 The recent article in Indian Express made me sit up and take note of what I think was a blunder; although it did achieve the intended purpose of catching my eyeballs. The article said, ‘though most well-heeled and well-travelled Indians know their Chardonnay from their Beaujolais….’. Was it a ploy to see if the reader can make a note on comparing apple with Darjeeling? Chardonnay is a white grape whereas Beaujolais is a region in/near Burgundy (which is itself another wine subject for discussion!) that produces red wine using Gamay grape. So where is the connection?!
Is it simply a lack of wine knowledge on the part of the journalist or an assumption that Indian readers are mostly wine illiterate? Chardonnay is a white grape while Beaujolais is a wine producing area near Burgundy, known for making fruity red wines. The grape used to make a ‘Beaujolais’ wine is Gamay whereas the grape for the Burgundy red is Pinot Noir. Similarly, the white varietal in Burgundy is Chardonnay; the term used generally when only a single grape is used in making a wine. Technically even this is not quite correct. Most countries accept 85% of the same grape to call it a varietal. 15% of other grapes, generally prescribed, may be added to make the wine well-rounded, to add colour, body or change any characteristics in the wine.
The writer could perhaps have written, ‘most well-heeled and well-travelled Indians know their Chardonnay from their Chablis’ and one would have appreciated the comparison though I am not sure if most Indian wine drinkers in this category know the difference today. Chardonnay is the grape used to make white wine in and around the town of Chablis in the northern part of Burgundy.
Generally in the Old World wines, especially in France, Italy and Spain, the name of the grape is not allowed to be mentioned on the bottle. Therefore, a Burgundy white wine will not mention chardonnay but has its own appellation laws that indicate whether it is a simple wine (generic), Village wine, Premier Cru or Grand Cru in which case the name of the vineyard is also allowed to be mentioned.
Every day one can learn something new about wine-even from this article; for instance, it pointed out - and I did not know - that wine is made in Iceland!! I could not suppress my urge to learn more about the country as a winemaker and found myself googling it. Incidentally, according to a website http://www.newliving.com there is one winemaker there who produces wine, even though it is a fruit wine. It is made from organic crowberries, wild blueberries and rhubarb (as a rule of thumb wine writings refer to wines produced from grapes only).
Fermented not brewed
While on the subject of producing wine, I am sure I will find some article between writing and publishing this Blog, talking about ‘brewing’ wine. While it is not illegal to use the b-word one generally uses the f-word for wine - fermenting. Brewing is used for beer or even for tea ( it could even be trouble brewing for me as I write this blog!). Liquors like whisky and Vodka are distilled; so are the products like brandy and grappa that use wine or the residual must (the left-over of grape skins and pips after fermentation) as the base but nevertheless distilled.
There are a host of words used to describe wine - like nosing (and not smelling), crisp or acidic (and not sour). There are thousands of sites that publish free wine vocabulary. It may be well worth the effort for the budding wine journalists to sink their teeth in them before comparing between Chardonnay and Beaujolais.
Cheers!
Subhash Arora |