The Fallacy of Geographical Labeling

There are questions that I get asked frequently? "John, do you like California wines?" "John, what do you think about Australian wines?" "John, are Chilean wines good?"

The answer to any of those questions can be positive or negative. But, really, there is no answer. Those are all big regions. And, even within those regions, there are multiple wine regions which often are large regions themselves.

So, to use Australia as an example for starters, it's a very large country. Even if we leave out Tasmania and there happen to be some really excellent Tasmanian wines, Australia is a great expanse. You don't believe me? Try driving from the eastern wine regions to the north of Sydney to the western wine regions to the south of Perth. You might drive faster than I do or faster than Google thinks people drive, but if you don't stop to refuel, eat, sleep, or visit a rest room, you're still looking at a nearly 2 day trip by car. 

Imagine driving for nearly 2 days from wherever you live. Will you see different terrains? Will you experience different climates? Will the soil change? How about the altitude? Will you be near waterways in some cases and nowhere near them in others? 

If you're a frequent reader here, you'll realize that each of these elements as well as many others can have a significant effect on the grapes that are grown and how they are grown. You might even recall that we spent more than 2 weeks here driving through the much smaller region known as Napa Valley, a very small, relatively speaking, part of California, visiting a different American Viticultural Area (AVA) within the valley each day. And, if you really paid attention, you'll remember how the wines changed dramatically from day to day.

Getting even more granular, you might even remember, for example, that when we visited the Diamond Mountain AVA and, in fact, were at a single, not particularly large winery, the wines varied really significantly depending on which part of the estate supplied the grapes from which the wines were made. We could have gone to the top of Howell Mountain and found a winery where the wines are varied by the compass orientation of the planting and sun exposure of the grapes. And, if we had enough money, we could go to the storied To Kalon Vineyard and see that the wines produced from grapes from one small block are quite different from those from another small block. I wasn't there in the middle of the 19th century when Mr. Crabb decided to plant what is now To Kalon, but perhaps there was a eucalyptus tree sitting near the southern end of the area he planted while olives grew 50 yards to the north. All of this would affect the grapes and the resultant wines.

So, if you ask me what I like or if I ask you what you like, we should be as specific as possible. If you tell me that you like French wines, I will likely assume that you like wines made in the style in which the French wines that are imported to your area are typically made, but it would be a rate wine drinker who hates all French wines or loves all French wines.

Instead, tell me what you like about certain wines. Do you like the dark fruit or the peppery notes, do you like the floral notes and do you prefer them freshly picked or dried out? Do you like rich, opulent wines or ones that are somewhat more subtle. The more you can tell me or someone else, the more I or someone who knows a lot about wines can help you, but when you tell me you like Italian wines, given that they use more than 1000 grape varieties, you haven't told me much.