A Tale of High End and Low End Homogeneity

Two items caught my attention this week because they have the same theme, although from quite different perspectives.

The Wine Economist wrote about the dilemma facing Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. It has become so popular that the only way to keep up with demand is to rely on bulk wine which has the typical characteristics of New Zealand SB but lacks the distinctive expression of terroir exhibited by higher quality producers.

I can’t imagine such a degree of foreign ownership anywhere else in the wine world, but that’s not the main issue. No, the problem, as I understand it, is that so much Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc is exported in bulk, in those huge shipping container tanks. The wine is bottled in the receiving market. Much of it goes into private-label products that may or may not have the quality Kiwi producers desire. Some producers have written to me over the years that they feel they are losing control of their brand.

Quality producers are worried that the Marlborough brand is being cheapened by the presence of so much homogeneity. This of course is always a problem at the low end of the price range. Distinctive wines cost more to produce and their supply is always limited by a shortage of quality sites and the lengthy process of developing new vineyards. As soon as a wine variety becomes popular demand always outstrips the supply of quality grapes. It happened to Pinot Noir in the early 2000’s.

The better producers have banded together to form Appellation Marlborough Wine with the AMW logo on the back of the bottle “as an indicator of quality and authenticity.” One of their requirements is that the product be bottled in New Zealand.

A post from wine technology guru and winemaker Clark Smith (my co-writer on A Practical Guide to Pairing Wine and Music) pointed out a similar problem with homogeneity at the other end of the price spectrum, which began many years ago and continues to influence the production of Cabernet Sauvignon today.

When I taste in Napa, I’m always struck by how similar Cabernet Sauvignon tastes across the whole valley especially at prices below $125. There are exceptions and elevation matters but on the whole, even from quality producers, Napa Cabernet is afflicted with too much homogeneity. Clark’s “California Pyra-noia in 2023” explains why.

Noted columnist Dan Berger is writing a book on Cabernet Sauvignon, and he and I regularly discuss a common mental ailment among my winemaker colleagues that I call “pyra-noia,” a morbid fear of Cabernet varietal character and in particular, the bell pepper aroma attributed to 2-Isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, or IMBP.

The history of this ailment is interesting. Like Type 2 diabetes, it was nearly unknown until skyrocketing in the early 1980s in response to the quite high levels of bell pepper in plantings in the Salinas Valley in Monterey County. This is thought to have been related to the fruit shading caused by the high vigor of own-rooted, virus-free vines in a cool climate.  When in 2008 my panel at AppellationAmerica.com tasted 126 wines from this area, we found that the viticultural practices (canopy manipulation, leaf pulling, deficit irrigation) and  winemaking techniques (whole berry fermentation, flash détente) had completely eliminated the problem.

Yet the mental disorder remains, and has spread to Napa Valley, where common practice is to mask varietal and terroir character through excessive hang time, resulting in high alcohol raisiny, pruney wines that all taste the same at breathtaking prices that appeal to the unwashed rich.

Would Napa Cabernet be better off if they picked at lower brix? (Clark reports the average in 1976 was 22.9; today it’s 25.6.)

We’re about to find out.

The freakishly cool growing season is giving us full maturity at less than 23 brix.  It’s basically a French year, with low brix, low malates, rich fruit and low pHs, hastening picking due to the threat of rain and botrytis rot.  We are all going to make elegant, balanced, distinctive wines in 2023 whether we want to or not.

It’s hard to argue with Napa’s success. It seems like the wine buying public doesn’t care about brix. Good marketing and the image of luxury that Napa wines enjoy will sell more wine than interesting differences, a solution likely unavailable to the quality producers of Sauvignon Blanc.

Alas we difference hounds will have to be content drinking Blaufrankisch and Norton and leave Cabernet Sauvignon to the hordes who like their wines fruity, sweet, and predictable.