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The way things are going in Washington these days, the above headline needs a bit more information - because it seems like a Walla Walla winery is opening a second tasting room in Woodinville about every other week.
ROHNERT PARK, Calif. — Northwest wineries fared well at the 2010 Grand Harvest Awards, an international wine competition staged by Vineyard & Winery Management magazine.
Q. For years, I had read that virtually all classic wine grapes are based on unchanging rootstock, with each plant simply a clone of its predecessor. Now I'm told each grape variety has varying clones, which can be an important factor in making fine wine. What happened?
A. Research, experience, experimentation and sophistication. When the Northwest wine industry began its revival in the late 1960s and early 1970s, a limited number of clones apparently were brought into the region, mostly from California, because of agricultural quarantines and similar regulations.
Three decades later, wineries are taking a broader view and reviewing a wider variety of clones in a continuing attempt to boost quality. For some grape varieties, there are a hundred or more clones.
"We have no idea if we have all the better selections," said Wade Wolfe, general manager of Hogue Cellars of Prosser, Wash. "We're looking at whether we have the better selections and what (clones) we can get the most out of."
The public and some of us who write about wines sometimes speculate a "perfect" clone might be the simple answer to making the perfect wine. But Wolfe, who trained at the American mecca for winemaking and grape growing — the University of California at Davis — calls that concept "patently false."
"Usually, a mixture of clones will give you the best wine," he said.
In addition, DNA research is revealing that the much-ballyhooed "purity" of the grapevine's family tree may be legendary, but, like many legends, that purity is suspect. Sometimes, it has been corrupted by mutation; at other times, by a surprise hybridization (a crossing of two different grape varieties).
DNA work shows there has been plenty of philandering in the vitis vinifera family, despite assertions its members haven't had sex for centuries. The woman who's been unraveling the extra-clonal affairs is a UC Davis geneticist, Carole Meredith.
Foremost among the philanderers is that ancient and aristocratic grape that can trace its lineage back to the time of Christ: pinot. According to Meredith's research, this fine red grape has had several low-class flings with a commoner — gouais blanc.
At least 16 of their offspring are rather well known. And several are stellar — such noble varieties as chardonnay and gamay, the storied grape of Beaujolais. A third offspring, melon, is the progenitor of muscadet. The Sept. 3, 1999, issue of Science reported these findings.
Four years ago, Meredith and fellow researcher John Bowers also unraveled the parentage of the cabernet sauvignon grape. It's a cross between cabernet franc and sauvignon blanc dating back at least to the 17th century. DNA work also allowed her to establish that the syrah of France, the shiraz of Australia and the petit sirah really are all related. Syrah and shiraz are the same grape; petite sirah a cross between syrah and an obscure French grape, peloursin.
So, what's all this mean? First, it is clarifying the murky historical record. Perhaps more important, it offers grape breeders a chance to learn the site on the grape's DNA where a desired gene resides. That knowledge may allow genetic tinkering that could produce better grapes.
Best of all, it eventually may allow a better understanding why the Red Mountain area near Benton City, Wash., for example, produces stellar red wine grapes. And why grapes from the same clone may lack that incredible splendor when grown elsewhere. It may make that ethereal French concept — terroir — more understandable by helping unravel how soil, climate and location combine to produce a fine vintage.
Q. What are the crystals I occasionally see formed on the bottom of wine corks? Do they mean the wine has a flaw that will affect its smell or taste?
A. Those crystals, which look much like sugar crystals, typically form in the bottom of the bottle or on the base of the cork as a wine ages or when it is chilled. Some of the natural tartaric acid from wine grapes precipitates out of the wine. Tartaric acid is the ripe acid formed when grapes increase in acid and color (if they are red wine grapes).
The crystals are most noticeable on the corks of white wines because in reds, other sediments mask the tartaric acid crystals. According to The New Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia, these crystals are seldom found in wines that have spent several months in contact with their lees (yeast sediment) during the winemaking process.
On corks, the crystals are more common when a cork has been soaked in a sterilizing solution of metabisulfite before the wine is bottled.
In any case, the crystals are odorless, tasteless, harmless and no indicator of a quality problem.
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