This weekend’s wine tastings, at City Vino, focuses on wines that playfully evoke love. Whether you share with a spouse, significant other, family member, best friend, or yourself, wine can take you places you’ve never been, provide you with new experiences, make you feel warm all over, and let you taste the winemakers hard work and love in each and every sip.
Cabernet Franc is well known for being a blending grape in Bordeaux, but it is so much more than that. It is not only one of the parents of Cabernet Sauvignon, but also a parent of Merlot and Carménère. Cabernet Franc is also one of the top 20 most-planted grapes in the world. It is believed that Cabernet Franc originated in the Basque region in France, where Northern Spain meets with Southwestern France, near the cost of the Bay of Biscay.
There isn’t a full consensus on whether Primitivo, from Italy, and Zinfandel, from California, are exactly the same grape or not. Some believe they are siblings, but DNA testing proved that they are both clones of an indigenous grape from Croatia known both as Tribidrag and Crljenak Kaštelanski. Clones occur when a vine has a slightly different characteristic, due to natural changes, and that plant is propagated to take advantage of that difference. This grape was thought to be extinct in Croatia, but in 2001 researchers discovered nine remaining vines, and DNA testing was performed.
The Maule Valley is one of Chile’s designated wine producing areas. It is located over 150 miles south of Chile’s capital city of Santiago, and is the southern part of a region called the Central Valley. This large region is one of the country’s oldest and most diverse wine growing areas, dating back to the original colonization of the area by the Spanish.
While discussing wine, terms like AOC, AOP, DOC, DOCG, AVA, and appellation are often thrown around. The acronyms and words all equate to a recognized geographical area where wine is made. Within that geographical area, there are often rules, laws, and regulations that dictate what grapes can be grown, the weight of the grapes that can be harvested off one acre or hectare, barrel aging requirements, and what percentage of grape varietals have to be in a bottle labelled with the geographical term.
