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Blaufrankisch - an Austrian red grape to know

Austria ... easily associated with Germany, although from a wine making perspective sharing very little in common. Riesling, yes. Gruner Veltliner, the white grape that established Austria's post-wine scandal industry, yes. But Austrian Gruner is nearly always spicy and very dry. And Austria is much warmer generally than Germany with hot winds blowing off the Hungarian plain. 

And, what about red wine from Austria? There actually is quite a bit. And very good although not big, alcoholic, tannic and rich. If you're addicted to Napa Cabernet you will frankly find it laking but, if you enjoy elegant, accessible, food worthy wines listen up.

Blaufrankisch (pronounced just the way it's spelled) is thought by some to be the same as Gamay and, in Germany is called Lemberger. There is a bit grown these days in Washington (Shooting Star Blue Franc), California and New York state (Fox Run). It is a rare grape that can ripen in these places and withstand the sometimes harsh winter weather to ripen again. They call Blaufrankisch "Kekfrankos" in Hungary where its used to make the notorious, sluggish, sappy Bull's Blood wine. 

Blaufrankisch produces a medium-bodied  wine with food-friendly soft tannins and pleasing acidity. Cherries and red berries strung to smoke, spice and black pepper aromas and flavors can turn toward gaminess. That makes the wine a natural with game and strongly flavored meats, cheeses and sausages. As RP says, pair simple wines with powerful foods, powerful wines with straight-forward foods. 

Several to try; Neckenmarkt 2005, Umathum 2005 or the Zantho 2006 (very nice price) are all from the Burgendland region south of Vienna in Austria where those warm breezes blow and the grapes ripen. 

Chinon - red wine from the Loire Valley

Chinon is a village that was once a country retreat for French royalty. South of the Loire River, east of Saumur, west of Tours with slopes of tufa (chalk) soil that shelter the best vineyards. 

Chinon is a delicate, medium bodied red that is nevertheless dark in the glass, silky and yet somehow weighty with acidity and edges of tannin to hold a grip and show an elegant/earthy finish. Cabernet Franc is the grape, all on its own. OK, maybe 10% Cabernet Sauvignon. It is bone dry, not heavy and not too alcoholic. A fine companion to good cooking. 

Next door neighbor, across the river to the north, Bourgueil is also Cab Franc with that 10% of Cabernet being more commonly included. Darker and more in need of some time in the bottle. Maybe more appealing to some but I prefer the elegant reserve of a well made Chinon. Try something from Couly-Dutheil. Don't be afraid of some age, these wines mature into truly intriguing and sensuous red wines.  

Passetoutgrain

an odd wine from France's Burgundy region, a rare wine. 

Made in fairly large amounts - more passtoutgrain than Premier and Grand Cru combined - yet very rarely exported. An "every day" drinking red wine of Burgundy found on many bistro and cafe wine boards. The word translates "nothing in particular." It is a blend of at least 33% Pinot Noir with as much as all the rest being Gamay. Green grapes (Chardonnay) can make up as much as 15% of the mix but rarely do. Although its legally produced in any village level zone anywhere in the region, the majority is made in the cote Chaolonaise where Gamay begins to take over from Pinot Noir and granite sub soils take over from limestone ... connection? 

A good passetoutgrain is light to medium in body, translucent with fresh aromas, red berry-fruit flavors and innocent, thirst quenching acidity. Although it's characterized easily as a country wine of little real stature, a good producer using Pinot Noir grapes from a good village can make a very pleasing, rambunctious and spirited red Burgundy. It should be drunk young but that means within three or four years of vintage. Many are made with more than a third Pinot Noir and thus have the ability to progress a bit over time.

Passtoutgrain wines accompany simple foods with great charm, all the foods associated with Burgundy and the earthy, homey restaurants and cafe's of the little villages. 

Try the Henri Jouan Bourgogne Passtoutgrain 2007. Very good producer from Morey St Denis. Expect to pay $20 to $25. 

2010 trend : wine critics don't determine, they confirm

The modern wine industry is a conundrum. 

    Here you have a product that has always been most esteemed for its subtle, individual characteristics. Every tool of marketing is utilized to emphasize the qualities that set one wine apart from all the rest. But wine is a global commodity. To be successful a wine has to appeal to broad taste.     

So, you read all about the care of production and the expression of individuality on the bottle and you taste, more and more often, a wine that is generally appealing. The characteristics that have made wine fascinating and enjoyable for centuries are giving way to a competitive pressure to appeal to ever expanding markets. 

    

Consumers who actually prefer, and have developed their tastes by drinking mass-produced soft drinks, bottled waters, juices , dairy drinks, lager beers and distilled spirits are being pursued by the wine industry with big production, industrial products. One cannot fault them for doing this. It’s business. But the paradigms of wine quality are refuted by large production. The marketing arm of the wine industry continues to sell artisan individualism. The ‘story’ of wine is used to sell the reality, even as the story grows more estranged from reality. 

    

Thus: conundrum “a riddle”, a “puzzle.”  

   

 Thus, I say wine journalism has a responsibility to peel back the story and tell the truth. Difference may be more important than scores, as Hugh Johnson the English wine writer has asserted but, the reality is that difference is fading, categories are broadening and idiosyncratic individuality is losing its cachet. A wine that few understand is a useless anachronism. Understanding modern wine is not as complicated as it used to be. 

    

Human perception is every bit as complex as it has always been and that’s part of what must be emphasized. Wine journalism has to encourage people to go back to their perceptions , to reverse the polarity of wine discourse from 

           wine - critic- consumer

to

wine-consumer-critic

Use the critic or the writer to confirm assumptions and clarify perceptions not to set tastes.