North West Wine Review
I'm back home for a month, in some of the best wine country in the world, and I've missed it! I'm impressed with China's grapes, it's soil, its moisture and its sun (especially in Gansu Province) but my guess is that it'll take at least 10 years to develop it up to international standards, and 20 to start reaching its potential.
Fortunately, I don't have to wait that long. In Seattle, you simply wander into any deli or bodega on most downtown street corners and there's an amazing, unique and expressive selection of wines squeezed into some back corner that always seems to be part of every room.
Hiking across the Pyrenees, you begin from Navarro and La Rioja, the heart of Spanish wine country. There they drink wine mixed with lightly sweetened soda water, ice cold, to ward off the summer heat. You can leave a couple bottles chilling in the stream while you hike in the hills, and Spanish goat herders with their black caps and vests pass you by. A good Rioja is deep and dark; spicy, rich, and musty. It tastes like the Spanish earth, which is chalky and dry, yellowish-red, and covered in parched yellow grass and thorny scrub brush.
But at a certain point, you break through, out of Iberia and into France. On foot, in dusty boots, I crossed at Puerto Samport, where Hannibal crossed thousands of years before. On the other side of the pass is the French countryside, near the town of Lourdes. The dry mountains, with their weary peaks of gleaming white rock, block the rain coming down from the ocean, and holds it in France. The soil changes color to a deeper coffee-grounds brown, and it is moist and soft between your fingers. You can smell the moisture in the air. All the plants are green, and the wines are doux and smooth, but also infused with a certain levity that seems to come from rain. This is the difference that the environment makes.
The Pacific North West is a wonderfully diverse region, which means that it is also produces excellent wines. In my opinion, California soil is a little dry and yellow, and they get more sunshine than mist. This is great for earthy, spicy, robust wines, like those from Spain or Italy. I love California Zinfandels, Primitivos, Sangioveses, but for the more delicate wines, the environment isn't right. For the richer wines, doux and smooth, you need that rich moist brown soil, and cool fog, even a little soft rain.
In Oregon's Willamette Valley, and in Western Washington there are some of the best Pinot Noirs in the world, while on the dry side of the mountains, in the Columbia River Valley, the drier land and brigher sun produces some of the most interesting Cabernet Sauvingons, Syrahs, and Merlots.
While I'm here, I'm going to try to give first priority to the local wines that you can't find outside of the area, and the classic food and drink culture of the Pacific North West.
A.M.K.
Seattle, USA
March 10, 2007
Fortunately, I don't have to wait that long. In Seattle, you simply wander into any deli or bodega on most downtown street corners and there's an amazing, unique and expressive selection of wines squeezed into some back corner that always seems to be part of every room.
***
Hiking across the Pyrenees, you begin from Navarro and La Rioja, the heart of Spanish wine country. There they drink wine mixed with lightly sweetened soda water, ice cold, to ward off the summer heat. You can leave a couple bottles chilling in the stream while you hike in the hills, and Spanish goat herders with their black caps and vests pass you by. A good Rioja is deep and dark; spicy, rich, and musty. It tastes like the Spanish earth, which is chalky and dry, yellowish-red, and covered in parched yellow grass and thorny scrub brush.
But at a certain point, you break through, out of Iberia and into France. On foot, in dusty boots, I crossed at Puerto Samport, where Hannibal crossed thousands of years before. On the other side of the pass is the French countryside, near the town of Lourdes. The dry mountains, with their weary peaks of gleaming white rock, block the rain coming down from the ocean, and holds it in France. The soil changes color to a deeper coffee-grounds brown, and it is moist and soft between your fingers. You can smell the moisture in the air. All the plants are green, and the wines are doux and smooth, but also infused with a certain levity that seems to come from rain. This is the difference that the environment makes.
***
The Pacific North West is a wonderfully diverse region, which means that it is also produces excellent wines. In my opinion, California soil is a little dry and yellow, and they get more sunshine than mist. This is great for earthy, spicy, robust wines, like those from Spain or Italy. I love California Zinfandels, Primitivos, Sangioveses, but for the more delicate wines, the environment isn't right. For the richer wines, doux and smooth, you need that rich moist brown soil, and cool fog, even a little soft rain.
In Oregon's Willamette Valley, and in Western Washington there are some of the best Pinot Noirs in the world, while on the dry side of the mountains, in the Columbia River Valley, the drier land and brigher sun produces some of the most interesting Cabernet Sauvingons, Syrahs, and Merlots.
While I'm here, I'm going to try to give first priority to the local wines that you can't find outside of the area, and the classic food and drink culture of the Pacific North West.
A.M.K.
Seattle, USA
March 10, 2007
Labels: Austin Kramer, France, Pacific North West, Spain, Travel, Wine
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