[1]

Very interesting exercise, Roger. Is it possible that price also played a role? My experience is that the "genericization" of varietal wines, so to speak, is far more likely to occur at lower price points, regardless of origin. I suspect you do not want to reveal the actual brands and vintages poured, but how about the prices?

[2]

It doesn't scare me anymore. The threat of a Single World Wine, made like Pepsi, to insure sameness, is available now. The only thing that distinguishes one producer from another is the label. That is why Canon #3 of the 5 Canons of Wine is: Buy wine from countries whose main form of transportation is a donkey cart. Marketers don't ride in donkey carts. After a few bottles of Barolo, it is safer to ride in a donkey cart anyway.

[3]

I have made amateur wine for 8 years and am always amazed by the results I get from my entries in amateur wine judging competitions. I have submitted the same three wines to four different competitions this year -- one national, one state, and two county fairs. The results are interesting, to say the least. Each has won a gold medal, a silver medal and no medal at one of the competitions. The most amusing remarks are "that it does or does not exhibit varietal characteristics" because obviously the judges have such conflicting opinions about what are the "varietal characteristics" and they’re virtually clueless about what that varietal wine should taste like. I try to make wine that has good varietal characteristics but more importantly tastes fine to my taste -- to heck with the judges!!

[4]

Roger, I'll take your cola reference one further: It seems that a lot of wines (even those from higher end producers) are starting to taste like cola that was left out, open, overnight.

[5]

Hi Tish,

Thanks for your very appropriate question [see comment #1 above]. As I said in the column, I don't find anything particularly reprehensible about the homogenization of varietal taste profiles in the lower priced, mass marketed, wines. However, though our selection was intentionally random, all the wines were pretty much "mid-priced", with an average sticker of $27, covering a range from $16 to $50 per bottle. Heck, at that price it would have been nice to taste terroir...but really pathetic not to even find distinct varietal character. Well, anyway, that's my feeling.

Thanks for asking,

Roger

[6]

Roger,

Are appellations an emperor’s new cloths story? No Napa AVA director is free to lead the growers and winemakers! AVAs need to be upgrading to avoid being relegated to the dustbin of the wine-boom. In my opinion AVAs must be given free reign to experiment in grading the grapes, farming, level of green, related quality or bottle prices produced by the land, etc. Looking for help in Napa Valley…

[7]

Why not do something similar with Appellations? You didn't say whether each set of varietals came from a single appellation. It seems to me that, if good tasters can't tell the difference between two varietals, how in the heck could they expect to find the more subtle differences between appellations? I say that there is no significant difference between most appellations any more, mostly for the same reasons that few differences exist between Cabernets, Merlots, Zins, etc. Everything tastes alike because winemakers copy each other in getting grapes too ripe (as if that were a plus). Many wines are too alcoholic, too low in acidity and/or too processed (as in Chardonnay). Does anybody drink those fat, flabby, over processed, low acid Chardonnays any more?

[8]

For well over 40 years my passion has been fully bottle-aged wine that I can enjoy at its peak. I hate this trend to high alcohol wines that lose their identity but how do they age? I know from personal experience that Californian Cab Sauvignon in the past aged beautifully; I don't know how these new high alcohol wines will age. I suspect they could be excellent though whether distinctiveness would emerge is an unknown. And it is somewhat immaterial because so few people cellar their wines for 15 or 20 years! I assume the wines in your VD test where all very young. Anyway, I support your efforts to correct this trend, led astray I believe by R. Parker’s team as well as market forces.

[9]

What a load of bunk! Blind tasting has always been difficult to tell Cab Sauv/Merlot/Syrah apart. The only real way to validate your 'VD Test' is to now perform the exact same test in the exact same way with Old World Style wines. I challenge you to get 3 French wines, Merlot, Cab Sauv, and Syrah, and taste them side by side and tell them apart. Your results will be the same.

[10]

Dear Dave, [comment #9]

It's hard to know where to start in replying to you. Let me begin with a personal observation that goes to your contention that it has "always been difficult to tell the difference" between red varietals. My "always" in this business began a bit over forty years ago, and, while we didn't have much Syrah and Merlot in Northern California back then, I can assure you that the varietal character and distinctiveness between the red varieties we did have (Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Carignan, Pinot Noir, the Gamays, Petite Sirah) was pretty darn clear in those days. Indeed, it was precisely that self-apparent "distinctiveness" that engendered our enthusiasm as growers and/or winemakers to go down the varietal purity path in separating ourselves from the European tradition of appellation distinctiveness. Of course, we had the added incentive of getting past the bogus appellations (Chablis, Burgundy, etc) we inherited.




I'm sure you realize that the French have structured their paradigm of wine production and appreciation around place, rather than varietal, identity. Actually, I suppose one could distinguish between St. Emilion and Medoc by varietal proportionalization ..."tastes more like Merlot, must be from the Right Bank", etc. But, what would be the point? Appreciating French wines is a matter of identifying with the place and how the marriages of varieties and terroir make for something definable and whole in appellation terms. Personally, I've always thought it sad that so many people on this side of the Atlantic drink Burgundies with an eye on the variety, missing the crucial fact that, even with varietal purity in Burgundy, it is the place-commune that explains the seductive differences in Pinot Noir.




As regards your Old World Style challenge, I'm not sure where you would have us look for our test bottles of pure Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah. (In regard to the first two, I'm not aware of any French ACs that prescribe these as single varietals) But, forgiving Petrus for only being 95% Merlot, could we distinguish between it and, say, a Cornas from the Northern Rhone, which is all Syrah. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say, yes, I think even my battered old palate would detect a difference associated, if you insist, with variety (though my soul would prefer to focus on the wine as a reflection of the totality of these two wonderful bits of geography).




Now, if we want varietal purity in Cabernet, I guess we could get our samples from the great hydroponic sea of the Pays d'Oc, along with single varieties of everything else globally in vogue. I don't drink enough of those wines to really know, but my guess is that you'd be right...to wit, I expect the Cabs and Merlots and Syrahs in this supermarket-cum-export agro-factory do all taste the same.




However, as I said in my "load of bunk" article, I don't really expect to find much of either varietal or terroir distinctiveness in cheap bulk wine. Nonetheless, the varietal labeling of such wine does a disservice to the notion of variety as a way of appreciating wine, in the same way that putting "Napa" on a label of wine made in Modesto diminishes the notion of "place of origin" as a way of appreciating wine. It's a question of integrity in the marketplace...wine is not such a strong or natural commodity in North America that it can take too much loss of integrity.

~ Roger Dial

[11]

If wine is food, as some purport, then this is not wine. It is but drink, an uncool cooler. Where, exactly is the line between fortification and overfermentation to be drawn?