Bolgheri

This post is a long overdue exercise in remedial education for those of us who thought we were so smart.  With just a little research we learned just how wrong we were about the wine appellation Bolgheri and it's place in greater Tuscany.  It's not just a cut above standard issue Tuscan Sangiovese.  Bolgheri is home to Sassacaia, which on at least three occasions in the last fifty years has shown better than the best Bordeaux has to offer.  The Bolgheri wine appellation, replete with its Bordeaux varietal vineyards, is, in fact, Italy's answer to Bordeaux.

Bolgheri is an Italian DOC (denominazione di controllata) in Maremma along the northern Tuscan coast just south of Livorno.  Like everywhere else in Italy, viticulture and wine making there has an exceedingly long history.  The traditional ways were adjusted two to three hundred years ago when the Bordeaux varietals (Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot) were first introduced.  Still, today the popular sentiment and Italian Wine Law dictate that wine is to be made in the traditional fashion.  Viticulture and oenological procedures are to be appropriate and consistent with longstanding local customs.

The Bolgheri DOC allows for two quality levels, Bolgheri and Bolgheri Superiore and the autonomous stand alone Sassacaia appellation.  Basic Bolgheri appellation red wine may contain up to 50% Sangiovese or Syrah or it may be 100% Cabernet, Merlot or Cabernet Franc or any combination of those grapes not to exceed the Sangiovese/Syrah limits.  Any Bolgheri wine must conform in color, bouquet and taste to traditional standards.  It should be red-garnet in color with a heady bouquet and dry and balanced on the palate.  The Superiore version must be aged two years and must impress with elegance and structure.

Sassacaia is the product of Tenuta San Guido in western Bolgheri.  They are the wine appellation.  They make three wines: Sassacaia (85%,Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc) and Guidalberto and Le Difese, two Bordeaux Blends that include Sangiovese in the blends.  

South Africa

It hasn't all been smooth sailing but South Africa seems to have finally arrived.  The turning point in their journey was in the early 1990's when apartheid ended and the government got out of the wine industry.  Up to that point the government-sponsored KWV cooperative had run things and they did a good job.  They actually built the South African wine industry, albeit with brandy as the base product.  Ten years after the big change, the sales percentages would be reversed with dinner wines becoming the order of the day.

The South African Wine law was enacted in 1973 but revised in the early nineties to allow for an expanding wine industry.  At the same time the newer technologies that were dominating the industry elsewhere were brought to South Africa along with some of the world's best winemakers as the country prepared for a boon.  But it didn't happen right away.  South Africa has always been isolated from the well known wine markets and each of those markets had the homecooking of its own wine industry to compete with.

There is an unfortunate sacrifice inherent in trying to satisfy an international market.  You have to make what people from other cultures want.  The most popular South African red and white wine grapes of the twentieth century were Cinsault and Chenin Blanc.  They grew well so they were popular with industry insiders but more importantly, the critics acclaimed their quality.  Cinsault, a Cotes du Rhone blender, largely went into brandy so it had to be sacrificed.  Chenin Blanc, while still the most widely planted grape in the country, is but a fraction of the juggernaut it once was.

Also sacrificed was Pinotage, the signature red wine grape of the country.  It proved to be too hard of a sell to the western world.  The Pinotage that has survived in more recent shipments here is a superior pinot-ish red dinner wine that is much more to our tastes than earlier efforts.  

The industry expansion that was begun in the 1990's includes new wine appellations to the east of the historic center in the Western Cape.  Those newer vineyards have a long way to go before they can compete in quality with the Cape.  The learning curve can be lengthy.  In the meantime Western Cape reds and whites are finally selling like they should.  Our Klein Constantia (est.1685!) Sauvignon Blanc and red blend sell quite well here and by the way, South African Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc are acclaimed by many of us to be second only to France in quality.

Matthews - In Pursuit of Pure Washington Wine

While that mission statement sounds a little grandiose, when you consider the quality displayed across everything they make, the claim seems reasonable.  For instance, they have what many of us think is the best Sauvignon Blanc on the continent and a red Bordeaux blend that rivals any from Napa.  Maybe they aren't just in pursuit of purity; maybe they've arrived.

Matthews was established in 1993 but re-born when the Otis family took over in 2004. They make one white wine, the Sauvignon Blanc, and just a few reds using Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot.  Matthews' Columbia Valley vineyards are located in the Royal Slope, Red Mountain and Horse Heaven Hills AVA's at the same latitude as Bordeaux and Burgundy in France.  That latitude offers the long sunny days and cool nights that ripen wine grapes ever so optimally.

In 2021 Matthews was re-born again with a new winemaking crew.  From the winery website blog, the three gentlemen now in charge "completely overhauled the existing winemaking techniques and processes."  They sourced grapes from new places and planted new clones "for complexity and dimension at blending."  To concentrate and intensify their product they reduced yields by 30%; harvested later for riper fruit and dramatically extended grape maceration for richness and depth. 

Maybe they're now in pursuit of perfection.