Tuesday, October 16 2007
Truths, Half-Truths and Wine
I was reading the New York Times this morning, as I do nearly every day (along with BBC News and the four or five journals and blogs I look at to make sure I'm not making an idiot of myself on any particular day) and I popped into The Pour, Eric Asimov's shivaree on booze and food.
Eric was doing a little pontificating about conventional wisdom in wine, and had a little list of things he wanted to refute. Well, perhaps not refute, but certainly to re-examine in light of more complex answers than are usually given. Strangely, although I usually find myself in close agreement with him, I was more ginger about one thing he said today.
He countered the up 'n' coming wisdom that unoaked Chardonnay is better than oaked Chardonnay. If you're like me, you've had one too many glasses of Chateau Plywood. You wake up one morning and realise you don't have any idea what Chardonnay tastes like, because all these years you've been drinking the equivalent of pulp-mill runoff. But Eric noted that there are non-obvious benefits to barrel ageing Chardonnays, as unoaked wines
" . . . lack some of the crucial benefits of barrel aging, namely a very slight exposure to the oxygen that passes through the wood, which can enhance a wine's texture and complexity."
Well, sure they lack the effects of barrel ageing, but to call them a 'crucial benefit' is stretching the point. If a winemaker decides it's necessary, micro-oxygenation can be done in stainless steel tanks without oak getting involved. And enhancements in texture and complexity--are they enhancements, or stylistic choices? Just because Eric likes them doesn't mean you and I will. I've had wonderfully fat, unctuous Chardonnays that didn't have an overly 'woody' character, but I've also had some delightful, crisp Chardonnays that were rife with peach and apricot aromas and fresh, snappy apple notes that would have been destroyed by a layer of oak, or oxygenation whipping off the top layer of fruit.
Barrels were the container of choice for water-tight transportation for centuries, and as a piece of technology they're stunningly effective: strong, long-lasting and very efficient of space. But the effects barrels have on wine are now more completely understood, and we don't have to put wood in wine.
Which reminds me: I have to go check my barrels and see if it's time to move the Zinfandel out of the Yugoslavian barrel, and top up the Sangiovese in the Limousin.
| Posted by Tim AT 4:13PM | 0 Comments |  |
Post A Comment |  |
 |