Great Wine Made Simple - Andrea Immer [47]
The new steakhouse down the street is featuring the famous Argentinian beef, and Malbec, a red grape you have never heard of. But since the growing zone is moderate to warm, you expect berry and plum flavors in this wine. You get what you bargained for.
The name of the Australian wine on the in-store display, Bin 45A, means nothing to you. The back label lists the Grenache, Cinsault, and Mourvèdre grapes—strike two because you’ve never heard of them either. But the region, the Barossa Valley, is one of Australia’s warm spots. You conclude that this juicy, raisiny red will be the perfect complement for your mom’s steak au poivre. You’re right, and so is the price.
No doubt about it: The Flavor Map makes broad generalizations about wine styles, and also lumps together very diverse wine types into the same fruit-flavor family. But that’s okay, because, for one, it’s generally accurate. Take the example of these cool-zone white wines—French Chablis, Loire Valley Vouvray, Italian Pinot Grigio, and Riesling from Alsace, France. Is apple and pear (the cool-zone fruit family) really an accurate description for all of them? Absolutely.
Second, generalizing about wine styles helps you to grasp them without in any way detracting from their individuality. Rabbit, duck, frog’s legs, squab, alligator, and rattlesnake—over my illustrious eating career I have tried them all, and each was introduced to me in the same way: “Tastes like chicken.” Of course, they’re quite different, but it got me in the ballpark of knowing what to expect. As a wine drinker, isn’t that all you want?
CHAPTER FIVE
Old World, New World
The Secret Weapon of Sommeliers
The hard part of this wine course is over. By design, the first four chapters of this book were the most rigorous. I didn’t give you labeling laws and soil types to memorize, but that was because we’re taking a different approach to wine. I did ask you to apply more of your senses, your imagination, and your spirit of adventure than you might ever have before. I also asked you to open and taste quite a few bottles, so that you might have experienced a little “sommelier’s elbow” (long gone by now—if not, keep training). If at times it has seemed a little intense, that’s good, because I know that at least some of that intensity comes from a new level of pleasure in your wine drinking. In the process, you have learned a lot about different wine styles, including which ones you like; and I have shown you how, by using a few easy tricks of the trade, you can find them by reading the label.
In the traditional wine world, my teaching approach is most unorthodox, especially the Flavor Map chapter. Now I’m going to give you another high-powered clue to the taste of every wine you see in the store or restaurant. Again, it is found right on the label and is, like the Flavor Map, intuitive. Best of all, it’s even simpler.
Old World vs. New World
This technique, which I call Old World/New World, helps you predict the flavor style of a wine based on one of the most obvious things on the label: the wine’s country of origin. And it is trivially easy to use.
Step One is this: In your mind, divide the wine world into two parts, the Old World, and the New World.
The Old World of wine is Europe and includes her classical wine-growing countries—France, Italy, Spain, and Germany—but also Greece, Hungary, Austria, and Switzerland. Probably you have seen few, if any, wines from this last group in your store. This doesn’t mean the wines are not good. They’re just not widely exported to this country, either because the quantities made are small or because the styles are not well known here.
The Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania, and Russia are also technically part of wine’s Old World, but their political status precludes much market presence outside their borders. Bulgarian wine is one exception. It competes at a high enough quality level to have a substantial presence in United Kingdom wine shops and supermarkets. The American market could be next.
The New World includes