Plummy vino beauties: the beauties of Bordeaux
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ISACS is the founder and CEO of EnjoyGourmet, a leading gourmet digital (www.enjoygourmet.com.cn) and print media company in China. He has authored over a dozen wine and food books including the awarded ISACS Guides and other gourmet books and is a wine consultant to governments, wine regions and organizations. He also hosts wine events for leading organizations and companies throughout China. Contact John via jcolumn@enjoygourmet.com.
Today’s iDeal introduces the delicious world of Chinese plum treats. Readers might be surprised that one of the best ways to enjoy the finest plum aromas and flavors is in a glass of wine. One of the more common and delicious sensations in red wines is plums.
A frequent query by wine newcomers is how a beverage made entirely with grapes can offer such a wide range of aromas and flavors including plums? The answer is science: Wine gains aromas and flavors from the winemaking process, the grapes themselves and the climate. All three factors influence the complex aromatic, flavor and texture sensations of wine.
The most important contributor to the aromas and flavors in a wine is the fermentation process. When grapes ferment, yeast consumes the sugar content of the grapes and turns it into alcohol. During this process over 200 complex chemical compounds or esters are formed and it’s these esters that impart such a wide range of aromas and flavors. Some esters have nearly identical molecular forms to popular fruits like apples, lemons, berries and of course our yummy plums. Therefore, when we use our nasal and taste faculties to experience these esters they miraculously resemble other fruits. To a lesser extent, the cultivation of the vines, harvesting time, sorting the grapes and aging in oak and the bottle may also bequeath lovely aromas and flavors to wines.
Certain grapes have a penchant to exhibit specific aromas and flavors. Each grape variety boasts a unique physiology that consists of specific aromatic compounds. These compounds are primarily in the skin of a grape but can also come from the pulp but they’re usually imperceptible until the completion of the fermentation process. Varieties that commonly exhibit plummy sensations include Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec, Petit Verdot, Mouvedre, Montepulciano, Aglianico, Negroamoro and Nero d’Avola.
The climate also may influence the aromas and flavors in wines. When it comes to plum flavors, red wines made in cooler climates tend to provide tarter, less ripe plum sensations while warmer climate reds generally offer riper and juicier plum flavors. Some warm weather reds, especially older more mature examples, offer seductive sweet stewed plum flavors. Arguably the most plummy of all wine styles comes from China’s favorite wine region.
Bordeaux
China is the world’s biggest Bordeaux market. Bordeaux wines have long been popular in the world’s most important wine markets and this is especially true in China. There are good reasons. Bordeaux produces a huge quantity of wine and no other wine region produces so many good and even great wines. Conversely, Bordeaux also produces a large amount of unripe, low alcohol wines. The latter is particularly in poor vintages.
The first and easiest method to procure a good Bordeaux wine is to spend more money. This often means buying one of the famous wines in the 1855 Classification. In 1855, as part of the celebrations for the Universal Exhibition in Paris, the French emperor Napoleon III asked the Bordeaux region to rank their best and most famous wines. This classification included wines exclusively from the left side of the Garonne River including the noble rot sweet wines from Sauternes and Barsac. Today, the Right Bank regions of Saint Emilion and Pomerol make wines to rival the best wines of the Left Bank but wines from these appellations were not officially acknowledged in 1855. The official 1855 classification includes 60 Medoc wines and one Graves wine, the legendary Chateau Haut Brion. Though obviously flawed, the classification retains great prestige.
I loath paying the exorbitant prices that the wines in the 1855 Classification command but occasionally I’ll buy some of the better value chateaux. These include Grand Puy Ducasse, a substantial yet elegant 5th growth wine, Giscours, a 3rd growth wine with a smooth, weighty mouthfeel and dark fruit flavors and the 4th growth Beychevelle, a large chateau with over 500 years history that makes consistently elegant, balanced and complex wines.
The next level of quality wines in Bordeaux are the Cru Bourgeois. These include many of the most respected chateaux that were left out of the 1855 Classification. Some the better Cru Bourgeois wines routinely outperform the 1855 Grand Cru Classe wines. In this group I highly recommend Meyney, Phelan Segur, Chasse Spleen and Potensac.
Eminently more affordable are the Bordeaux Superior wines and some of them are well worth a try. I recommend Guillaume Blanc and Timberlay as both offer a quality, typical Bordeaux drinking experience. At the base of the Bordeaux quality pyramid are the basic AOC wines, some of which are good and many others indifferent. Some eminently drinkable AOC wines include Les Graves de Cottiere, Vieux Clos St Emilion and Caville.
Weather varies a great deal in Bordeaux and as a consequence weather you’re splurging or parsimoniously budget-hunting, vintages matter. The best recent Bordeaux vintages are 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2015. Despite their lower prices avoid 2011 and 2013 unless you specifically know and have tasted the wines.
Where to buy in Shanghai
Varieties: The major Bordeaux red varieties in sequence of their cultivation areas are Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot.
Key term: Cru Bourgeois is a category of Bordeaux wines that are just below the Classification of 1855 wines; and in fact, several of the former frequently outperform many of the latter.
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