How Do You Define Your Favorite Wine?

For the last few days, I was just sitting and writing the preview article for next month’s theme in the Italian Food, Wine, and Travel group that I will host. The theme will be wines from Calabria and Sardinia.

At the same time, I was looking at a post from an account I follow on Instagram talking about how the most popular wines are still Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Nero, and from Italy Prosecco and Pinot Grigio. That Bordeaux and Burgundy are still the most appreciated and sold wine styles. I think the account was thinking mainly of the wine bought in the US. One can read about the most traded wines also on Liv-Ex.

We all have our favorite wines, right?

But, I am curious about how you choose when buying your wines.

Let's return to this further down.

Calabria and Sardinia

I am excited to present Calabria and Sardinia which are two Italian regions where wine is part of their ancient history. Calabria is considered the cradle of Italian viticulture and winemaking while Sardinia can fall back on the Nuraghi population as well as the influence of many different civilizations and cultures due to conquests by people such as the Phoenicians, Romans, Byzantines, the Crown of Aragon, and more.

Viticulture and winemaking in these two regions have been built on passion and tradition for many thousands of years. Still, they are lesser-known regions and the wines are considered of less quality or less in general compared to Bordeaux, Napa, or Burgundy wine.

Diversity or Not in Wine

Many people are still preferring to continue drinking Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay when there is so much to discover in the wine world today. It is also easier than ever probably to find niche wines, lesser-known grape varieties, and wines from lesser-known areas.

Now, I know that the interest in wine and in diversity when it comes to wine is growing. More and more people are curious about trying new things.

I also know that it is natural that Bordeaux or Burgundy wines still have a big portion of the market because they have been popular for so long and were made into premium wines to drink for a long time in the late 20th century. People consider many of these as fine wine or cult wine.

What is fine wine then?

Why is a Bordeaux wine, for example, Chateaux Ausone, or the Tuscan Tignanello by Antinori as quoted by Liv-Ex so much “finer” than other lesser-known but quality wines all the same??

Well, I understand that a Bordeaux or a Tignanello has more marketing power behind them. As with Tignanello, it is also a wine that marked a change in the Tuscan and Italian winemaking and appellation systems. A wine that was created in collaboration with the enologist Giacomo Tachis who was very into the Bordeaux style.

If we look closer at “fine wine”, Jermaine Stone, founder of Cru Luv Selections says in an article by the Wine Enthusiast that fine wine can be defined as made “with passion and attentiveness.” But that is a bit of a weak definition because, in my opinion, most artisanal wines are made with probably much more passion and attentiveness than some of the big brands and are still not considered fine wines.

The Napa-based importer and wholesaler Demeine Estates have defined fine wines in the same article as ”...a category that represents the highest quality producers from their respective regions.” But is this always the case? I mean there are very high-quality wines made with passion and attentiveness (probably higher quality than some of those that are defined as fine wines) that do not enter the category of fine wine.

So, is a fine wine defined as such rather because it adheres to a certain type of winemaking style, is produced with certain grapes, or is produced in certain wine regions? Perhaps a mix.

I think a more honest definition has been made by Justin Gibbs of Liv-ex, in the same article as above, who argues that fine wine “...defines itself by having an active secondary market.” Fine wine has a “resale value, improves over time, and has brand recognition due to heritage, critical acclaim, or some combination thereof”. Fine wine can also increase its value due to scarcity. Here we can take the case of wines from Liber Pater winery in Pontignac in the Bordeaux area, producing the most expensive wine in the world.

Liber Pater’s wines are made in a low-intervention style with ungrafted native grapes of mainly Cabernet Sauvignon (called Petit Vidure locally) and also Gros Cabernet (Cabernet Franc), Lauzet, Prunelard, and several others. Lo?c Pasquet, the owner of Liber Pater, wants to recreate the way of making wine in France at the time of the Bordeaux Classification 1855 or before the phylloxera hit.

So, it is not easy to understand if fine wine is defined on the basis of quality, passion, tradition, place of production, type of winemaking style, marketing power, or a bit of everything.

What I do see, is a common denominator that seems to be France, in the sense that wines defined as "fine wine" always have some kind of connection to France. Either wine being produced in the most classical French wine regions, made with French grapes, with an in most cases Bordeaux or Burgundy wine-making style, amped up by good marketing.

The French Revolution wanted to rip off the masks (faces) of the old regime and fill the old symbolism with new content and meaning. It had its success, of course, but still, change is hard. The old system remained in many cases, just in a different fashion. So, it seems that change is hard within the wine world too.

Concluding words...

Anyway, to get back to Calabria and Sardinia, I continue to promote wine regions, grapes, and wines that are lesser-known and an expression of a territory, telling its history. I do not see it as either fine wine or something else. I am looking for wines of quality that speak to me. Then whether they are considered unique niche wines or expensive premium wines is less important to me.

I hope you will tell me more about your favorite wines and how you try to drink differently in the comments below.

Furthermore, it would be great if you join the #ItalianFWT Twitter chat on April 1 and tell us about your favorite wines from Calabria and Sicily.

Hi, I'm Katarina, thanks for stopping by.

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