Few winemakers would claim to make wines not meant to be enjoyed with food. In fact, they will go so far as to tell you how their wines can be enjoyed with a variety of dishes. Yet increasingly wine judges and wine consumers are finding that many prize-winning wines, often with powerful structures and ostentatious flavours, don't show as well with food as they do on the score sheet.
Big, fruit-charged wines made from well-ripened grapes have become the hallmark of the New World. And these are the wines increasingly making their way to our tables. Wine writer Jancis Robinson remembers when it was possible to find red wines (admittedly from Bordeaux) with alcohol levels of 10,5%. Today, more and more wines hover around levels of 14%, as producers pursue physiological or phenolic grape ripeness. Often this occurs some time after the ideal sugar levels have accumulated in the fruit. This can mean grapes are left to hang on the vine until skin colour, berry texture, seed and stalk colour exhibit signs of ripeness together with phenolic changes. Phenolics are a large group of highly reactive chemical compounds found in grapes that impact on colour, aroma, flavour, bitterness and astringency. In the meantime, sugar levels continue to climb resulting, after fermentation, in higher alcohols.
A prolific Californian winemaker, George Vierra, who founded Vichon Winery and now consults to a range of producers, believes it's time to stop pretending that flamboyant, show-stopping wines can be successfully consumed with foods. Because their high alcohols and overt oak can so often lead to sensory fatigue, he thinks they should be regarded as 'social wines'. Enjoy them on their own but, with a few exceptions, forget about pairing them with food. Leave that for subtler wines with less alcohol, less oak and more acid. And here he quotes the late Julia Child, who brought French cuisine to homes all over the world. She urged her readers 'to keep in mind in learning about which wine to serve with which dish is that the wine should complement the food and the food should accentuate and blend with the qualities of the wine.'
Robinson puts it more bluntly in her inimitably straightforward style. '... what I enjoy about wine is its taste, with food. I want more mouthfuls of the stuff, not fewer. Stronger wines mean less of it - not something that pleases me, anyway'.
Obviously balance is sought in making all good wines but in Vierra's opinion, the three cardinal pointers in teaming up with food are acid, body and alcohol, with acid always taking precedence. He says if acid content is high and evenly distributed, alcohol and body can be correspondingly bigger without upsetting the balance. 'Acid balanced wines are necessary to the complementary style because it is the acid in wine that cleans the palate. High alcohol generally creates a dominating and tiring effect on the palate which shows up after a few sips.' For him the limit is 14%, although he does concede that there can be exceptions.
Nederburg cellarmaster Razvan Macici says few of his wines exceed 14%. 'But in the rare case they do, they show good acid and the judicious application of wood to ensure they are well integrated and sufficiently balanced to be successfully partnered with food.'
He says the problem of high alcohols is one faced by most Southern Hemisphere wine-producing countries, which tend to be warmer than their Northern Hemisphere counterparts. 'More sunlight and warmer temperatures promote the accumulation of sugars.
'But that's only part of the problem. Today's fermentation yeasts are also more efficient in converting sugar into alcohol. Ten, fifteen years ago, with the yeasts we were using, every 17 grams of sugar would produce 1% of alcohol by volume. Today, 16,5 grams of sugar will give you the same result, which means wines are coming out at higher alcohol levels.'
He believes the way to reduce alcohol levels is through vineyard management strategies designed to accelerate physiological ripening. 'If you curtail crop levels, you can hasten physiological ripening, so the sugars don't get out of hand, which will keep the alcohol levels in check. Canopy management is also an important consideration. By ensuring sufficient shoots to carry the vine leaves and then later in the ripening season by exposing the leaves and fruit to diffuse rather than direct sunlight, you can promote the metabolic process, which in turn will lead to faster ripening. And during veraison, when the berries acquire their colour, which usually occurs in the Cape when the weather is hot and dry, supplementary irrigation will also accelerate leaf and grape metabolism.
'These practices will lead to the right balance between fruit sugars and acids and low pH levels, adding structure to a wine, helping it to age well and making it food-friendly.'