Do you want to know what is fashionable in the world of wine? Here are the top 10 trends:
1. Rosé wine
2. Culture champagne
3. Metropolitan Wineries
4. Natural wines
5. Days of fruits, days of roots …
6. More wine drinkers in the United States
7. Screw caps and box wines
8. Wine with low alcohol content
9. Biodynamics and organic wine
10. Dessert of wine, port and sherry
1. Rosé wines
Rosé wines are everywhere in local Seattle wine stores, but the trend continues to grow! I’ll tell you the secret: rosé wines are perfect for barbecues, afternoon tea time, light lunches, and family gatherings. What makes these wines so great is that they beg to be drunk and enjoyed, not pondered like their darker counterparts. Here are a couple of great rosé wines to try:
Barnard Griffin Rosa by Sangiovese – OMG the color of this wine is amazing with spicy citrus, blood orange, peach and sweet cranberry
Pink muga – 60% Grenache, 30% Viura and 10% Tempranillo wow, this one smells so fruity and fabulous, with a backbone of some more earthy notes than the Barnard Griffin, still spicy and fun.
K Vintners Syrah of Rose – If you are looking for a crazy experience with roses, Syrah tastes much meatier than a rosé wine, I find that it smells like strawberries and salumi at the same time, super crazy!
2. Producer Producer Champagne
The Champagne grower producer is actually a rarity. Most of the wine grapes from more than 15,000 Champagne producers go directly to great Champagne houses like Moet & Chandon and Veuve Clicquot. Originally, this was due to the cost of the Champagne production method, but with the help of technological advancements, we will see more “re-spinning (RM)” or cultured champagnes on the market. Producers have greater power and incentives to ensure that the grapes they select for their own wines are at the best possible level of maturity. You can often find producer champagne at a better price than a comparable major brand. If you are interested in grower champagne, look for the letters “RM” (combine harvester management) on the label, indicating that he is a grower-producer. You can also search for CM (cooperative-manipulators) but not NM (businessman manipulating) or MA (buyer’s brand). Below I will list some of my favorites.
Egly-Ouriet Brut Tradition Grand Cru (NV)
Veuve Fourny & Fils Rose Premier Cru Vertus Brut (NV)
2002 Launois Brut Blanc de Blancs Vintage Champagne
Brut Collard-Picard Champagne “Cuvee Selection”
3. Metropolitan Wineries
Brooklyn Winery, City Winery (Manhattan) and Crushpad in San Francisco are causing a sensation in cities across the country. Metropolitan wineries often source their grapes from the state they are in, although some grapes travel a long way to be crushed and fermented (California to New York or even Bordeaux to California!). The great thing about the city’s wineries is that they offer the public greater exposure to the wine-making process. You can literally make your own wine label! Do you want to make wine? Keep in mind that a typical wine barrel will produce around 280 bottles of wine, which is only around 23 cases. the perfect starting size …
4. Natural wines
The term “natural wine” is a bit nebulous, but since the term resembles the whole food, slow food and eco-sustainability movement, natural wines are gaining popularity. A natural wine generally has a hands-off approach to winemaking. Once the grapes are crushed, the fermentation is carried out with wild yeasts and the wine is not clarified or filtered. White wines can be cloudy or even have an orange tint due to the lack of clarifying agents to remove yeast and excess coloration. Red wines have sediment from the skins and dead yeast particles. Of course, sulfur would not be added to a natural wine. Many French and European wines are made in this “natural” way and some are wonderful, but many have this old-fashioned baby diaper scent that I like to describe as poogy (half spill, half poop). Despite everything out there … there are also natural wines that will make your eyes shine:
Zind-Humbrecht 2007 “Pinot d’Alsace” (Alsace, France) – Pinot d’Alsace is a kind of common name for a style of wine made in Alsace, France, using free flower juice of pinot noir, pinot munier and pinot gris, has a honey-golden hue and flavors of honey, mandarin, rind lemon and this really captivating and intense crisp fresh green that reminds me of biting into a stick of celery.
2000 (or 2002!) Lopez de Heredia “Viña Bosconia” Reserva Rioja (Rioja Alta, Spain) – Possibly the oldest winery in Rioja that despite a beautiful redesign of the winery still practices very old winemaking techniques.
5. Fruit Day, Flower Day, Root Day and Leaf Days
Have you ever tasted a delicious bottle of wine and then drank the same wine another time only to find that it didn’t taste as good? Apparently the moon affects the taste of wine! Observing the lunar cycles is a biodynamic cultivation technique that indicates the best times to plant, prune and harvest. Every day, the month can be correlated with a day of fruits, a day of roots, a day of leaves or a day of flowers. For example, a root day is a good day to prune plants or get a haircut. In the UK, a supermarket chain tested this coordinated theory by their wine tastings on fruit or flower days. So I’ve been casually testing this theory for the last 6 months and wine tastes best on fruit and flower days! Don’t take my word for it, try it for yourself!
6. More wine drinkers in the United States
Wine consumption and wine drinkers are on the rise in America! According to Trade Data & Analysis (TDA), the United States is pulling out its corkscrews and drinking more wine everywhere. Since 2004, wine consumption in the US has increased by 15%. Although consumption is relatively low, 10 liters per person (only 12 bottles per person per year), we cannot deny that with a population of 300 million, that is almost 4 billion bottles of wine per year. Compared to the UK (which drinks almost 20 liters per person per year) they are still at around 1.5 billion bottles a year. we are winners of drinking wine … woot!
7. Screw caps and box wine
Wines with a screw cap try harder. Americans are fickle, we associate screw caps with low-value wine, however, that may not always be the case! In Australia, most wineries have become completely screw-capped, including one of my favorite high-end barossa wines: Elderton. I have to admit, it’s a bit of a shock to pay $ 90 for a screw-top wine, but I generally forget about this little detail when I smell the fantastic aromas coming out of the glass. One saving grace about screw caps – you don’t get bottles with a cork! (known to affect about 10-15% of corked wines) Here are a couple of no-joke screw-cap wines that are so amazing they’ll make your face ache:
Plumpjack 2007 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon – McWillians Oakville, CA drinks now through 2019
Kay Brothers Block 6 2005 Shiraz – McClaren Vale, South Australia, drink now until 2025
8. Wines with low alcohol content
Randy Dunn of California Dunn Vineyards cult wine has been an advocate for low alcohol wines (nothing above 14%) since he started his Howell Mountain estate in the foothills above Napa. The rest of the New World winemakers are beginning to take that path when we realize that the complexity of a wine is often overshadowed by the combustion of alcohol. Cult California winemakers like Helen Turley, Sine Que Non, and Washington state Quilceda Creek had the world nervous about high-alcohol wines in the early 2000s. Skeptics immediately responded and noted. that alcohol levels were so high that the wines “fooled” wine critics with their overwhelming oily sensation based on the viscosity of the alcohol. We will see lower alcoholic wines as New World winemakers move towards balance.
2002 Dunn Vineyards Cab Sauv Howell Mountain
9. Biodynamic and organic wines
The turn to biodynamic agriculture began as a protest against the mass market agricultural science of the 1950s. The idea of biodynamics is relatively simple, but in practice it can be very complicated and even a bit strange. Basically, the idea is to observe the natural conditions of the vineyard; the land, the vine and the microclimate. With these observations, a vineyard can decide to apply or eliminate natural agents to produce an optimal harvest. Natural agents can be anything from choosing to grow grass between rows of vineyards or sending a herd of goats to the vineyard to remove weeds. In a situation where the soil must be affected, compost and organic matter (the strangest involves animal bones) can be added to the top layer of the soil to affect the soil’s pH balance or salinity. Recently, the US Wine Institute has implemented a third-party certified sustainable wine program. Originally, the program was based on self-evaluation, but now, with the approval of a third party, there will be more truth in putting the label “sustainable” on wines.
10. Wine, port and sherry dessert: STICKIES!
Port wine, sherry, and dessert have come a long way since our moms and grandmothers drank their sherry. In Portugal, Porto houses have revamped their winemaking methods and facilities to produce even higher quality vintages worthy of aging. In 1994 and 2007 we witnessed two vintages declared remarkable that will be the future Ports of the century. Producers in Australia and California excel at achieving the highest levels of maturity, making them perfect candidates for the production of dessert (sticky) wine internationally. Since fortified wines like Jerez and Port are open for up to a month, they make great tapas for the evening. here is my list of tasty ports, sherry and sweet and savory wine:
Smith & Woodhouse 1994 Vintage Porto
Bull Albala 1979 Gran Reserva PX
Jerez Hidalgo Napoleon Amontillado
RL Buller Tawny
RL Buller Fine Muscat