Looking for Balance in California Wines

Filed in archive California Wines on June 16, 2006

I really enjoy hardy wines, red wines most especially, but when I recently read an article by Laurie Daniel in the Food and Wine section of the Mercury News, I took a few moments to reflect on what she said, that California wines are "monsters" when it comes to alcohols levels and strength. She believes that California wine makers are missing the balance that is still so important in European wines, primarily those from France:

France used to represent the winemaking paradigm for grapes such as cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay and pinot noir. But California winemakers will never make Bordeaux or Burgundy -- nor should they. We simply have a much sunnier climate, so grapes will almost inevitably get riper. Even a restrained, well-balanced California pinot noir will almost certainly be more overtly fruity than a red Burgundy, which is also made of pinot noir.

But ripeness can easily tip into over-ripeness. Wine drinkers' preferences will vary, of course, but if excessive alcohol makes the wine taste ``hot'' or if the wine is flat and flabby because it lacks acid, it's over-ripe in my book.

There are numerous reasons for the stampede toward excess. Many American wine consumers are still neophytes. Plush wines with lots of fruit and even a little sweetness don't taste so foreign to their palates. And as a reader pointed out several years ago, Americans often treat wine as a cocktail and consume it without food or maybe with a few nibbles. In that sort of setting, acidity and balance are less important.