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Home > Blogs > Uncorked > Archives > 2008 > February > 19 > Entry
Blind tasting forces rethinking of California wine stereotypes
I hold these truths to be self-evident. Well, make that HELD.
1) I prefer French wines to California wines.
2) California wines are all about fruit and extraction and alcohol and don’t age well.
3) French wines have more complexity, better acidity and age far better.
4) I can tell a French wine from a California wine at one sniff, or, at least, after a taste. I mean, couldn’t anyone??
These were the bedrock beliefs I developed over decades of wine enjoyment. But now, the bedrock is fractured.
On Sunday night, I attended a wine tasting at the home of Dayton-area opthalmologist Michael Kunesh, who has a knack for putting together tastings that explore wine in interesting ways. This time, it was Bordeaux versus California, tasted blind, in two flights of six. The wines ranged widely in age. As it turned out, we ended up with six Bordeaux and six California wines, and he put three of each into each flight, bagged ‘em and poured ‘em. (For a full list of the wines, click on the “continue reading” link below).
This should be a piece of cake, right? The Bordeaux will exhibit aromas of lead pencil, cigar box, iodine and cassis, while the California wines will be dominated by dark fruits intermingled with toasty oak and perhaps a hint of eucalyptus. Slam dunk.
Oh, beware the humiliation that a blind tasting can inflict.
When it came to the wines’ country of origin, I got 6 out of 12 right. Six of Twelve. Good GOD, I may as well have flipped a coin. Or evaluated the wines from, oh I don’t know, across the room, without smelling or tasting them. Egad!
My only small consolation was that my fellow tasters — well, most of them — did scarcely better (no one accurately identified the country of origin of all 12). And there were some very seasoned tasters at the table, with experience and credentials that dwarf mine. Some wines simply fooled us, and overall, the tasting challenged our perceptions — and our stereotypes.
Oh, we came up with all kinds of excuses. The varying ages of the wines made it difficult on us, narrowing the gap of differences between California and Bordeaux. Some of the California cabs we included are made in a “French style” and are atypical of California. The Bordeaux we chose weren’t the “first team” and a couple were past their prime. Et cetera. There is a small slice of truth in these rationalizations, but it’s not enough.
It’s time to throw out the old stereotypes. It’s time for even the most hardened francophiles to rediscover California.
Who’da thunk it?
For a list of wines tasted and the favorites of the night, please click on “continue reading.”
Cheers!
Mark Fisher
The Californians:
1994 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon Estate
1995 Phillip Togni Cabernet Sauvignon
1996 Opus One
1997 Spring Mountain Reserve
1997 Beringer Alluvium Red
1999 Peter Michael Les Pavots
The French
1986 Ch. Gruaud Larose
1986 LaGrange
1989 Brainaire-Ducru
1994 Angelus
1998 Clos de la Oratoire
1999 Pavie
The favorites: The Spring Mountain and Peter Michael really strutted their stuff, showing fruit, complexity, structure and length. The Opus One and Montelena showed well also.
The worst miss: The one wine I was MOST sure of in terms of origin was the Opus One — because I was certain it was from France. This was reminiscent of a tasting I attended about 15 years ago at what was then TW’s restaurant in Miamisburg, and which was put together by the folks at Arrow Wine & Spirits. This tasting was similar to the one I just attended in that we tasted a group of California cabs and Bordeaux blind and guessed their country of origin, only this time, all of the wines were from a single vintage, 1990. (I think I did slightly better than .500, which means what, my palate is now worse than it was a decade and a half ago??). At that tasting, the wine I was MOST sure of — I knew it was from France — turned out to be the Dominus from California.
I’ll say it again: Egad.
Cheers!
Mark Fisher
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Comments
By Ed
February 22, 2008 1:47 PM | Link to this
Another thing to consider is the sequence of the wines in the flights. I’ve seen it where just altering the sequence will determine how well a wine is perceived, especially in a blind tasting.
By Valli Ferrell
February 21, 2008 2:48 PM | Link to this
I am pleased to see the 1997 Spring Mountain Reserve among the favorites in your comparative tasting. I must disclose that I was living in the vineyard during the 1990s and watched that bountiful harvest from my living room. This vintage, along with the 1996 Reserve and 2001 Elivette (which replaced the Reserve designation beginning with the 2000 vintage) are my favorites. I now find myself with the pleasant job (?) of promoting Spring Mountain Vineyard,truly one of the most beautiful and most diverse vineyards in Napa Valley.
By Jack at Fork & Bottle
February 20, 2008 9:57 PM | Link to this
Did any of the Bordeaux show well? And, I would have bet on the Togni for the US wines…I’m almost wondering if the bottle was off! :)
By Jay
February 20, 2008 7:05 PM | Link to this
One of the most encouraging moments for me happened during a blind tasting: I was only in wine about 6 months and I was asked to join a group of heavy hitters, two of whom held Master’s of Wine from the WSET. Blind, we tasted through an eclectic group. I barely spoke a word because I was so scared of making an a*s of myself. The two Masters swore up and down I’d brought a Chianti and detailed the nuances they picked up from the Sangiovese. It was not. It was an Argentenian Malbec. And it made me realize that even pros get it wrong.
By Morton Leslie
February 20, 2008 5:28 PM | Link to this
Looking at the vintages and the producers of the California wines I don’t think a single one of the wines you tasted would have been of the 16% alcohol, highly extracted, nearly spreadable “fruit forward” school that burst upon the scene a few years later. But my guess is the California wines were, in general, of more body and “depth.” Depth, intensity, power are all good things for a wine to have in a side by side comparison. But for me the true test is to sit down with a single one of the wines and put a half bottle inside me and see how it goes down and sits. If I were to this with all the wines you tasted on successive evenings my guess is, I would walk away with 12 favorite wines.
By Chas
February 20, 2008 3:31 PM | Link to this
California Cabernets have been holding their own with Bordeaux for thirty years now. Why do the results of this tasting come as a surprise to you? The only question is why you had a bias to begin with when your previous blind tasting experience also told you that the wines are hard to tell apart when tasted blind.
By Jeff
February 20, 2008 2:14 PM | Link to this
Good post, Mark! Trust your palate, you can be a pro athlete and still not be Michael Jordan. Alas, it looks like you have Michael Jordan amongst your readership. I suggest training with reader Ken, who, apparently, has a nose like a bloodhound. Jeff
By chiefwino
February 20, 2008 7:52 AM | Link to this
As has been demonstrated (not proven) multiple times since the 70s French/Cal tasting, an excellent producer can produce excellent wine in any of the great regions of the world. No one region has a lock on best quality just on the flavor profile that you prefer. I am more a believer in following the house style of a given producer/wine maker over the blind allegience to a particular plot of ground. As an aside -The next time you do this type of blind tasting, try putting the same wine into both flights and notice the disparity in comments and judging. If both samples get the same or similar scores/comments then you have a very consistent and reliable set of judges, which is difficult to come by. Also was the judging of all the wines done completely and independently , before any discussion. In the future, require all judges to put their comments in writing and collect them before the discussion/waffling begins.
By Jim T
February 19, 2008 9:16 PM | Link to this
What Keith said.
By Ken
February 19, 2008 5:17 PM | Link to this
Blind tastings are often very humbling. But it is possible to tell French from California wines. At a tasting last year of 6 pairs of Pinot Noir, one from each country, I got the country for every wine. At a pairing of Chardonnays from the same two countries, I also got each one right. Here are some hints. If you can tell the difference between 13.5% alcohol and 14.5% alcohol, the higher one will usually be California. If you can detect even a faint whiff of acetone, the one with acetone will usually be California. If you can tell the difference between American and French oak, the ones with American oak will usually be California. If you can tell the difference between acidity artificially added verus having only the natural acidity of the grape, the one with artificial acidity will usually be California. If you can tell the difference between a faint residual sugar level and one with next to no residual sugar, the one with higher residual sugar will usually be California. If you can tell the difference between malic and tartaric acid, a wine high in malic acidity will usually be French. Finally, don’t use level of color, fruit, tannins, or acidity to try to distinguish the two. To distinguish the two, you need to have a long experience tasting both, a sharply honed palette, and keep totally focused on what you are actually smelling and tasting.
By Keith
February 19, 2008 5:01 PM | Link to this
The newest of those wines is 8 to 10 years old, which is about or before the time the California wines really started going over the top on alcohol and jammy fruit. I would suggest a tasting of more recent vintages and do it quick before the French ones start going over the top too. The wines from California have changed a lot in the last 10 years and not for the better by my taste. With the influence of Parker and other overtasters the French have been moving that way too. Many of us longer term drinkers are hoping for a pendulum swing the other way.
By John
February 19, 2008 9:05 AM | Link to this
Calm down, blind tastings often end with surprising results. First of all, as you’ve mentioned more than once, a lot depends on what you have with the wine. French wines, paired with the right food, can come off tasting much better than head to head with other wines. California wines are becoming much better because of the competition with French wines for the big spending wine lovers. Frankly, tasting the subtle variations in any wine is very hard to do, and only a few folks are very good at it. That’s particularly true when tasting similar winemaking styles.