Great Wine Made Simple - Andrea Immer [34]
This is why I developed the Flavor Map. It shows you how to predict which fruit flavors to expect from various wines, even bottles that are completely unfamiliar to you. We’ll do this by examining the growing region on the label or the wine list entry, and answering one question about that region: Is it a cool place or a warm place?
Getting into the Climate Zone of Wine
The Flavor Map is based on climate, another major factor that shapes wine style. It’s specifically concerned with the amount of warmth and sunshine where the grapes are grown. The principle behind the Flavor Map, which the tastings in this chapter will illustrate, is this: Very diverse wines, when grown in the same climate zone, share a striking family resemblance in terms of their fruit-flavor profile.
The Flavor Map charts this by dividing the wine world into climate-style zones:
Cool climate zone: cool/less sunny
Moderate climate zone: temperate/moderately sunny
Warm climate zone: warm/very sunny
And it shows which specific fruit flavors characterize each zone. This means that, from Australia to Zeltingen in Germany, and from Airen (the world’s most widely planted wine grape) to Zinfandel, you can predict the fruit style of any wine if you know the climate zone in the region where it was grown.
“Cool Style” versus “Warm Style”
Before we focus on specific fruit tastes, it is helpful to first understand broadly how wine styles compare across the cool-to-warm climate zone spectrum. Classifying wines as “cool climate” or “warm climate” gives the taster very powerful clues to body and acidity, too. For virtually all wine types, here is how the taste components differ from a cool climate to a warm climate:
Cool Climate Zone Warm Climate Zone
SUN Less sunny Very sunny
ACIDITY Crisp and tangy Soft and smooth
BODY Light Full
FRUIT STYLE “Green,”
lean and tart Ripe and luscious
The Flavor Map plots these characteristics, adding all the different fruit flavors. On the left side, you see the climate zones. Following what you learned in elementary school geography, areas that are farthest from the equator are cool and less sunny; climates become warmer and sunnier as you get closer to the equator. On the right side, you see the fruit-flavor styles typically associated with each climate zone, for both white and red wines, ranging from tart and crisp fruits to ripe and luscious flavors. First, look at the legend opposite, so you can see what fruit flavors are associated with each climate zone.
Explore your taste memory and imagine this flavor range—for example, from tart green apple to plump peach to luscious mango for whites, and from sour cranberry to juicy plum to rich concentrated raisin for reds. Remember the lean-to-luscious fruit spectrum we saw in Chapter 2’s discussion of the word fruity? You can see that the climate in the growing region is a logical basis for that flavor range.
It’s that simple. Better still, you don’t have to memorize the Flavor Map, or carry it with you wherever you go, because it is based on common sense. If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, it is easy to remember which fruit flavors typify each climate zone from cool to warm if you think about the fruits that typically grow in each. For example, let’s begin with the major white wine fruit flavors. Crisper (tart, tangy) tree fruits like apples and pears grow in cooler, less sunny areas (generally at higher latitudes, in the north). For the Northern Hemisphere, think Maine and Washington.
By contrast, luscious, exotic fruits like pineapples and mangos grow in warm, sunny, and tropical areas closer to the equator (Hawaii, the Caribbean, Mexico). In the moderate zone you find citrus fruits (orange, lemon, lime, tangerine), stone fruits (peaches, apricots, nectarines), and melons. As you can see, unless you have led a strictly meat-and-potatoes life, you are well equipped to put your knowledge of these fruits and where they grow to work for