I'm changing up #CookingForLieutenants to concentrate on my vocation/avocation tonight. So, gear up for a quick introduction to wine. Class is in session. You, in the back, get rid of your gum. Besides, it'll kill your palate when it comes time to taste wine. h/t @MeganJantos
I had a slide deck (kidding - kind of). At least, I had some rudimentary multimedia stuff handy, until my computer shit the bed 20 minutes ago. You'll have to do this the old fashioned way & read along as I go.
Time for my standard #CookingForLieutenants disclaimer. Just like the original hashtag isn't intended to turn the average novice into the next Anita Lo, this thread isn't going to prepare you for the Court of Master Sommeliers.
Have you ever had a glass of wine so good that you will never forget it? I have, & surprisingly, it wasn't French or North American. It was Ojaleshi from Georgia, where enologists & archaeologists traced the first plantings of vitis vinifera vines 5k years ago.
Wine was mentioned in Gilgamesh, & concurrently in Egyptian hieroglyphs. Ancient Greeks around 1000 BCE discovered that they had wine grapes similar to Sumeria's, both on their islands & the mainland, & used the ancient Georgian techniques to make their own wines.
Just as Rome eventually overtook Greece's traditions & gods, so too did it discover vitis vinifera growing like weeds all over the Italian peninsula. But especially in the Etruscan region (present-day Tuscany, home of Chianti & Brunello).
Jump to the present day, & this lovely vine grows in regions as disparate as Yunnan, Texas Hill Country, Virginia, RZA's Western Cape, Australia's NT, & British Columbia. More goodness for everyone.
"Enough with the history, Dan," you may be whining right about now. "What should we drink?" Damn glad you asked. When I've been asked this question in restaurants, I usually reply with a question: "What do you normally like?"
I'm the polar opposite of the snooty somm who will steer you towards something outside your personal comfort zone, or outside your price range. Wake up, sheeple, & drink what you like. Who am I to judge?
The whole point of this thread is to point people who are otherwise afraid of wine towards wines that they might enjoy. So, here we go. Do you love citrus? Maybe a ripe red grapefruit that is both sweet & acidic at once? Give Sauvignon Blanc from California a try.
Sav Blanc from NZ differs from its CA cousin by dint of the acidity level in the wine. NZ Sav Blanc leans more towards lime, while CA Sav Blanc on the palate is more lemon rind & grapefruit. Personal preference: Napa Valley Sav Blanc.
25 years ago, winemakers in CA decided that the masses of "I want to talk to your manager" Karens around the world wanted big bodied, flabby, oaky, buttery chardonnays. This resulted in a glut of horrible California chardonnays that didn't abate until around the mid 2000s.
Cooler heads prevailed over the last 15 years. CA chardonnays, especially from Sonoma, are great representations of their terroir. Muted tropical fruit (think green papaya, or unripe mango) up front, a slight bit of butteriness from malolactic fermentation, & balancing acidity.
Pinot Grigio fan? Do you like light-bodied whites from the Italian Alps that express acidity, salinity, & minerality? Look no further than a little-known Italian grape called Müller-Thurgau, which takes what people love about PG, & then adds a peach note.
Reds are another matter, but I'll try to do this in 15 tweets or less. It's no secret that my favorite red varietal is merlot. Yes, I know about the film quote. I also know the inside joke, that Miles is drinking merlot (Ch. Cheval Blanc) from a paper cup at the end of "Sideways"
Red Zinfandel: second cousin once removed of the Italian Primitivo grape. Meh. Big bodied, lots of jammy blueberry, high alcohol content, but also no complexity. You're better off getting a lovely petite sirah, which has the same body but much more character.
Cab Sav. CA will give you a cab with notes of raspberry, pipe smoke, & a hint of spice, with light/medium tannin (the thing in black teas that makes you feel thirsty after the first sip). WA will give you a bigger cab with blueberry, vanilla, & almost no tannin. Fielder's choice.
Pinot Noir. My second favorite red varietal. For some of the best values in stores right now, you need to go to the Oregon aisle or shelf. If you flew directly west from Dijon in Burgundy, where pinot noir originated, you'd wind up in Oregon.
It's really a difference in style, like CA vs WA cabernet. CA (mostly Central Coast) pinot will give you a good, predictable pinot with a cherry note that veers between ripe black cherry to cherry jam, with hardly any tannin & rarely any complexity. Easy to drink, though.
OR pinot, though. Whoa, baby. It's the unappreciated love child of the best pinots from Burgundy & California. Medium bodied, not-quite-ripe red cherry, baking spice, & an intriguing tannin that can be light or medium. Perfect for fish or lean red meat.
Malbec is the grape that Bordeaux deemed only suitable for blending in small % with cab & merlot. It found a home in the mountains surrounding Mendoza, Argentina. Big bodied with ripe red berry, sweet pipe smoke, white pepper, & depending on the wine, an intriguing tannin.
My affinity for Italian wines can be traced back 21 years, when I biked through Tuscany & almost got trampled during the Palio in Siena. That's a horse race through narrow winding streets, with neighborhoods competing against each other for centuries. But the wines were amazing.
Sangioveto, or Sangiovese (the blood of Jupiter), reigns in Tuscany. By & large, you get medium bodied red wines with notes of dried red berry, leather, & bracing tannin. The classifications range from VdT (vino di tavola, table wine) to the prestigious DOCG...
aka, Denominazione de origine controlata e garantita, marked by the white & red paper stripe over the top of the bottle, or around the foil. Mind you, the DOCG requirements are hidebound, but some of the DOCG wines from Tuscany are the best I've *ever* had, bar none.
Fortunately for us here in the US, many Italian winemakers visited American wineries, then brought New World winemaking techniques back home. These "Super Tuscans" don't meet stringent DOCG requirements, but are amazing just the same.
Regarding Bordeaux, we've got Right Bank (the northern side of the Dordogne River, which leads to the Atlantic), or Left Bank. The 5 major varietals here are Cab Sav, Merlot, Petite Verdot, Malbec, & Cabernet Franc.
Apologies, I also meant to mention the River Garonne, which also runs through Bordeaux & runs to the Atlantic. The Right Bank will give you wines that are mostly Merlot, up to 70%, with the Left Bank up to 70% Cab Sav.
Either way, Bordeaux reds are medium to medium-heavy bodied, with wonderful notes of red berry, licorice/anise, a hint of vanilla from the oak barrels they're aged in, & long lingering finishes coupled with a medium tannin.
That's enough for tonight. I'm more than happy to answer any/all wine related questions. Feel free to ping me if you're at the wine store & feel overwhelmed. I'm glad to help.
And in the immortal words of Officer Jimmy Malone in The Untouchables, which I use to end most of my threads, here endeth the lesson. #CookingForLieutenants is adjourned.
