Gus Clemens on Wine explores and explains the world of wine in simple, humorous, fun posts

Gus Clemens

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Gus Clemens writes a syndicated wine column for Gannett/USA Today network and posts online reviews of wines and stories of interest to wine lovers. He publishes almost daily in his substack.com newsletter, on Facebook, on Twitter, and on his website. The Gus Clemens on Wine podcast delivers that material in a warm, user-friendly format. gusclemens.substack.com

1 DAY AGO

White wine ascendant 11-27-2024

This is the weekly column Wine is in turmoil. People are turning to alcohol alternatives. Red wine sales are down, white and rosé are up. French and Italians and Spanish are drinking less wine. There is a glut of wine. What?! This scenario was improbable just a few years ago when wine world was surfing on the wave of the global wine boom. Old world drank almost all they produced, China guzzled, U.S. boomers joyously enjoyed. Then COVID and anti-alcohol reports—all alcohol is bad for you—and alcohol alternatives. Semi-full stop. Too much wine, too few drinkers. Industry semi-panic. Well, take a deep breath. The wine industry is not in the ditch with donkey’s feet pointing toward the sky. Yes, there is retrenchment, which every industry experiences. Welcome to the real world dot-com millionaires who overpaid for Napa acres so you could experience your Falcon Crest fantasy. You likely will lose money. You got into this because you had money to lose. White wine’s ascendancy is the interesting part of this evolution. Red wine has long been king. Not now. White wine’s typically lower alcohol content, compatibility with heathy foods like salads and lighter meats and fish, and fruity deliciousness is celebrated while massive oak and malolactic fermentation/conversion are in the rearview mirror of commodity wine makers. Less flamboyant efforts have pushed whites—and rosé—to the front of wine buying queue. Which should be ecstatic joy for wine makers. Red wines take time. Usually at least three or more years from vintage to store shelf. White and rosé can easily get there in one or two. If you are a business person, consider a situation where you produce or buy a product and know you will not be able to sell for two, or five, or ten years, how much intestinal pucker are your prepared to endure? Such is the world of wine. Wine drinkers should not despair. White and rosé wines are wonderful. They especially go well with heart-healthy foods. Rosé wines in particular straddle the divide between fish and lighter meats, not to mention vegetarian fare. Look, I get it. A rich red wine with assertive tannins and high alcohol remains on my list, especially when munching on fatty cow flesh. But that is only one box on my dietary check list. White and rosé certainly are OK. Last round Little girl in a drawing lesson. Teacher went over to her and she said, “What are you drawing?” Girl: “I’m drawing a picture of God.” Teacher: “Nobody knows what God looks like.” Girl: “They will in a minute.” Wine time. Email: wine@cwadv.com Newsletter: gusclemens.substack.com Website: Gus Clemens on Wine website Facebook: facebook.com/GusClemensOnWine/posts/ Twitter (X): @gusclemens Long form wine stories on Vocal: Gus Clemens on Vocal Links worth exploring Diary of a Serial Hostess Ins and outs of entertaining; witty anecdotes of life in the stylish lane. As We Eat Multi-platform storytelling explores how food connects, defines, inspires. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit gusclemens.substack.com/subscribe

4 min
19 NOV

Thanksgiving pinot noir 11-20-2024

This is the weekly column Thanksgiving is the great American gastronomic holiday. Halloween is for foolishness, costumes, and candy. Christmas is for worship, family, and unseemly lust for gaudily wrapped material goods (somewhat antithetical to the Christian origin of the holiday). Thanksgiving is the quintessential harvest feast. Turkey and ham and cranberry sauce and corn on the cob and cornbread and pumpkin pie and whatever else you can conjure up from the cornucopia of agricultural abundance the good Lord bestows on American tables. The wine: pinot noir. I know arguments can be made for zinfandel and Bordeaux blends (American Bordeaux blends), even some whites and rosés. All well and good and maybe part of the groaning Thanksgiving sideboard of excess of everything. But if you want one wine for this bacchanalian extravaganza, it is pinot noir. Pinot is among the lightest of the red wines. It thus works well with a wide array of foods you conjure up for your Thanksgiving feast. It is especially suited for turkey, goes very well with ham. The stronger California versions of pinot can hang with slow-cooked brisket. It especially is nice for family members put off by tannic, assertive red wines. Thanksgiving is a meal of comity and convaiviality. Pinot noir encourages that. Pinot noir is a famously fickle grape, also one of the oldest varieties used for winemaking. The Catholic church was critical to its development beginning in monastery vineyards in the 6th century, then specifically named in the early 1300s. It spread to Germany as spätburgunder and in Italy as pinot nero. France’s Burgundy region is the cathedral of pinot noir, but California’s Russian River Valley and Oregon’s Willamette Valley now produce some of the world’s best pinots. Pinot noir is a challenging grape due to its thin skin—thus its reserved tannins—and susceptibility to various viticulture challenges. It is called the “heartbreak grape” for a reason, which means pinot noir can be expensive. It also is worth it for your biggest gastronomic celebration of the year. Tasting notes • Project M Wines Personify Oregon Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley AVA 2022: Delicate, silky on initial attack, rising to power, complexity later in the palate. $40 Link to my review • Dobbes Family Estate Eola-Amity Hills Cuvée Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley 2021: Excellent fruit effort. Nice tang, clean, precise, complexity, length. $45 Link to my review • Soter Vineyards Estates Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, Oregon 2021: Juicy, concentrated flavors. Plush, complex, elegant, impressive structure, length. Warm vintage well played by Soter, producing a more assertive pinot noir that you anticipate from Willamette. $55-63 Link to my review Last round What did the farmer say when he accidentally squashed his pumpkin? Oh my gord! Wine time. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit gusclemens.substack.com/subscribe

5 min
12 NOV

Wine barrels 11-13-2024

This is the weekly colum It takes two to four centuries to grow the oak tree for a wine barrel. Then, after tree harvest, four, usually more, years to season the wood and the staves. Finally, it is time to turn the staves into a wine barrel. Staves are planed into the correct shape, tapered and beveled to fit exactly together. A master cooper—the barrel maker—arranges 30-32 staves in a circle held together by temporary hoops. At this point, the future barrel resembles a flower with the bottom of the staves together and the tops splayed out. The “flower” then is toasted over an open oak fire and sprayed with water to soften the wood and make it pliable. A cable system draws the splayed ends together to create the iconic barrel shape, with very careful attention to the grain of the wood. The basic barrel shape then is “toasted” over an oak fire to develop flavors and aromas. This is a key part of the operation. The amount of the flame—light, medium, or strong—determines the character of the barrel. Low toasting emphasizes fresh fruit and elegance, while strong toasting delivers smoke, coffee, vanilla, crème brûlée, butterscotch, meats, and other flavors. At the same time, heavy toast makes for silkier, softer tannins because heavy toast breaks down the oak tannins. Smoke is another characteristic of heavy toasting. Heavy toast is often used for big, bold red wines that can stand up to the oak influence. Heavy toast also can require longer aging for the flavors to integrate and add complexity to the wine. In addition to how the barrels are treated, the type of oak also influences the wine. French oak produces a more subtle and delicate influence, but more tannin structure and mouthfeel. American oak imparts flavors more quickly and adds roasted coffee, coconut, sweet spice and more robust oak. Cooper making wine barrel—Creative Commons French, American, and eastern European oak all contribute oak nuances. The different origins of the oak deliver various levels of the oak influence. The bottom line is wine is an agricultural product—grapes and wood. It also is the work of human hands and experienced minds. Tasting notes • Funckenhausen Malbec Blend, Mendoza, Argentina 2022: Vibrant, juicy full-bodied malbec-led blend. Argentine wine with hint of German heritage. $12-16 (1-liter bottle) Link to my review • The Prisoner Wine Company Saldo Red Blend 2019: Dependable celebration of ripe zin with supporting cast. Big, powerful, not quite as high alcohol as previous vintages, but still up there are 15% ABV. $32 Link to my review Last round A pregnant woman began shouting: “Couldn’t, wouldn’t, shouldn’t, didn’t, can’t, don’t!” She obviously was having contractions. Wine time. Email: wine@cwadv.com Newsletter: gusclemens.substack.com Website: Gus Clemens on Wine website Facebook: facebook.com/GusClemensOnWine/posts/ Twitter (X): @gusclemens Long form wine stories on Vocal: Gus Clemens on Vocal Links worth exploring Diary of a Serial Hostess Ins and outs of entertaining; witty anecdotes of life in the stylish lane. As We Eat Multi-platform storytelling explores how food connects, defines, inspires. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit gusclemens.substack.com/subscribe

4 min
5 NOV

Wood and wine 11-6-2024

This is the weekly column Wine is an agricultural product. Hardly an earth-shattering revelation. But consider its scope. Not just wine vines, as essential as they may be, but in many cases—trees. Wine and wood have a marriage dating back millions of years. Wine vines are tree climbers, a relationship accelerated after the astroid-Armageddon when 75% of all plant and animals species became extinct. Trees and grapevines survived and flourished in the aftermath. Fast forward to recent times and the intimate nexus of wood and grape juice becomes more significant. Not only do/did trees provide grape vines a trellis upon which to climb to sunlight, they provide flavors and nuances for finishing wine. Time scales underscore the magnificence of wine creation. Vines must grow for three years before they deliver anything useable as wine fruit, and 20 or 30 or 100 years for the best. Forests are even more long term. Better quality oak in France and America are at least 200 years old, best longer than that—top French oak comes from 400-year-old trees. Think of that. Wood that enhances and finishes the quality wine you drink today began when the American Revolution began. George Washington could have seen the sapling that grew to make the barrel used in making the red wine in your glass tonight. Just as there are grapes of varying quality and characteristics, so with oak trees. Wood factories divide raw product according to quality. Oak designated for wine barrels cannot have flaws, so only around 20% is used for wine barrels. The remaining wood goes for furniture, home construction, and other products. After seasoning for several years, wood destined for wine barrels is sawed into staves. Staves are evaluated for grain and flavor. Smell is important here as staves of different flavors and smell are used depending on what characteristics the winemaker intends. Then staves age two or more years before they go into the cooperage to be fashioned into barrels. Just as winemakers blend grapes from different plots and different grape varieties, so do barrel makers blend different types of oak, different types of wood grains, and other variables. The variable of grain ranges from extra fine grain to big grain. The tighter the grain, the lesser the micro-oxygenation, which is the interaction between the juice inside the barrel and the atmosphere outside the barrel. There is no one-size-fits-all answer. It depends on what sort of wine the maker wishes to make. Once staves are cut, they go to the cooperage. Another complex story. Last round A fool and his money are soon parted, especially in a wine bar. Email: wine@cwadv.com Newsletter: gusclemens.substack.com Website: Gus Clemens on Wine website Facebook: facebook.com/GusClemensOnWine/posts/ Twitter (X): @gusclemens Long form wine stories on Vocal: Gus Clemens on Vocal Links worth exploring Diary of a Serial Hostess Ins and outs of entertaining; witty anecdotes of life in the stylish lane. As We Eat Multi-platform storytelling explores how food connects, defines, inspires. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit gusclemens.substack.com/subscribe

4 min
29 OCT

Wine odds and ends 10-30-2024

This is the weekly column Some facts and trivia to lighten your mood as we prepare for the horrors of “fall back” when the government gives back the imaginary hour it stole from us on the second Sunday in March. • Do heavier glass bottles indicate higher quality wine? Glass weight does not affect wine quality. But there has long been a marketing illusion that better wines come in heavier bottles, and winemakers have tended to put their premier efforts in heavier bottles. But so have lesser wines been put into heavy bottles so sellers can charge more. Happily, there is a mounting movement to reduce bottle weight, which cuts down on CO2 emissions and shipping and other costs. Symington Family Estates recently switched to lighter bottles for its Cockburn’s Port line. Their new 750 ml bottle weighs 450g down from 585g. Other wineries, especially for wines not made for aging, have shifted to cans and “juice boxes” for even greater savings. • Will the LED lights in my wine cellar cause light strike in my wine? UV light and heat are enemies of wine, especially in long-term storage. Traditional lights give off UV and heat. Good news is LED lights give off minimal heat and almost no UV radiation. • What do the fancy names for bubbles in Champagne mean? “Mousse” generally refers to the overall fizziness, also the frothy head at the top of the glass. “Perlage” is French for a string of pearls and refers to the column of bubbles rising in the glass. “Bead” basically means the same as perlage. • What are the most planted wine grapes in the world? This answer changes and reporting is not uniform, but best answer in 2024 is cabernet sauvignon is the most planted red and chardonnay is the most planted white. • How do you open a bottle with a wax seal? Ignore the wax seal. Plunge the corkscrew through the wax and pull. When the cork is pulled, the wax will fall away. Just before you fully remove the cork, you can clean up any wax debris if needed. • What does the wine descriptor “racy” mean? Racy is more a style, not a descriptor of quality, smell, or taste. It basically means a wine with vibrant, fresh acidity. While it most often is associated with white wine, red wines can be racy, too. Racy is a positive comment and indicates the wine will “cleanse the palate” and work well with food. Last round A friend asked me how much I spend on a bottle of wine? I said: “About 45 minutes, longer with a meal.” Wine time. Email: wine@cwadv.com Newsletter: gusclemens.substack.com Website: Gus Clemens on Wine website Facebook: facebook.com/GusClemensOnWine/posts/ Twitter (X): @gusclemens Long form wine stories on Vocal: Gus Clemens on Vocal Links worth exploring Diary of a Serial Hostess Ins and outs of entertaining; witty anecdotes of life in the stylish lane. As We Eat Multi-platform storytelling explores how food connects, defines, inspires. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit gusclemens.substack.com/subscribe

4 min
22 OCT

Halloween and wine 10-23-2024

This is the weekly column Halloween is next week, but if you are giving wine advice it’s best to give your audience some time to act on it. First, I know of no decent pairing of wine with treacly sweet trick-or-treat candy. With somewhat less sugary candy, you can go with light, sweet wines. Wine must be at least as sweet as the candy. If the treat is dark chocolate, you have real options. Dark chocolate typically contains 50-90% cocoa solids. The higher the percentage of cocoa, the better to pair with wine. Vintage or ruby port, sherry, and marsala are classic fortified wine pairings. Non-fortified pairing wines include zinfandel, cabernet sauvignon, merlot, and New World pinot noir. If you are not part of the child extortionists plot, you can always enjoy the frivolity of an adult costume party and real wine pairings. Charcuterie boards work well with almost the entire panoply of wine. If you are enjoying a full regular meal, the usual food-wine pairings apply. When you get to dessert, dark chocolate is in play. With pumpkin pie there are several choices: • Mascatel sherry. Its honey, caramel, and raisin notes nicely pair with the pie. • California chardonnay. A full-bodied chard with plenty of oak, butter, and vanilla flavors will work especially nicely with pie crust. • Tawny port. Nutty and dried fruit flavors complement the pie. • Oloroso sherry. Sweet, nutty flavors match with autumnal flavors of the pie. • Late harvest gewürztraminer. Nutmeg, vanilla, and cinnamon flavors in this sweet wine complement spices in pumpkin pie. • Riesling ice wine. Sweetness and acidity work with the pie’s rich, creamy textures. As with candy, the key is the wine must be at least as sweet as the pie. In fact, that is a good rule of thumb for all wine and food pairings. Now you are set for the last day of October ordeal or fun fest, however you roll. Answer the doorbell, pay off the kiddos demanding tribute, practice moderation, wake up the next morning to prepare for the next holiday. Tasting notes • Cockburn’s No. 1 Special Reserve Porto NV: Delicious, approachable. The world’s most popular special reserve premium port. $18-20 Link to my review • Lustau East India Solera Sherry: Fascinating interplay of tangy, salty notes of oloroso grapes (80% of blend), sweetness of pedro ximénez grapes. $22-28 Link to my review Last round This Halloween I decided to go as a harp. At the party, a gentleman asked, “what are you supposed to be?” “A harp,” I replied. “No, no,” he protested. “You’re too small to be a harp.” “So,” I asked, “are you calling me a lyre?” Wine time. Email: wine@cwadv.com Newsletter: gusclemens.substack.com Website: Gus Clemens on Wine website Facebook: facebook.com/GusClemensOnWine/posts/ Twitter (X): @gusclemens Long form wine stories on Vocal: Gus Clemens on Vocal Links worth exploring Diary of a Serial Hostess Ins and outs of entertaining; witty anecdotes of life in the stylish lane. As We Eat Multi-platform storytelling explores how food connects, defines, inspires. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit gusclemens.substack.com/subscribe

4 min
16 OCT

Wine column reflections 10-16-2024

This is the weekly column October begins the 17th year of this wine column. Reflections. • Quality wine is made by grape farmers in a vineyard, not by lab coats in a winery. When this column started, I could enjoy mass production wines manipulated by oak and tartaric acid and Mega Red. As years and tasting passed, my palate grew to more appreciate wines truer to place and variety. Supermarket mass production wines have their place, but as your wine odyssey unfolds their role diminishes. • Wine is more complex and interesting than you can grasp in a lifetime. Anyone who claims to know everything—or almost everything—about wine just proved they do not. Wine is an infinite Fabergé egg. Opening each shell presents you with a more beautiful and fascinating layer. • Texas wines would get there. My first publisher—of a Texas newspaper—specifically told me to avoid writing about Texas wines. They were hard for readers to buy. Winemakers struggled to find grapes and cellar practices that worked in Texas. No more. Texas wines have made enormous strides. They compete on quality and are beginning to compete on distribution. They tend to be somewhat overpriced, but sell out because of the proud loyalty of Texans. If Texans will buy $18 wine for $25 dollars, Texans will sell it to them. Then use profits to elevate their wine to be worth $25. • If you enjoy a wine, it is good wine for you. Ignore my and others opinion of it. I stated that in the first column. I believe it more today. • You never run out of things to write about. Early on, people worried I would exhaust my subject. Not close to the truth. I have written more than 800 columns, all posted on my website. Not a single repeat. No expectation whatsoever I will run out of material. • Supercilious tasting notes and wine scores are ridiculous. Sixteen years ago, I bet people wanted to know about wine. How it is made. The people who make it. The places it is made. What the jargon meant. With tens of thousands of readers around the world, I remain all-in on that bet. If you come to me for a pithy sentence and some score on a 100-point scale, you came to the wrong place. My writing career has taken me many places. Sports editor of a major newspaper. Author or participant in some 20 books. A successful advertising agency owner. This column remains a beloved highlight in that career, and I deeply appreciate your being part the journey. Last round What washes up on tiny beaches? Microwaves. Wine time. Email: wine@cwadv.com Newsletter: gusclemens.substack.com Website: Gus Clemens on Wine website Facebook: facebook.com/GusClemensOnWine/posts/ Twitter (X): @gusclemens Long form wine stories on Vocal: Gus Clemens on Vocal Links worth exploring Diary of a Serial Hostess Ins and outs of entertaining; witty anecdotes of life in the stylish lane. As We Eat Multi-platform storytelling explores how food connects, defines, inspires. Balanced Diet Original recipes, curated links about food systems, recipe reviews. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit gusclemens.substack.com/subscribe

4 min
8 OCT

Alcohol risks 10-9-2024

This is the weekly column Scare headlines: “Drinking any alcohol is a cancer risk.” Well, okay, the question is how much of a risk? In this discussion, remember the adage popularized by Mark Twain: “Three types of lies. Lies. Damn lies. And statistics.” Stories about cancer risk with alcohol often can be taken with a grain of salt. No question alcohol can put you at a greater risk of cancer. But how much greater risk? That is where the statistical hanky-panky emerges. A popular reference comes from the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction’s 2023 Guidance on Alcohol and Health: Final Report. A bottom line: limit consumption to no more than two alcoholic drinks a week. The devilish detail is the comparison of no-alcohol risk and the risk of some alcohol—usually two glasses of wine a day. Here are the findings: • The breast cancer risk for no-alcohol females is 17.3 of 100,000 deaths (1.73%). Two-a-day drinkers increase their risk to 22 of 100,000 deaths (2.2%). • The colorectal cancer risk for no-alcohol people is 9.2 of 100,000 deaths (.92%). Two-a-day drinkers is 11.1 of 100,000 (1.1%). • The liver cancer risk for no-alcohol people is 3.2 of 100,000 deaths (.32%). Two-a-day drinkers is 3.6 of 100,000 deaths (.36%). • The oesophagus cancer risk for no-alcohol people is 1.5 of 100,000 deaths (.15%). Two-a-day drinkers is 2.1 of 100,000 deaths (.21%). The statistical trick is to state increased risk in relative terms, not absolute terms. Breast cancer risk is 17.3 of 100,000 among non-drinkers and 22 of 100,000 for drinkers. The increase in drinkers is 27% measured in relative terms—22 is 27% more than 17.3. In absolute terms, the increase is .47% (17.3 plus .47 equals 22). If a woman drinks two glasses of wine a day, she increases breast cancer risk by less than one-half a percent. That is the reason the anti-alcohol zealots harp on relative and not absolute numbers. One is alarming but misleading. Two-a-day female wine drinkers do not increase their death rate by 27%. They increase their cancer chances from 17.3 per 100,000 to 22 per 100,000. No one argues that excessive alcohol does not pose significant health risks. But misleading the public about the risks of moderate consumption is not the way to affect this issue. Go ahead and have that glass of wine with your meal tonight. It is very unlikely to kill you. And the bonhomie you enjoy with that meal has its own benefit of increasing joy and enriching your life, which studies show helps prolong life. Last round What do elves use to make sandwiches? Shortbread. Wine time. Email: wine@cwadv.com Newsletter: gusclemens.substack.com Website: Gus Clemens on Wine website Facebook: facebook.com/GusClemensOnWine/posts/ Twitter (X): @gusclemens Long form wine stories on Vocal: Gus Clemens on Vocal Links worth exploring Diary of a Serial Hostess Ins and outs of entertaining; witty anecdotes of life in the stylish lane. As We Eat Multi-platform storytelling explores how food connects, defines, inspires. Balanced Diet Original recipes, curated links about food systems, recipe reviews. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit gusclemens.substack.com/subscribe

4 min

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Creator

Gus Clemens
Years Active

2022 - 2024
Episodes

147
Rating

Clean
Show Website

Gus Clemens on Wine explores and explains the world of wine in simple, humorous, fun posts

Gus Clemens on Wine explores and explains the world of wine in simple, humorous, fun posts

Episodes

White wine ascendant 11-27-2024

Thanksgiving pinot noir 11-20-2024

Wine barrels 11-13-2024

Wood and wine 11-6-2024

Wine odds and ends 10-30-2024

Halloween and wine 10-23-2024

Wine column reflections 10-16-2024

Alcohol risks 10-9-2024

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