“Fill up, fill up, for wisdom cools
When e’er we let the wine rest.
Here’s death to Prohibition Fools,
And every kind of vine-pest!” – Jamrach Holobom
I find that most people, when walking through the wine aisle at the grocery store; (for most Americans, however there are still a handful of states that have prohibition era laws) people have a deer in the headlights look upon their faces. I get asked all of the time, “Which wine is best?” and, “Which one would you choose?”. Folks, I can’t tell you what you like or what is best. The answer is subjective. It’d be kin to me telling you that I like the color Byzantium, and since I know better than you, you should like it too. Not everyone likes that color. I like it because the color of Amethysts and some wines. It’s my personal favorite. It’s regal (kings and queens would wear that color as it was the rarest dye and would set them apart from commoners) and it inspires creativity and my chameleon eyes look blue when I wear that color. But that doesn’t mean you should like it too. I’ve presented a convincing argument. Anyone who was on the fence about choosing that color as their favorite as well, might now choose that color as their preference, but that doesn’t mean you should. The word personal is subjective. Wine is personal. You should make decisions based upon your joys and experiences, not because someone else tells you about their joys and experiences. All art, whether it’s a painting in a museum, a style of architecture, the plating design in cuisine or the wines that we drink are great because of four things:
- Aesthetics (pleasing to the beholder or creating a response to the visual) ie. a beautiful Georgia O’Keeffe painting of a flower is gorgeous, making you feel serene and likewise, The Scream by Edvard Munch intentionally makes you feel uncomfortable.
- Historical Content (the artwork is historically significant). Artwork should have some reference or homage to the past. Even something as simplistic as what you consume, if it’s art, it’s important. For example, Napoleon and Josephine drank every type of wine that France offered. Napoleon was famous for bringing champagne to the battlefield and saying, “In victory you deserve champagne and in defeat you need it.” But neither Napoleon nor Josephine were born in the mainland of France. Napoleon was born on Corsica and Josephine was born on Martinique, an island in the West Indies. When they had guests over, they paid homage to their birth places. They didn’t serve French wines at guest arrival. They served Rum Punch. They subtly reminded people that they were worldly by doing so. When I have my own land and I have an Open House, I’ll serve my own version of Kir Royal at guest arrival. It’s a purple concoction that I would produce with a Tank Method of Sparkling Wine. What you serve when you have guests over, creates a nuance. It sets the vibe as people arrive.
- Composition – paintings, you can always identify classically trained artists such as DaVinci or Michelangelo by the way you can usually see a triangular composition. Often direct complimentary colors in the center of the artwork (blue and yellow or green and red next to each other) and linear elements pull you into the center of the painting. There is also a definitive foreground, middle ground and background and each comprises 1/3 of the painting. The same holds true for what you consume that has some historical context to it. For example, a Super Tuscan is historically 80% Sangiovese and the rest French varietals. Or a Spanish Blanco Cava is historical made from Macabeo, Parellada and Xarello grapes. Champagne is made from any combination of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. The composition that the artist or winemaker uses references the art from the past by mimicking it in the present whether it’s DaVinci’s Mona Lisa or Stag’s Leap Cellar’s 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon.
- Subject Matter: Can the beholder relate to the art? Is the artwork represented in a well skilled manner. When I judge a wine, it’s 33% what’s happening in the vineyard (primary), 33% what the winemaker does to the wine (secondary), and 33% of what time does to the wine (tertiary). The winemaker might get everything right, and yet the grapes were picked too early, making the wine vegetal with unbalanced acidity. Therefore, the wine wouldn’t even get an honorable mention because he/she used unripe grapes. Or if the wine has cork taint, the winemaker may have done everything right and picked the grapes at the perfect 27.5 Brix (% sugar level in the wine) and yet, the wine could be unjudgeable because of a bad cork.
This brings me to the wine in my hand, Cabernet Franc. It can rarely be found at the wine aisle in the grocery store, and yet it’s historically significant. There’s an old saying, “You don’t know what you don’t know.” At one point it was the primary grape in the Bordeaux blends. The grape from “The land between the waters” and named for a king making it the original noble grape. But it fell out of favor because you have to harvest before the first frost. If the first frost is early October and the seeds aren’t brown with a nutty taste, the grower must harvest anyway, regardless if the grapes are fully ripe. When avid wine consumers reference Cabernet Franc, they often say that it smells like green olives and tomato leaves and tastes like bell peppers and chocolate. In a warm climate, when the grapes are given more hanging time, nothing could be further from the truth. Cabernet Franc has all of the same phenolic compounds as his kids: Carmenere, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot. In warm climate Cabernet Franc, you’ll notice blackberry and blueberry aromas with flavors of dried plums and strawberries. The different characteristics are more pronounced individually with the different offspring: Cabernet Sauvignon = blueberries, Carmenere = blackberries, and Merlot = plums.
Let’s break it down as though we were judging Cabernet Franc from a warm climate and using just those four criteria:
- Aesthetics – is Cabernet Franc pleasing to the eye? Yes, he’s wearing purple robes. Or more simplistically, it’s an amethyst-colored wine with deep hues. It doesn’t get over watered or over produced and therefore has pronounced quality visually.
- Historical Content – Is Cabernet Franc historically significant? Yes, being the first noble grape in the first wine appellation in the world. In 1937, the world started using wine appellations to identify where a wine was from. Although the wine appellation of Bordeaux was coined at that time, people described the wines “from the land between the waters of Aquataine” for 1000 years.
- Compostion – Can Cabernet Franc be well made? Yes. It can be blended with other grapes such as in Bordeaux or Tuscany and in SoCal can stand alone as it’s own varietal.
- Subject Matter – Do people enjoy it and relate to it? Yes, the name Cabernet is recognizable amongst the general public.
Can wine truly be judged? Well, yes and no. A person can judge the quality and report on a color and flavor profile (which change with time). But a person can’t say a wine is best. You can say one has better color or flavor profile than another. But best is subjective, as in all art. When walking down a wine aisle in a store, choose a wine with flavor profiles you will enjoy. In time, you will learn what flavor profiles are in what wine. Every wine is a work of art.
