I could be wrong about this but I cannot think of any other single food product or any single commercial product for that matter that engenders such widespread passion for its distinctive pleasures than wine. One bit of evidence I see for this is the phenomenal interest in wine tastings. Whether you are a serious taster or a more casual wine drinker, one of the attractions and benefits of a wine tasting (whether formal or informal) is the opportunity to compare a variety of wines and thereby increase both your knowledge and your enjoyment of wine. Of course, every time you drink a glass of wine technically you are conducting a mini-tasting. But I think the value of wine tastings is artfully described in “The World Atlas of Wine” by Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson: “There is little meaning in an isolated sensation, though it may be very pleasant. Where the real pleasures of wine tasting lie are in the cross references, the stirring of memories, the comparisons between similar and yet subtly different products of the same or neighboring ground.”
Another good reason, as pointed out by Peter Forrestal in “The Global Encyclopedia of Wine,” is that “Attending a formal tasting allows you to compare a number of wines at one sitting, which would otherwise be prohibitively expensive for most of us.” There are even different kinds of tastings. Wine publications describe essentially four types of tastings. Basically, the descriptions boil down to these:
comparative tasting – same type or style of wine, different producers, different vintages
horizontal tasting – same type or style of wine, different producers, same vintage
vertical tasting – same wine, same producer, different vintages
blind tasting – each of the other three can be organized as a blind tasting, in which the identity of the wines is unknown to minimize the influence of bias
Most of the tastings I conduct for my columns are blind comparative tastings. For instance, California Zinfandel from various producers and different vintages. Though, in most cases, most of the wines are of the same vintage, making it almost a horizontal tasting. I find vertical tastings especially enlightening, though, unfortunately I don’t have many such opportunities. I was fortunate about seven years ago to attend a tasting of every vintage of Beringer Private Reserve from its creation in 1978 to the 1999 vintage. It was a marathon but instructive as the winemakers described the influence of the weather, replantings, variations in the blend, and so on.
I did recently organize three small vertical tastings of my own. All were Chardonnay from Robert Talbott Vineyards. Founded in 1983, Talbott has become one of California’s premier Chardonnay producers. Robert Talbott (who still runs a successful designer tie business) recognized the promise of the cool climate (thanks to Pacific breezes) and the glacial alluvial soils of the Santa Lucia Highlands in Monterey County long before the area became coveted for great Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. His Sleepy Hollow Vineyard, located thirteen miles south of Monterey Bay, in the northern part of the Santa Lucia Highlands, is even cooler than normal for the area, which makes for more acidic structure and age worthy wines. The sparse gravelly loam soils allow the roots to dig deep to draw nutrients that show up as minerality in the wines. Each of the three Sleepy Hollow wines I tasted shared a flavor profile that included focused acidity and concentrated citrus fruit. The 2002 ($39) also showed creamy, nutty qualities. The 2003 ($42) had more finesse, possibly due to the long, cool growing season that year. My favorite was the 2004 ($42). From a slightly warmer vintage, it seemed riper, with intense tropical fruit.
I also tasted two vintages of “Cuvee Cynthia,” a special blend of 25 of the best barrels form the Sleepy Hollow Vineyard. Both wines were even more intense and opulent. The 2002 ($55) emphasized the opulence and the 2003 ($60) went more for intensity. Talbott’s Diamond T Estate is a special higher elevation site located about eight miles east of Carmel that produces Talbott’s flagship wine. The chalky shale soil originated in the Pacific Ocean and now yields a stingy one ton of grapes per acre (five tons or more is common). These attributes combine to yield wines of uncommon concentration and structure marked by noticeable mineral character. The 2002 ($65), from a warmer vintage, was very ripe and suggested various green fruits, while the 2003 ($65) was luxurious, showing intriguing fig and spicy notes.
I see these vertical tastings as just one example of how a wine tasting can be informative and enjoyable. They were educational in showing the differences between the vintages but were even more instructive for showing the similarity between the wines, attributes presumably related the vineyard and Talbott’s winemaking style. If you can pull it off, try a vertical tasting. You might need to do some homework to learn the particulars of the vineyards where the wines are produced. But if you’re hungry to learn more about wine, you’ll be rewarded by the experience.