American wine: What`s next?

It`s hard to believe that less than a generation ago (remember the 1980s?) the American wine scene was still dominated by a few big, generic jug wine brands, and a glass of chablis was the typical bar pour - meaning whatever the bar in question might feel chablis was. There was such a demand in those days for white wine - any white wine - that people were pulling up or grafting over red grapes all across California. In a classic bit of repackaging genius, red zinfandel grapes came to be used in something called white zinfandel, actually a sweet rose or blush wine. But it was a start. Cut to today. The generic jug wines have long since been eclipsed by varietals, meaning wines that specify their major grape on the label, such as chardonnay. In theory, these should be better wines, since the grape on the label is generally a fine wine grape, as opposed to whatever might go into a generic wine. It`s not always better in practice since a crummy chardonnay is certainly no tastier than a decent Rhine wine or chablis jug wine and may even contain some fairly anonymous grapes itself (American regulations specify only that the wine contain 75 percent of the named grape). But it`s a definite step in the right direction. Then there`s the red wine boom of the 1990s, which is continuing into the new millennium. Boosted by various medical studies and by media events such as the "60 Minutes" "French Paradox" broadcast, which examined evidence that moderate amounts of red-wine drinking can confer health benefits, especially in combating coronary heart disease, red wine is the drink of the moment. With the upswing for red wine, zinfandel can at last be red zinfandel again, as rich and tongue purpling as God intended it. The top zinfandels, from producers such as Ridge, Ravenswood, Martinelli and Turley, often made from 70- and 100-year-old vines, have developed intense cult followings. Even more intense are the cult followings for the top cabernet sauvignon-based wines, which have disappeared over the $100 a bottle mark and in some cases soared far beyond that. Meanwhile, back on the planet that most of us inhabit, merlot is the red wine of the day. It seems a curious choice to many wine lovers, given that most of the inexpensive merlots being rushed onto the market from California (and from Chile, Australia and southern France) are pretty bland stuff. But the trend has sturdier legs than many forecasters anticipated. And with an avalanche of grapes coming onto the market over the next few years from new merlot plantings, there will at least be a lot more to pick and choose. So what`s next from California? For one thing, a lot more variety in grape types. I`m not expecting that chardonnay, cabernet, sauvignon blanc, zinfandel and merlot are going to give way anytime soon. But be on the lookout for Rhone-style blends and Rhone varietals such as red syrah and white viognier. True, we`ve heard this before, when the wineries dubbed the Rhone Rangers became a brief media event in the 1980s. But these wines may be set to make more of an actual impact now, for several good reasons. For one thing, American drinkers just may be more ready to experiment. Having branched out already from chardonnay and white zinfandel, trying a juicy red such as syrah or grenache or an exotic, aromatic white such as viognier may seem like a logical step. What is more, this is exactly the time when California wineries are primed to experiment. After all the replanting in the years following the plague of the root louse phylloxera, there has been plenty of vineyard acreage to devote to something new, and syrah in particular has gotten the benefit of it. Between 1988 and 1998 (the last year with complete figures), plantings of syrah jumped from 139 acres to almost 7,200 acres. But that doesn`t tell the whole story. Of the 7,200 acres in 1998, 5,200 were nonbearing, meaning that they had been planted so recently that they hadn`t yet borne fruit. And expect that figure to take another jump when the 2000 figures are tabulated. There`s also another good omen for Rhone-style wines: better clones. I had an impossible-to-miss demonstration of this recently when I visited Tablas Creek Vineyard, a new winery in Paso Robles, in California`s Central Coast. A partnership between fine-wine importer Robert Haas and the Perrin brothers of Chateauneuf-du-Pape superstar Chateau Beaucastel, Tablas Creek is an all-Rhone-variety winery. To get things started, Haas and the Perrins first planted their vineyards with available California Rhone-grape vines, while awaiting the tortuous process of clearing French rootstock through agricultural quarantine. Now planted in the vineyards and bearing fruit, the French clones are a taste revelation. The wines from these French clones, such as grenache, are astoundingly different - more layered, more aromatically complex - than the perfectly fine, standard American versions planted next to them. Tablas Creek itself - and now a few larger, commercial nurseries, as well - are beginning to sell these French vines to other wineries. As they are propagated and disseminated out into the vineyards across California, you can expect to taste some Rhone-style wines over the coming decade that will knock you off your chair. Interestingly, many of these wines - including Tablas Creek`s - are blends of various grapes. What this means is that they may not be labeled syrah or marsanne or what have you but, more like the old jug wines, as red table wine, white table wine or some fanciful name. Maybe American wine drinkers don`t need the crutch of a grape name on the label anymore because the expectation now - as opposed to the early 1980s - is that California produces wonderful wine. It`s all part of the speeded-up evolution of American wine and of Americans as wine drinkers.

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Author: Richard Nalley