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You are here: Home / Archives for Varietals and Wine Styles

Comparing Two Pinot Noirs from Two Terroirs

December 30, 2020 by BettyKaufman Leave a Comment

Ready to compare two Pinot Noirs from two terroirs? I was! And thankfully, WineShop At Home, the Napa winery I’m affiliated with, gave me the opportunity. Our winemaker, Alex Reble, is French. So, the winery often needs to bring Alex French grapes (actually juice) to play with. The cool thing is that in the past few months Alex made two Pinot Noirs, one from France and the other from the United States. I was excited to compare the two, because it gives us the opportunity to compare two terroirs. In this article, we’ll explore these two wines.

Comparing Two Pinot Noirs
Comparing Two Pinot Noirs

What Is Terroir?

Let’s start by defining terroir. Terroir (pronounced Tare wahr) is a French term that embodies the growing environment of the grapes. It encompasses everything from the soil content to the slant of the hill to the direction of the sun to the amount of fog and precipitation.

In the Old World wine region (France and the rest of Europe), terroir is considered to be the most important determinant of a wine’s style. In the New World wine region (United States, Australia, New Zealand, South America, Africa and other non-European countries), the grape is considered to be the most important determinant of a wine’s style.

A Word of Warning About the French Pinot Noir that We Tried

Most Pinot Noirs from France are grown in the Burgundy region of France. It’s why when you buy a red Burgundy in the United States, it’s always a Pinot Noir. But in the last 20 or so years, a number of French wineries are breaking the rules and growing Pinot Noir in other regions of France. WineShop At Home’s Joy Cellars French Pinot Noir was that type of wine. Grown in France but not in the Burgundy region.

Comparing the Two Pinot Noirs

I did a comparison tasting with three of my work buddies.

Our Fearless Tasting Group
Our Fearless Tasting Group

We liked both wines but found the United States wine (grapes were from Lodi) to be lighter and the French wine to be warmer and more enveloping. We decided that the American Pinot would be a great afternoon wine and the French Pinot would be a great dinner wine.

Please take a listen to everybody’s comments.

Sadly, WineShop At Home has sold out of the French wine. So, even though it was our favorite, we can’t get any more bottles. That’s okay. WineShop At Home always produces great wines, so we get to look forward to what’s next.

Learnings

We had a great time doing our tasting, but did we learn very much? Do we know that the French terroir is more attractive to us? Not really. We learned that we liked this French wine because it had a warmer, more enveloping feel to it. But that was just two wines. This tasting experience doesn’t tell us that we like French Pinot Noirs better than American Pinot Noirs. It’s a single data point that is nice to have. But we probably need to do at least 20 more side-by-side tastes of French and American Pinot Noirs to truly understand the differences between the terroirs and confidently determine our preferences.

If you have done a lot of comparative Pinot Noir tastings, please share your thoughts with us.

Thanks and Merci.

BettyPhotoCircularAs an independent wine consultant with WineShop At Home, I absolutely enjoy bringing a taste of the Napa wine country home to you one sip at a time. Whether you simply love to drink wine, seek a special personalized wine gift, or are in search of a new wine jobs opportunity as a wine consultant, feel free to contact me for a truly unique wine tasting experience!

Cheers, Betty Kaufman
WineShop At Home

Filed Under: Varietals and Wine Styles Tagged With: Pinot Noir

Celebrating Days of the Year like Cab Franc Day

December 2, 2020 by BettyKaufman Leave a Comment

Over the years, I’ve written a lot about Cab Franc, the parent of Cabernet Sauvignon who is described by Ashlee McRae in Winetraveler as “the lighter, laid-back, hippie father of the yuppie Cabernet Sauvignon.” Because this Friday is Cab Franc Day, I thought I’d write some more about this wonderful grape. But I got sidetracked as I looked at the Days of The Year website. So, today we’re going to look at Cab Franc Day as well as other Days of the Year. I hope you enjoy it.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Varietals and Wine Styles Tagged With: cab franc, days of the year

Sangiovese, the Grape of Tuscany

October 14, 2020 by BettyKaufman 2 Comments

Eight years ago, I wrote a series on the wines of Italy, including the wines of Tuscany. In my article on Tuscany, I highlighted that Sangiovese is the grape that is responsible for Tuscany’s most important red wines, including Chianti, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and Brunello di Montalcino. Today we’re going to explore Sangiovese in a lot of detail with the help of my Ohio wine friend Jim Sperk*. Thank you, Jim, for your great help with this article.

Brunello di Montalcino
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Filed Under: Varietals and Wine Styles Tagged With: sangiovese, super tuscan, tuscan, Tuscany

A Spoon in Sparkling Wine?

October 7, 2020 by BettyKaufman 8 Comments

A number of years ago, I was told that putting a spoon in Sparkling Wine or Champagne will make the bubbles last. I was so excited about this idea that I wanted to do some serious research to figure out why this worked. Low and behold, just seeing it work was good enough for me. So I never did the research – until today! Today, we’re going to explore why (or if) putting a spoon (or fork) in an open bottle of Sparkling Wine does the trick.

Does a Spoon in Sparkling Wine Help? Photo courtesy of Decanter
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Filed Under: Varietals and Wine Styles Tagged With: bubbliness, spoon in champagne, spoon in sparkling wine

Cab Franc Pairings

September 30, 2020 by BettyKaufman Leave a Comment

Last week, I asked you whether you were a Cabernet Franc fan. According to Ashlee McRae, “Cabernet Franc is the lighter, laid-back, hippie father of the yuppie Cabernet Sauvignon.  Its bright in personality, and soft in its embrace.” So, what are some good Cabernet Franc pairings?

Cabernet Franc Food Pairings – photo courtesy of WinewithLisa.com
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Filed Under: Varietals and Wine Styles Tagged With: cabernet franc, pairings

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