Amazing California Wines
No region of the world has
impacted the world of wine in the past half century than California.
While legendary European wines and winemakers
have shaped wine history throughout history, the Golden State has undergone
sweeping improvements in both quality and reputation like no other winemaking
region.
Considering that Prohibition dragged California?s
wine industry to its knees just 70 years ago, the status of the California wine
industry at the forefront of the world wide Wine world is truly amazing.
But Prohibition was sort of a blessing in
disguise. Once the ban on alcoholic beverages had been lifted, California
vintners reinvented their products and their wineries, ripping out vines used
for sacramental and bulk/jug wines in favor of the ?noble? grape varieties ?
Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and others. These grapes are the same varietals
as those used in Bordeaux, Burgundy and beyond.
The rest as they say is history.
California wines often embody the ?New World? style: a
food friendly balance of complexity, intense flavors and approachability. Most
California reds (as well as a decent portion of the California whites tend to be
intense, fruit forward wines ages in oak.
A warmer daytime climate than their European
counterparts is often offset by cool nights fuelled by the ocean breezes.
As a result, the wines of California often embody a
combination of finesse and power, delivered to wine drinkers is user friendly
packaging.
It is the rarely complicated labels and powerful
promotion of California wine that has spearheaded their remarkable emergence in
the wine industry. Many small European chateaus cannot be bothered to appease
the average North American wine drinker, the bread and butter of New World
wineries.
However, certain premium California has developed a cult like
status fuelled by stratospheric ratings, and a supportive press. Boutique
wineries in Napa Valley and Sonoma County keep production to a relatively small
1,000 cases or less resulting in a small supply for a demand that has been
fueled by promotion and mystique. The result is higher pricing strategies.
Wineries like Napa Valley?s Screaming Eagle and Sonoma
County?s Shafer are the crown jewels for those wines collectors with seemingly
unlimited resources. Potential buyers can wait years, just to get on winery
mailing lists so they can be informed when the new vintage is ready, often these
cult wines sell by mail order and at the winery source only.
Realizing that the demand for premium California wines
outweighs the available supply, many big name winemakers making value priced
reds and whites are focusing much of their time and energy on higher end
ventures with smaller grapes yields, lower production and more bottle and oak
aging.
Thus the die is set. Get ready for higher value
added California wines.
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