Simple Question – Difficult Answer (25 July)

 I asked myself the most simple of questions and could not believe how difficult it was to answer. The question was, “What do I like in a wine?” By way of quantifying and clarifying the question, I am not talking about judging a wine in a critical, professional manner, to work out if it is a well-constructed wine worthy of “X” points or “Y” rating. Rather I am looking at the situation when you pick up a glass of wine, take a sip and go, “Ooh – that’s nice, I will have another glass of it”.

Its relatively easy (for me) to analyse the construction of a wine and describe the tannins, acid, flavour, balance etc; whilst trying to put my personal prejudices aside, and review the wine. A wine can rate very highly and the drinker not like it because it is not their style of wine, and conversely, a drinker can pick up a fairly average drop and really enjoy drinking it. From my perspective, it is more difficult to pick up a glass and describe why I like it than to review it, especially when it’s an average wine.

For the casual wine drinker, it’s more important to know why they like what they drink in an empirical sense. The technicalities and the ins and outs of a duck’s backside in relation to the balance between tartaric acid and pH is not as important.

Its easy to describe what I don’t like about wine; the things that turn me off. Flavours of dominant charry oak would be top of the list, over-ripe dead fruit would be next, one dimensional intense, blackberry flavour spectrum follows on and so it goes. When it comes to balance, I am very critical and don’t enjoy wines that are overly acidic, under-fruited (some would say too much oak), or have hard or unripe tannins, to name just a few items.

The list of dislikes, if I thought about it long enough could fill this story, but that’s not what this is about; it’s the other side of the coin we need to examine. Often when I am talking with top winemakers, and most of them taste and drink a heck of a lot of wine, they say a good wine is one where they want to drink more than a small glass.

Anyone who tastes very young wine on a regular basis looks forward to drinking mature wine, where the components have integrated and mellowed, and the more brash aspects of the young wine have softened. Most of the samples sent to me are of a reasonably high quality; the sort of wine that most people would be happy to drink at any time, but most are very young and quickly saturate the palate. However, tasting all this high-quality wine spoils one and if anything, the more high-quality wine you taste and drink, the harder it is for your palate to be impressed. If you are ever lucky enough to have dinner with a bunch of talented winemakers, don't be surprised at the quantity of wine which is left on the table at the end of the night.  While you might think this is a criminal waste, to them a single glass of a wine is often enough and only the very best of the bottles on offer will be emptied.

So, we have established that by preference I prefer drinking older, mellower wines. The next thing I look for is flavour. The flavours that one enjoys are very much personal preference. One of the most dominant flavours found in warm climate Shiraz in Australia today is blackberry. In days gone by, it was more into the plum spectrum. I don't mind the taste of blackberry, but when it is intensely ripe, especially if it is combined with other black flavours like tar and liquorice; it doesn't do much for me at all. Other black flavours such as blackcurrant, black cherry, pepper, liquorice and aniseed are all fine. It's the intensely ripe blackberry that turns me off.

When it comes to Cabernet, I love wines like Petaluma, because Petaluma is a quintessential Coonawarra Cabernet Merlot with typical flavours of blackcurrant, cigar box, mint, etc. I am not averse to green flavours, and don't mind a touch of capsicum, something many people dislike in wine, but I do like Cabernet to be essentially ripe. Green flavours are one thing, unripe green characters are another, and I'm not keen on the latter. In warm years, many of the Barossa or McLaren Vale Cabernets can taste more like a "nice big red" than a varietal Cabernet Sauvignon. I don't mind these wines, as long as I'm just after "a drink,” rather than seriously trying to enjoy a varietal Cabernet.

After flavour profile, the next most important aspect to me is balance. When I am drinking wine for enjoyment, I want my palate to be able to appreciate the flavours without my tongue being beaten into submission by tannins, and without the enamel being stripped from my teeth by the acid. That is not to say a wine is a bad wine if it has a high level of tannins or acid, especially when it is noticeable in young wine, for in many cases these components are required for long term ageing, but that is exactly why I enjoy the drinking aged wines, because by then the tannins should have integrated and the acid should have softened.

Many wine lovers will talk about the importance of wine being food friendly, and for them to enjoy it, a wine must go with food. Whilst it is true that some wines are more food friendly than others, especially mid-weight wines, and styles like GSM blends, much of this gets down to personal taste. More often than not, I work out what I would like to drink, and then try and match the food to it. (My mate Brian has I his whole cellar readily accessible, so his approach is generally the reverse – pick the food then choose a wine to match.) As the majority of wine I drink tends to be at the bigger end of the spectrum that means lots of hearty, and/or, spicy food. Food with high chilli content actually goes well with big, young Shiraz, as chilli is a clean heat, and the intensity of the fruit can overcome the heat. Brian has long promoted the virtues of Australian shiraz with Thai food in particular, a great match as long as the wine isn’t overly oaky or tannic.

Wine with a high level of complexity and some aged characteristics is always enjoyable. However, I sometimes just want to drink a relaxing glass of red without having to think about it. Producers like Kurtz, Sylvan Springs, Thorn-Clarke Quartage, Kalleske Clarry’s, Mamre Brook, Sevenhill, Tahbilk and Tim Adams, plus many more, all produce wines for under $20 that fit the bill perfectly, especially once they have some bottle age. You don't have to spend a fortune to get an enjoyable drop of wine, and when it's all said and done, it is just fermented grape juice.

The amount anyone can spend on wine is a major consideration, as it determines what they can drink on a day-to-day basis. I am lucky in that I don't need to worry about day to day wines any longer; the amount of samples I receive pretty much takes care of that department (as well as an overflowing cellar.)

The downside of knowing a bit about wine is that your palate becomes educated and faults are quickly spotted. Many people may not notice a slight steely character in a wine with Brett, but when it is there, I notice it, and it immediately turns me off. Most other faults do the same thing; however we all have different tolerance levels to faults.

We all have unique tastes and individual thresholds towards flavours and attributes that we like or dislike, therefore each person's taste is unique. The only thing that matters when you are drinking a glass of wine is that you like it. It doesn't matter if a wine has received hundred and five points and costs $500, if you don't like it, you don't like it. Conversely, if you happen to enjoy an unpretentious $10 wine of no great repute, then that's great, because at the end of the day the only person who taste buds you have to please is your own. If anyone whose palate I don’t know asks me to recommend a wine, I ask them to name a few wines they have especially enjoyed, as well as a budget amount. That’s usually enough to come up with some suggestions, even if they aren’t wines I’d personally buy.

Whichever your palate and budget, it’s worth thinking about the aspects of wines you enjoy (and don’t like,) as it will help to hone in on the ones you are most likely to enjoy  and avoid wasting money on those you probably won’t appreciate. It is also worthwhile spending time learning how to pick up on key words in reviews (or even the back label) as that will help you decide whether a particular wine may or may not suit your palate.

So ask yourself the difficult question, “what aspects make a wine enjoyable?”

Feel free to submit your comments!

Copyright © Ric Einstein 2007