by Tim York » Wed Nov 25, 2020 4:15 pm
I haven't waded into this because I have been unable to access the Azimov article. Given the exciting events in the USA, I have exhausted my ration of free NYT articles on four different servers from my PC. However, while waiting for an appointment with an ophthalmologist, I found that I could access it from my smartphone.
Having been brought up in wine during the 50s and 60s when wine lovers concentrated on a rather limited number of places rather than on grape variety, I regard the modern emphasis on grape varieties and their hierarchies with some scepticism. Azimov is stating a truism when he writes "Wine is so much more than simply the grapes that form its basis. What is poured from the bottle is ultimately a combination of the grapes, the site in which the grapes were grown, the farming...."
Since the 70s, wines from certain other places, e.g. Langhe, Tuscany, Rioja and Wachau, have been more widely perceived as having nobility and their grape varieties with them. The newly fashionable "great" grapes such as Mencia and Nerello Mascalese depend on the outstanding siting of the former in Bierzo and Ribeira Sacra and of the latter in Etna and to the emergence of talented growers able to exploit that potential. That said, in areas where several grapes are cultivated such as Alsace/Germany or Piedmont, certain varieties do IMO show themselves more "noble", e.g. Riesling and Nebbiolo, than the others in the area, even though those others, e.g. Pinot gris and Barbera, can also produce very enjoyable wine there.
As for trying to find suitable sites for all these different grapes in other parts of the world, I am all in favour although I believe that it will require a lot of trial and error to get results as good as in the home countries. Some grapes, e.g. Cabernet Sauvignon, seem to find suitable sites more easily than others, e.g. Merlot.
Tim York
