The National Wine
UnClub
Newsletter
March/April 2005
Wine Families
Before anyone gets the wrong idea, it should be stated that we're not referring to the Mondavis, or the Antinoris, or the Rothschilds here! Our intention with this article is to shed some light on new ways of thinking when trying to decipher the mysterious wine code that only a few of the wine intelligencia seem to understand. We feel that it's a definite problem that the average new wine enthusiast is somehow excluded from the current version of winespeak because, after all, these individuals are the experts of tomorrow!
What do we mean then when we start talking about wine families? It's simple really, and can be a great tool in getting to know the world of wine better. It's a bit like shorthand; a shortcut to getting a lot of information communicated quickly. You've heard us talk on these pages about Old World/New World styles of wine. This is the largest picture we can draw to illustrate distinct differences in the wines available for our drinking pleasure. We equated Old World style with a tendency towards wines revealing understated elegance, restrained fruit, and firm structure. New World wines are the converse of that stylistically with a tendency towards higher octane, unrestrained fruit intensities overlaying soft structural characteristics.
Now of course this is an oversimplification, not intended to offend those New World producers who are fashioning elegant, understated wines, or those Old World producers who make bold, fruit-forward wines. It's just a point of departure for a clarifying discussion regarding basic styles that exist in this field. So, under this analogy, these two widely understood styles would form the two major branches of the Family Tree of Wines.
After one gets the above-mentioned simplified awareness of the styles currently offered in the wine world, then they can advance to reviewing other families that stem off of these two major branches. This is where geographic references become so important. Remember, even though Old World/New World - style wines can be produced anywhere on the planet, specific geographic family distinctions exist that truly form the second tier of this family tree of wine.
For instance, in tasting wines regularly to buy for a fine wine shop, it has become obvious to me that, in a general sense regardless of varietal, French wines taste French, Italian wines taste Italian, Californian wines taste Californian, Australian wines taste Australian, etc. (I taste blind as often as possible so that my bias doesn't interfere with my judgement.) In reality then you could say that these major regional appellations represent specific families of wine style that are recognizable to experienced tasters and therefore can be described as a family group.
Understanding these distinctions helps one to understand wine styles that are prevalent in the market today. However, it's amazingly true that you can find wines from France that taste Californian or Australian in style, and there are Californian wines that taste Italian or French in style, and Argentinian wines that taste Spanish or Californian, and so on. Why is this so? Because the style of a wine is determined by the producer who prefers their wines to taste a certain way. You may have heard someone say, or seen it written in a review: "This California producer's Chardonnay seems quite 'Burgundian' in style."
Of course, it's quite hard to disguise a Californian Chardonnay as a French white Burgundy (Chardonnay) because of the significant soil and climate differences between these two regions. Still, the wine, in the hands of a master winemaker using Burgundian technique and French oak, can emulate the subtle elegance and restrained finesse of its Burgundian counterpart.
Another aspect of viewing the world of wine with this analogy is to group varietal families together, irrespective of their geographic heritage. So, from this perspective, you have, for instance: the Cabernet family, the Pinot family, and the Riesling family, all of which have many clonal members that smell and taste similar to one another but also have some pleasant differences. Not everyone knows that the Cabernet family includes Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Malbec, Petit Verdot, and Carmenere. Or that the Pinot family includes Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Meunier, and Pinot Auxerrois.
So, why is this somewhat obscure analogy of wine families being suggested here in appreciating wine? You could forget all this nonsense and just stay with "I like it" or "I don't like it" which is fair enough for most unknowledgeable wine drinkers. That's perfectly valid and should always be the first consideration when tasting wine. But understanding wine requires a bit more patience and skill than this completely visceral approach to personal preference when tasting a beverage as complex as this.
Appreciating wine fully requires that the intellect be actively in gear along with the more emotional bodily senses. That's why there are tomes about this subject from A to Z, people providing wine seminars and classes all over the globe, and every form of electronic media devoting valuable air time and megabyte space to this subject. We, all of the true wine enthusiasts, want to know what we're drinking and why we enjoy it so much!
Cheers!
Donald W. White