rumblings on wine part 1237: Palate Changes/Wine Changes

[David M. Bueker]

The other day I was browsing the wine boards (shocking, I know!), and someone had posted a topic about palate changes. There were a number of posts where people stated that their tastes had changed, and they preferred leaner wine, or richer wine than they used to, but very little about how their life had changed in other ways, and how that might have affected their wine drinking habits.

If I go back maybe 12-14 years ago, I wrote a long post on eRobertparker.com about how I no longer cared for Zinfandel, after being a huge fan for the first 8-10 years of my wine drinking journey. That change was actually driven by style changes with the producers of Zinfandel (my disaffection with the grape coincided with the 16% alcohol movement), rather than issues with the grape. Fast forward to 20010 or so, and producers were once again making Zinfandel-based wines that showed the type of balance I loved so much in the 1990s. I had not changed – the wines had changed.

Looking at other regions and grapes I saw similar patterns. Bordeaux almost completely disappeared from my radar as the ripeness surged and alcohols followed. Napa and Sonoma wines moved to higher and higher alcohols, until it seemed that they were cocktails. Let’s not even discuss Australia. In a number of areas there were (and are) still a few stalwarts that I continued to buy. They were pillars of classical winemaking, not trend followers. Leoville Barton, Montelena and Edmunds St. John were examples, although eventually pricing limited my purchases of the first two (that is an entirely different discussion).

Fast-forward a few years, and things started to change, but not with me. A wonderful trend with two bad names became evident, “New California” and “In Pursuit of Balance.” Forgetting the derisive commentary lobbed at both, they brought forward wines with less extreme extraction, lower alcohols and less oak. Critics claimed lack of flavor, while fans claimed nuance. I gravitated to these wines, shipping regulations eased, and I began to buy and drink as many of the “new” style new world wines as I did of their old world competitors. Wind Gap, Rhys and Littorai (although Littorai predated the trend – maybe even founded it) became cornerstones of my cellar, and were followed by newcomers Idlewild and Enfield Wine Company. I rediscovered producers that had held the line, and showed that the “new” was just a revival of the old. Heitz (talk about the old guard) and Corison (newer, but still old school) reclaimed or gained space in the queue.

The cellar continues to change in terms of producers, but what is not changing is the baseline style of 95% of the wines. Nuance and elegance are paramount, while raw power is rarely considered as a meaningful factor in purchasing decisions. Rhys Pinot Noir sits alongside Nuits St. Georges from Chevillon. Arnot-Roberts Syrahs share space with Gonon St. Joseph. Ceritas Chardonnays are in a box with Chablis from Fevre (though Raveneau still occupies its own special place). I don’t think my palate has changed all that much. I think the world of wine has changed, and it will continue to change. We are now in a very nice place for my taste.

I think one’s palate does change over the years. We don’t eat the same foods, we get new favourites, no longer enjoy the old ones, and I think it’s the same with wine.

I started with off dry German wines and Mateus Rose but I’ve not had them in decades, I don’t have a single German or rose wine in my cellar.

I used the love Syrah but now I find its pepperyness unpleasant.

I’ve noticed with age I no longer get the subtle wines praised by the young wine geeks. They’re too subtle for me to understand what their attraction is. I now want bolder flavours, and I no longer get the kick out of well matured wines that I used to but prefer them younger.

[Robin Garr]

Fascinating topic, David. I resonate with a lot of what you said, although limiting my consumption (mostly by choice, partly by Kentucky's venal legislators), I don't really pursue the option of buying online; nor has my wine journey led me to cellar in any significant way. But I definitely concur in having moved quickly away from over-extracted, high-alcohol (and, particularly in their day, extreme-oaked) wines in favor of the AFWE.

One funny point that I recently noticed about my drinking patterns is that I started out as a wine geek favoring the reds of Tuscany (and, to some extent, other Northern Italian reds) and of southern France, Provence, the Southern Rhone and Languedoc, and now, 30-some (!) years later, I've come back to those same wines. This probably argues against the aging palate as a factor. I'm grateful that, despite status as a leading-edge baby boomer, I seem to be as sensitive to flavor and aroma nuance as ever; maybe more so, and I ascribe that to practice.

Along the way, I dropped Bordeaux mostly because it got too expensive, and lost interest in most California and Southern Hemisphere wines because of the issues you've detailed, which I attribute to a combination of global warming (riper fruit) and critical preference for riper fruit.

I think I'll link to this thread from the WineLoversPage Facebook page ... we haven't been doing much over there recently ...

[Jenise]

I wish I could say that I've been as consistent as you, Dave. I came into the world loving acidity. As a kid when my buddies and I would go to the corner market for snacks, they'd buy Pepsi and Three Musketeers bars and I'd buy Squirt or Orange juice and a pickle or a few slices of salami from the meat counter. I'm still that kid. I don't like goop, I do like tannins, and I prefer savory to sweet. Especially compared to the mass market buyer.

But in wine I started out loving big oaky Cal Cabs and I can still get bewitched by a big, elegant cabernet that sees it's share of new oak. Trouble is, when I get that wine home, it's not what I want to drink. At this point I may own more of that style wine than I do pinot noirs, but that's because I drink the pinot noirs and the cabs more or less just sit there until my neighbor starts up a cab-fest at the garden wall.

Hey, Peter: I bought a California pinot noir that's 3% pinotage the other day. The owners are South African.

[David M. Bueker]

I don't like goop either. I had my Coca-Cola phase as a kid, and while I still enjoy a soda, it is normally a diet ginger ale. Brighter!

I do like tannins. One thing I still pine for in California Pinots is tannin. Good Burgundy has tannin. It is critical to the way the wine evolves. So many California wines (including but not limited to Pinot Noir, Syrah, etc.) are virtually free of tannin. They may have good acidity to provide structure, but I miss the tannin in young wines and the results of tannin aging and integrating in older wines. One of the reasons I really love the Italian-inspired wines Sam Bilbro is making at Idlewild is that there is tannin. I drank his blended red (The Bird) last night, and in addition to California fruit it had robust tannin. It's a $22 wine that has the stuffing and structure to evolve.

I know that my baseline tastes have become more expensive in the past couple of years just because I can afford to drink a little better more regularly, but also, I think that the cheap (under $8) wines that were my staple in grad school and that I used to enjoy have generally become more internationalized and less distinct in character. It could be a change in my tastes/perception, but I think the fact that QPR has decreased under $10 has been discussed here in the recent past.

I think it might be a little of both, at least for me.

I do think there has two shifts in wine I've seen: the Parker revolution and the anti-Parker revolution. Of course, Parker was only a leader or poster child of the increasingly ripe wines of the 1990s and 2000s, not the sole cause. Climate change probably had a little to do with it too, and the increased impact of critic scores and competition medals in selling wines; the arrival of the wine boards also had a small part to play. But there has been a dialing back in the last 5-7 years or so.

I'm really not too sure how much my palate has changed. I think wine prices have had more of an impact on me than a shifting palate: I've dropped Cali cabs, Bordeaux and Burgundy due to living in monopoly land, so I've searched for alternatives and substitutions in some ways. But I've always loved trying new things, and have always enjoyed traveling to wine regions to really get a sense of those regions.

This is an interesting topic. I don't think that my palate itself has changed much other than the usual blunting of sensitivity which goes with ageing. However my experience has deepened and my horizons have widened and that means that my drinking choices are rather different from when I started on my wine journey.

That was in the late 50s and early 60s and at that time the only wines which mattered in the UK, where I then lived, were the classics "claret, Burgundy, champagne, hock, Moselle, sherry, port and Madeira"(sic). Prices, even for top names, were accessible for people in the professions and business management and even for the student and professional beginner, which I then was. The choice of all those wine types, except for Burgundy, was then good in the UK. Of course, we drank French "regional", Italian and Spanish wines when on holiday but very little at home.

The first widening of my horizons, but still limited to France, came while working in Paris and travelling round France in the 60s. I realised the charms of real Beaujolais chosen by bistrot owners, Loire whites and Cabfranc as well as Rhône reds in Paris brasseries and deepened my appreciation of claret during extended visits to Bordeaux helped by the wide availability of the wonderfully elegant 1953 vintage. However most of my buying at home, which by the later 60s was Belgium, was still limited to the classics minus Germany, whose wines were dismissed by the Bruxellois and Walloons as "étrangers" .

A second widening came with extended business visits to Spain in the early 70s, when mature vintages of top Rioja were available amazingly cheaply (c. the Peseta equivalent of about $1.50). It was clear that the quality of their best was similar to equivalent Bordeaux but it was nearly impossible to find them at home.

About that time and into the 80s, a vogue for New World wines, particularly from Australia and New Zealand, invaded the UK and some of northern Europe. I remember enjoying a crisp Kiwi SB in the early 80s, but saw no reason to buy them in preference to, say, Sancerre and still don't. I never really took to the goopy and oaky Australian style which became ubiquitous in UK supermarkets and lesser eateries, though I do like the wines of some Aussie boutique wineries like, say, Frankland Estate, Gossett, Clonakilla. Chile was a later invasion and the South Africa after the breakdown of apartheid. Though I like the style of most from these two better than that of commercial Aussie goop, I can't see any reason to prefer them in most cases to European wines made from the same grapes. Californian wine has never been much in evidence in Europe, I think because of price in the higher quality range and because of quality and style at lower price points. I have a few brought back from visits to the USA, very much appreciate Dominus, Ridge, Togni and am waiting to open a Montelena, Diamond Creek, Caymus SS and Opus One.

I have continued to love the classics but by the 90s the prices of Bordeaux and Burgundy were becoming increasingly inaccessible at top and upper-middle level. Helped by mentors like Liz and Mike Berry at La Vigneronne, Pierre Ghysens at TGVins and now at Moulin à Vins, Stefano Picchiori at ViniVins, Gert Claes at Alter Vinum and Roger & David Michel of La Cave des Oblats, my horizons now spread though all France, most of Italy and northern Spain. I am still keen to gain experience of unfamiliar appellations anywhere in the world especially where indigenous grape varieties are used.

Nowadays, my top five regions in terms of bottles consumed are Loire valley, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rhône Valley and Tuscany.

Hey, Peter: I bought a California pinot noir that's 3% pinotage the other day. The owners are South African.

Was it Fort Ross?

[Jenise]

Peter, yes. Fort Ross.

My report on a visit to Fort Ross is here
http://www.pinotage.org/2012/12/visitin ... ornia.html

I didn't taste their PN