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Putting Wine in Context
Repeat this mantra: "All wine need not be great. All wine need not be celestial." Believe it. Own it. Don't forget to breathe. Now sip!
In this unique informational age, and urban environment in which many of us live, we are besieged with wine criticism and reviews that often taut the "best wines…..the greatest wines….the "you must beg borrow and steal to get a bottle of this limited wine." A critique might contain the words "jam packed tannin staining fruit with surreal amounts of extract." Often following the review is a score that usually rates the wine from 1 - 100 points.
I have found much wine criticism bloated and the idea of numerical ratings absurd. What does a 96-point wine really mean? Imagine if we rated art numerically. "I give the Venus de Milo 75 points, with points deducted for each missing arm." Or the next time you are ready to order some fish at "restaurant tres chere", the waiter recommends his 99 point salmon in a buerre blanc sauce.
Before you think me a vinous heathen, let me say that I love wine. And I love drinking well-made wine. But for me the object is not to have every wine that I enjoy be so celestial and so revered that I must drink it on my knees!
Some of the most fulfilling wine experiences have been when I put wine in context - context of occasion, season, cuisine, and place. Let me recount a recent story.
Last week I found myself in Tuscany, teaching and learning at a Toscana Saporita - a cooking school in the Western part of Tuscany. The school is housed on a working 15th century working agricultural estate. Mornings were spent participating in hands on cooking classes and lunches featured the foods prepared during the morning lessons. My job was to lend support to the wine portion of the program. Wines were served with all meals. And while I could wax poetic about the classic, often great wines of Tuscany - Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino, and the spectacular super-Tuscans, many of our meals featured local Tuscan wines that I had never heard of. Montecarlo. Have you heard of it? Sounds like the place where you choose to double down or take a try at roulette. In fact, it is a lesser-known region located just east of Lucca. The reds of this region are Sangiovese based wines - the major grape that is used to produce the wines of Chianti.
We enjoyed many of these wines with both our lunches and dinners. Were these wines great? No. Well-made? Generally yes. Will I remember them? Absolutely. You cannot disconnect the wine from its context. Surrounded by 70 acres of olive groves and vines… eating real food made from true simple ingredients. (A pristine grilled artichoke followed by some freshly made pasta sent chills up my spine.) And these local wines connected all the dots. Enjoying a meal in a leisurely setting, simple and direct local food and wine accompanied by lively conversation. These are experiences that will forever be part of my palate memory.
These experiences can also be found closer to home: sipping a Gewürztraminer in the glorious countryside of Little Compton, Rhode Island, savoring a warm summer day and sampling the varied wines of the North Fork of Long Island. You get the picture.
Wine cannot be removed from the idea of place and the context in which we enjoy it. It often enhances our experience. And if you like it - beyond what other people think - that is what is most important. It was one noted wine journalist who said: "Wine should be treated more like a potato and less like a Picasso." So I raise a glass, any glass and say Here, Here!
Wine Word: Tuscany. Tuscany is one of Italy's 20 wine regions. The major red-wine grape of the region is Sangiovese and the region is home to many famous and often long-lived red wines including Chianti and Brunello di Montalcino and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. The Sangiovese grape, with a structural profile that contains firm acidity make these wines perfect candidates with a wide range of food styles. A major Tuscan white wine of the region is Vernaccia di San Gimignano.
For further information on Italian wine, contact the Italian Trade Commission at 499 Park Avenue, New York, New York 10022.
For information on Toscana Saporita cooking School, log onto www.cyberstudio.it/saporita
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