GOOD INEXPENSIVE WINE
CABERNET
SAUVIGNON
This
grape variety was originally used to produce French Medoc, Graves,
and Bordeaux. Today Cabernet Sauvignon is grown in almost every
growing region, such as California, Chile, and Australia.
Cabernet
Sauvignon delivers wines that are full of tannin and flavour, with
distinctive aromas (or nose), that are suitable for long storage in
oak barrels. The nose and flavour suggest blackcurrant, violet,
cedarwood, and tobacco.
GOOD WINE MERLOT
Merlot
is known from its association with the Bordeaux wines of St Emilion
and Pomerol. Merlot is also grown and used in wine making in various
Balkan
countries, Italy, Chile, California, and Australia.
Merlot
is softer, somewhat more rounded in flavour, and above all lower in
tannin than Cabernet Sauvignon. For this reason both grapes are often
used to supplement each other's qualities. The nose and flavour of a
good Merlot conjures up red fruits such as cherry, but sometimes
redcurrant.
GOOD WINE CABERNET
FRANC
Cabernet
Franc is often used to blenwith the two types of grape previously
mentioned but the purest Cabernet Franc wines come from the Loire.
Wines from Bourgueil, Chinon, and Saumur-Champigny are often of
surprisingly high quality. The wine produced with this grape is often
softer and lower in tannin than Cabernet Sauvignon but much fuller
than Merlot. Cabernet Franc is particularly distinguished by its
fruitiness, with echoes of strawberry, blackcurrant, and aroma of
freshly sliced green pepper (paprika
GOOD WINE PINOT
NOIR
wines
of Alsace. This grape also produces excellent wines in Italy, the
Balkans, Hungary, South America, California, and Oregon. Wine from
the Pinot Noir grape is generally rather more elegant and generous
than it is heavy. It is characterised by earthy undertones, somewhere
between stable air and manure. After the initial shock, a second
fruity taste is discovered, principally of redcurrant, wild
strawberry, and sometimes of cherry.
This
is the only grape permitted for the northern Rhone wines (Hermitage,
Crozes-Hermitage, St Joseph, Cote Rotie, Cornas). Syrah largely has
characteristics similar to those of southern Rhone growing areas
(Chateauneuf de Pape, Gigondas). Syrah grapes (or Shiraz as they are
also known) are currently grown in South Africa, Australia, and the
USA. Syrah is deeply coloured and fat. The wine is full and strongly
flavoured often requiring some maturing in the bottle in certain
years. A good Syrah is often easily recognised by its spicy and
peppery nose and flavour of sun ripened fruit with almost animal
undertones that recall the smell of a hot saddle after a long ride on
a horse.
Above
all, a Gamay wine should be fruity. Raspberry, wild strawberry,
currant, and cherry can be discerned. Floral notes are also detected
in the better Beaujolais crus. The more simple the wine, the lighter
and brighter, the better the quality, the fuller and more generous it
is.
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