California, four wines, unbridled potential
by Brenda Francis
When I set up themes for wine group events, I always choose a region, rather than a grape. When choosing a region, you almost always choose a handful of grape varieties anyway, often as a blend. Bordeaux grows cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, semillon, and sauvignon blanc. New Zealand is an expert in pinot noir and sauvignon blanc. Oregon does pinot noir, riesling, chardonnay, and pinot gris. Veneto offers rondinella, corvina, molinara, and garganega. Most regions grow a small set of grapes, very appropriate for their terroir, and they create their reputation from what they can do with these grapes.
      California cannot be divided up by regions to reflect a specific style of wine. Unfortunately most Californian labels feature a default line-up, a cabernet sauvignon, merlot, chardonnay, and sauvignon blanc quartet. This foursome also follows a recipe requiring French oak (and sometimes American oak). There usually isn't any blending going on with these wines either.
      Meanwhile California's terroir goes from Mediterranean to Continental over hundreds of miles. Because of California's extremely favorable growing conditions, the foursome can grow everywhere and does. I guess you could say this massive growing area has a small set of grapes too.
     The good news is California produces behemoth amounts of wine. While there are many rubber stamped foursomes, some producers find their niche doing the opposite. Zinfandel, syrah, mourvèdre, grenache, malbec, petite sirah, cabernet franc, carignan, viognier, pinot gris, malvasia, pinot blanc, chenin blanc, and riesling are showing up on our shelves. Producers are conjuring up all kind of tasty blends with funny names and slick labels. Some rebels are producing oakless wines too!
     Rhone Rangers are producers who focus on Rhone Valley grapes. Cal-Italians are growing Italian varieties. Spanish grapes like torrontes and tempranillo are showing up in Californian vineyards as well.
      As long as the quartet out sells everything else it will remain the cookie cutter default. Of course California produces exceptional examples of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, chardonnay, and sauvignon blanc. The key is to consider how wide the survey of Californian wines really is. A study of this massive wine region wouldn't be complete without including the foursome, but the non-mainstream grapes and styles should not be omitted because they show California's impressive potential.