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One of wine's finest attributes is that it can taste of the place where the grapes were grown.
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| Charles Heidsieck Brut Reserve is produced in the Champagne region of France. Because Korbel attaches the word "California" to its Chardonnay-based bubbly, it's legal for the Sonoma County producer to label the wine "Champagne." |
| Chronicle photo by Craig Lee |
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This taste is found in the minerality of a lean, lemony Chablis made from Chardonnay grapes grown in limestone soils in northern Burgundy. It's in the smoky, meaty notes of a Syrah from the Cote Rotie ("roasted slopes") in France's Rhone Valley. It's in the pungently herbal character of a Sauvignon Blanc made in New Zealand's cool, marine-influenced Marlborough region. It's in the dark berry, pepper and spice in an old-vine Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel made in sun-baked Sonoma County.
Climate, soils, drainage, elevation, slope, sun exposure, availability of water -- even air pollution -- affect how a vine grows and thus the wine it produces. Although winemakers can influence the aroma, flavor and texture of their wines by their choices of barrels, yeasts, fermentation techniques and aging regimes, few argue that the environment in which the grapes are grown -- the French call this terroir -- is key in determining how distinctive a wine will turn out, how it will separate itself from the pack of like varietals. It does this by expressing a sense of place, or as my colleague W. Blake Gray wrote last week about old-vine Zinfandel, a taste of history and distinct personalities in a glass.
Unfortunately, too many California wines are generic blends of grapes that have no stated origin, other than that they were grown somewhere in California. Wines like Carlo Rossi California Burgundy, Tott's California Champagne and Inglenook California Chablis suggest that they were made in prestigious European wine regions. They're not, and despite the "California" disclaimer on the label -- and despite the bottom-basement prices of these simple jug wines -- Burgundy, Champagne and Chablis shouldn't be on these labels. Give me a flute of Tott's, but call it sparkling wine and not Champagne. I want total truth in labeling, not just partial.
So do wine industry representatives from Napa Valley, Oregon, Washington state, France, Spain and Portugal. After meeting in Napa on July 26, they signed a declaration (see Page F6) supporting the protection and promotion of wine place names.
Without a firm plan in place and with few funds, the supporters voiced their commitment to spreading the word -- at tastings, on Web sites, in communications to consumers and the industry, and in the recruitment of like- minded vintners -- that it does matter where grapes are grown and what the label says.
Tom Shelton, president of Joseph Phelps Vineyard and a representative of the Napa Valley Vintners (NVV); Bruno Paillard of Champagne Bruno Paillard, representing Comite Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne (CIVC); and Port producer George Sandeman of the House of Sandeman are among the players in this grassroots campaign to promote the authenticity of their winemaking regions. They are targeting wines they believe to be falsely labeled Champagne, " "Burgundy," "Sherry" and "Port" when the grapes used are not grown in Champagne, Burgundy, Spain's Jerez-Xerex-Sherry and Portugal's Douro Valley, respectively.
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Tom Shelton of Joseph Phelps Vineyard (left) and
Joel Aiken
of Beaulieu Vineyard, advocate the protection of wine place names |
| Chronicle photo by Craig Lee |
Though they weren't identified by the "place is important" group, the targets are most certainly producers like E. & J. Gallo Winery of Modesto, the most aggressive marketer of wines labeled as "California Champagne" (Andre, Tott's), "California Sherry" (Fairbanks) and "California Burgundy" (Gallo Hearty Burgundy, Carlo Rossi Burgundy).
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