Warming, cooling
Suddenly it’s September – the autumn equinox is only two weeks away – but Earth’s hottest summer on record probably isn’t through with us yet.
Earth’s climate is changing. It’s getting warmer. We can argue about the causes of this warming (although NASA is pretty sure it knows why); but it’s hard to ignore the reality of longer, hotter summers. …
The 30 Wine Advisor is a reader-supported online community. If you enjoy these reports, please consider a paid subscription. You’ll get twice as many reports, and you’ll help keep us going! If you can’t do it, though, don’t worry. All are welcome to our basic edition, which will always be free.
… And as wine lovers, it’s hard for us to ignore the reality of hotter, higher-alcohol, stronger wines made from grapes that have basked under that scorching heat.
Today’s featured wine, Nieto Senetiner 2020 “Don Nicanor” Malbec from high up in the Andes foothills of Argentina’s Mendoza region, startled me with its 14.9% alcohol, a level to match big Zinfandels and moving in the direction of Sherry and Port.
NASA map shows global temperature anomalies for July 2023, reflecting how July 2023 compared to the average July temperature from 1951-1980. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
Regular readers will recognize, perhaps with a grin or maybe a sign, that I write about this often, usually in a column written some time between July and September. As far back as 2002, I wrote in a column titled “Alcohol: Creeping Upward”: “While the trend isn’t universal, many wines are creeping upward in alcohol content. As recently as the 1980s, it was unusual to see a red wine much over 13 percent alcohol, with whites lagging a percentage point or so behind. A wine labeled 12.5 percent may actually contain anything from 11 to 14 percent. … But some wines nowadays seem to start at 14 percent and go up from there.”
The good news is that wine makers are learning to accept the challenge of hotter summers yielding riper grapes that make stronger wines. They’re creating wines that carry their alcohol load well. This Malbec, for example, was alcoholic, but it brought a good fruit-and-acid balance that showed as suave, not fierce. As I’ve reported of other higher-alcohol wines lately, it managed to express itself with a firm voice but it didn’t yell.
So what’s a wine lover to do? Here’s a wine-tasting tip that goes double during summer (and early fall) heat: The old wisdom about serving red wines at room temperature comes with an asterisk: It is perfectly all right to put your bottle or glass of red wine into the fridge for a half-hour before dinner, just long enough to bring it down to something like cellar temperature, the natural chill of underground wine cellars and caves.
Realistically, you don’t want to serve red wine ice cold. Not good red wine, anyway. An icy chill will rob the wine of the flavor nuances you expect in a red, and will throw its acidity and tannins out of balance. But ice cold is one thing, and a light, refreshing chill is quite another. If you try it, let me know how it goes.
Today’s Tasting Report
Nieto Senetiner 2020 “Don Nicanor” Mendoza Malbec ($17.99)
Dark reddish-purple in color with a clear violet edge, “Don Nicanor” Mendoza Malbec opens with a bold, forward scent of cherries and cherry liqueur. With time in the glass it calms a bit, adding blackberry notes and whiffs of black and white pepper. Its hefty 14.9% alcohol adds an indisputable touch of heat, but it’s well integrated in a full black-fruit flavor, fresh and clean, shaped by fresh-fruit acidity and soft tannins that become more obvious as a touch of dark chocolate joins in an exceptionally long finish. U.S. importer: Foley Family Wines, Santa Rosa, Calif. (Sept. 7, 2023)
FOOD MATCH: Beef or venison make a classic match with this big, dry red wine. It would also go well with cheese-based dishes. We dreamed up a Beyond Burger seared outside, cool pink inside, topped with fresh chimichurri to approximate an Argentine parrilla, and it was an excellent match.
WHEN TO DRINK: It’s fine now, but it should be fine under good cellar conditions for the next three to five years.
VALUE:
Wine-Searcher.com’s $18 average U.S. retail matches my local price, which represents a very good value for this exceptional Argentine red.
WEB LINK:
Here’s a fact sheet on the 2020 vintage from the winery in English.
FIND THIS WINE ONLINE:
Check prices and find vendors for “Don Nicanor” Mendoza Malbec on Wine-Searcher.com.
Follow this Wine-Searcher link to learn more about Malbec and find listings for dozens of Malbec-based wines.
Learn about Argentina’s Mendoza region at this Wine-Searcher link.
Wine Focus September 2023 –
Benchmarks of Syrah
Our Wine Focus for September turns to Syrah. Northern Rhone, anyone? Hermitage? Côte-Rôtie? Maybe the “humble” St Joseph or Crozes-Hermitage?
Syrah is one of those grapes that gets relatively little respect, yet produces some stunning wines. As with everything, it can be misused, and it can produce some pretty scary wines as well. The Shiraz boom of the late 1990s may very well have permanently tainted one of the most noble grapes in the entire world of wine.
But let’s rehabilitate Syrah! Find a bottle that you like, taste it, and loin us in the WineLovers Discussion Group as we talk about Syrah this month.
Find the wines you want
Explore Wine-Searcher
Wine-Searcher.com is the place to go online if you want to find where to buy a particular wine that interests you. What’s more, Wine-Searcher.com offers so much more. It’s well worth a visit just to discover its many features, including its popular list of the world’s Top 10 Best Value Wines.
Good wines we’ve tried under $10.99!
Want tips to still more good, inexpensive wines? Here are Wine-Searcher links to vendors and prices for a bunch more wines for $10.99 or less that I’ve told you about in recent years. In some cases the prices may have risen over the $10.99 mark since I reviewed them, but they should still be excellent bargains. Please tell us about your favorites!
Sponsor the Wine Advisor.
Support The 30 Second Wine Advisor and help us pay the rent while reaching 25,000 dedicated readers with your sponsorship message in this space, at the top of this E-letter, and on our social media. If you’re an established business in wine, food, and similar ventures, there’s no better way to focus your message toward an audience that comes here for just those topics. See our Sponsorship Page, or email Robin Garr for more information.
Wine Forum and Social Media
If you have questions, comments or ideas to share about today’s article or wine in general, you’re always welcome to drop by our online WineLovers Discussion Group, the Internet’s first and most civil online community. Discussions are open for public viewing, but you must register to post. To request registration, please contact me at wine@wineloverspage.com, tell me your name, mention the Wine Advisor, and briefly say why you’d like to participate in the forum. Sorry about the minor red tape, but this is our simple, low-tech way to deter spammers and bots.
We’d also be delighted to have you visit and “like” our WineLovers Facebook Page. This way you can get Facebook notifications when there’s a new The 30 Second Wine Advisor issue or a topic of particular interest on the WineLovers Discussion Group (WLDG).
Read more articles from The 30 Second Wine Advisor
Previous edition: « A taste of Mount Etna
Agreed! Reds taste so much better cooling them down closer to cellar temp. Then open and either decant or let breathe for 30-60 minutes before drinking.