Advertisement
The Major Red Grapes Used in Varietal Wines
Published 1997
- Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the primary grapes used to make all the red wines of the Medoc district of Bordeaux, most of the California premium red wines, and many of the red wines of Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. It is a magnificent grape, which tasted right from the vine immediately reveals its strong varietal characters; as you bite through the skin, the juice is good but it is the aftertaste left in your mouth by the skin which reveals what is usually called a “cedarlike” quality. When Cabernet wine is well made, the same quality is so present in the glass that no one needs to be an expert to identify it immediately by nose and palate. In colder, more temperate climates Cabernet may be clear and transparent, hence its English name of Claret, but in warmer climates its color evokes dark crimson velvet.
- Cabernet Franc is used in the making of Bordeaux wines in the district of Saint Emilion, and it is also the grape from which the Bourgueil and Chi-non wines of the Loire Valley are made. In other districts of the Bordeaux region Cabernet Franc is used in small percentages to soften tannins and allow shorter ripening times in wines made mostly from the long ripening Cabernet Sauvignon; any wine of this type is said to be an “assemblage.” The practice of “assembling” wines from the two Cabernets and Merlot is spreading in California, where such wines are called Meritages.
- Merlot, In the extraordinary district of Bordeaux known as Pomerol, the wines are made from Merlot grapes which are sometimes assembled in relatively small quantities with both Cabernets. In California pure Merlot is being produced more and more extensively.
Pinot Noir, known in Germany and Switzerland as Burgunder, is the red grape of Burgundy and some German and Swiss valleys, and the grape used to make the clear pale red wines of Alsace. It is extending its domain to many of the American areas of production such as the Carneros district in California and the Willamette Valley in Oregon. Much less typical in taste when tasted as a fresh grape than Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir is very difficult to turn into great wine and requires an immense amount of care. The goal of all of the better Burgundian producers is to obtain a nonfiltered wine which is clear and somewhere between ruby and garnet in color. Try some Pinots Noirs from Burgundy, California, and Alsace, so you can appreciate different wines from different climates with different robe colors.
Pinot Noir is also the grape used to make the Champagnes known as blancs de noirs, which means white wines made from black grapes; under Sparkling Wines for details.
- Syrah is the dominant red grape of the French Rhône Valley where its propagation began after having been brought back from the Holy Land by the Crusaders. It is present in all the wines of Hermitage and Châteauneuf-du-Pape which must be aged a very long time. In Australia Syrah is called Shiraz or Hermitage. In South Africa it is called Hermitage and can be blended with Pinot Noir to obtain what is called a Pinotage. Right now Syrah is being introduced on a larger scale in the valleys of California.
Gamay was also brought back from the Holy Land by the Crusaders and is the grape used to make the famous Beaujolais wines of France, a region adjacent to the large city of Lyon on the Rhône, where it yields the fruitiest and nicest wines because of the mixed clay and granite of the different soils in which it is grown. In Burgundy Gamay is much less successful and usually crushed together with lesser grade Pinot Noirs to obtain a type of wine called Passetoutgrain, which is inexpensive and of no particular distinction.
In the United States, especially in the Napa Valley, the “Gamay Beaujolais” in its better presentations is a very nice wine which, as they say, “goes down easy.” Gamay grapes blended with Pinot Noir grapes are made into a young purplish red wine that smells of candy by a natural method called carbonic maceration, in which the grapes are not crushed but rather are allowed to ferment in a closed vat where they eventually pop open naturally by simple carbonic pressure, releasing their beautifully colored juices.
- Zinfandel. Considering that Zinfandel is the most planted red grape in California, I have been wondering ever since I arrived in the United States why wine writers do not pay more attention to the delicious wines made from this grape and why, when they do, they are so persistent in comparing it to the French Beaujolais.