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

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Tasting science used to be so simple. Alas, no more.

Back in 1901, a German scientist opined various taste receptors were orderly segregated on your tongue in specific places. Sweet on your tip, salty on the sides, sour behind them, bitter in the back. Nice, neat, wrong.

Modern science—the flawed German study is from 1901—confirms the perception of taste is remarkably complex and not limited to your tongue. Judging flavors is deeply integrated into what is good for you to eat and what is not, so it should be no surprise that hundreds of thousands of years of tasting experience created a complex and extremely sophisticated human palate. If it had not, you and I would not be around to read about this.

Yes, it does start with the tongue. Sensors alert the brain when they encounter nutrients or toxins. Pleasure or poison is the first threshold. Horrible, you instinctively spit it out. But your response does not stop after that initial pass-fail taste test. When alerted, your gastrointestinal tract, liver, pancreas, fat cells, brain, muscle cells, and lungs also spring into action. Your tongue taste buds alert your body in the same way an airport system responds to an airplane coming in for a landing. Your tongue may be the control tower, but it only sets everything else into motion.

Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist who won a Nobel Prize for his studies on digestion in 1904, showed lumps of meat placed directly into a hole in the dog’s stomach would not be digested unless he dusted the dog’s tongue with some dried meat powder to start things off. Dog food, wine. Who knew they would be connected?

I do not know of scientific studies to back me up, but I assert there is a connection between wine—essentially liquid fruit—and your body’s collective response to nourishment. Wine has complemented our food for at least 8,000 years, likely longer. When human beings find something that works, they tend to expand upon it.

Cheers.

Tasting notes

• Rainstorm Pinot Gris, Willamette Valley, Oregon 2022: Bright, fresh with good tartness, citrus. Delightful wine with the tartness and acidity to pair well with lighter fare. $16-18 Link to my review

• Ramōn Bilbao Verdejo, Rueda 2022: Crisp, fruity, refreshing. Bright, inviting, vibrant pleasure in the mouth. $18-23 Link to my review

• Becker Vineyards Prairie Cuvée, Texas High Plains 2019: Light, refreshing, full fruity flavor. Classic Rhône blend using Texas-grown grapes by substantial player in state’s ascendency in the wine world. $25 Link to my review

Last round

Commas are so very important. “Your dinner” (no comma) leaves you nourished. “You’re dinner” (comma) leaves you eaten. Wine time.

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Direct-to-consumer (DtC) wine shipping enjoys exponential growth. This is a great and welcome boon to wine makers, especially smaller ones who effectively are ignored by mega wholesalers.

But the trend rattles those same near-monopoly wholesalers—Southern Glazer’s and Republic National. And they are fighting back by lobbying to restrict DtC in state legislatures and making delivery more complicated.

Fear mongering about DtC leading to minors securing alcohol is a major meme. Claim: when DtC rules are relaxed, there is more underage drinking. They offer no proof of their claim because none exists. In fact, underage drinking is historically down in the past decade.

Common sense and experience tells you teenagers are not going to order wine online to be delivered days later. Why would anyone under 21 go to that trouble when all they need do is raid their parent’s stash, recruit a friend who is over 21 to buy, buy themselves at a compliant store or with a fake ID, or simply steal from the store? That is how it has worked from time out of memory.

That is not to say DtC providers should ignore underage drinking. Many times a week I receive DtC wines from wineries who want me to review their wine. I am in my mid-70s. Delivery people still ask to see an ID the first time they come, and have me sign for the delivery every time. That is reality. Ignore the bogus scare tactics of those who oppose DtC.

The core of the problem is the entrenched hangover from Prohibition: the three-tier system. The system divides the alcohol supply chain into producer, wholesaler, and retailer. The two middle-men, the wholesaler and the retailer, each get their cut of the action and raise the product price.

Smaller wineries are not noticed by the big dog wholesalers and must make do with wine club and on-premise winery sales. That hurts the boutique wineries and deprives you of quality, small production wine experiences. As DtC opportunities increase, it benefits wineries and consumers. It hurts big wholesalers and retailers, and they are using all their lobbying clout to thwart this trend.

You can easily surmise where my sympathies lie.

Tasting notes

• Grape Creek Vineyards Cuvée Blanc White Wine, Texas 2022: Excellent mouthfeel and rich, tasty fruit backed by jaunty acidity. Sterling example of why Texas wines must be taken seriously. $24-30 Link to my review

• Three Sticks One Sky Vineyard Pinot Noir 2021: Delicious fruit, depth, length, structure. $85 Link to my review

Last round

Question: “Which hand do you use when cutting your steak?”

Answer: “I don’t use my hand, I use a knife.” Wine time.

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A miracle is happening right now in vineyards throughout the northern hemisphere.

“Véraison” is the French term for the time when a wine vine’s tiny, tight green nubs morph into plump, tasty, colorful globes. Red grapes transition from green to red, purple, blue, or black. White grapes transition from green to translucent yellow, orange, or gold.

Olivier Lemoine

In addition to color changes grapes undergo other vital changes.

• Grapes soften, become juicier and more pliable.

• Grapes can double in size as they accumulate sugars and other nutrients.

• Glucose and fructose levels—sugars—increase, critical to the later production of alcohol.

• Malic acid decreases, making tartaric acid predominant, critical for flavor balance.

• Herbaceous—green—aromas and taste degrade, replaced by fruity aromas.

• The concentration and composition of phenolic compounds, especially tannins, change. Riper grapes with well-developed phenolics are smoother, more complex, and have a more pleasant mouthfeel.

• Vines shift from energy production through photosynthesis—leaf production—to energy consumption, concentrating energy to make ripe, sweet grapes.

• Véraison occurs in the northern hemisphere beginning in mid-to-late July, but grape variety, temperature, climate, and region influence the process. It may not begin until mid-August some places.

• Véraison may not occur simultaneously in a vineyard or even on a single vine. Vines that undergo véraison more evenly generally produce wines with greater complexity and depth.

• Véraison means harvest is 45 to 60 days away. Precise timing of the harvest is critical in the production of quality wine. That largely is under the control of humans. Véraison is the magical time that sets up the harvest. That is almost exclusively under the control of God and Mother Nature. The wine you enjoy is the product of this symbiotic relationship.

Tasting notes

• MGM Mondo del Vino Riva Leone Gavi DOCG 2021: Delicious dry, light wine with admirable crispness and delicious cortese fruit. $15-17 Link to my review

• Gigondas La Cave Le Dit De Saint Tronquet, Côtes du Rhône Villages Plan de Dieu 2022: Solid GSM from Rhône Villages cooperative in a special place—“God’s Plan” [Plan de Dieu]. $18 Link to my review

• Hahn Family Wines Appellation Series Chardonnay, Arroyo Seco 2021: Rich, full, round, clean; impressive example of oaked chardonnay, touches all the delicious, well-made chard bases. $22-25 Link to my review

• Texas Heritage Vineyard Viognier, Wildseed Farms Vineyard, Texas Hill Country 2022: Deep, delicious, robust, aromatic expression of Texas viognier. $21-28 Link to my review

• M. Chapoutier Crozes-Hermitage Petite Ruche Blanc 2021: Plump pleaser, rich, fruity, medium-plus body marsanne play. $27 Link to my review

Last round

Did you hear about the mathematician who was afraid of negative numbers? He would stop at nothing to avoid them. Wine time.

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As the Nat King Cole song goes, “Roll out those lazy, hazy days of summer.” But instead of soda and pretzels and beer, it is so much nicer to sip well-chilled rosé.

The rosé cliché is that it is only a summertime wine. Not remotely true, but rosé certainly is a lovely libation—both in taste and color—as we endure the trials Sol slings at us.

Rosé is light-bodied, fresh and fruity, moderate alcohol. Those are all good things for a scorching day thirst quencher. Rosé also pairs well with the lighter food we eat in summer.

Rosés come in many colors. Some sippers immediately think of the very pale rosés from Côtes de Provence, but color is an indication of style, not quality. Rosés from the Tavel region of the Rhone Valley or the Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo region of Italy are dark rosés and excellent rosés.

There are four techniques used to make rosé:

• Direct pressing involves pressing red grapes immediately after harvest allowing minimal skin contact and occurs before fermentation begins. This produces the palest pink wine. Pale rosés usually deliver flavors of strawberries, raspberries, watermelon, cantaloupe. Pale Provence rosés are made using this technique.

• Saignée (French for “bleeding”) involves allowing a portion of red wine to “bleed” off early in fermentation. This produces wines darker than direct press. Saignée tends to promote raspberry and blackberry flavors and aromas. Saignée rosé wines also can be more tannic and suitable for aging.

• Maceration involves leaving the juice in contact with the skins for an extended period. The longer the maceration, the darker the color. When the desired color is achieved, the must—the mix of juice, skins, stems, and seeds—is pressed and fermentation begins. This is another popular method in Provence and is used to make their most serious rosés.

• A final method, particularly used in Champagne to produce rosé sparkling wine, involves blending a small amount of red wine into white wine. Champagne makers focus on a consistent product year upon year. Blending allows for the most control of the product.

Tasting notes

• Ultimate Provence UP Côtes de Provence Rosé 2022: Tangy edge plays well with juicy red fruits. Richer, more body than the diaphanous efforts of some Provence purveyors. $20-23 Link to my review

• William Chris Vineyards La Pradera Rosé, Texas High Plains 2022: Tasty red fruit with an emphasis on mourvèdre in this vintage. $24 Link to my review

• Wedding Oak Winery Sweetheart Rosé, Texas 2021: Delight, delicious fruit. Elegant, substantial. Complexity from a well-coordinated mélange of Texas red grapes. $29 Link to my review

Last round

Hyphenated and non-hyphenated. Ah, the ironies of the English language. Wine time.

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We celebrate the 248th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence tomorrow. There may be fireworks and parades, but most of us will simply honor the Fourth with family and friends. And barbecue, or at least outdoor time.

What wine do you pair with backyard festivities. Some ideas:

• The day is very likely to be hot. While heavy, bold, high alcohol red wines work well with barbecue and grilled steaks, such libations do not work well with July heat. Big red wines taste heavy. High alcohol and high heat do not play well together.

• There are light-bodied, chillable reds with enough body to pair with the fare, and their lower alcohol, fruit-forward presentation works with both heat and meat. Think gamay, lighter pinot noir, and offerings actually labeled as “chillable red.” All of these can be chilled, a good way to go in high summer.

• Amber wines, also inappropriately called “orange” wines. These are white wines made with skin contact like they were a red wine. Refreshing and hip. Great food wine with spicy food, sausage, grilled vegetables.

• Pet nat (pétillant naturel) is sparkling made the very old fashioned way—the way sparkling was made before méthode champenoise was invented. Like amber wines, the next big thing in wine. Ideal for casual, fun happenings. Bubbles buoy the Fourth vibe. Yeasty flavors and hint of residual sugar are ideal for barbecue seasonings.

• Rosé wines. Get over it, guys. Rosé wines are versatile and delicious and are not girly, girly sissified swill. Only insecure males think such thoughts.

• Versatile, food-friendly whites. Dry riesling, grüner veltliner, vinho verde (which can be white, rosé, or red). Excellent, refreshing wines that can be served quite chilled. Lower alcohol and good acidity makes them excellent food wines that fare well with fare in a summer scorcher.

Tasting notes

• Herzog Wine Cellars Lineage Rosé, Clarksburg 2022: Easy-going, pleasant delight. Perfect warm weather sipper with lighter food or just enjoyed by itself. Mevushal. $17-22 Link to my review

• Hager Matthias Pét Nat Grüner Veltliner 2021: Refreshing, lower alcohol effort that is and trendy and versatile and presents excellent fruit. $29 Link to my review

• Kivelstadt Cellars Wayward Son Skin Fermented Pinot Grigio, Pintail Ranch Vineyard, Clarksburg, Sonoma 2022: Tasty, serious skin-fermented amber wine made with pinot grigio. $25-32 Link to my review

• William Chris Vineyards La Pradera Vineyard Blend, Texas High Plains 2020: Rich, delicious celebration of a five-grape medley of Texas High Plains red fruit. Solid, smooth, easy drinker from significant Texas maker. $45-50

Last round

What did Luke Skywalker say on the 4th of July? “May the fourth be with you.” Wine time.

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Pét-Nat or Pétillant-Naturel. What the heck is that “next big thing” in wine?

The “next big thing” designation is ironic because, in truth, it is the oldest thing in sparkling wines. It was how sparkling wine was made before the development of the methods you know today. In English, Pétillant-Naturel simply means “naturally bubbling.”

Pét-Nat is made using a technique—“méthode ancestrale”—that originated in Limoux in southern France in the 1500s. It involves a single fermentation. Méthode champenoise or “traditional method” uses two fermentations to make Champagne and other sparkling wines.

Bottling takes place before the primary fermentation is complete. Yeasts remain actively converting sugars into alcohol. And into CO2—the bubbles. The wines tend to be lower in alcohol with softer, more delicate bubbles than sparkling made using traditional methods. Because there is less pressure—half that of Champagnne—Pét-Nat typically is sealed with a crown cap, the closure you find on beer or soda pop bottles.

Pét-Nat usually is unfiltered, so it often is cloudy. Those are the spent yeast cells that created the alcohol and bubbles. It is made with a variety of grapes, resulting in a spectrum of colors and styles. There are a wide range of aromas and flavors. Often there is a slight sweetness, although there are dry examples. Adjectives like wild, funky, rustic often are associated with Pét-Nat.

Christian Chaussard in Vouvray revived the ancient technique in the early 1990s when he accidentally produced a fizzy wine by bottling before fermentation was complete. He found the wine tasty. Buyers found something new and trendy. Pét-Nat started being the “next big thing.” At first, there was more buzz about it than sales or availability warranted, but that changed. You likely can find Pét-Nat at a well-stocked supermarket today. It typically is affordable, casual, refreshing. Lower alcohol makes it attractive for everyday drinking and to those seeking to reduce alcohol intake.

A caution. Pét-Nat production is hard to control and requires winemaker skill. Results can be variable, depending on the grapes used and where they were grown. Quality is not guaranteed. Pét-Nat is a process description, not a narrow wine description.

Worth a sip, especially if you are a new and trendy sort of sipper.

Tasting note

• Hager Matthias Pét-Nat Grüner Veltliner 2021: Refreshing, lower alcohol effort that is and trendy and versatile. Presents excellent fruit. Works well as aperitif. $20-29 Link to my review

Last round

I told my daughter to go to bed because cows were sleeping in the fields.

“What does that have to do with anything?” she asked.

“It means it is pasture bedtime,” I responded. Wine time.

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There is panic and turmoil in high dollar wines you and I do not buy.

This is not about big dollar wines we could buy—Caymus, Jordan, Daou. You can purchase them at higher-end grocery stores. The turmoil is with wines you only can buy from an allocation list or very high-end wine stores. Covid and an influx of wines competing at pompous price points upended everything.

A lot goes into wines in that rarified price category. Millions invested—in Napa vineyards, in famous winemakers, in famous architects for the winery and tasting rooms. All goes into the bottle price.

And then there is trophy wine branding. People buy such wines not just for silky tannins and layers of bing cherry, ripe raspberry, and blackcurrant backbone. People buy so they can say to themselves, and especially to others, they can buy the wine.

When a winery decides to play in that bedazzling arena, it must protect its brand. And that is when flop sweat starts dripping. Recent years have not been kind. Demand down. People pinching purses purchase product from lower shelves. Purveyors panicked when pricey vintages went unsold. Then—horror of horrors—they did the unthinkable. They discounted.

When you sell your wine for $750 a bottle, the play is “if you won’t pay this much, there is someone else who will, and when this sells, there aren’t any more.” But rarity and exclusiveness are evanescent qualities. When the first merchant decides to clear his shelf and sells the wine discounted to $500, the shift hits the fans. Why pay high when you can wait and buy low. People who can afford such luxuries figured this out long ago.

When a Calistoga high end winery discovered a shop was going out of business and offered their wine at clearance prices, the winery immediately sent a distributor to buy the entire inventory to protect the price point.

“The moment people feel the product is easy to get at a discounted price, all of a sudden the rarity has evaporated,” Dave Parker, CEO of rare-wine retailer Benchmark Wine Group in Napa, told Wine Spectator.

If you are like me, you are not going to buy a $750 bottle of wine even at $500. But it is nice to note that as wine over-supply and clearance pricing trickles down, we may be in line for some sweet deals.

Last round

An orangutan in the zoo has two books: The Bible and Darwin’s Origin Of Species. The orangutan is trying to figure out if he is his brother’s keeper—or his keeper’s brother. Wine time.

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Most of us drink a bottle of wine soon after purchase. From an hour after we get home to a couple of days or weeks. Wine storage in such cases basically is unimportant.

But what about those who actually age wine. Maybe you bought a case at a winery and want to savor it over the next year or two. Or you open one bottle a year on a special day for the next dozen years. Or, maybe you really have gotten into wine and have a sizable collection you want to preserve and keep in optimal condition. What to do?

Guidelines:

• Temperature is wine’s greatest enemy. When it gets too hot, say spending a day or two in high summer in your car, heat will dull aromas and flavors. It also may cause the cork to lift and some wine to ooze out. Cold can be bad, too. Your refrigerator likely is around 35-38º F and has very low humidity that eventually can shrink the cork, but even if that does not happen, wine at near freezing temperature dulls flavor.

• The ideal temperature for wine storage is around 55º F, but between 50º F and 70º F will work. You mostly want to avoid temperature shifts, especially significant ones. But don’t fret about this too much. If you are storing in your house and consuming over the next year or so, it is unlikely in today’s HVAC homes you will flirt with danger.

• UV light is the other potential vino villain. The reason most wines come in colored glass bottles is to thwart the rapacious ravages of sunlight. A closet or well-shaded part of your house will work fine.

• Humidity is somewhat controversial. Conventional wisdom is to lay wine on its side so the cork is wetted by the wine, but cork producers contend the humidity inside the bottle is constant lying down or standing up, so don’t stress about this. Whatever. Horizontal is more efficient use of space, which is reason enough.

• Wine enchants you, wise investments enable you, and you are big into wine. Maybe 100 or more bottles, some trophies you want to age. Time to invest in a wine fridge. From my personal experience, go with a single temperature zone and go with generous space in the shelving to accommodate fatter burgundy/chardonnay bottle sizes. And you will be surprised at how quickly you run out of space.

Last round

I met my future wife while she was working at the zoo. She was in her uniform. Straightaway I knew she was a keeper. Wine time.

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“If you could only drink one wine for the rest of your life, what wine would that be?” I get that question often.

As a Catholic, my tongue-in-cheek answer: “Consecrated communion wine because I am in Hell.”

Related question: “What is your favorite wine?”

As a humorist, my quip: “Whatever you are pouring.”

The answer to the base question: I enjoy all competently-made wines. When I taste sweeter wines, although not my first choice, I strive to evaluate the wine from the perspective of someone who prefers sweeter wines. And share fair comments with readers.

That said, there are wines I am more likely to pour:

• Pinot noir. Lighter body, delicate, nuanced flavors, good acidity, restrained tannins, elegant and silky mouthfeel. Versatile pairing from fish to poultry to white meats and lighter beef. Delicious as a red wine, a key component of many Champagnes.

• Sauvignon blanc. Good to great acidity; pairs with with huge range of foods.

• Red blends. I prefer blends over pure varietals because blends can deliver more complexity and depth, although I can enjoy a pure varietal play. Blend examples include:

• GSM. Grenache-syrah-mouvédre. Wonderful blend of three varieties I enjoy.

• Bordeaux blend. Cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, sometimes petite verdot, malbec, carménère. Classic big reds.

• Spanish blends. Tempranillo-garnacha (Rioja). Garnacha-cariñena (Priorat). Tempranilo-cab, merlot, malbec (Ribera del Duero). There are excellent Spanish white blends, too.

• Italian blends. Sangiovese with a variety of blenders.

• Sparkling wine. From Champagne, to Spanish cava, to Italian spumantes and proseccos.

• Chardonnay. So versatile. Can be made in almost every style; a key component of Champagne and other sparklings.

• Australia. Shiraz, perfect for beef pairing.

• New Zealand. Sauvignon blanc and, increasingly, pinot noir.

• Chile and Argentina. Huge values. Is there a better value-for-price play than malbec?

• Portugal. Wide selection at fantastic price points.

• Zinfandel. Bold ripe fruit, soft tannins, potentially high alcohol. What’s not to love?

• Others: riesling, vinho verde, grüner veltliner, maderia, gewürztraminer, viognier, pinot gris/grigio.

Happy to narrow it down for you.

Tasting notes:

• Hope Family Wines Treana Sauvignon Blanc, California 2022: Smooth, very approachable; retains food-friendly acidity. $18-20 Link to my review

• Lake Sonoma Winery Russian River Valley Chardonnay 2020: Fulsome, substantial expression of Russian River Valley chard. Rich, engaging in the mouth. $20-25 Link to my review

• Privé Vineyard Pinot Noir, Chehalem Mountain AVA 2022: Refined, reserved joy in the mouth. Solid reason Willamette Valley is world-class provider of pinot. $60 Link to my review

• Dobbes Family Estate Patricia’s Cuvée Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley 2021: Rich, opulent, hedonistic delight; excellent fruit, impressive complexity, wonderful texture, mouthfeel. $60 Link to my review

Last round

Somebody stole Satan’s hairpiece! There will be Hell toupee. Wine time.

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In an opinion survey by YouGov, Americans claimed “bottle or label design” was the least important factor in their selection of a wine. That might be an expected response to an online questionnaire. Few people confess to being lured by clever critter names and images, or campy convict references, or hernia-inducing bottle weights.

But, come on, you are influenced. If you were not, wineries and marketing mavens and money managers would not pay so much attention and dollars to bottles/containers and labels. Anecdotal evidence is especially strong that people, especially those not heavily into wine, are influenced by these factors.

Today, the container is the new delta in the wine consumer equation. Screw caps were the tip of the change spear in past decades. It now is generally accepted that screw caps, also called Stelvin closures, are just another way of sealing a container and is not an indicator of inferior quality. Whole nations—New Zealand is the poster country—predominantly use screw caps. No one questions their quality, especially for wines consumed in the decade after release.

Newer battlegrounds involve containers. Massive glass bottles traditionally implied quality. That is an emotional rather than a rational response. Glass is glass. It works very well containing wine regardless of its weight. Environmentally and economically, weighty bottles make no sense in production, transportation, and disposal. Let us hope the growing trend of sensible bottle weights continues.

Non-glass is the new front line in wine packaging. Boxed wine—actually a plastic bag inside a cardboard box—has a solid base. Once the realm of cheap, inferior wine, now many makers produce quality. The fact the wine stays fresh after initial opening for a month is a huge selling point. You can’t age box wine, but almost all wine you buy is not purchased to be aged.

Tetra paks are small boxes made of cardboard, plastic, and aluminum. They are especially ideal for wines drunk young at a beach, poolside, picnic, or any situation where portability and safety from broken glass is an asset. Versions of this have worked for milk, fruit juice, and other liquids for years. Why not wines?

Cans. Similar advantages as tetra paks. Has worked for beer—for many foods and liquids—for more than a century. Why not wines?

Focus on what is in the container and how you will use it, not the closure or its weight or the material used to make it. Onward into the future of wine.

Last round

I met a microbiologist today. He was much bigger than I expected. Wine time.

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