Part Three in a Series
For the past quarter century California winemakers have looked mainly to the Barbera grape to provide American consumers with an Italian-styled California wine. Unfortunately, American wine drinkers never really warmed up to it. It wasn't until the "rush to terroir" movement of the '80s that vineyard owners began serious exploration for more agreeable sites for this grape. Better sites were found in the Sierra Foothills and Central Coast regions. But the wines, though much improved, still proved unable to attract a wide audience.
In the early 1990s we saw a new direction in Cal-Ital wines. First, we saw a subtle educational campaign on the part of winemakers and wine industry representatives to inform us that the truly great red grapes of Italy were not Barbera, but Sangiovese and Nebbiolo - grapes of which few Californians had ever heard.
One of the early efforts to enjoy widespread publicity was the purchase of Atlas Peak Winery in Napa Valley by Piero Antinori, who replanted much of the vineyard area to Sangiovese and attempted to educate American wine drinkers that this was the primary grape used in all the Chianti and Chianti Classico blends. Early efforts to provide a quality Sangiovese at an attractive price point showed much promise, but did not do particularly well in the ratings. Was it terroir - winemaker inexperience with this varietal in California - or maybe the very nature of the Sangiovese grape itself, that kept California Sangiovese out of the 90-100 bracket for so long? (In Italy, Sangiovese is traditionally blended with small amounts of other varietals to achieve a wine of complexity, body, and balance.)
By 1993 Sangiovese was breaking into the "outstanding" category in the ratings and in 1994 one example (Altamura) had garnered a 94 from the B.T.I. Unlike Barbera, which found new life in the Sierra Foothills and Central Coast, the best Sangioveses were largely the products of Napa Valley and Sonoma County wineries (Altamura, Cosentino, Benziger, Beaulieu Vineyards, Swanson, and Coturri, among others). Examples from Monterey, Santa Cruz, Paso Robles, Santa Ynez, and the Sierra Foothills were often praised by some critics, while overlooked or depreciated by others. What were the critics looking for in the new crop of Sangioveses? The richness and depth of our great Cabernets? The sumptuousness of our best Pinots? A brother to the high alcohol and concentrated fruit of the Renwood and Eberle Barberas?
One thing that seems to take second place in the reviews is something European winemakers have always regarded as fundamental to fine wine - balance. When American reviewers describe a wine as "elegant," many readers equate that notion with a light style - which has never been favored by American consumers. Few of us, it seems, have grown beyond the "bigger is better" syndrome of our youth. We favor concentrated flavors, explosive fruit, and high alcohol - the very things that upstage the delicate balance of flavors in carefully prepared foods. If there is a long suit in Italian wines, it is that they are designed to marry with the foods they are intended to accompany, not overpower them.
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