Wine and Spirit

The sémillon grape Seems to have originated in the Bordeaux region of France, where it was well recognized by the eighteenth century.

In Australia the variety was probably brought out in the Busby Collection of about 500 European vine cuttings in 1832.

It is known that wine was being made from sémillon grapes in the Hunter Valley area of New South Wales in the early 1840s.

Sémillon is planted in much of the south-west of France, most notably in Mobazillac, and in Bordeaux.

When overripe and allowed to become affected by Botrytis cinerea (noble rot), the variety is the major component of the unique wines of Sauternes, where it produces undeniably the world's most famous wine, Chateau d'Yquem.

Its other important stake is in Australia, especially in the Hunter Valley, where historically it was known as Hunter Valley riesling.

These long-lived sémillons are a far cry from the bulk of what is produced in other parts of Australia.

Sémillon is also widely grown in Chile and the USA (California and Washington State), with minor plantings in South Africa and New Zealand.

Sémillon is easy to cultivate, and flowers fairly late, reducing its susceptibility to coulure (failure of the fruit to set after flowering).

Thin skin and a tendency to rot give sémillon grown in the cool, misty climate of Sauternes the ability to easily host Botrytis cinerea, concentrating and shriveling the grapes so that the wine they produce is exquisitely honeyed and complex.

Dry white Bordeaux at the lower end has more sauvignon blanc than sémillon and little or no oak.

At the higher end, the wines are sémillon-dominated, more concentrated, more complex, and more lavishly oaked.

In Washington State's Columbia Valley, as in Bordeaux, many round, dry, slightly nutty, and tangy versions of sémillon are found.

It is also a popular varietal in Australia, where its high acid provides for a life span of up to 30 years.

Australian sémillon's contrasting oily, fat, viscous centre and waxy or nutty character make this a very unusual wine.

It is not for everyone.

Few sémillons show their richness and complexity as those produced in Washington State.

There, grapes are picked late in the season, when this varietal's unique character is fully developed.

The wines are typically barrel-fermented to dryness and aged on the lees (yeast sediments) for up to six months.

Barrel fermentation with a limited amount of new, tight-grained French oak results in a full-bodied, rich texture with rich honey fruit, citrus, and fresh fig flavours.

- lemon

- fig

- honey

- nutty

- creamy

- oaky

- tangy

- broad

- waxy

- often high acid

- dry to sweet

Now planted across much of the wine-producing world, sauvignon blanc is a green-skinned grape that probably has its origins in the Bordeaux region of France.

The word sauvignon, which derives from 'sauvage' (wild in French), is a reflection of the fact that wine made from this variety can exhibit a green, herbal character which could be described as 'wild'.

Sauvignon blanc is one of the parents of cabernet sauvignon (the other parent being cabernet franc).

This white varietal is one of the most versatile of grapes.

From dry, tart, mouth-puckering to rich, creamy, and oaky and even to dessert wines, there is a sauvignon blanc for every taste and budget.

Sauvignon blanc's unique methoxypyrazines (flavour compounds) manifest themselves in grassy, herbaceous, even cat-pee-like aromas at their most pungent.

The riper the grape, the more the flavours move into the melon/tree fruit spectrum.

The wines at their best are zesty, zingy, vibrant, though quite often softened with toasty oak.

Sauvignon blanc was not considered a great wine until Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé became all the rage in Paris in the 1960s.

Classic French examples are smoky, flinty Pouilly-Fumé ans Sancerre from chalky soils in the Loire Valley, and white Bordeaux.

Friuli in Italy and Styria in Austria also are sources of lean, racy styles.

In the New World, California, Chile, and South Africa are turning out an impressive range in all styles and price points as well, following the tremendous success of the well-priced, varietally expressive New Zealand versions, of which Cloudy Bay, produced in the Marlborough region, is thought to be one of the best.

The classic New Zealand and South African versions are typically modeled after the fresh, unoaked Loire and Bordeaux styles.

In California until the 1970s, sauvignon blanc was usually made as a nondescript semi-sweet wine until winemaker Robert Mondavi made a dry varietal he named Fumé Blanc (a reference to Pouilly-Fumé, considered 'smokier' and richer than Sancerre) to distinguish it.

Since then, Fumé Blanc has taken on steam as a marketing term applicable to both dry, crisp style as well as a heavier, oakier style, depending on the whim of the winery.

Mondavi's version, modeled after the Loire Valley's racy Pouilly-Fumé, has been, for the past several decades, California's finest sauvignon blanc.

Robert Mondavi's Fumé-Blanc Reserve, 'To Kalon Vineyard, I-Block', Napa Valley, a decadenttly rich, creamy, toasty, and full-bodied wine, comes from vines more than 50 years old, but their future lies in the hands of the Mondavi company's new corporate owner.

Dry Creek Vineyards has 30-years-old vines at its estate in Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County.

- grassy

- herbaceous

- pungent

- melon

- tree fruit

- zesty

- from light and crisp to full and oaky

In the last 50 years or so, plantings in Australia and North America have given this grape a very high profile.

Thanks in part to the wine's enormous popularity, producers in every corner of the globe are jumping on the chardonnay bandwagon.

Chardonnay can taste from light, crisp, and tart to full-bodied, opulent, and ripe.

One common denominator in the winemaking process is malolactic fermentation, the conversion of tart malic acid to soft lactic acid.

Many winemakers employ this technique to achieve this popular buttery characteristic.

Ripening also allows the various flavour components of the grape to develop.

Most experts agree that the ultimate expression of chardonnay's potential is in Burgundy, France, where the region, not grape type, gives the wine its name.

White Burgundy ranges from a light, crisp Mácon, to a steely, direct Chablis, to a nutty Meursault, and on to a very rich, layered, and complex Montrachet.

In Champagne, blanc de blancs champagne, also made with chardonnay, is breathtaking in its purity,, delicacy, and creaminess.

More a type of wine than a vine variety (with some definite exceptions), chardonnay is made in every imaginable style.

Here are a few examples of how chardonnay manifests itself in different wine regions of the world:

Adelaide Hills:

High natural acidity combined with ripe fruit make a typical, comparatively ripe Australian wine with long aging potential.

Carneros:

The mists of the San Francisco Bay moderate what would otherwise be a hot climate, making for well-structured wines that still show some generosity of fruit.

Chablis:

The steely table wines of this cool region have a firm acidity that allows them to develop into some of the longest-living whites available.

Champagne:

In this cool region of France, the grape makes acidic and delicate base wine for the greatest sparkling wines of the world.

Hunter Valley:

One of the warmest regions of Australia produces big chardonnays with a typical 'peaches-and-cream' character.

Languedoc:

In southern France, the chardonnay grape produces melon and butter characters that reflect Burgundy without its great structural balance and intensity.

Marlborough:

In this dry region of New Zealand, chardonnay produces wines that may echo some of the Australian fruit styles, but with an extra vein of acidity.

Meursault:

In the Cote d'Or, the heartland of Burgundy, grape produces buttery, nutty wines with a streak of acidity.

Napa Valley:

Just 30 kms north of Carneros, California, chardonnay becomes full, ripe, and generous, but without the tautness of the wines from farther south.

- citrus

- apple

- pear

- tropical

- buttery

- creamy

- nutty

- steely

- minerally

- oaky

Grenache is the fourth most planted grape variety in the world, and the most planted in Spain, where it is known as garnacha.

Early to bud and late to ripen, grenache is notable in sunny climates for producing large crops fairly easily and making straightforward wines of high alcohol and pleasing strawberry fruit.

When producers reduce the crop load, the remaining bunches are able to produce wines greater character.

In this case, or where the vines are old (up to 50 years and more), grenache has the potential to produce very high-quality wines.

In Spain, garnacha plays a role in Rioja, rounding out the tempranillo.

It is blended sometimes with international varietal cabernet sauvignon in the region of Priorato, but the many old-vine plantings of garnacha there are now being cherished and recognized for their worth.

Most consider the wines from these old-vine Priorato plantings, such as Alvaro Placios L'Ermita and Finca Dofi, the ultimate expression of the tremendous potential of this varietal.

Like many other 'workhorse' grapes, grenache produces superb results when treated with quality as the goal.

In Navarra, garnacha is often bottled as an excellent-value single varietal, especially as rosado (rosé).

In general, the Navarra rosés are the best deal on the market, combining the sun-drenched fruitiness and richness of Spain with a lively, lemony tang.

In France, grenache is planted all over the southern Rhóne.

It adds palate richness and strawberry notes, if not complexity, to the most significant wine in the region, Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

Apart from grenache, appelation regulations allow up to 12 other grape varietals for Chateauneuf.

Grenache typically makes up one-third or more of the blend, but one producer, Chateau Rayas, uses 100 percent grenache for its version.

Grenache is also responsible for the high-volume Cotes du Rhone wines offered in every bistro in Paris, both in the red and rosé versions.

Further south in France, grenache makes luscious, rich, fortified wines in Maury and Banyuls, part of the Languedoc-Roussillon region, as well as the ubiquitous and increasingly expensive rosé de Provence.

Australia specializes in GSMs, grenache blended with syrah and mourvédre, the latter being the grape of Provence's Bandol wine.

Proportions vary, but a typical GSM contains about one-third of each grape.

These Rhone-style blends are very attractively priced and often bear the multi-regional appelation 'Southern Australia'.

Grenache is also bottled on its own in the Barossa Valley, South Australia.

The best Australian single-varietal versions are deeply coloured and brooding.

In the USA, grenache production is focused on California.

The state's winemakers turn out a variety of styles, the grape is most often used for blending in Rhone-style wines in several regions.

Since the 1850s, it has been planted for everyday table wine in the Central Valley.

- soft

- velvety

- high alcohol, low acid

- ripe strawberries

- red or rosé

Cabernet sauvignon is planted just about everywhere, and sits next to its white counterpart, chardonnay, on the throne of the modern wine grape world.

It produces some of the world's longest-lived reds.

Bordeaux is its heartland, but upstarts in Napa Valley (California), Tuscany, and South Australia are staking a claim.

As a point of reference, cabernet sauvignon is the offspring of sauvignon blanc and cabernet franc.

In general, cabernet sauvignon is medium to full in body, and has blackcurrant fruit and sometimes a green bell pepper character, plus leather and earth in Bordeaux and riper, sweeter fruit and heavy oak in the New World.

Through cabernet sauvignon we can clearly see a reflection of origin, vintage, and especially, winemaking techniques, most notably those that increase concentration, alcohol, and oak influence.

Just as chardonnay loses its identity through heavy-handed winemaking, so too does cabernet sauvignon.

The higher the alcohol, more concentrated the wine, and more lavishly oaked it is, the harder it is to tell where the wine is from, let alone what grape has been used.

In Tuscany, for example, cabernet sauvignon is blended with the more delicate sangiovese, which is quite easily overwhelmed by it.

Sangiovese does make a more delicate wine with paler colour than cabernet sauvignon, and therefore is unjustly written off as 'light and pale'.

By adding cabernet sauvignon, producers have an easier time selling the wine in the current marketplace.

The patriarch of Bordeaux, even though it is out planted by merlot there, cabernet sauvignon dominates the blended reds of the Médoc on the left bank, as well as the Graves south of the city of Bordeaux.

In Pauillac, the wines have a characteristic pencil-shaving/graphite note and very fine tannins.

In Graves, the wines tend to have a dusty, tarry quality.

Cabernet sauvignon has been cultivated in the northern part of Italy for centuries, especially in the Veneto, predating the first plantings in Bordeaux.

Napa Valley and South Australia are other important areas of productions.

Premium South Australia cabernet sauvignons are the deepest, blackest, chewiest, ripest, and most powerful in the world.

While impressive, this kind of power only goes far at the dinner table as these wines tend to overwhelm and tire the palate rather than refreshing it. They also overwhelm the food.

Californian winemakers tend to follow their Australian counterparts.

Cabernet sauvignon is widely planted in South America.

In Chile, the wines are reliable, often elegant.

In Argentina, they represent excellent value and range from a pure, unoaked varietal expression to concentrated, lavishly oaky styles.

A new style of fruit-forward but unoaked cabernet sauvignon is cropping up in California and Australia in the inexpensive, everyday-drinking price range.

Many of them are candied like a zinfandel and have little varietal character or originality.

- blackcurrant

- green bell pepper

- violet

- mint

- leather

- earth

- vanillin

This noble red variety from France's Burgundy region makes an intensely flavored, complex, high-acid wine with incredible longevity.

The warmer the climate it's grown in, the riper and more obvious the fruit, and the acid softens a bit.

Even in this riper, fruit-forward style the wine will not overpower your meal.

Pinot noir is called the most sensuous of wines because of its enticing, sometimes earthy perfume and soft, round, silky, but still structured texture.

Much of what is considered the best champagne is pinot noir dominated, as are many New Zealand sparkling wines.

Outside France, New Zealand and California have had tremendous success with this variety, though the style is much more fruit-forward as can be expected with warmer climates.

The key for these New World producers is researching and experimenting to find the cooler microclimates such as Central Otago in New Zealand, or those with extended growing seasons due to coastal fog, such as in the California regions of Santa Barbara (South Central Coast), Santa Lucia Highlands (Monterey County), Carneros, Russian River Valley (Sonoma County), and Medocino County.

Pinot noir is at its most enviable in its various interpretations as red Burgundy.

From the perfumed, silky, delicate Chambolle-Musigny to exotic Richebourg, pinot noirs from this stretch of golden hills of France (from the Cote de Nuits in the northern half of the Cote d'Or, the heart of Burgundy) are the role models for the world.

No other grape delivers a wine with such heady perfume, silky texture, and primal, earthy flavour.

Generally the wines of Burgundy are light to medium bodied.

They are also light in colour - one of the lightest red wines in the world is aged Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (DRC) - so the praising of dark, inky colour as a sign of quality certainly does not apply here.

If a pinot noir is dark and inky, most likely it has been blended with another variety to achive this popular, trendy characteristic.

Bollinger and other well-known champagnes are other exquisite interpretations of pinot noir, all raspberry and lace.

New Zealand produces brilliant, acid-balanced versions, as do producers such as Coldstream Hills in Victoria's Yarra Valley, Australia.

In the USA, styles include fruity, juicy, and bright versions from Oregon (Willamette Valley), Medocino County, Russion River Valley, and Carneros. Fuller, rounder, deeper styles in Monterey, especially from Gary Pisoni of Gary's Vineyards, and some of the longes-lived and exotic versions from Santa Barbara.

Pinot noir has a reputation among grape-growers as one of the fussiest grape varieties to manage, and can give unpredictable results in the cellar, while aging, and in the bottle.

Pinot noir wines are associated with the following terms:

- cranberry

- cherry

- bing cherry

- morello cherry

- raspberry

- blackberry

- stewed tomato

- earth

- leaf

- mineral

- smoke

- game

- sauvage

- forest floor

- floral

- oak

Tempranillo is very widely planted in Spain and has come to be regarded as that country's own varietal.

The finest examples of tempranillo come from Rioja in North-Central Spain and Ribera del Duero in Castilla-León (where it is known as tinto fino and tinto del país), but worthy wines come from other parts of the country, including Penedés in Catalonia and Vadepenas in Castilla-La Mancha.

Tempranillo wines are also produced in relatively small number of regions outside Spain.

Although tempranillo has come to be closely identified with Spain, it probably did not originate there.

According to legend, it was bought to Spain by monks from Burgundy in medeival times along the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia.

Tempranillo gained fame in the late 1800s when several of the famous Bordeaux chateaus looked to Spain for grapes after the louse phylloxera had destroyed their vines.

The name tempranillo derives from temprana, Spanish for 'early' - the grape is an early ripener, and is usually harvested in late September.

It prefers a clay and limestone soil, and grows best on hot, dry, south-facing slopes away from water (it is susceptible to rot).

It is highly resistant to heat.

This varietal takes well to both oak and bottle aging, and better examples can be extremly long-lived.

In general, tempranillo makes wines with a firm tannic structure, often from lavish oak aging.

Tempranillo has characteristic strawberry flavour, along with cherry, olive, tobacco, cedar, and stewed meat notes.

Tempranillo is behind the great red wines of Rioja and Ribera del Duero.

Winemakers there often blend this varietal with small amounts of garnacha, graciano, and mazuelo.

Even the youngest of these wines have a balance and expressiveness that is absent from the often harsh, disjointed, high-alcohol new releases from many other parts of the world.

Many new-wave producers in Ribera del Duero are relying heavily on French and American oak barrels for richness and flavour.

In Portugal, tempranillo is known as tinta roriz, and is commonly used in the blend for port (it constitutes 12.1% of plantings in the Douro Valley, where it is the second most prevalent vine).

Further south in the Dao, it is known as tinta aragonez.

In France, tempranillo is grown in the Languedoc-Roussillon region.

In Argentina, it is known as tempranilla, and occupies the second-largest area planted to red-wine grape varieties. It excels in the Consulta-Mendoza subzone of Valle de Uco.

In the USA, it is planted widely in California, where it sometimes goes under the name of valdepenas.

Tasting Notes

Tempranillo wines are associated with the following terms:

- strawberry

- cherry

- olive

- tobacco

- cedar

- stewed meat