Gus Clemens on Wine explores and explains the world of wine in simple, humorous, fun posts

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By best estimate, there are some 10,000 different grape varieties in the world. If you tasted a different one every day, it would take you more than 27 years to complete the task. Thankfully, the world of wine is confined to a smaller number.

About 6,000 grapes belong to the principal fine wine species Vitis vinifera. Only about 1,300 are actively used in winemaking. Only 13 varieties make up one-third of global winemaking; 33 varieties make up more than half of global use.

The variety of grapes is significantly different depending on the country. Italy apparently has the most diversity, home to more than 1,300 varieties used in wine making. Sangiovese is Italy’s most-planted grape, but it only accounts to around 8% of grapes grown.

In contrast, New Zealand cultivates around 30 varieties, with sauvignon blanc accounting for 78% of production. Sauv blanc, pinot noir, pinot gris, and chardonnay account for more than 90% of New Zealand’s wine grape production.

The wine industry in the United States is so large and chaotic we do not know how many wine grape varieties are grown, and there are some native wine grapes that are not Vitis vinifera. We do have an idea about the top 10, which account for more than 80% of grape production. The numbers are rough because there are 50 different wine producing states with 50 different counting regimens. And the numbers change every year according to the vagaries of agriculture.

According to the best-available numbers, there are 457,700 acres planted in the top ten varieties in the U.S. What follows are acres and percentages of the total:

• Chardonnay: 106,000 (23.2%)

• Cabernet sauvignon: 101,300 (22.1%)

• Pinot noir: 61,800 (13.5%)

• Merlot: 51,900 (11.3%)

• Zinfandel: 47,000 (10.3%)

• Syrah/shiraz: 22,000 (4.8%)

• Pinot gris: 19,800 (4.3%)

• French colombard: 19,700 (4.3%)

• Sauvignon blanc: 17,300 (3.8%)

• Rubired (used in bulk wine): 10,900 (2.4%)

Tasting notes

• Stoller Family Estate Chardonnay, Willamette Valley 2023: Presents without complications of oak or excessive malolactic fermentation. Simple, clean, pure. $19-25 Link to my review

• Beringer Knights Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, Sonoma 2021: Drinks like a Napa, priced like a Sonoma. Go-to rich red wine play year after year. $25-35 Link to my review

• Chateau Ste. Michelle Cabernet Sauvignon Canoe Ridge Estate, Horse Heaven Hills 2019: Consistent cab made by Washington State’s largest winemaker; tasty tannins, generous fruit. $30-36 Link to my review

• William Chris Vineyards Mourvèdre Reserve, Texas High Plains 2018: Solid, silky presentation of mourvèdre, a grape that found a home in Texas. Good balance of fruit, acidity; reserved, elegant tannins. $35-38 Link to my review

Last round

I tell everyone about the benefits of eating dried grapes. It’s about raisin awareness. Wine time.

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It is a new year and there are sweeping changes in wine bottle sizes in America. Yep, wine makers and glass blowers have a whole new tool kit to entice you into experiencing whatever elixir they have conjured from grape juice and yeast and wood and whatever else the white-coated wine wizards have procured.

Last year your bottle choices were limited. Wine could only be sold in 187 mL single-serving bottles (think airplane or rip-off hotel frig), 375 mL “half bottles,” 500 mL bottles, standard 750 mL bottles, and 1500 mL magnums. Also way-oversized bottles named for Biblical figures and mythological kings (Midas is the largest size, equivalent of 40 standard bottles of wine—almost 8 gallons).

David Herrera

The days of limited sizes are no more. Regulators replaced restriction with confusion. It now is legal to package wine in the following new categories:

• 180 mL

• 300 mL

• 330 mL

• 360 mL

• 473 mL (16 oz.)

• 550 mL

• 568 mL (19.2 oz)

• 600 mL

• 620 mL

• 700 mL

• 720 mL

• 1.8 L

• 2.25 L

Welcome to 2025, the Wild Wild West of wine packaging.

The change allows American winemakers easier entry into some international markets where bottle sizes have been different for years. New sizes help harmonize U.S. packaging with international standards. It gives consumers more choice, albeit at the expense of confusion. What is the difference between a standard 750 mL bottle and a 720 mL bottle? The answer is about one fluid ounce.

Expectation: it will not make much difference in the short term. A 750 mL bottle will remain the standard. There are tens of millions of those bottles already on the shelves or in the production pipeline. The plethora of finished product will take years to work its way through the consumer digestive tract.

Big producers likely will offer some of these new sizes, they may have bottling lines producing them now for the international market. Small producers may not make any changes, or only to the one or two sizes that generate the most demand.

Retail—wine stores and supermarkets—will be an even bigger challenge. Stores have limited shelf space. If a store stocks three different bottles sizes of one brand, two different brands will have to go. The most likely way you will be able to purchase the new, non-traditional size bottle will be directly from the winery, if they offer the new size.

And so it goes in the wine world.

Last round

The police executed a surprise raid on the psychics’ wine social. Interestingly, none of the psychics saw that coming.

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Valentine’s Day cometh, time for expressing love and affection, although one can argue that should be on your to-do list every day.

The celebration has roots as far back as ancient Rome. It was then called Lupercalia, a day dedicated to Lupercus, the god of shepherds, and aimed at promoting health and fertility. As do many celebrations, Lupercalia-Valentine’s links to seasonal change. In the Northern Hemisphere, mid-February typically marks the end of the coldest nights of winter. Spring starts five weeks later.

The pagan festival fell out of favor with the fall of Rome. In 494 CE, Pope Gelasius I officially banned the festival. Two years later, however, the same pope set things in motion for today’s celebration when he recognized a Christian martyr, Valentine, as a saint. Executed around 270 CE, Valentine supposedly wrote an affectionate letter to his jailer’s daughter and signed it “from your Valentine.”

And then came the so-called “Dark Ages” and Lupercalia and St. Valentine were largely lost in the mists of memory. Until cometh Geoffrey Chaucer and his poem “The Parliament of Fowls” in the 1380s. Wrote the English poet: “For this was seynt Volantynys day, when euery byrd comyth there to chese his make.” His effort may have been an effort to celebrate the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia.

Chaucer’s effort inspired others. By the 1400s, February 14th, the day in 496, when Gelasius canonized Valentine, the day became roughly the Valentine’s Day we know today. The story is somewhat muddier, of course. There are three saints named Valentine and the Catholic Church removed St. Valentine’s Day from its official calendar of feast days in 1969 due to lack of reliable information about the saint. That should not stop you from celebrating love and affection on February 14.

Wine, of course, can be part of your celebration. Classic pairings:

• Sparkling rosé. Can be expensive Champagne or the many alternatives. Clever folks will pair the rosé with a dozen roses and note their love always sparkles.

• Rosé in general. Non-sparkling, “still wines,” can still indicate you are still the love of my life.

• Ruby or tawny port paired with dark chocolate is classic.

Tasting notes

• Avaline Rosé, Vin de France: Light crowd pleaser made with cavalcade of classic rosé grapes, led by grenache. $16-20 Link to my review

• Kopke 20 Years Old Tawny Porto: Archetypal tawny made by the oldest Port house in the world (1638 founding). $70-80 Link to my review

Last round

What did the light bulb say to the switch on Valentine’s Day? You really turn me on. Wine time.

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Wine columnists are expected to have opinions, and I have many. Here are four to rile up readers.

• Stemless wine glasses. They do hold wine and they are harder to break and easier to clean than traditional stemware, but they also commit three cardinal sins for wine enjoyment. First, you have to hold the bowl to use them. That means fingerprint smudges on the glass, diminishing a vital part of wine enjoyment—admiring and evaluating the wine’s color. Second, it is somewhat harder to swirl wine in a stemless. Third, bowl holding warms the wine, diminishing the taste of the wine. See, swirl, smell, sip, and savor are classic—if simplified—elements for tasting wine. Stemless glasses mess with three of the five elements.

• Over-inflated prices and heavy bottles. You produce a decent $30 bottle of wine. Then you put it in a very heavy bottle and charge $60. Studies indicate if people know the price and feel the bottle weight, they consider the heavy bottle, higher-priced wine a better wine than the exact same wine poured from a lighter bottle with a lower announced price. Price is an imperfect indicator of quality. Bottle weight has no impact on wine quality.

• Commodity/supermarket wines with added sugar, high alcohol, and oak. I get it, many people, especially occasional sippers, enjoy wine with those qualities. If that is good wine for you, enjoy away. But sweetness, high alcohol, and big oak are the enemy of wine’s best place in your life—paired with food. Also note, added sugar, elevated alcohol, and oak are proven ways to hide flaws of inferior wines.

• The ABC (Anything But Chardonnay) crowd. I once was part of that throng when the chard I tasted was suffused with butter and overladen with oak. Thankfully, those days are passing, and many California chardonnay makers have seen the humiliating error of their ways and now strive to strike a balance between reasonable and food friendly alcohol, complex layering of fruit flavors, and a lingering finish. Chardonnays with no oak are lean and crisp with stone fruit flavors. Chardonnays with appropriate oak present fuller body and a creamy mouthfeel. If you have lingering antipathy toward chardonnay, try one of today’s quality chards to change your mind.

What are your gripes and opinions?

Tasting notes

• Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars KARIA Chardonnay, Napa Valley 2022: Graceful, fruit forward, some depth and complexity. Nice Napa chard from historic maker. $36-50 Link to my review

• Austin Hope Cabernet Sauvignon, Paso Robles 2021: Plush, smooth, powerful cab. Luxurious instead of smack-your-face power. $56-75 Link to my review

Last round

My four food groups: cabernet, chardonnay, malbec, Champagne.

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Wine labels and wine reviews may include various references to wine blending. Some are specific and informative. Others are distinctions without a difference. Let’s explore the most common blending terms.

• Blend. Broadest term. It includes combining various fruits or vinifications to create, develop, or enhance a wine using more than one grape variety and/or vintage. It includes growing and fermenting different varieties together, blending grapes immediately after or years after harvest, combining various vintages, combining wines fermented using different yeast clones, fermenting techniques, and aging regimens.

• Field blend. Mixture of varieties that are grown, harvested, and fermented together.

• Non-vintage. Involves blending grapes from different years. This is designed to reduce vagaries of different vintages to produce wine true to a distinct house style, ensuring consumers they will enjoy a consistent experience. Non-vintage is very common in Champagnes, Porto, and sherry. It can include blending of different varieties, but also a single variety from different vintages.

• Assemblage. Blending of vinified wines before bottling. This term often is used in Bordeaux and Champagne. Term may have been coined by 17th-century monk-winemaker Dom Pérignon.

• Marriage. Synonym for assemblage. A combination of wines blended before bottling.

• Meritage. Portmanteau created to designate high-quality American wines that pay homage to Bordeaux blends. It combines “merit” and “heritage” and rhymes with “heritage.” It is not a French word with the pronunciation of the last syllable sounding like “garage.” Red meritage must be a blend of at least two varieties—cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, malbec, petit verdot, St. Macaire, gros verdot, or carmenère. White meritage must be a blend of at least two varieties—sauvignon blanc, sémillon, or muscadelle du Bordelais. American winemakers must follow strict guidelines to use the term.

• Cuvée. All-purpose term with no regulated definition. A cuvée is wine made from a blend of different grapes, vineyards, or vintages. Basically, another word for blend.

• Coupage. Another synonym for assemblage, except can have a negative connotation when it describes a wine were other wines were added just to increase the quantity of the wine.

Tasting notes

• M. Chapoutier Belleruche Côts-du-Rhône Blanc 2022: Vibrant, fresh blend led by grenache blanc, also roussanne, viognier, clairette, bourboulenc. $14-18 Link to my review

• Carpineto Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2019: Field blend of at least 80% sangiovese; some canailo and other red grape varieties. $25-29 Link to my review

• Flat Creek Estate Buttero Red Wine Blend 2018: Blend of sangiovese, primitivo, montepulciano from Texas winery. $35-48 Link to my review

• Syncline Wine Cuvée Elena, Columbia Valley 2021: Classic Rhône blend of syrah, grenache, and mourvèdre. Sophisticated and approachable. $65 Link to my review

Last round

Wine flies when you’re having fun.

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Blending is essential to making some of the world’s most iconic wines. We explored the several ways to blend last week. This week, specific wines created by blending.

• Champagne can be a blend of pinot noir, chardonnay, and pinot meunier. It often is a blend of different vintages. Champagne houses aim to produce a distinctive, consistent product year after year, and blending grapes and vintages is how they do it. Most of the time. In exceptional years they may make a single vintage Champagne, and houses also can produce a single variety Champagne.

• Bordeaux, the world’s largest fine wine region, almost always produces blended wines. Key varieties are cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, malbec, and petit verdot for red wines. Bordeaux also produces blended white wines—Bordeaux blancs—using sauvignon blanc, sémillon, and muscadelle.

• Chianti usually qualifies as a sangiovese varietal, but in lowest classification up to 20% may be white grapes malvasia and trebbiano.

• Super Tuscans are sangiovese-based wines from the Chianti region but must be called something else because less than 90% of the wine is sangiovese. Super Tuscans are blends of sangiovese, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot, and others, often with a significant oak influence and high alcohol. Italian rules once required them to be labeled vino da tavola “table wine”—indicating the lowest quality. Wine makers rebelled, coined Super Tuscan, and in 1992, Italian authorities relented and recognized the blend’s name.

• GSM wines—a blend of grenache, syrah, and mourvèdre that also can contain splashes of 19 other grape varieties—is a distinctive Côtes du Rhône blend that spread worldwide. Notable GSM regions include Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Bandol, and Languedoc in France. Now also in Australia and California.

• Rioja is Spanish blend with tempranillo leading the way, supported by mazuelo, graciano, and sometimes garnacha.

• Porto (port wine) is a Portuguese fortified wine that allows more than 80 varieties in the blend. Touriga nacional, touriga franca, and tinta roriz (aka tempranillo) are the leading grapes.

• USA, where anything goes. Unlike the Old World, New World makers seldom have any legal restrictions on what they make. Blends can consist of whatever grapes a winemaker pleases. Makers can follow Old Word formulas, but they also throw in zinfandel and other varieties. A goodly number of California makers use field blends and could not tell you exactly what grape varieties are in their wine.

Last round

Cowboy giving instructions on how to get to a West Texas ranch: “Go out yonder, take a left, and you are almost there. Be sure to close each gate after you pass through.” Wine time.

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In general, wines can be divided into varietals and blends. This being wine, it is not so black-and-white simple. Let’s explore.

A varietal wine has a single variety of grape on the label. That means the named grape is the predominant grape used to make the wine. In the U.S., the named grape must make up at least 75% of the wine. Oregon, however, requires at least 90% of the grape for pinot noir, pinot gris, chardonnay, and riesling. There are 18 grape varieties exempt from the strict Oregon rule, reverting to the more generous rules in the rest of the U.S. Hope that clears things up for you.

A wine blend, as the name implies, means a blend of grape varieties where none reach 75% of the wine. Blends are very common and make some the great wines of the world. Blending is both art and science and the core of what can distinguish one maker’s effort from another’s. Blending can occur in the vineyard, where different varieties are planted together to make a “field blend.” Other blending techniques occur in the winery. Bordeaux blend may be the best known, where cabernet sauvignon, with its structure and tannins, is blended with merlot with its softness and fruitiness. The result is better than a mere sum of its parts.

There are different blending methods:

• Pre-fermentation blending involves combining juice prior to fermentation. This method helps integrate flavors and is used with grapes with complementary characteristics to create a more harmonious wine.

• Post-fermentation blending occurs after fermentation. This allows the winemaker to assess the characteristics of each element once it is wine, giving more precise control over the final product.

• Barrel blending allows winemakers to assess individual wines after being influenced by wood. This allows adding complexity, such as the spiciness of French oak and the vanilla of American oak.

• Microvinification involves fermenting small batches of grapes separately, then experimenting with different combinations of varieties, maceration, oak and aging regimen, and other variables. The process is used to produce complex wines.

• Automated blending systems use sensor and software to measure and control proportions. Often used in making bulk wine and supermarket/commodity wines to achieve consistency year after year.

• Corrective blending is used to address challenges and flaws. It can be used to balance tannins and acidity, and to adjust alcohol levels.

All the techniques, from varietal to blend, are ways winemakers strive to create wine for you to enjoy.

Last round

Did you hear about the big origami company that went out of business?

It’s true, they just folded.

Wine time.

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Wine scores. Oh, my. On one level, ridiculous. On another level, essential to wine’s success over the past half century. Some observations.

Anyone who ever took a test or got a report card in grade school immediately understands a wine score. Robert Parker was the most visible person to grasp that, and a parade of imitators reinforced it. Many were based on a 100-point scale, but in practice it is a 80-100 point scale. If your wine score was a 79 or less, you might as well drink it alone, directly out of the bottle, preferably disguised by a brown paper bag so as not to reveal your pathetic wine-buying error.

There are other scoring schemes. Jancis Robinson, England’s gracious gift to worldwide wine information, uses a scoring system that goes from 12 to 20 points, but she also opts for decimals, so her 20-point scale actually is a 17-point scale. Others use stars, usually 5, and half stars can be awarded.

Except, wait. Wine evaluation is not sweating students filling in boxes with No.2 pencils while the clock ticks and gimlet-eyed proctors observe. The exact same wine tastes different given the circumstances of the sipping. How many of you experienced exalting joy sipping wine at a winery redolent with the bonhomie atmosphere of friends and a bucolic tableau spilling forth from the charcuterie board and tasting area, only to later discover you did not experience the same elevated bliss at home, in the kitchen, with last night’s dirty dishes stacked in the sink awaiting Scotch-Brite Heavy Duty attention?

Professional wine scorers often taste multiple wines at a time. Taste, spit, punch a one or two sentence description into the laptop, assign a score. Rinse. Repeat with another wine. That is not how normal human beings experience wine.

For the 17 years of this wine column, I have eschewed scores. I understand their simplicity and value, but I decided to go with my strength as a story teller and entertaining writer for my lane. The world did not need another pince-nezed cognoscente to contribute to effluence of wine tasting evaluations in a grade school paradigm.

I hope you agree, and thank you for being part of the adventure.

Tasting notes

• Cline Family Cellars Hat Strap Chardonnay, Los Carneros, Sonoma County 2021: Rich, full-bodied, admirable restraint on the oak and butter, while still deftly delivering some of that popular style. $25-30 Link to my review

• Rodney Strong Vineyards Russian River Valley Reserve Pinot Noir 2021: Smooth, compelling complexity and depth. Easy drinker with delicious fruit. $60 Link to my review

Last round

Last night I watched Dancing with the Tsars. Peter and Catherine were great. But Ivan was terrible. Wine time.

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Happy New Year. We survived another sun circumnavigation. Sunlight grows slowly longer. Spring rebirth looms over the sere, cold-swept horizon. Endure these last temperature-challenging months, and we emerge into warm, bright shining mornings. Two wine types provide solace during this frost-dusted interlude: Porto and sherry.

Porto and sherry are fortified wines produced on the Iberian peninsula. Porto in Portugal in the Douro Valley region and sherry in the Jerez region of Andalusia, Spain. Both are sweet wines with compensating acidity. Considered among the greatest fortified wines, both deliver succor when shivery winds swirl.

Porto typically has an ABV of 19-22%. Sherry is similar at 15-22%. Higher alcohol delivers comforting warming sensations. And, admit it, a pleasuring slight buzz.

Sherry pairs well with nuts, olives, cured meats—common winter appetizers. Porto pairs with chocolate desserts and blue cheese, notable conclusions to winter repasts. The two can bracket a memorable winter feast. And what better time to fatten up and escape than when frigid flurries fly?

Production of Porto wine dates to Roman times. The Porto we enjoy today developed in the 17th century when British merchants sought alternatives to French wine. Portugal’s fecund Douro Valley—a UNESCO World Heritage Site today—beckoned. Grapes grew from headwaters in Spain to the port city of Porto—thus the name. Most of the wine is made in Vila Nova de Gaia directly across the Douro. You can walk across a bridge to get there. Wine ships from the port of Porto.

Sherry has similar back story. Viticulture dates to BC Roman times. Even under Moorish conquest (711-1264 AD), sherry production continued in spite of Islamic alcohol prohibitions. In the Spanish age of exploration (think Columbus and conquistadores), ships sailed around the world with sherry in their holds. Sherry production involves a “solera system” where wines from succeeding vintages are blended and exposed to air. This oxidation is the reason the wine became better, not worse, on long sea voyages.

Both Porto and sherry are delicious with unique flavors. Certainly they are comforting in the depth of winter. They also can be enjoyed any time of the year.

Tasting notes

• Warre’s Vintage Porto 2016: Plush dessert in a glass with alcohol oomph (20%). Wonderfully expressive dark fruits. Elegant, balanced, charming. Sweetness deftly paired with excellent acidity. $100 Link to my review

• Lustau East India Solera Sherry: Sweet, smooth, velvety. Excellent balance of sweetness and acidity. Fascinating interplay of tangy, salty notes of oloroso (80% of blend) and the sweetness of pedro ximénez. $28 Link to my review

Last round

What do you call someone who drinks fortified Spanish wine? A person who sherry-picks their alcohol.

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This column runs on Wednesdays in most markets—Christmas Day in 2024. If you have not secured your wine before now, no chance today. We can, however, look forward to New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

Sparkling wines are stars of New Year celebrations. Statistics indicate roughly 25 percent of all Champagne is sold between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Something like 360 million glasses of sparkling wine are consumed on New Year’s Eve.

People who don’t usually drink sparkling, drink sparkling around the New Year celebrations. On a more sobering and serious note, New Year’s Eve statistically is the most drunken night of the year, with sparkling wine playing a major role. The unfortunate quip is “New Year’s Eve is amateur drunk night.”

Enjoy wine in moderation so you can be around for the next annual celebration. With that in mind, a primer on the types of sparkling wine:

• Champagne. Produced exclusively in the Champagne region of northeastern France (no matter what some rogue labels claim) using the traditional method (méthode champenoise) with secondary fermentation in the bottle. Three primary grapes—pinot noir, chardonnay, and pinot meunier.

• Crémant. French sparkling made outside the Champagne region, using grape varieties typical to their regions using traditional method.

• Cava. Spanish sparkling, primarily produced in Catalonia. Made using traditional method using Spanish grapes xarel·lo, macabeo, and parellada; also chardonnay and pinot noir.

• Prosecco. Italian sparkling from the Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia regions using the Charmat method where secondary fermentation occurs in large tanks. Glera is the prime grape.

• Franciacorta. High-quality Italian sparkling from Lombardy primarily made with chardonnay and pinot noir using traditional method.

• Asti and Moscato d’Asti. Sweet sparklings made in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy using the moscato bianco grape. Asti is fully sparkling (spumante). Moscato d’Asti is semi-sparkling (frizzante).

• Sekt. German sparkling made with various grapes, some using traditional method, others Charmat.

• New World Sparklings. Made in U.S., Australia, New Zealand and some other countries using traditional grapes and traditional method.

• Cap Classique. Sparkling in South Africa using various grapes, primarily chardonnay and pinot noir, using traditional method.

• Junk Sparkling. My term for very cheap wine infused with CO2 in the same way as soda pop. Guzzle this dreck at the close of 2024 and it is unlikely you will enjoy the dawn of 2025.

Last round

Man walking home after too much sparkling at a New Year’s party. Policeman sees him weaving and asks where he is going. Man: “To a lecture.” Policeman: “Who gives lectures this late on New Year’s Eve?” Man: “My wife.”

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Diary of a Serial Hostess Ins and outs of entertaining; witty anecdotes of life in the stylish lane.

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