Wine Identity Theft: When One Wine Drinks Like Another

Here at GWU$20 I use varietal characteristics to evaluate wine. I want my cabs to taste like cabs, and my chardonnay to taste like chardonnay. Drinking a wine that says it's one thing on the bottle, and then tastes like something else, seems like wine identity theft. It can also make it impossible to evaluate the wine's quality-to-price ratio on a consistent basis. The market price for cabernet and gamay are different; so if I have a cab that drinks like a gamay, and paid $18 for it--well, I am not happy. If I wanted gamay, I'd buy it for $13 and enjoy every drop. I've had a run of wines that were made from one grape, but drank like wines made from another. Is it wine identity theft, or is something more complicated going on?

The first was a 2005 Eaglepoint Ranch Grenache ($15 from most merchants) that came from the cool Anderson Valley in Mendocino County. This smelled exactly like grenache, but it tasted like a gamay wine from the Beaujolais. Aromas of herbs, plums, and blackberries started things off, which are some of the aromas I associate with grenache, along with a floral note. The flavors were much lighter, however, with strawberry at the core of its flavors, and some mineral freshness as well. I really liked this wine because it was a nice, light red. But if you pick a bottle up at the wine store, I'd recommend treating it as you would a beaujolais, not a French grenache.

The second wine that seemed like a victim of identity theft was the 2006 Claudia Springs Pinot Gris Klindt Vineyard ($17). Pinot Gris is known for its apple and lemon flavors, and I always associate the wine with crispness and a bit of round vanilla from the time that it sees in oak. This wine was pale straw in color, and had very muted aromas of apples, apricots, and cream. Apricot and apple dominated the flavors, and as you swallowed the last drops you tasted even more butter and cream. This was a pinot gris that would appeal to chardonnay lovers. It may be that the juice underwent malolactic fermentation which is not common for pinot gris. This would account for the creaminess in the flavors and aromas, but I couldn't find out for sure if this was the case or not.

My third case of wine identity theft was the 2005 Cline Vineyards Ancient Vines Zinfandel (between $11 and $20). A bright ruby-red zinfandel, this had lots of herbal aromas up front and not much fruit. Flavors of herbs and minerals put the blackberry fruit flavors that were present as well into a secondary role in this wine. It had a tangy, herbal finish that reminded me of a cabernet franc. We didn't drink the whole bottle the first day, and it actually seemed a little more fruity and peppery, and therefore more characteristic of the varietal, on the second day. This made me wonder if the wine needed some more time in the bottle to really shine.

While these wines were hard to evaluate from a QPR standpoint, I enjoyed drinking each of them--as long as I covered up the label! There was nothing wrong or flawed with the wines. I was just surprised at the way that they tasted.

But there may be reasons for the flavors that these wines exhibited. The grenache was grown in an unusual place: the relatively cold climate of the Anderson Valley. Grenache is most often associated with the south of France. Perhaps that accounted in part for its Beaujolais-like qualities? The second wine may have gone through an unusual fermentation process for the grape, which made it creamier than most pinot gris. And the zinfandel might have been too young to really strut its stuff.

Before you call out the wine police for your next case of wine identity theft, consider the unique growing, winemaking, and aging needs of your wine. Varietal characteristics are an important part of the story--but they aren't the whole story. And sometimes a wine identity thief can be a pleasant surprise.