Summary: California wine is undergoing a shift as younger drinkers look beyond cabernet and chardonnay toward lesser-known grapes and unfamiliar styles. Dan Berger examines the risks wineries face when responding to changing tastes, recalling past fads such as moscato while pointing to renewed interest in grapes that include chenin blanc, picpoul, vermentino and blaufränkisch. Established varieties still dominate, but wineries increasingly are broadening their portfolios as consumers seek discovery and experimentation. The result is a market in transition, with both opportunity and uncertainty for growers and producers.
“Younger buyers seem eager to try whatever is newest to them.” — Dan Berger
NAPA VALLEY, Calif — The various forces that have seriously impacted all wine sales for the last three years, which led to winery bankruptcies, forced mergers and industry departures, included one curious side effect: Newer consumers seem to be rejecting California’s greatest wine achievements in favor of wines of novelty.
This development isn’t yet widespread, but it has a negative effect on the two most popular wines. Unlike many European districts that dictate, by law, which grape varieties may be planted where, U.S. laws are more anarchistic. We permit any winery, no matter where it is located, to plant any grape variety that the public appears to want to buy.
However, changing grapes away from the tried-and-true marks a sea change in how grape people go about their business. Wineries and growers that planted common varieties such as cabernet and chardonnay because they were best for their soils and their sales may be dismayed by the potential hazards of trying new varieties that the public says it wants. It’s always a risk to trust what people say.
An illustration: A decade ago, muscat-based wines suddenly became all the rage. This happened so quickly that wineries worldwide were caught by surprise. Before anyone knew it, people who had muscat grapes to sell were completely sold out and dozens of growers hastened to plant muscat. Within a year literally dozens of wines began to appear with labels saying “moscato,” even though some of the wines contained no muscat.
Why was muscat suddenly so popular? A trendy rapper wrote a song in which he had recommended muscat. Within two years of that song’s appearing, every large wine company was making muscat-ish products.
And almost as quickly as it became a fad, it died. Three years after the demand for muscat-based wines exploded, it all crumpled. Demand evaporated, and wineries around the world were stuck with wines they couldn’t sell. The experience left many grape-growers extremely wary about converting existing vines into new, untested varieties.
But planting some test acreages of unusual grapes doesn’t require a Ph.D. There is unquestionably too much chardonnay and cabernet in the state, and converting acreage has become fairly conventional. Sonoma County seems better positioned because of a slightly cooler climate; Napa is relatively warm and might be less inclined to plant unusual varieties.
But look back to 1964. Bob Dylan sang, “The times they are a-changin,” and what we have begun to see around the country is a wine industry that is seemingly in a cataclysmic transition. We appear to be experiencing a radical change away from standard grape varieties.
Chardonnay and cabernet have long represented two of the finest wines California produced. Now new consumers seem to be more excited about wines like grüner veltliner, barbera and chenin blanc.
Cab and chard remain dominant with most producers, notably on the West Coast. At their best, they still command attention from retail shops, exalted restaurants, serious wine-collectors and auction houses. But in the last few years demand for them may have waned. Today there are serious new competitors.
Younger buyers seem eager to try whatever is newest to them. The grapes themselves may well be ancient (nero d’Avola, nebbiolo, barbera, petite sirah, valdiguié, torrontés), but they are new to younger buyers.
Dozens of wineries now realize that they may have to broaden their portfolios to meet the needs of consumers who are seeking unusual wines — and they’re not just talking about strange blends such as 50% zinfandel and 50% chenin blanc.
Many wineries with visitor-heavy tasting rooms have begun to develop additional items using grapes that pique the interest of the ABC (anything but chardonnay/cabernet) crowd. In many cases, Napa and Sonoma wineries do not have these varieties planted, so they have to source fruit from places like the Sierra Foothills, Lodi, Mendocino County, Lake County and the Central Coast.
One grape that began to gain popularity three decades ago is viognier. Today so many wineries offer a viognier that most consumers consider it to be relatively ordinary.
Not long ago here, we reported on the resurgence of interest in chenin blanc, which was extremely popular in the Napa Valley 50 years ago as an off-dry portico-pleaser. Since the 1970s, chenin blanc has been in hibernation. It is now coming back. Dozens of wineries are making one. The best are dry to off-dry, unlike the sweeter versions that were popular decades ago.
Among the best are from Sonoma County’s Dry Creek vineyard (using fruit from Clarksburg) and the estate-bottled Ballentine in Napa.
Since no one keeps a tally on which wineries today are turning which off-the-wall grape varieties into regular wines, writing about these “new” wines comes down to some seat-of-the-slacks research, which can miss some producers. Some will make a tiny quantity of a wine from an obscure grape because they don’t grow the variety and have to buy it from afar. And in the following vintage, they may not get the same fruit again.
Which means that they might sell out of the wines from obscure grapes so quickly that any article researched this week and published next week might be about a wine no longer available. So this recent look at the industry in northern California must naturally fall back on a phrase I dislike: “Until sold out.”
Without attempting comprehensiveness, let’s look at a few grapes that are relatively new on the scene and which have already begun to intrigue adventurous buyers:
Picpoul: From France’s Rhône Valley and the Languedoc comes this mildly aromatic, faintly herb-scented variety that occasionally is seen in French versions called picpoul de pinet. Women-owned Tres Sabores in Napa Valley produces a delightful, delicately spiced, blossomy picpoul from grapes grown in high-elevation El Dorado County ($40). The Tres Sabores team is headed by the talented Julie Johnson.
Others making a picpoul are Guthrie Family (Sonoma, $28), Raft (Santa Rosa, $23) and Bonny Doon (Central Coast, $18). The grape is growing in popularity, and I hear that it is being planted in several different locations.
Scheurebe: Evan Lewandowski, the talent behind Ruth Lewandowski Wines (Napa), uses this German/Austrian cross (riesling and an unknown wild vine) from fruit grown on Matthew Rorick’s Forlorn Hope vineyard (Napa, $30).
Another local producer who makes this wine is Bannister in Geyserville ($36).
Ribolla gialla: This floral white wine grape grows in Slovenia and the adjacent Italian district Friuli-Venezia Giulia. It usually is relatively simple. For that reason, it isn’t produced widely. Bannister ($36) gives it a little bit more texture by making it with some skin contact, as does Steve Matthiasson at his eponymous Napa Valley winery ($49).
Vermentino: There is a delicate flavor (pineapple?) component in this Italian grape variety that makes it semi-aromatic. It’s often made with such vibrancy that it works beautifully with Thai food and is a wonderful dryish patio sipper. Average prices for vermentino, whose U.S. acreage still is relatively limited, range from $30 to $45. I estimate that about 20 U.S. producers make a vermentino, and several more are being imported from Italy.
Among those who make it in California are Lola (Napa), Pax Mahle (Sonoma), Reeve (Sonoma), Castello di Amorosa (Napa), Tablas Creek (Paso Robles), Martha Stoumen (Sonoma), LOTIS (Sonoma), Unti (Sonoma), Speedy Creek (Napa) and Bahl Fratty (Sonoma). I make the latter.
One reason vermentino has become popular is that its aroma is so tropically fetching that it reminds some people of a delicate muscat.
Counoise: Mainly grown in France’s Rhône Valley, this dark-skinned red grape can make a complex, rich red wine, but typically it is made to capture its lovely fruit and is lighter and often has much less tannin than other red wines. Seth Cripe of Lola Wines in Calistoga and Jason Haas of Tablas Creek in Paso Robles both make excellent counoise reds.
Blaufränkisch: There may be no better example of an underrated grape than this remarkable red cultivar that benefits from being grown in cooler climates. It probably originated in Slovenia, and although it is respected by grape-growers in numerous places, only a few U.S. versions are considered exemplary.
One of the best I have tasted is from winemaker Shane Finley at Thirty-Seven Wines in the cool and windy Petaluma Gap. The beauty of this wine is in its dark color, delicate blueberry/blackberry fruit, moderate tannins and its ability to work well with lighter-weight red meats.
Two other terrific examples are from Left Foot Charley in Michigan and Dr. Konstantin Frank in New York. It is also popular in the Pacific Northwest, where it is often called lemberger. (It’s not connected with the highly scented cheese that sounds like it. But that faux association has kept it as a minor variety.) Jed Steele of Steele Wines had good success with it, calling it Blue Franc.
Blaufränkisch is related to the most widely planted red wine grape in Austria, the tart zweigelt, and it is widely planted throughout Eastern Europe and in Italy. In that area of the world, it has roughly 40 synonyms.
Aligoté: Consumers are unlikely to find a wine made from this variety because the grape, which is native to Burgundy in France, is rarely planted here. Most of it is in Washington state, where it produces a high-acid, delicate white wine without much distinctiveness and is often used in sparkling wines.
When it is grown intelligently and with care, it can produce a stylish white wine that can respond to barrel treatment. Two commercial California versions are occasionally available, and both are exceptional. They are from Jolie-Laide (Sonoma) and Au Bon Climat (Santa Barbara County).
Cabernet pfeffer: Talk about an obscure variety, this one probably is off everyone’s radar. California does not even recognize it as existing here, although estimates are that the state has 25 acres of it. Grape experts say it is a Bordeaux cultivar.
In terms of style, cab pfeffer is barely a red wine, usually making a dark rosé. The aroma is of wild berries with a streak of black pepper, and it may be best a bit chilled. Almost all pfeffer vineyards I know about are located in San Benito County, near Gilroy.
I recently tasted a superb 2023 cabernet pfeffer from Stirm Wine Co. ($35). It was designated “El Gabilan” from that vineyard in Cienega Valley. Other vineyards known to grow it are Gimelli, Enz, Wirz, DeRose and High Camp (Paso Robles). From what I have tasted, I believe this grape would do extremely well in cooler climates such as the Russian River Valley, Petaluma Gap and West Sonoma Coast.
The world of wine is so vast that when the tome “Wine Grapes” was published in 2012, I wasn’t surprised that author Jancis Robinson and two co-authors had written about 1,368 grape varieties and took more than 1,240 pages to do so.
So, obviously, this extremely brief look at the current conditions in the marketplace certainly have not made a dent in the subject. But it might be a brief introduction to the subject and may provide a little insight into what’s happening in today’s wine marketplace.
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Dan Berger has been writing about wine since 1975.
2023 Mascarin Red Field Blend, Dry Creek Valley, “Angelo Vineyard” ($41) — Probably no one besides adventuresome winemaker Matt Taylor would have the courage to blend all these different varieties together and create a light red wine that has a character that is not only dramatically interesting in aroma but also has such an elegant personality in its mid-palate and aftertaste. It starts with 75% syrah and then it goes off the rails. The field blend includes chenin blanc, sauvignon blanc, menu pineau (also called Arbois) and romorantin (genetically connected to chardonnay). Then there are lighter red wine grapes grolleau noir and pineau d’aunis (an extremely light red grape related to pinot noir) and some cabernet franc.
The winery website says of it, “Layers of red and dark fruit unfold effortlessly, complemented by hints of dried herbs and crushed stone. Each varietal contributes nuance and harmony, unified through the co-fermentation approach that defines this field blend. The palate carries remarkable poise and energy, tapering into a persistent finish accented by savory spice and a whisper of warm earth — an authentic reflection of Dry Creek Valley’s character in the 2023 growing season.”
The wine is lower in tannin than most other reds, may be chilled or served cool. It is unlike any other wine I have ever tasted — Dan Berger Review.
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