Berger on Wine: Chill reds to accent acidity

I’ve preached for years that too many restaurants serve red wines too warm - even ritzy joints that have trained wine waiters. Many of them ought to trade in their tastevins for dunce caps.

I’ve heard waiters’ lies about “red at room temperature” from New York to Miami to Perth.

In the last decade we have noticed that restaurants’ red wines, which often are stored improperly and served at “warm-room” temps, are worse than ever. After years musing about this, it came to me what happened to create this problem. It’s a result of one tactic that has led to a radical change in how most red wines are now made. And the solution is simple.

This tale is best explained by revisiting an old truism: Anyone who has counted the number of coffee orders in a Starbucks compared with flavored drinks won’t be shocked that the chain probably makes most of its profits on the sale of a vital agricultural product: sugar cane.

One of the growing realizations about most American wine buyers is that sweet sells and always has. From wine spritzers of the 1940s, to fruit-flavored fortified wines in the 1950s to Blue Nun to wine coolers to white zinfandel to muscat, sweet wines have always been a major wine category here. By volume, not quality.

In Europe most wines are dry. Sure, Europeans like sweets – just look at their love for chocolate – but most EU consumers think wine should be served with food. And should be dry.

For decades, and to this day, most U.S. white wines are sweeter than they are on the continent. The U.S. today is the largest wine-consuming nation in the world partly as a result of the sale of sweeter chardonnays, sauvignon blancs, pinot gris, rieslings, sparkling wines (even some marked “brut” are anything but dry) and many more.

But some marketers two decades ago believed too many U.S. red wines were too austere, with high acidity and high tannins. This didn’t bother wine lovers and collectors in the 1970s and 1980s, most of whom served such wines only with food and/or aged them until they gained maturity, like Bordeaux and Burgundy.

Putting scores on wines, which started four decades ago, was a tactic mostly adopted by Americans who loved fruit, oak and softer, more “hedonistic” reds to drink immediately. It was they who helped convert a generation away from wine with food by praising so-called “walking around wines,” which were served like cocktails.

Soon after, scores became a big deal for retailers and restaurants and the newer, softer reds were developed that had a different structure from the Euro-styled reds of the past. They had several elements to make them taste sweet or soft.

1. Lower acids. Acid is tart. To some people it is the enemy of sweet.

2. Higher pH: Lower pH is associated with acidity. So the higher the pH, the rounder the wine, thus sweeter.

3. High alcohol. The 12 percent alcohol of the 1970s is the 15 percent of today, and high alcohol is associated with a “sweeter” mouthfeel.

4. Actual sugar. Today many everyday wines made for weeknights, and even many iconic, expensive “weekend” red wines, have actual sugar.

5. Aging in new oak barrels. Oak flavors from new (toasted) barrels impart sweetish smells such as vanilla, chocolate, caramel, mocha, nuts and smoke.

Put all these elements together in one wine and you get “alluring” chardonnays, “succulent” pinot noirs, “unctuous” cabernets and red wines that are usually described by marketers as bold, massive, silky, intense, generous, powerful and a lot of other terms that make purists gag.

Not that California can’t make wines of balance. Many wineries here do. They just are rarely rewarded with scores that do any good in selling wine. Most American wine buyers have been so inundated with scores for so long, there is only one number that’s more meaningful: the price.

So what’s the solution? Put your red wines in the refrigerator for a bit before opening. Twenty to 30 minutes is enough. Cooler temps help accent what acids are in a wine.

In restaurants, ask waiters for an ice bucket. And if the server starts proselytizing about drinking reds at room temp, ask if he or she forgot the dunce cap.

Wine of the Week: 2017 Huia Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough ($18) - New Zealand makes lots of terrific sauvignon blanc. This small family winery has as reliable a track record as any. The aroma of this young, fresh wine is distinctively New Zealand sauvignon blanc with traces of kiwi, lime and tangerine. If served cool, it is succulent to the point where it would be great with Thai, Indian or

Szechuan food. Served colder, the acid kicks in and gives this wine a tart finish that would be terrific with oysters or fettuccine vongole.

Sonoma County resident Dan Berger publishes Vintage Experiences,” a weekly wine newsletter. Write to him at winenut@gmail.com. He is also co-host of California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon on KSRO Radio, 1350 am.