A recent Corrie Brown Los Angeles Times article asks the question: Are California wines over the top? Increasingly, wine enthusiasts are saying “yes” to that question...or at least “maybe” or “kinda” or “uh...not sure.” Alcohol levels are continuing to climb and levels of extraction in many of these wines climb to keep pace and the American wine consumer may just be starting to get a little tired of it. Or, it could just the inevitable change inherent in almost every system, a reaction to a reaction, and the wine world most certainly is a system.
The primary focus of Ms. Brown's article is Ojai Vineyard's Adam Tolmach, who is very publicly turning his back on the critical darling style of big, fruit-forward, high-alcohol wines he has been making for the past several years and has a proclaimed goal of making “14%-alcohol wines with nuance.” Tolmach has the advantage of making only 6000 cases per year and already being very highly regarded so I believe he will make this work for him, continued Parker score support or not. This might be a much larger fiscal risk with a larger producer and certainly will be risky to those who emulate his moves without the benefit of also receiving the public relations boon inherent to being the centerpiece of an L.A. Times article.
15% seems to be the line in the sand that, once crossed, started to raise concerns. It seems as good a number as any. However, I do tend to disagree with the quoted assertion from Burghound's Allan Meadows that a 15% wine cannot be balanced (although I suspect his quote was taken slightly out of context). It is possible for a 15%+ table wines to be balanced and show genuine harmony on the nose and tongue. Granted, genuine examples are probably pretty uncommon, but they exist. The problem is that the level of extraction and fruitiness needed to counter that much alcohol leads to a wine that, frankly, doesn't lend itself well to what many perceive to be wine's primary goal; accompaniment with food. This is especially true of the kinds of food most people actually eat nowadays. Honestly, how many nights in a month do you eat very hearty cuisine or strong cheeses? Now how many nights in a month do you drink red wine?
I regularly come across wines that, in my humble opinion, go with few if any foods at all. I am reminded of a night not too long ago where I paid nice money for a very highly regarded Australian Shiraz in one of the more famous steakhouses in this country and found, much to my chagrin, that the wine absolutely stomped all over the think, juicy and flavorful steak I had ordered. I love the intermingled flavors of red wine with red meat. The flavor of red wine with meat texture, on the other hand, is not as endearing a culinary experience.
I support Tolmach in his efforts and can only hope that his efforts and the public efforts of others like him help accelerate the momentum of the pendular shift that has already begun. Hopefully, Mother Nature will support their efforts as well in the increasingly hot California wine regions. Careful canopy management and selective harvesting will most likely be par for the course in years to come to ensure that grapes reach physiological maturity before sugar levels go beyond the desired point and the resulting wines will not be strong enough to strip the chrome off a '72 Buick.
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