In search of that desirable quality
How to define your wine
It never fails. I’ll pour a blind tasting of six wines for my students in class and before the big reveal I ask which wine was their favourite. Every single time, I get a mixed bag of preferences. Every single time. It then leads me to wonder, how can we determine what a good quality wine is, when it seems so subjective?
Wine critics have made a living out of answering this question. Consumers want to know what the best wines are, but how is quality assessed? By producer? By vintage? By price? Let’s explore a bit.
There are various ways to look at it and it often depends on where in the world you are. Let’s begin with one that is quite prevalent; the producer. Brand power is strong in the wine world. You may hear things like, “I only drink Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc” or, “Wow, you have an Opus One! Lucky you.” Some producers have made such a strong name for their wine that quality is directly associated.
This stems from Bordeaux, a region in France famous for its red blends produced by chateaux (their term for a winery), where in 1855 a list was drafted up to rank chateaux into levels of quality. Napoleon III was preparing for the great exhibition in
France, and made every effort to put his country on the world stage. He requested a list of the best chateaux in Bordeaux, and they organized it from first rank (or growth, a.k.a. “premier cru”), to the fifth. Only four chateaux made it to the premier cru level. Here’s the kicker; to this day, despite the fact that this list was intended to be discarded after the exhibition, those same four chateaux (with the addition of one more in 1973) are still the only premier cru of Bordeaux.
Juxtaposed to Bordeaux is Burgundy, and their method for rating quality couldn’t be more different. The concept of terroir is at the core of their quality philosophy, the idea that where the grapes come from directly translate into the wine glass, thereby tasting that ‘sense of place.’ Therefore, the more one can taste a unique terroir the better quality the wine is.
For example, their base level of quality is a blend of grapes from all over the region of Burgundy. Not that special, according to the Burgundians. What is really special is when you zoom into one specific region of Burgundy, better yet zoom into a village itself, and taste a wine that comes from one single vineyard. That is their interpretation of a premier cru, as you would be tasting something that you cannot replicate anywhere else in the world, because no where else has that unique terroir. If a vineyard is hailed as extraordinary, then it is awarded grand cry status.
The wine world accepts both philosophies, as even here in Niagara we celebrate famous producers such as J-L Groux at Stratus and put single vineyards like Flat Rock’s Nadja’s vineyard into a higher echelon.
But there’s more to consider. What about vintage? The year a wine was made makes a significant difference, as we are still dealing with an agriculturalbased product, at the constant mercy of Mother Nature. Therefore no matter which vineyard or award-winning producer, if your growing season was pummelled with rain the wine will suffer. It’s no wonder that wine aficionados
love to discuss wine by vintage and how, for example, the 2012 vintage (that sun-kissed bit of perfection here in Niagara) had our wines winning awards internationally. Insider tip: The 2016 reds are currently being released, another golden vintage for us.
Beyond vintage, do you ever find yourself rating wines by price? Looking at the options at the LCBO and seeing the $60 bottles thinking, “that one must be exceptional.” Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. Price is a whole other discussion, as so many factors determine it. Much of the price is based on what we’ve previously looked at, but sometimes it’s simply a business decision. Making
wine can be more costly than normal if vintners choose to hand pick the fruit and use new French oak barrels rather than oak chips, for example. Sorry to disappoint, but those $7 reds are certainly not aged in barrels.
The final thing we haven’t touched on, but in my opinion is the most important factor when evaluating quality is; do you like it? We are all born with different taste receptors, so at the end of the day it’s extremely subjective. I’ve been in many tastings where wine critics argue over which wine is superior, depending on what factor should be top of mind. Personally I look for balance, but I also have a deeper connection. Do the flavours of this wine harness back a memory of flavours I once had while on vacation, or are these simply some of my favourite flavours all in a glass? What if a certain vintage means something to you, whether it’s an anniversary or the year your child was born?
These are wonderful things to argue over really, because at the end of the day it’s wine and it’s meant to be enjoyed rather than critiqued. So consider the options out there, go forth with an educated mind and find the wines that speak to you.
Kristina Inman is a certified CAPS sommelier and TAC tea sommelier who teaches at Niagara College.