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

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“If you could only drink one wine for the rest of your life, what wine would that be?” I get that question often.
As a Catholic, my tongue-in-cheek answer: “Consecrated communion wine because I am in Hell.”
Related question: “What is your favorite wine?”
As a humorist, my quip: “Whatever you are pouring.”
The answer to the base question: I enjoy all competently-made wines. When I taste sweeter wines, although not my first choice, I strive to evaluate the wine from the perspective of someone who prefers sweeter wines. And share fair comments with readers.
That said, there are wines I am more likely to pour:
• Pinot noir. Lighter body, delicate, nuanced flavors, good acidity, restrained tannins, elegant and silky mouthfeel. Versatile pairing from fish to poultry to white meats and lighter beef. Delicious as a red wine, a key component of many Champagnes.
• Sauvignon blanc. Good to great acidity; pairs with with huge range of foods.
• Red blends. I prefer blends over pure varietals because blends can deliver more complexity and depth, although I can enjoy a pure varietal play. Blend examples include:
• GSM. Grenache-syrah-mouvédre. Wonderful blend of three varieties I enjoy.
• Bordeaux blend. Cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, sometimes petite verdot, malbec, carménère. Classic big reds.
• Spanish blends. Tempranillo-garnacha (Rioja). Garnacha-cariñena (Priorat). Tempranilo-cab, merlot, malbec (Ribera del Duero). There are excellent Spanish white blends, too.
• Italian blends. Sangiovese with a variety of blenders.
• Sparkling wine. From Champagne, to Spanish cava, to Italian spumantes and proseccos.
• Chardonnay. So versatile. Can be made in almost every style; a key component of Champagne and other sparklings.
• Australia. Shiraz, perfect for beef pairing.
• New Zealand. Sauvignon blanc and, increasingly, pinot noir.
• Chile and Argentina. Huge values. Is there a better value-for-price play than malbec?
• Portugal. Wide selection at fantastic price points.
• Zinfandel. Bold ripe fruit, soft tannins, potentially high alcohol. What’s not to love?
• Others: riesling, vinho verde, grüner veltliner, maderia, gewürztraminer, viognier, pinot gris/grigio.
Happy to narrow it down for you.
Tasting notes:
• Hope Family Wines Treana Sauvignon Blanc, California 2022: Smooth, very approachable; retains food-friendly acidity. $18-20 Link to my review
• Lake Sonoma Winery Russian River Valley Chardonnay 2020: Fulsome, substantial expression of Russian River Valley chard. Rich, engaging in the mouth. $20-25 Link to my review
• Privé Vineyard Pinot Noir, Chehalem Mountain AVA 2022: Refined, reserved joy in the mouth. Solid reason Willamette Valley is world-class provider of pinot. $60 Link to my review
• Dobbes Family Estate Patricia’s Cuvée Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley 2021: Rich, opulent, hedonistic delight; excellent fruit, impressive complexity, wonderful texture, mouthfeel. $60 Link to my review
Last round
Somebody stole Satan’s hairpiece! There will be Hell toupee. Wine time.
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In an opinion survey by YouGov, Americans claimed “bottle or label design” was the least important factor in their selection of a wine. That might be an expected response to an online questionnaire. Few people confess to being lured by clever critter names and images, or campy convict references, or hernia-inducing bottle weights.
But, come on, you are influenced. If you were not, wineries and marketing mavens and money managers would not pay so much attention and dollars to bottles/containers and labels. Anecdotal evidence is especially strong that people, especially those not heavily into wine, are influenced by these factors.
Today, the container is the new delta in the wine consumer equation. Screw caps were the tip of the change spear in past decades. It now is generally accepted that screw caps, also called Stelvin closures, are just another way of sealing a container and is not an indicator of inferior quality. Whole nations—New Zealand is the poster country—predominantly use screw caps. No one questions their quality, especially for wines consumed in the decade after release.
Newer battlegrounds involve containers. Massive glass bottles traditionally implied quality. That is an emotional rather than a rational response. Glass is glass. It works very well containing wine regardless of its weight. Environmentally and economically, weighty bottles make no sense in production, transportation, and disposal. Let us hope the growing trend of sensible bottle weights continues.
Non-glass is the new front line in wine packaging. Boxed wine—actually a plastic bag inside a cardboard box—has a solid base. Once the realm of cheap, inferior wine, now many makers produce quality. The fact the wine stays fresh after initial opening for a month is a huge selling point. You can’t age box wine, but almost all wine you buy is not purchased to be aged.
Tetra paks are small boxes made of cardboard, plastic, and aluminum. They are especially ideal for wines drunk young at a beach, poolside, picnic, or any situation where portability and safety from broken glass is an asset. Versions of this have worked for milk, fruit juice, and other liquids for years. Why not wines?
Cans. Similar advantages as tetra paks. Has worked for beer—for many foods and liquids—for more than a century. Why not wines?
Focus on what is in the container and how you will use it, not the closure or its weight or the material used to make it. Onward into the future of wine.
Last round
I met a microbiologist today. He was much bigger than I expected. Wine time.
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What do Americans think about wine? 5-22-2024
What wines do Americans prefer, how much are they willing to pay for it, and what are their general views about wine?
YouGov, a British market research and data analytics firm, recently surveyed 1,117 U.S. adults to gain insights. Their results are very detailed; we will give a simpler-to-digest overview. There is a plus/minus four precent margin of error. YouGov’s research gives you a ballpark idea.
Some 73% said they loved or liked white wine; 72% said the same about red wine. Rosé scored 66% in the love-like category; 63% said the same about sparkling.
Gender preferences is a slightly different question. When asked what type of wine they prefer, 56% of males and 44% of females said they preferred red, while 42% of females preferred white in contrast to only 30% of males. Roughly 14% of both sexes either did not have a preference or were not sure.
Health warnings about wine have been in the news recently. Americans apparently are not all that concerned. Some 40% asserted wine is beneficial to your health, 23% said it has no effect, and 27% were not sure. Only 11% believed wine is detrimental to health.
When asked how much you typically pay for a bottle of wine, a whopping 45% said between $11 and $20. The number goes to 65% for the $11-$40 range. Price matters. A landslide 89% said price was very important or somewhat important.
When asked if they thought they could tell the difference between a $10 bottle and a $100 bottle in a blind tasting of the same varietal, 35% said they definitely could or probably could, while 65% thought they probably could not, definitely could not, or were unsure.
When asked how often they drank wine—a question where people often low-ball their answer—only 2% said they drank wine daily. Some 11% said a few times a week or once a week; 24% said only on special occasions, and the largest cohort—38%—said they never drink wine, although they may drink other alcoholic beverages.
Tasting notes
• Familia Traversa Sauvignon Blanc, Uruguay 2022: Intriguing tension between hints of sweetness and salinity. Very refreshing. Versatile. $9-14 Link to my review
• Famiglia Pasqua 11 Minutes Odi Et Amo Rosé Trevenezie 2022: Crisp light delight. Strawberries, citrus in an engaging bottle. $16-18 Link to my review
• Hahn Family Wines Appellation Series GSM, Arroyo Seco 2021: Classic GSM built to be an amiable palate pleaser. $18-23 Link to my review
Last round
Why do I waste energy saying “it is what it is” to someone who has no idea what it is? Wine time.
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The world has a glut of wine. In some ways, a good thing for wine buyers. With supply up and demand down, wine makers have to make sacrifices to move their product. The old seller’s adage applies: “I would rather have 50% of something than 100% of nothing.”
Maybe that higher-end, higher-quality wine of your fantasies will move into your pocketbook possibility zone. But danger also lurks. The brand that now looks like a bargain may not be exactly what initially enchanted your imagination.
Fortunately, the label must give you clues. But you have to know what to look for.
There is so much excess wine today makers are conjuring ways to use some of the glut to tempt you with a bogus bargain. A key ploy is to produce bottles with labels that look almost identical to their existing, higher-priced offerings. All seems the same, but there is one tell—the place where the fruit came from may be different from the one you think you are buying.
Example: a wine labeled “Sonoma County” typically is a reassurance of quality, and indicates all—or at least 75% of the grapes—come from that premier grape growing region. When the wine label reads “California,” that is something else. The wine could have come from anywhere in California.
If the label says “American,” 25% of it could be imported from overseas. Federal records indicate 68 million gallons of imported wine—most of it bulk wine—came into the U.S. in 2022, compared to 51 million gallons in 2020.
You will most-often encounter vague designations in supermarket wines and discount wine stores. Many supermarkets sell wines under their “exclusive” labels. What that really means is the supermarket buys “shiners”—wine bottles without labels—and puts their “exclusive” label on the bottle. Two supermarkets can sell exclusive wines that came from exactly the same maker off the same bottling line. The only difference is the label.
This is not a scam. If you like the wine, great. Enjoy away. Makers of shiners can make very acceptable wine. The wine may be a commodity wine made in huge amounts to a certain flavor profile concocted from bulk wine, but millions of people enjoy those wines. You can, too, with no shame.
But if you always wanted to try the genuine article of your vino dreams, carefully examine the label. If a deal is too good to be true, it usually is not.
Last round
The CEO of IKEA has just been elected prime minister of Sweden. Currently, he is assembling his cabinet. Wine time.
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This is the final episode of our adventure into the world of wine descriptors.
• Spicy: Various grapes contribute spice—syrah, zinfandel, petite sirah, malbec, grenache, gewürztraminer, riesling, and viognier typically are cited as being spicy. Oak barrels also impart spice. Common spice flavors are cinnamon, pepper, anise, clove, nutmeg, ginger, and mint. For most sippers, a slice of spice is a nice thing to encounter in the wine.
• Dry, Semi-dry, Sweet: Refers to the amount of residual sugar. In broad terms, in dry wine, all the sugar was converted to alcohol. In sweet wine there is residual sugar. Semi-dry falls in between. These are the general terms. Still wines and sparkling wines have different nomenclatures and more nuanced divisions. In still wines, going from driest to sweetest, the wine can be bone-dry, dry, off-dry, medium sweet, and sweet. In sparkling wines, going from driest to sweetest, the wine can be brut nature, extra brut, brut, extra-dry, dry, demi-sec, and doux. Sweetness often is the first characteristic you notice when tasting wine.
• Final thoughts: Wine descriptors—and their fellow partners in crime, wine scores—are inherently, patently imperfect, sometimes ridiculous. But we live in a chaotic world assaulted by a hurricane of choices. We rely on others to help separate the wheat from the chaff all the time. Recommendations from family and friends for all manner of things. Book reviews. Movie reviews. Restaurant reviews. Customer reviews.
And so it goes with wine. Can written words perfectly describe the experience you will have with a specific wine? Of course not, and every reputable wine writer knows that and will be quick to tell you. In the best case, the words entertain you and give you some assistance as you face a wall of wine choices at your wine store, supermarket, or online seller. Imperfectly passing on knowledge and experience is the skill set that makes us humans.
Tasting notes
• Gillmore Collezione del Maule, Valle del Loncomilla, Chile 2020: Blend of four Italian grape varieties grown in Chile. Exceptionally smooth, sophisticated, delicious. $18-20 Link to my review
• Van Duzer Dijon Blocks Estate Grown Pinot Noir, Van Duzer Corridor, Oregon 2021: A bit more assertive darker fruits than other efforts, it also has impressive complexity and layers. $57-65 Link to my review
• Stags’ Leap Winery The Leap Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Grown Stags Leap District 2018: Consistent winner from one of Napa’s most hallowed districts by one of Napa’s premier makers. $90-115 Link to my review
Last round
A little known rule is that all employees of IKEA have to stand in a line in the meeting room before every shift. Some assembly is always required. Wine time.
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Continuing our adventure in the world of wine descriptors.
• Tannin: Tannins come from grape skins, seeds, and oak barrels. Tannin creates puckery, black tea-like sensations in your mouth that some people hate and others love. Tannic wines do well with fat-rich red meat because tannins cut through the fat coating your tongue, enhancing the beef experience. Tannins also are key components of wine built for aging, as they preserve the wine. Many tannic wines—Italian nebbiolo, for instance—are held in bottle for years before release to allow the tannins to mellow.
J. Nathan Matias
All tannins are not the same. Tannins are mostly characteristic of red wines rather than whites because most tannins come from the skins, stems, and seeds. White wines spend very little time on the skins, stems, and seeds, while red wines can spend many weeks in contact. When tannins are harsh or aggressively drying, they are bad. When they are chewy or rustic, they can be good depending on your palate. When they are silky, integrated, smooth, round, lush, velvety, or supple, they are good, even if the wine writer cannot really tell you difference between round and lush or smooth and silky.
Dusty tannins are a special, Janus-faced category. Generally, dusty refers to tannic density. Dusty tannins may provide a pleasing, refined background to fruit. Or they can be a drying, powdery note that steals flavor at the finish. Like many wine descriptors, “dusty” can just be a wine writer throwing adjectives against the wall.
• Structure: The balance of tannin, acidity, and alcohol, plus fruit and sugar level constitute a wine’s structure. The combination of those elements determine the overall feel in the mouth and perception of the wine. Wines that lack structure are thin, flabby, disjointed, too tannic or too acidic. It is possible for a wine to have too much structure, usually because it is too tannic and out of balance with acidity and alcohol. Good structure, on the other hand, is a characteristic of high quality wines. Balanced structure allows wine to evolve over time in the bottle and develop more depth and complexity.
Tasting notes
• Corvo Irmàna Frappato Red Wine 2019: Bright, light, fresh, fruity, delicate. Fun, easy drinker will please those put off by heavier, more tannic/serious red wines. $15-17 Link to my review
• Hope Family Wines Treana Sauvignon Blanc, California 2022: Smooth, very approachable; retains food-friendly acidity. $18-20 Link to my review
• Project M Anicca Oregon Chardonnay, Eola-Amity Hills AVA 2022: Nicely structured, elegant with savory core from prime region for quality chardonnay. $40 Link to my review
Last round
Why are frogs so happy? They eat whatever bugs them. Wine time.
Gus Clemens on Wine is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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