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My name is Anne Wallace, I am a fine wine specialist for Trinity Fine Wines, and I work with Vintages Wines & Spirits in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
This is an introduction to red grape varietals. We are going to start with Pinot Noir. Pinot Noir is the grape that originated in Burgundy, France. It is a very light red grape and very thinned skin, and it is a bigger grape so it is not going to be nearly as heavy as some of the other red wines like Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon.
Pinot Noir was actually the very first grape variety to be cultivated for the purpose of making wine. The ancient Romans actually vinified Pinot Noir as early as first century AD, so it goes back very long way. It is most notably from up grown in cool coastal regions, similar to Riesling, it is a very fickle grape because it is very large and it is very thinned skin, so it is easy, it buds early, it is susceptible to frost, it is susceptible to being burst open. So, Pinot Noir is going to be—it is a tough grape to grow, but when you do it right, it can be fantastic. It is a very lighter style red wine and it is not nearly as tannic and heavy as some Cabernets or Merlots, so it is a great introductory of red wine varietal to start drinking.
As far as characteristics go, we are looking at a lot of black cherry, plumes, truffle, maybe some green tea, very lighter and lowers the medium body, it is a style wine.
Merlot is the most widely planted grape variety in all of Bordeaux, and that is where it came from typically on the right bank in areas such as Pomerol and Saint-Emilion.
Merlot is kind of the forgotten varietal, it used to be very, very famous in late 80s and early 90s, people are drinking a lot of Merlot. And then Pinot Noir come in came on to the scene and soon (Muffled) and some Shiraz and things and Merlots was kind of forgotten. But, it is certainly a beautiful great varietal. It has got some great expression, favorite characteristics of cherries, blueberries, blackberries, some plumes, you have got some violets, maybe some rose characteristics to it as well. It is going to be medium bodied, there are some full-bodied Merlots out there, but it is typically not as big and tannic and dry as a Cabernet.
All right, Cabernet Sauvignon is the big boy of all red wine varietals. It is widely planted in the Bordeaux region of France, but it catapulted itself allover the world. It is grown in France, in Italy, in United States, South America, Australia, everywhere. Cabernet is a big, big wine. It is the most robust wine varietal. It is big, angular tannic, and typically very dry. All of those characteristics help make it one of the most cellaring potential wines. It ages the best. There are some Cabernets that you can lay down for 30 years or 40 years and they are drinking beautifully at the end of that.
As far as characteristics, flavored profiles, the black currant, black cherries, some chocolates, smoke, maybe some cedar, you know, big characteristics, it is very dry wine, so you might get a little bit of mushroom, some earthiness to it depending on where in the world it is grown, and this a red meat eaters wine.
Syrah is one of my absolute, very favorite wines because I love the lusciousness, the jaminess characteristic of it. It is indigenous to the Rhone Valley of France, and some very famous wines you may have heard of coming out to that region that are (Muffled), Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Hermitage, Côte-Rôtie
But, what has happened with Shiraz has been really interesting, because it is implanted all over the world. California and Australia are the two places that it really started growing quite rapidly. And, in Australia they call it Shiraz, Syrah and Shiraz are the same grape just depending on where it comes from, different people name it with different things.
As you can see with the shape of the bottles, the Shiraz from Australia typically comes in a long skinny bottle and Syrah is from France and in the United States typically come in a shorter stock bottles.
Syrah grows best in warmer climates, that is one of the main reasons
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