Wine Time

DINE+WINE - wine time Grape Expectations

thingS to watCh out for when you’ re peruSing a wine liSt

by Trevor Burton | photography by Trevor Burton Confusion can abound when an Italian town and an Italian grape have the same name. For example, there’s a town in Tuscany called Montepulciano and there’s a very famous wine from the town and the region around the town. The wine is, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. The “nobile” part of the name comes from the wine’s fine reputation by upper class individuals over the centuries. Vino Nobile di Montepulciano is mostly made up of wine from the Sangiovese grape. More precisely, it’s based on the Prugnolo Gentile grape which is a local name for the grape in the region of Montepulciano.

Abruzzo is a region of Italy that’s a little south of Tuscany. Here, the main grape in the region’s wine is Montepulciano. Wines from the two regions are distinctively different. Vino Nobile di Montepulciano is a subtle, medium bodied wine. Its primary flavors are of fruit. Wines from Abruzzo are much more rustic. Their primary flavors are more like herbs and pepper.

Okay, enough of the wine nerd stuff. The reason I’m bringing this to your attention is because of what you may run into on a restaurant’s wine list. Many times, you’ll see a wine that’s listed simply as a Montepulciano, a wine that’s from Abruzzo but Abruzzo is not mentioned. It’s possible to confuse this wine with its Tuscan cousin. And, as I’ve said, the wines are completely different.

Not that one wine is better than the other; that’s where your palate and preference come into play. But if you’re picking a wine to pair with a dish you’ve ordered with an expectation that a Montepulciano is a wine from Tuscany, it could lead to a culinary disappointment. On another plane, a wine from Abruzzo tends to be much less expensive than its Tuscan cousin. You may think you’re getting a real bargain. You’re not. A second wine list thing to beware of is when two wines have similar names You may tend to avoid one because of what the other brings to mind. The example I’m thinking of is Zinfandel. On many wines-by-the-glass lists you may come across a “White Zinfandel.” This is a rosé style of wine that is quite sweet. It’s, mostly, a mass produced wine that’s, essentially, manufactured. Winemakers manipulate the sweetness by stopping fermentation before yeast has a chance to convert all the fruit sugars into alcohol. Over the years, White Zinfandel has, by reputation, become the go-to mixer for cheap spritzers and sangria.

So, the reputation of White Zinfandel may have besmirched all Zinfandel wines. “Real” Zinfandels are red wines, not rosés. They are among my favorite wines. I sip on a lot of them at home and if I spot one on a wine list, there’s a good chance that a glass or a bottle of it finds its way to our table. Zinfandels range from oomphy to subtle.

I’ve shared some of my favorite Zinfandels with wine lovers from all over the world and their response is uniform. They, sniff they take a sip and swish the wine around in their mouths and immediately their eyes get wide with pleasured surprise. And then they swallow and say, “Aaaah. This wine has all the attributes of Zinfandel that I like but it has a fundamental delicacy and nuance that are matched by only the best Pinot Noirs.”

So, there’s ample room for confusion when reading a wine list. There’s room for unpleasant surprises and for missed opportunities. Normally, I’d advise reading between the lines or reading the small print but that really doesn’t apply to wine lists. The only thing to do is, ask questions of your server and practice, practice, practice. So, go for it.