The best Form of Defence Is Attack

by Mark Deamer

My tongue has been bitten and hackles raised, and for so long I have refused to bite. I thought perhaps one of my more restrained and considered Sommelier friends would leap to the defense of our reputation.  Oh well, it would seem it is left to I, to further enhance my reputation as 'The Rant'.

  The premise of Chris's argument seems to be that typicity is defined by the grape. So a 'Sangiovese adulterated by Cabernet' is not typical! Well I would argue that it is not untypical if that wine happens to be from Maremma or Bolgheri for instance. Typicity is the combination of terroir, grape and history. Why would we need an appellation system if there was no desire for typicity. Typicity is that Ronseal mantra 'It does exactly what it says on the tin'.

 But there is lot's of scope for new and exciting. Make what you will and call it a Vin de Table, Vino di Tavola or IGT. Go to the New world and throw what you like in a barrrel and see what happens. And that's not me being dismissive. I love that I can have a Californian Albarino or a Southern Australian Savignan and I implore more winemakers to take that plunge. And as for odd bedfellows I love me a good Xynomavro/Syrah.

However if a wine label states that it is Chianti or Rioja  or Graves or Chilean Casablanca Sauvignon (you get the picture), there has to be a thread that runs through the wine that takes you from terroir, to grape and to region. It doesn't matter if it's 'New' or  'Old wave'. As sommeliers we should have an understanding of progression and evolution, but that does not rule out the ideal of typicity. We could always just grow grapes hydroponiocly in a greenhouse to perfect phenollic and sugar ripeness in that case.

But that would be a sad day. To never have my memory of trips to Bordeaux evoked by that pencil shaving and and iron-y quality of classic Graves. Or the memory of how I stood in wonderment (and fear) at the foot of sheer slate slopes covered in vines, being triggered by the aromatics of flint and citrus from an elegant Mosel Riesling.

I do my fair share of blind tasting, and Chris is right, it's impossible to be right on everything. But on the 3 wines tasted at the viniversity Challenge I got the countries right on two wines and the Grape variety on the other. Not bad going given I did not prepare for it and the wines that were put forward - English Blanc de Noir spk (got the Grape) .Falenghina, from Italy and some Rhone-esque Blend from Chile (both of which I got the Country) were slightly devious choices. But just because I did not read the clues of typicity correctly (or I would argue that there was a lack of typicity in certain aspects of the wines) that doesn't mean we should dismiss it as unimportant. The best wines, regardless of price have a sense of place.

 If Chris is right and as sommeliers we are that staid and prosaic about wine that we do not enjoy the new then I want not to be associated with the title. But if as a wine lover you can be so dismissive of the virtues of typicity? well that saddens me almost as much.