The National Wine
UnClub
Newsletter
Grapey Nuts
Welch's Concord Grape Juice is a great grapey-tasting drink - it's just not the flavor profile you typically expect when drinking your favorite Merlot or Cabernet wine. In the past, wines that tasted of grape juice were called foxy ('goût de fox', as the French called it); I'm not sure why - maybe because foxes loved the taste of these wild grapes hanging on the vine.
Mankind found out millennia ago that a certain branch of the vast family of grapevines made wine that didn't taste of grapes; it was a remarkable discovery. Vitis Vinifera, as this Eurasian vine was called, produced wines that tasted rather amazingly like other fruits, and had subtle herbal and spice elements that often inspired poets, artists and great chefs to ever-higher levels of achievement.
Wines made from such technically named families of grapes as Vitis Rotundifolia, Vitis Muscadine, Vitis Labrusca are remarkably unrefined in their obvious grapey-ness. This is not to say that these wines can't become widely popular. Remember Riunite and Cella? These sweet, spritzy red wines from the Emilia-Romagna province of central Italy are made from the Labrusca family of grapevines.
But to taste an obvious flavor of wild grapes in premium Bordeaux, Barolo, or BV 'Georges de Latour' Private Reserve, all made with the noble Vinifera? Ah, now THAT is sacrilege for the experienced wine enthusiast! Alas, with the advent of modern winemaking (and the desire of many consumers for intense fruit flavors in their wines) the old bane of foxiness has arisen once again from an unexpected quarter.
In an attempt to bring up the fruit intensities in wine (as well as to adjust for acid deficiencies in hot weather vineyards) technically minded vintners have resorted to adding tartaric/citric acid blends to their grape musts. This can be done (and should be done, if necessary) before fermentation, but this rule isn't always followed faithfully. The result is that white wines made with acidulation taste like fortified pineapple Kool-Aid while the reds have a distinct Welch's Concord grape flavor about them.
This practise is rampant around the globe; taste the cheaper wines of almost any wine-producing nation and you'll see the same rather boring flavor profile. Often wines of this ilk come off as objectionably artificial to the mature wine taster's palate, yet these wines are deemed as good by a majority of American consumers. Consequently winemakers are encouraged to continue adding fruit acids to their wines. What should be done?
To control the purity of their Qualitatswein mit Pradikat (premium) wines in Germany, laws were passed disallowing the addition of sugar to grape musts; vintners have actually done jail time after having broken this wine quality-control law. Perhaps this kind of regulation should be applied to the winemaking industry in those warm weather wine regions where adding acids has become almost epidemic.
But what about the millions of people who like this taste in their wines? Should a few crusty old connoisseurs stamp out a modern innovation in winemaking that seems to have broad appeal among the majority of wine consumers? Probably not. However, perhaps vintners should be reminded that palate preferences change over time and that they will have to decide whether their wine should be a wine for simple mass consumption, or an artisan wine for a growing number of wine enthusiasts who desire to know what a natural wine tastes like.
Cheers!
Donald W. White