‘High-stress’ grapes prove superior to valley-grown cousins

The taste of hollow wine vanishes in the middle of your mouth, where it should be dancing

We all occasionally experience something in a wine that lessens what should be a grand experience. One of my peeves is encountering a hollow wine.

What that means basically is there can be great aromatics and wonderful impressions on the sides of the palate, but nothing seems to be going on in the middle of your mouth. It’s as if the wine vanishes at the exact spot where it should be dancing the most.

I liken this to growing grapes in valleys. Long ago and, yes, far away, most grapes for wines were grown where grapes for juice were located, on the valley floors.

Chile is a good example. The floor of a valley gets the most rain and runoff, which is great for juice, but can result in watered-down wines. To put in vineyards meant putting in drainage systems, too, to avoid water saturation.

Then it was discovered that high-stress grapes make better wine. The rocky, fastdrainage side slopes were soon found to be ideal for growing more concentrated wine grapes.

Mind you, making a sloping vineyard first meant rerouting runoff channels, but after a nightmare of finding the best sites, with starved rocky soils, monster reds emerged.

My goodness, I did not know so much was going on in my mouth. Anyhow, when I hit a hollow wine, it merits fewer points, or I simply cannot recommend it.

This is not the same as a wine going dumb. This state seems part of the evolution of a wine in bottle over time. If you buy a case of great wine, opening one a month, and suddenly open one that is very different (and is not corked) seeming to yield very little to the nose or taste buds, do not go crazy. Give the wine six months to come around again.

Today we have five more wines from the current Vintages release: three best buys and a couple of elegant choices for weekend dining.

I also recommend a sixth wine, Bau Crianza 2010 Rioja (#417964, $16.95, 90), a lovely Spanish red with full plum, black cherry, mahogany, vanilla and mocha depth. It has a bit of a back story.

Who has not dreamed of becoming a wine agent? Avril Van Aert, an Ottawabased civil servant, wanted a part-time career as she headed toward retirement.

She took a seminar from Torontonian Steven Trenholme on how to import wine, beer and spirits. She then started Barrel Head Wine imports, and today sells private imports to consumers and restaurants, and also supplies wines to the Manitoba Liquor Commission.

Anyone who thinks becoming an agent is fun should beware. But against great odds, Van Aert’s Bau Rioja was picked up by Vintages, and she is off to the races. stimmell@sympatico.ca

It was discovered that high-stress grapes make better wine. The rocky, fast-drainage side slopes were soon found to be ideal for growing more concentrated wine grapes