Why I love Maps
I’m a great lover of maps.
Back in the days before GPS, if ever I
took a trip to a different city, I would
always invest in a good map. A good map
keeps me oriented and makes it easy to
find my way around. A good map spares me
from having to ask every passerby for
directions.
When you begin to
taste wine seriously, you are probably
wandering about without a map. You are
probably thinking in terms of bottles
and labels. You say
to yourself
“Oh I had a bottle yesterday that said
Shiraz 2004 on the label…so today I’ll
try the same label but this time with
Syrah 2007 on it” And that is OK! (The
insider joke is that Syrah and Shiraz are the same kind
of grape with different names.) Every
beginner starts that way! We all started
out buying bottles with labels and
trying and tasting what’s out there.
Sometimes it happens that you don’t know
what to try next, so you might ask a
friend, passerby or sales person for a
recommendation You will get a great deal
of information and experience during
this stage, even though you are just
taking shots in the dark, without having
any sense of direction. Eventually, you
will discover that wine tasting is a
kind of world, and when you get oriented
in it, you will find yourself making
much better choices and getting richer
experiences from your wine tasting
sessions. To get oriented in this
universe of wine you need a map, and
that is exactly what I would like to
provide for you. I would like to make
you familiar in a very general way with
the different kinds of wine that are out
there, and more importantly with the six
major grape varieties.
My Map:
Three
Islands
and Six Tribes
Now, what does my
map look like? Well imagine that there
are three islands. At the bottom right
of the map is a big island called Dry.
Adjacent to it at the bottom left it is
a second, smaller island called Sweet.
Above the first two islands is a third
even smaller one called Sparkling. Now
imagine that there are two native
nations. One is called the Whites and
the second is called the Reds. Both the
Whites and the Reds first originated on
Dry
Island.
Each nation has three main tribes and
numerous smaller ones
On the whole The
Whites are very fond of high places with
lots of air, light and crisp breezes.
The Reds prefer shady forests, deep
canyons and the rich earth. As a matter
of fact, the lightest and airiest of the
White tribes live at the highest snowy
altitudes. Lower down on the slopes the
second White Tribe makes its home. The
Third White Tribe lives lower down still
on the edge of the forest. With the Reds
the situation is somewhat similar. The
airiest Red tribe lives in the high
forests. The second Red Tribe lives at
the base of the mountains in the thick
forests, while the last of the Red
Tribes makes its home in the deep shady
canyons below the mountains.
One day the Whites
and the Reds set forth from
Dry
Island to colonize
Sweet
Island.
Sweet
Island had
mostly high altitudes, so the Reds
didn’t get a very good foothold.
Nevertheless, some of the Reds did
figure out how to survive. As you can
imagine, the Whites loved it, and
eventually the Sweet Whites achieved
many extraordinary things, becoming the
stuff of legends, even though they were
relatively few in number.
In the next stage
of their History, The Whites and the
Reds from both islands explored the
third island, Sparkling. At first the
whites had the advantage, although
lately more Reds have been making their
home on
Sparkling
Island.
Fortunately, there is plenty of room and
resources for everybody, so all the
tribes get along celebrating their
diversity; the Dry Reds, the Dry Whites,
the Sweet Reds and so forth and so on.
I’m pretty sure you
get my drift here. The Nations represent
the two major classifications of Grapes,
the Reds and the Whites. Each kind of
grape is divided into smaller types or
varieties. It is common to speak of “The
Big Six” varieties, which are the most
commonly cultivated. Of course, there
are many other significant varieties.
But if you know the big six, you have a
solid basic knowledge which time and
experience can add to. Needless to say,
the islands represent the kinds of wines
that the grape varieties can produce.
Some of you might be wondering why I
didn’t mention Semi-dry or Semi-sweet as
wine categories. Well, firstly I didn’t
want to end op with to many islands on
the Map. Secondly, a wine’s sweetness is
determined by the amount of sugar it
contains. If it has a good amount of
sugar, it is sweet. If it has no sugar
whatsoever, it is dry as the
Sahara. If it has a so/so
amount of sugar it’s a Semi. So you can
call it sweet or semi sweet or semi dry,
in the end you are tasting the sugar. In
my opinion, you can the line where you
like, but a wine is either dry or sweet.
When speaking about
the distinction between the Reds and the
Whites, Some of you may notice that I
didn’t mentions Rose as a separate wine
color. There is good reason for this.
Grapes are either red or white.
Traditionally in France, Rose
wines were often made by blending a
little red wine into a white wine.
Lately this kind of blending has fallen
out of favor, and the common practice is
to make Rose wines from Red grapes. You
are probably asking “How can you get a
Rose wine from a Red grape?” Well it
takes skill and timing. Red grapes have
red colored skins while the juice of a
red grape is the same color as the juice
of a white grape. The wine picks up the
redness of the skins because the wine
maker lets the juice sit together with
the skins. This also releases the
tannins, those dark tea-like compounds
that give a red wine its “dry” feeling.
To make a Rose wine, the wine maker lets
the juice sit on the skins for less
time.
Another surprise is
that the different varieties of grapes
don’t have specific tastes. You just
can’t tell what flavors a wine will give
you by looking at the grapes it is made
out of. All grape varieties change their
tastes depending on the climate and the
soil in which they grow. Geography is
everything in wine tasting, and experts
are completely familiar with how the
grape varieties respond in the various
regions where they are grown. The great
wine taster is a geographer of wine
growing regions. Since we are working on
becoming great appreciators of Kosher
wine, we will eventually becomes very
familiar with the different geographical
features of Eretz Yisrael, as well as
other parts of the world. A Grape grown
in the Negev or the Judean Hills is not
the same as a Grape grown in the Galil
or the Golan
Heights!
However, each of
the grape varieties has a certain feel
to it, which can be categorized and
arranged from “lightest” to “deepest.” A
“Light” Wine will usually bring up
associations like “Clear,” “Fresh
Tasting” or “crisp.” A “Deep” wine will
usually call up associations like
“Earthy,” “Robust,” or “Woody.” The
deeper a wine, the more of those tannins
it will exhibit, so it will have a more
powerful kick as it goes down. Also the
deeper the wine, the more complexity it
can bring together, since it has the
strength of character needed to hold
everything together. In general a light
wine will have more fruity tastes and
aromas as well as more hints of
sweetness. Often they will exhibit a
kind of peachy taste, which needs (in my
opinion) to be well balanced out by the
wine’s tartness and clarity. Otherwise
the peachy taste can become a queasy
unpleasant sensation.
So, here
are the big six varieties. The first
three are white grapes. The second three
are red grapes. They are numbered from 1
to 6, where 1 is the lightest, and 6 is
the deepest:
1. Riesling
2. Chardonnay
3. Sauvignon Blanc
4. Pinot Noir
5. Merlot
6. Cabernet Sauvignon.
In my map, as you recall, I have the
lightest White Tribe inhabiting the
mountain tops, while the deepest Red
Tribe inhabits the canyons under the
mountains, with the other tribes located
in the altitudes in between. To my mind,
it is similar with these grape
varieties. The Riesling is super crisp,
airy and clear, while the Cabernet
Sauvignon is super earthy, robust and
strong. All the rest fall out somewhere
in between.
Dry, Sweet and Sparkling
As we continue our discussion, I’ll tell
you a little bit about each of the Big
Six Varieties. But first I need to
explain some more about Dry and Sweet
wines. When I was starting out on my
path as a wine taster, it seemed to me
that the important wines were all dry
wines, and that sweet wines weren’t
particularly noteworthy. In reality, I
was more interested in dry wines than
any other kind because I was drawn to
the challenge of learning to understand
them and appreciate them. I grew up with
a weekly dose of sweet Kiddush wine, and
when I found out this wine was
considered bad, I lost interest in sweet
wines. It took me time to rediscover
sweet wines, and they can be every bit
as amazing as the dry ones. In fact the
most expensive and exclusive wines in
the world are sweet ones!
Sweet wines are
generally white wines. You can’t make a
great sweet wine by putting sugar in it.
The taste of the sugar is not the same
as the taste of the sweetness of the
grape.
The only
natural way to make a sweet wine is to
start with grapes that have more sugar
in them to begin with. That way when the
fermentation process stops, you are left
with a sweet wine. White grapes tend to
have more sugar in them. But that is not
enough to give you a sweet wine. To make
a sweet wine, the winemaker has to do
some tricks to concentrate the juice in
his grapes. He can leave the grapes on
the vine until the sun dries them out
somewhat. In colder climates, he can
leave the grapes on the vine until they
freeze with the first winter snow. This
extracts water from the grapes resulting
in a more concentrated, sweeter juice.
Another way of making a sweet wine is to
intentionally let a specific fungus,
called “Noble Rot” attack the grapes.
The fungus sucks out the water, as it
changes the chemical makeup of the
grapes. The sweet wine made from these
“rotten” grapes can be truly
extraordinary, and are very expensive
and sought after. The mold, let’s face
it, is mold. It is not well behaved. If
things don’t go well, the winemaker
might end up with a bunch of rotten
grapes. So these wines are rare and
unique. As you can see, making a great
sweet wine is a complex and tedious and
unpredictable process. Another way to
make a wine sweet is to put some hard
brandy alcohol into it, before it is
fully fermented. This kills the yeast
before it gets a chance to eat up all
the sugar. Such wines can be made from
red grapes too. Now, the worst way to
make a sweet wine is to put sugar in it.
This is how most Kiddush Wines were
made, and once you get a taste of good
sweet wine, you will hardly find them
drinkable. This too has changed recently
because of the influence of Sephardic
Rabbis. Many Sephardim hold like the
Rambam who claims that a sweetened wine
is invalid for Kiddush. So, today more
and more sweet Kiddush wine made by
adding alcohol to stop the fermentation.
A few Israeli sweet wines are made from
unusual super sweet grapes native to the
area. The wine is then ages, which
caramelizes the sugar creating a spicy,
syrupy concoction which many enjoy.
Now, let me say a
few words about Sparkling wines.
Sparkling wines are a challenge to make,
unless you take the cheapo seltzer
method and pump CO2 into a wine. That
will make it fizz alright, but like
adding sugar, this method it is
unnatural and demeaning to the wine. A
real sparkling is wine is made when a
second fermentation takes place in the
bottle. In the Champagne region of France such “in
the bottle” fermentations used to happen
by accident. The locals thought this was
terrible and they spent lots of time and
energy trying to stop in the bottle
fermentation from happening. One day
somebody discovered that the bubbly
wines were actually delicious. So
Champagne
was born. Just be careful of one thing.
Don’t dare make a bubbly wine in France and call it Champagne
or you will be arrested and sent to
Devil’s Island
for the rest of your life. Only wines
originating in the Champagne region have
the right to be called
Champagne. That
is the law. And don’t call your regular
paper hankies Kleenex either or else the
secret Tissue Police will suddenly knock
on your door. (You know I’m kidding,
right? OK, let’s get serious again.)
It just so happens
to be that most sparkling wines are
whites, but logically it does not have
to be this way. Lately there are some
fine sparkling red wines being made,
some with varying degrees of sweetness.
So in my map I show Sparkling
Island as
colonized by pretty much everybody.
Now we can move
back to
Dry
Island,
which I have to admit is still my
favorite place. I love dry wines. Dry
wines are what most grapes naturally
produce. If, as I have, you were raised
on sweet wine, it is hard at first to
understand what you are trying to taste.
As I’m sure you know by now, dry wines
can have an amazing array of tastes and
aromas. They can be fruity, spicy
earthy, woody and even sweet in a dry
sort of way. Dry wines have a zest and
vitality that makes me feel energetic.
Hopefully, the things I have written in
previous articles are helping you awaken
your senses and you mind. I also will
have some helpful ideas in my book,
which I encourage you to get.
The Big Six
So, we can move on to discuss briefly
each kind of the Grape Varieties. By the
way, the names of the varieties are
either German or French. The names don’t
mean much in of themselves, and in some
cases no-one really knows what they
mean. Still I will try and provide you
with some commonly believed
explanations.
Riesling: The name is
German and it probably refers to the
place where this grape was first grown.
It is acidic and tart and there is a
wide variety of fruity flavors and
smells it can exhibit. Riesling grapes
are very strongly influenced by their
location, so you can hardly know what a
Riesling wine will be like unless you
know where it was grown. It ages well,
and when it gets really old it can
exhibit a petrol or rubbery smell. This
is actually considered a desirable
quality in the wine because it adds
something interesting to its character.
Many sweet wines are made from this
Grape.
Chardonnay:
It is named after a village in
France.
It is a strong energetic vine that grows
well all over the world. The grape is
somewhat neutral in taste, and doesn’t
go extremes. It is also easily
influenced by its location and how it is
fermented and aged. An aged chardonnay
can develop a buttery kind of texture.
It is also used extensively for making
sparkling wines.
It can
exhibit many flavors, from nuts and
berries to tropical fruit tastes.
Sauvignon
Blanc: Its name means “Wild
White” which seems to indicate that this
grape once grew wild in
France.
The wine produced from this grape is
often said to have a grassy, herbal and
aggressive aroma, although it can also
be crisp and refreshing. This grape is
also often used in sparkling wines.
Pinot Noir:
The name means “Black Pine
Cone” and it refers to the way the dark
grapes cling together in closely packed
cluster. Wine made from these grapes is
said to have sensual, intoxicating,
sweet and fruity tastes or aromas. The
wine can exhibit a wide array of
qualities that are often difficult to
pin down.
Some say
that it is the most “Romantic” of wines.
Merlot: The name means
“Blackbird” which may refer to the color
of the grape. Or perhaps it means that
blackbirds are fond of eating them. No
one really knows. Merlot is thought of
as being soft and friendly, with tastes
of cherries or berries. Traditionally it
has been used to blend with other
stronger wines to balance out their
sharper qualities. Nowadays, many
Merlots are enjoyed on their own. For
the most part, such wines are considered
easy going, relaxed and well rounded,
like an old friendship.
Cabernet-Sauvignon: This grape
has a long name, so it is sometimes
called Cab or Cab-so for short. It is a
hybrid resulting from the crossing of
Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc.
(That is the same white grape variety I
mentioned previously)
As I said
previously, Sauvignon means “Wild.” As
for the name Cabernet Franc, the word
Franc just means “pure.” No-one knows
what the word Cabernet means.
There are
some theories about it but nothing
substantial.
Perhaps
Cabernet means “Coal Black” and
indicates how dark the grape is. Maybe
Cabernet comes from the Latin word
“Caput” which means “Head” (that is the
origin of the word “Capital” in
English.) If so, it seems that the
cultivation of this grape goes all the
way back to Roman times, and that it was
the “Head Grape” for export to Rome. The Romans did in fact appreciate a
French grape called Biturica (named
after the tribe that grew it) and
perhaps “Cabernet” is some garbled up
version of Biturica. Whatever the case,
the grape we call Cabernet Sauvignon is
named after its two parent varieties.
The major quality of a Cab wine is the
Big Taste. It can contain layers upon
layers of tastes, aromas and textures.
It has solid strong tannins, and some
Cabs are just undrinkable until they
have aged, preferably in wooden oak
barrels. But even when aged a Cab can
still be too strong for beginners to
enjoy. But once you get used to it, you
will learn to appreciate it richness,
its earthy flavors, its woody
undertones, as well as the spicy,
tobacco berry or vanilla flavors that
come popping up. It can also exhibit a
wide variety of fruity tastes. A great
Cab can be a like a symphony of
sensations, that hits you with force and
assertiveness. A Cab is never a wimpy
wine.
So this is my map
of the World of wine. Of course it is
greatly lacking in detail, but that is
up to you to fill in as you continue
exploring. As I indicated previously,
with time you will also develop a
geographic map where you will locate the
wines you appreciated most. For most
wine experts, their maps give a strong
emphasis to areas in France, Italy,
Germany, California, New Zealand and
even South Africa, to name a few. Even
Orthodox Jews like me (for whom kosher
is everything) might still end up
becoming more familiar with the map of France. Word is
out that some of the finest French
wineries will soon be making kosher
production runs. Still, no matter what,
for us the Map of Eretz Yisrael looms
very large. When you consider that Eretz
Yisrael is a microcosm of the whole
world, we will certainly find that all
the sensations and qualities one could
hope for are there waiting there to be
discovered.
This reminds me of
a famous story. Once, a city fellow went
to visit the Hafetz Hayim in the
village of Radin in Lithuania. The visitor arrived with
a map, which caught the Hafetz Hayim’s
interest. The visitor explained that a
point on the map meant a big important
city, that a large dot on the map meant
a huge important metropolis and that a
star stood for a capital city of a whole
nation. The Hafetz Hayim tried to find
Radin on the map. It didn’t even show
up. The Hafetz Hayim said: “In heaven
they also have a map, with points, dots
and stars. On that map Radin
shows up as a star, and who knows if Berlin, Paris and London even show up as
points.” As appreciators of kosher wine,
we will end up with our own unique map
of the world, and Eretz Yisrael will
most certainly be its center.
