In praise of California moderation
Dan Berger published a fine, plain-spoken, and very true article in the San Francisco Chronicle's wine section a week ago: "Cabernet the Corison way: Longtime Napa winemaker bucks trend of making higher-alcohol, blockbuster wines".
We've sold Cathy Corison's wines at Paul Marcus Wines for many years, and they're among my favorite California cabernet sauvigons for all the reasons that the article makes clear - their balance, elegance, complexity, and food-friendliness. After reading the article, I had the impression that Ms. Corison's wines are a natural extension of her personality - understated, devoted, thoughtful, and utterly unconcerned about the modern wine hype machine.
But what the article makes even more abundantly clear is the problem with most current California cabernet - and that it wasn't always this way. To summarize:
The most influential reviewers dislike even the faintest hint of cabernet sauvignon's naturally herbal character. Thus, many winemakers insist on leaving grapes on the vine until they become overripe, which masks the herbal notes - as well as terroir, complexity, and any possibility of balance in the wine.
Partly as a result of this effect, freakish overripeness has become a desideratum in California winemaking.
These lamentable fetishes are relatively new. Up until the early 1980s, many California winemakers made balanced, complex, age-worthy wines that showed moderate ripeness and alcohol. All hale the few - like Cathy Corison - who still do.
Coda: Last week, my friend Diane brought by a bottle of 1980 Simi Mendocino County Chardonnay that a friend had given her. We had corresponded by e-mail about it, and I warned her that the wine was in all probability completely dead. It turned out otherwise. The wine's nose was not great, but on the palate, it was still lively and pleasant, with good fruit and refreshing acidity. How many of today's California ultra-ripe, ultra-oaked chardonnays will be able to say the same 25 years from now?
We've sold Cathy Corison's wines at Paul Marcus Wines for many years, and they're among my favorite California cabernet sauvigons for all the reasons that the article makes clear - their balance, elegance, complexity, and food-friendliness. After reading the article, I had the impression that Ms. Corison's wines are a natural extension of her personality - understated, devoted, thoughtful, and utterly unconcerned about the modern wine hype machine.
But what the article makes even more abundantly clear is the problem with most current California cabernet - and that it wasn't always this way. To summarize:
The most influential reviewers dislike even the faintest hint of cabernet sauvignon's naturally herbal character. Thus, many winemakers insist on leaving grapes on the vine until they become overripe, which masks the herbal notes - as well as terroir, complexity, and any possibility of balance in the wine.
Partly as a result of this effect, freakish overripeness has become a desideratum in California winemaking.
These lamentable fetishes are relatively new. Up until the early 1980s, many California winemakers made balanced, complex, age-worthy wines that showed moderate ripeness and alcohol. All hale the few - like Cathy Corison - who still do.
Coda: Last week, my friend Diane brought by a bottle of 1980 Simi Mendocino County Chardonnay that a friend had given her. We had corresponded by e-mail about it, and I warned her that the wine was in all probability completely dead. It turned out otherwise. The wine's nose was not great, but on the palate, it was still lively and pleasant, with good fruit and refreshing acidity. How many of today's California ultra-ripe, ultra-oaked chardonnays will be able to say the same 25 years from now?
