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The big picture on big, dry reds
I take issue with the idea of big, extracted, dry red wines being a fad. (“Big, Dry Reds: Just a Fad?” Wines & Vines, March 2011.)
In the first place, great winemakers should make great wines, not what is the fashion of the moment, or what is dreadfully known in the trade as a “Parker wine.” Tim Hanni (quoted in the story), above all, should know that throughout wine history there have always been drastic changes in taste, driven by all sorts of reasons, valid or bizarre.
Big, dry red wines will always appeal to a select group of wine lovers. So will superb Sauternes. Wines from one country may appeal for a decade, and then another country may take the flag. For example, one era it’s red wines from Chile, then Malbec from Argentina. Champagne used to be sweeter. Now it is dry. Soon it may be more balanced. If one takes a worldview, all wine drinking has been a “fad.” Changes in taste differ widely from generation to generation. Back and forth the pendulum of wine taste swings.
The visible color wheel comes to mind. When does my red become your orange? And more to the point, when does a very dry wine become medium dry wine, then a medium sweet wine, and then a very sweet wine?
My father liked wine. Twice a year I brought him a case of Robert Mondavi White Zinfandel, and he loved it. So, one year I upped the ante and gave him a pricey, mixed case of dry red Cabernets from Napa. He was insulted. So I had to swap him for a case of Robert Mondavi White Zinfandel. He told me not to mess with his mind.
Ed Schwartz
Inverness, Calif.
Tapped out over kegs
No waste at the end of a bottle.”
“They rinse out the tap quickly by letting it run a second before filling glasses or carafes.”
If you are pouring off a spot of wine every time you use the tap, how is this “no waste?” If it’s an ounce or even less, that’s a glass of wine wasted for every five pulls of the tap, it would seem to me. (“Rolling out the Kegs,” Wines & Vines, March 2011.)
What this otherwise very good article fails to look at is the possible future of tap wine. How does the nationwide success of tap programs affect small wineries, especially when it is harder to compete with mass-produced kegs from Chile, Argentina, California, etc.? If a small winery ever hopes to be by the glass in the dystopian future dominated by kegged wine, it will have to relegate portions of its production to kegs—leading to lowered revenues, higher yields, lower expectations of quality—no?
James Silver
General manager, Peconic Bay Winery
Cutchogue N.Y.
In the first place, great winemakers should make great wines, not what is the fashion of the moment, or what is dreadfully known in the trade as a “Parker wine.” Tim Hanni (quoted in the story), above all, should know that throughout wine history there have always been drastic changes in taste, driven by all sorts of reasons, valid or bizarre.
Big, dry red wines will always appeal to a select group of wine lovers. So will superb Sauternes. Wines from one country may appeal for a decade, and then another country may take the flag. For example, one era it’s red wines from Chile, then Malbec from Argentina. Champagne used to be sweeter. Now it is dry. Soon it may be more balanced. If one takes a worldview, all wine drinking has been a “fad.” Changes in taste differ widely from generation to generation. Back and forth the pendulum of wine taste swings.
The visible color wheel comes to mind. When does my red become your orange? And more to the point, when does a very dry wine become medium dry wine, then a medium sweet wine, and then a very sweet wine?
My father liked wine. Twice a year I brought him a case of Robert Mondavi White Zinfandel, and he loved it. So, one year I upped the ante and gave him a pricey, mixed case of dry red Cabernets from Napa. He was insulted. So I had to swap him for a case of Robert Mondavi White Zinfandel. He told me not to mess with his mind.
Ed Schwartz
Inverness, Calif.
Tapped out over kegs
No waste at the end of a bottle.”
“They rinse out the tap quickly by letting it run a second before filling glasses or carafes.”
If you are pouring off a spot of wine every time you use the tap, how is this “no waste?” If it’s an ounce or even less, that’s a glass of wine wasted for every five pulls of the tap, it would seem to me. (“Rolling out the Kegs,” Wines & Vines, March 2011.)
What this otherwise very good article fails to look at is the possible future of tap wine. How does the nationwide success of tap programs affect small wineries, especially when it is harder to compete with mass-produced kegs from Chile, Argentina, California, etc.? If a small winery ever hopes to be by the glass in the dystopian future dominated by kegged wine, it will have to relegate portions of its production to kegs—leading to lowered revenues, higher yields, lower expectations of quality—no?
James Silver
General manager, Peconic Bay Winery
Cutchogue N.Y.
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