Class Notes- February 19

5:01- It's very cold and you can tell that no one wanted to come to class today just by sheer numbers of people in class.

5:02- Lights dimming. Boyer talking. Reading a beer label. Muttering about B. Nektar. Mutter mutter.

5:04: CLASS BEGINS

Boyer is anti-flavoring agents- I agree. Pure ingredients > fake ingredients. Quality ingredients don't necessarily mean expensive ingredients.
"But that's just me; I'm a snob." -Boyer

"Well, it is 75 degrees below zero out there, so thanks for coming to class today." -Boyer

Chenin Blanc (aka Steen in S. Africa)
Regions: Loire Valley (France), South Africa, California
Flavor Profile: flowers, damp straw, peach, quince, apple, honey, pineapple

"This is a grape I like... but I can't get all fired up about it." -Boyer
Food Pairing: Great with just about any seafood, chicken, light sauce
It's not outrageous, but bolder than a Pinot Grigio. Slightly creamier, rounder than a Sauv Blanc

"Green grass, that's a chardonnay. Dry grass, that's a Chenin Blanc." -Boyer

"I would tell you to go out of your way to find a South African Chenin Blanc than anything else. I'd tell you to get an average Chenin Blanc over any Pinot Grigio." -Boyer

Syrah/Shiraz
Regions: Rhone Valley (France), Australia, California, Washington, Spain, Chile, South Africa
Flavor Profile: black currant, blackberry, grassy, black peppar, licorice, clove, sandelwood, cedar
"Old World" (France): Black pepper, leather, elegant, tannic, smoke-flavored, earthy (Subtler fruit flavors)
"New World" (Australia): Ripe berries, fruit driven, peppery, higher in alcohol, medium tannins
It can get BIG flavors, BIG alcohol, BIG tannins. (Accentuate the fruit)
Processing flavors: musk, civet, truffle, earth, vanilla, coconut, sweet wood, oak, smoke, toast, tar, cedar, cigar box, earth, leather
Mouthfeel: voluptuous, lavish

It would be interesting to do a Syrah/Barrel aged beer tasting. To compare mouthfeels and tastes.

Do a mouthfeel comparison between Pinot Noir and s Syrah.

Petite Syrah.... is a different grape altogether. It'll be introduced next week!
"It's so petite.. IN YOUR FACE. PUNCH YOU IN THE FACE. It's so tannic it rips your damn teeth lining off." -Boyer

5:31- TO THE LESSON!
Tartaric acid builds the skeleton that the fruit flavors and suppleness hangs on.
Vitis Vinifera is the chief grape for wine.
Grape Varieties: Cab Sav, Merlot, Chardonnay, Pinot, Gamay, Riesling.... etc.

Mighty Morpher Vitis Vinifera: Changes rapidly depending on climatic and soil conditions of where the grapes are growing. Genetic mutation happens so easily with this plant.
Because of this, we may have 500-5000 varieties of grapes to make wine from.

MAGIC EXTRA CREDIT
"You guys are awesome. How does ten points sound? Like BULLSHIT. How about THIRTY?!" -Boyer

Species: Vitis vinifera
Variety: Everything you know. Yeah.

Species: Vitis labrusca
Variety: Concord, Catawba
Also, jelly/gum/grape juice

Species: Vitis rotunifolia
Variety: Scuppernog (foxy, musky, skunky, weird)

"You can't even read the wine grapes from Greece. There's 16 consonants for every vowel. One has 16 h's and an r." -Boyer

You should try ALL the wines, even if you have no idea what the grape is. You could try a new grape variety every day for the next ten years and not run out.

Have you had a table wine that you thought tasted like juice?
That flavor profile is not really found in European Vitis Vinifera. "Grape" flavor is very specific to the concord grape.

Repeat: This plant morphs.
The KINGS of the RED wine worlds
1. Cabernet Sauvignon: Bordeaux, CA, et al?
2. Barbera
3. Cabernet Franc
4. Gamay
5. Grenache
6. Merlot
...
10. Zinfandel: CA! We don't know how it got to CA, but it BOOMED here. It came from Croatia, but no one gave a shit about it and so it came over here.
...
12. Malbec: originally grown all over France, but once they brought it to Argentina it did "ten million times better" -'Boyer

You could grow all of these grapes here in Blacksburg, but they won't taste the same. Due to globalization, "people are growing this shit all over the place. Who the hell is stupid enough to grow this shit in Alaska? Someone!" -Boyer

People are experimenting with grapes in China- China has tons of cheap labor, so watch Chinese wines in the future.

The KINGS of the Whites: this slide was shown for ten seconds. No one cares.

Part 1: The Plant
-Like a tree fruit, 5-6 years to maturity, lasts 20-100 years
-Morphs readily
-Can be propagated vegetatively and sexually
-Needs 'down-time': is a mid-latitude plant that requires seasonality (as in four seasons)
-#1 factor influencing viticulture outcome: CLIMATE!

Wine is the one commodity that we expect to be different based on climate and that year's growing season.
Vintage is important because each year is slightly different.