine tasting; there is no denying the appeal of these fine wines. But the renowned vineyards and tasting rooms are located in the flatlands around the village, not on the hill itself. We don’t want to drag you away from wine tasting – never! – but we do recommend that you save a little time to visit the village itself.

You can and should walk up to the top of the hill to see what’s left of the castle. If you’ve seen Greek or Roman ruins, you know that there is a melancholy poetry to what is left of destroyed ancient buildings, and so it is in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Moreover, you have the views from there of some of France’s greatest vineyards, stretching out to the horizon.

There are other attractions, such as an old church, a pretty fountain, tasting rooms, wine stores and even a wine museum. Still, Châteauneuf-du-Pape is just a small French village, with less than 3,000 residents. But it is a village with money, derived from the wine trade. So it is a spic and span village, ready to welcome visitors. It looks very much like the French village you dreamed of, which so few actually are.

Photo courtesy of Booking.com.

If you come to Châteauneuf-du-Pape for wine tasting, complete the experience with a stellar meal. There is no shortage there of restaurants, cafes, bistros and watering holes. After a few hours of tasting wine, or maybe the next day, you’ll be ready to settle down with some Provencal cooking and a bottle of, well, Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

In good weather, you can dine outdoors with those vineyard views and, on a clear day, of the Rhône river just beyond. Buttery croissants in the morning; pâté and cheese for lunch; local leg of lamb roasted or venison stew for dinner. Yum! Of course, this being in the heart of French Wine Country, there is haute cuisine to be had as well. Châteauneuf-du-Pape is a small village, but it boasts eleven restaurants listed on Michelin’s website. Almost by definition, all these restaurants have fine cellars to match their cooking. What more could you ask for a southern French experience?

Melville Winery

You can visit wineries in Bordeaux that are still owned by original families, but the Rothschilds of today, for example, are the descendants of the founders. Even in Napa Valley, Robert Mondavi, Warren Winiarski and their like are no longer with us. But one of the things that makes wine tasting in Santa Barbara County, the Santa Rita Hills in particular, is that the founding fathers (and mothers) are still making wine in their namesake wineries.

One such is the Melville Winery, owned and operated by Chad Melville. The winery even offers a private tour and tasting with Mr. Melville himself. You won’t get that at Château Latour!

Located in the Santa Rita Hills not too far from Buellton (although the address is in Lompoc), Melville’s tasting room is located in and beside a handsome, mission-style yellow building. A tasting at Melville has the vibe of a garden party far more than that of most wineries. Oh, they do have an indoor room that’s cozy in a rustic sort of way, but the real Melville experience is to have your tasting on their wide, capacious lawn. [Melville also has a tasting room in Santa Barbara, which is a totally different experience.] Although we were told that they occasionally receive tour groups and they say they can accommodate 150 people, it’s difficult to imagine it ever getting rowdy at this winery.

Rather, visitors either recline in Adirondack chairs or gather around widely spaced tables under white umbrellas. They sip their wine viewing the vineyard and the mountains beyond. So very civilized, especially considering the completely opposite experience in some tasting rooms, not least in nearby Santa Barbara’s Funk Zone. Guests can even bring picnics.

We were a bit surprised by the wines they serve at Melville. Santa Rita Hills is rightly famed for Pinot Noir, which they do serve. But we also tasted Chardonnay, Grenache and Syrah. There’s nothing wrong with those grapes, but they weren’t what we expected. We think this may say a lot about changing climate, even in such a contained space as the Santa Rita Hills, or maybe a broader audience for the wines made there, some of whom may not be Pinot Noir fans. That said, of the wines we tasted, the Pinot Noirs were our favorites.

For a long time, it has been possible to taste quality wine in California far afield from Napa Valley and Sonoma County. It seems to use that Santa Barbara County, and the Santa Rita Hills in particular, are coming (or have come) into their own. There are wines we have tasted there, especially Pinot Noirs, that are the equal or better than any we’ve had in that state. Now, we think the winemakers in the Côte d’Or can sleep well at night, but overall we find the Pinot Noirs made in the Santa Rita Hills to be more Burgundian than we have tasted elsewhere in the US.

Melville is an exemplar of the region’s arrival. Power Tasting doesn’t review wine; our specialty is the wine tasting experience. We can say that a visit to the Melville Winery is a lovely way to while away an afternoon with some well-regarded wines.

How Much Alcohol?

We have noticed, in recent years, that the amount of alcohol in the wine we’re tasting (and drinking at home) is increasing. Now there could be a few reasons for that. Maybe our tastes have just turned towards more alcoholic and therefore more flavorful wines. That’s possible, but we don’t remember a shift in the wines we buy, so it’s unlikely. Perhaps the winemakers for our favorite labels have all decided to make more alcoholic products. It’s even unlikelier that all of them would do that at the same time. A more reasonable answer would be that accelerating climate change has made grapes ripen faster, making more sugar in the process. More sugar turns into more alcohol, so there’s a probable solution.

California always produced a lot of high-impact wines; 14.5% is not unusual. But wines north of 15% are more common, and those from areas such as Paso Robles venture into the 16% to 17% range. Even Bordeaux wines that weighed in at 12.5% for decades are now creeping up into the 14% level.

This situation does create a problem for people going wine tasting. If each bottle contains a higher percentage of alcohol and tasters consume the same amount as they did in the past, they’re taking on more of an intoxicant. Here are some tips for dealing with the increased alcohol when visiting wineries.

Ask to see the label of the bottle being served. This is a good idea anyway, since there’s a lot of information on a label. One such bit of data is the alcohol level. Don’t rely on the server to tell you; they usually don’t know. One problem is that the amount of alcohol is often printed in a teeny-weeny font, and it can be anywhere on the bottle, front or back. It’s hard to be unobtrusive when looking forward to it.
Calibrate intake based on the amount of alcohol. For a particularly big boomer (we’re looking at you, David Coffaro) maybe have two sips of each wine instead of three. Or if you’re there for, say, the Cabernet Sauvignon it might make sense to skip the Pinot Noir that the winery is not particularly known for.
Choose wineries to visit with the amount of alcohol in mind. If the plan is to visit a few places that specialize in Zinfandel, for example, it’s clear that there will be big alcohol involved. That grape is so sweet anyway that wines made from it are usually quite potent. So maybe another winery ought to be one that specializes in sparkling wines, which generally are lower in alcohol, in the 12% range or even lower.
No, white wines are not lighter than reds. Plenty of Chardonnays pack a punch. There’s a Chardonnay from Lewis Cellars, for example, that weighs in at 14.7%. So white wine lovers have to be just as careful as those who prefer a meaty Merlot.

Veuve Clicquot

In 1805, François Clicquot died. He had inherited a Champagne house from his father, and his widow (veuve in French), Barbe-Nicole née Ponsardin was left to run the company. And wow did she run it well. Under her direction, the company sold the first vintage Champagne, the first rosé Champagne and generally established sparkling wine from that region as the premier luxury drink.

If you visit the company now named for la Veuve Clicquot in Reims, you’ll learn all about the Grande Madame (yes, their top wines are named for her). You’ll get to see the cellars where the Champagne is aged and you’ll get to try some rather interesting examples of the Champagne-maker’s art. You won’t see vineyards or even well-tended gardens. The entry to the winery is simple and architecturally uninteresting. The caves are everything.

There is no tasting room as such. All visits include a guided tour of the caves with a sample of Champagne at the end. The caves are large openings within the tunnels, some of which date back to Roman times. Others were dug under Mme Clicquot’s reign. Many of them are decorated with sculptures and other artwork. The guide explains the making of Champagne, including the process of riddling, which Mme Clicquot also invented. (Riddling is the manual turning of the bottles to capture the dead yeasts from second fermentation in the neck of the bottle, to be expelled, leaving a clear beverage.)

The tour is interesting for a first-time visitor to a Champagne house (or even the better sparkling wine makers in the New World). Once you’ve seen it and heard about it, there’s not a lot of new information to gather. We will say that we appreciated the knowledge of the guide who showed us around and her ability to answer questions that weren’t on the script.

Guides serving Champagnes in the caves.

Veuve Clicquot offers four tours. One is of their basic Yellow Label and lasts an hour. Another similar tour focuses on rosé Champagne. We took the one that offered more interesting wines to taste and lasted an hour and a half. We must say that we were impressed by the depth and differences among the wines served. There is also a two-hour tour that includes aged bottles. The prices for the tours range from 36 to 160 euros. These prices have increased a bit since we visited only a few months ago.

So is it worth it to visit Veuve Clicquot. Yes, it is. For one thing, when you are there you are on the spot in which Champagne as we know it today – clear, sparkling, elegant, festive – was invented. For another, if you take a tour other than the Yellow Label one, you’ll get to experience otherwise unavailable wines in the caves. There is a lot to be said for authenticity. You can buy a bottle of Veuve Clicquot at home and you will enjoy it. You can also buy a postcard of the Mona Lisa. Same wine, same picture, but not the same experience.

Overtourism in and Near Wine Country

There was a recent article in the New York Times about the crowds that are overwhelming certain popular tourist locations, such as Dubrovnik and Venice. So this month’s Places to Visit article isn’t about a single destination, but rather about the crush of visitors in many of the sites that are fun for a day away from wine tasting. The subject brings up the famous aphorism attributed to Yogi Berra: “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”

Dubrovnik in the summer high season. Photo courtesy of the New York Times.

It is clear that wine tasting, as an avocation, is increasing in popularity, which in turn means more people in the wineries. At the same time, many wineries (especially in California, but also elsewhere) have moved to tastings by appointment, so they are able to control the amount of visitors and limit the staff required to serve them. All the same, traffic on the main arteries (Route 29 in Napa Valley, Main Street on Long Island’s North Fork, Via Traversa del Monti leading into Montalcino) can get rather busy. And then if you want to stop for lunch, say, around the square in Healdsburg or in the village of Chateauneuf du Pape, parking is nearly impossible.

Who are all these people?!?!

Well, they’re us…all of us. The same people who enjoy sampling fine wines where they are made also enjoy fine dining, fine art and many of the finer things in life that make popular vacation spots so popular. Maybe there has just been an increase in the number of cultured people in society. Or maybe there are enough people who have the money, time and interest to go wine tasting in the more popular corners of Wine Country.

We think that the travel lust that was suppressed during the pandemic has sprung back. People are taking the trips they didn’t take in 2020, 2021 and 2022. We also believe that while the global economy hasn’t been kind to everyone, those who are might be interested in sipping Merlot in California or Bordeaux or Long Island are doing well and travelling more often.

A Napa Valley vineyard in March…out of season.

There are a few things that can be done to avoid the overcrowding. One is to travel out of season. If, for example, you would like to combine a trip to the Loire Valley with a few nights in Paris, there are going to be fewer fellow visitors between November and March than when the weather is warmer. However, it’s not as pleasant to see naked vines nor to exclude sitting in an outdoor café in winter. There are trade-offs for many things in life.

There is another way of looking at the problem. There is an austere beauty to seeing vineyards under a coating of snow. It’s pleasant share Christmas or the first inklings of springtime with the local folks. You get to feel more alike a local and less like a tourist. And out-of-season in the vineyards is often the height of the cultural season in cities. Trade-offs aren’t always bad.

Editorial: Not All Wine and Roses

The February edition of Power Tasting focuses on some of the problems we see with wine tasting today. Simply put, going wine tasting has become too expensive, at least in some areas. The levels of alcohol in many wines is increasing and popular tourist destinations in and near Wine Country are too crowded.

Power Tasting is generally about the pleasure of tasting wines in the places they are made. It’s something we enjoy doing and we seek to share that appreciation with other like-minded readers. So why are we pointing out some of the issues regarding wine tasting today?

We fear that wineries, especially those that consider themselves “top end” are creating a situation in which younger, less experienced visitors to Wine Country may be deterred from going. This may be acceptable to the wineries in the short term because more mature visitors are likelier to spend more money there. Wine tasting has become a revenue source for the producers and they want to optimize the return on investment in facilities and staff.

Trading today’s profits for tomorrow’s growth is usually a bad strategy. There is a need for a new generation to take up wine tasting – and by extension wine drinking – to become reliable customers, over time. We are highlighting some of the problems regarding wine tasting as a call for change. Not reversion to a different era in winemaking, but an eye towards future growth.

Is Wine Tasting Only for the Rich?

An article a few years ago in Forbes magazine, entitled “Napa Valley Wine’s Average Price Now Over $100 Per Bottle” (https://www.forbes.com/sites/karlsson/2023/08/31/napa-valley-wines-average-price-now-over-100-per-bottle/) was expanded on by a tour group. The new one is entitled “Is Napa Valley pricing itself out of the market for wine tourism and for wine?” (https://www.bkwinetours.com/travelog/napa-valley-pricing-itself-out/).

Photo courtesy of Blue Dollar.

The latter article crystalized in our minds a serious problem. We have been making wine tasting trips for all our adult lives. We understand that the days when wineries gave free tastings and even gave you a glass are long over. And really, there never was a good reason why they should give away their products, but now it seems to us that the pendulum has swung way too far the other way. Today, “the average tasting room tasting fee in Napa Valley is $128 for a “reserve tasting” and $81 for a “standard tasting”. And if you should choose to buy a bottle, the average price is $108.

We suggested that the pendulum has swung too far, but that’s probably incorrect. Pendulums swing both ways and we don’t see prices falling anytime soon. If a couple visiting Napa Valley wants to try, say, three wineries in a day and choose the standard tasting that comes to a cost of $500 or more. There are too many people for whom this is an unbearable vacation expense.

Why would the wineries in Napa Valley choose to restrict their market this way? For one thing, the figures quoted are distorted by the many top-end producers in that region who would prefer to limit their visitors to potential buyers who can afford to buy wines that may exceed $200 per bottle. They are not even eliminating a younger crowd, not with Silicon Valley so close by. Software zillionaires may be young but they are well paid. They may not appreciate “fancy” wines, but they do know how to spend their money on luxury goods.

Of course, there are many places in California to go wine tasting, so perhaps the rest of us can leave Napa Valley to the rich. But Sonoma County wineries’ average tasting fees are $72 for a reserve tasting and a standard one at a comparatively affordable $38. Other California areas, particularly Santa Barbara and Paso Robles are catching up. Some European destinations, such as Bordeaux and Champagne aren’t much less expensive.

Of course, it is still possible to search for less pricy wineries to visit and to vacation in less well-known areas of Wine Country. Wine is made in all 50 states, but not all the others can match California’s variety, quantity and especially quality. Perhaps a recession will bring prices down, but that’s a rather steep price to pay for more affordable wine tasting trips. Or maybe as the costs become too much for too many, the wineries may try some alternatives, such as seasonal pricing, encouraging visitors to come in the deep of winter or summer weekdays. We won’t count on it, but we will probably visit Napa Vally much less frequently.

Avoiding Excess

We love wine. We love tasting it, drinking it with meals, talking about it, reading about it and writing about it. But we can’t overlook the fact that wine is a product that contains alcohol. So when people go wine tasting, they need to be aware of the effect that the alcohol is having and will have on them.

Photo courtesy of Metro Parent.

Here are some tips that can help wine tasters to avoid excess when they are visiting wineries.

Know your capacity and limit the number of wineries you visit in a day accordingly.. Before the era of seated tastings, visitors could step up to a tasting room bar and sample only one or two wines that they were interested in. Now, especially with the higher cost of wine tasting, each winery tends to serve more. Take that into account in choosing your destinations and keeping the number within a reasonable range.
Sip, don’t drink. There is probably no more important advice to wine tasters than this. If you are wine tasting, you only need a sip or two to know what a wine is like and if it’s for you. Oh, there’s still wine in the glass? Pour it out. That’s what those buckets are for. Professional wine people don’t even swallow; they put some in their mouths, taste it and spit it out. They have to, because they taste so many in a single session. Learn from the pros: You’re there to taste, not drink.
Share a tasting. A good way to limit your intake without cutting into your tasting pleasure is to share the wine. The server will not mind you asking just for one glass even if you are two people, saying that you will share the tasting. After all, you are going wine tasting not wine drinking. Believe us, no one will care that you are being prudent and you will appreciate your time in Wine Country all the more.
Consider in-town tasting. There are excellent locales for wine tasting (such as Santa Barbara, Montepulciano or Los Olivos) where you can visit a tasting room, walk to the next and all the nexts after that, finally walking back to your hotel. You can slacken your inhibitions a bit because you won’t be driving. Of course, a day in town followed by a drive back home doesn’t work.
Let someone else drive. If, in an honest analysis, you realize that almost any amount of wine is going to impact you too adversely to drive, plan in advance not to get behind the wheel. Maybe there’s someone in your party who won’t taste and can be the chauffeur. Or you could take a tour. In lots of places, you can call for an Uber or you can hire a car and a driver for the day. Just don’t be a risk to yourself and others around you.