MauMag July Aug 2014 WEB

July/August 2014
46
This is the third of three articles,
based primarily on the author’s
recollection of personal experiences.
Reminiscences, comments,
criticisms and other responses
from readers will be welcome.
In the first article in this three-part
series I discussed wine practices in
Arkansas which, in my opinion, had
set wine enjoyment back a hundred
or so years. The second article
pointed to increasingly positive factors,
including favorable legislative action,
knowledgeable sales of wine in some
restaurants, the removal of a mandated
mark-up in wine price, the increasing
sale of wine in supermarkets as well as
less negative input from some religious
organizations.
I concluded with my belief that
Arkansas would likely not become
known as a center of wine production.
This was intended as an observation as
to the relatively small output of the few
wineries in the state, not a judgment
as to the quality of Arkansas wines.
However, and more importantly, I
believed that Aransas had reached the
place where it could become a center
of wine enjoyment (as opposed to wine
production), that we have mastered the
basics of wine and its enjoyment and are
at the leading edge of something great.
What follows is my appraisal of
some of the factors which can affect
wine enjoyment in Arkansas into the
foreseeable future.
AGE. Let’s start with the almost
universally held belief that all wine
improves with age or, as it is often stated,
“The older a wine is, the better it has to
be.” This simply isn’t true and has resulted
in the sale of uncountable bottles of
over-the-hill wines. Wine is a living thing.
Wine Practices in Arkansas
Past, Present and (Possibly) Future
It goes through youth, maturity and old
age just as people do. Most wines are
at their peak when delivered to a retail
store. A few will develop, if cared for
properly, for maybe three to five years.
Some, especially the big reds take longer,
maybe five years, but once the downhill
slide starts, the ending is always the
same. The misconception that wine lasts
forever comes largely from experience
with fortified wine which has alcohol
added to it. Some of these wines will last
for endless years before they become
undrinkable. I have had several that were
over a hundred years old with no diminution
in taste and enjoyment but these
are the exceptions.
BOX WINES. Most of my readers
know that I have a high opinion of box
wines. These are mostly (but not always)
less expensive wines which are placed in
a plastic bags and all air excluded. As the
By Ken Forrester
wine is used, the bag collapses, no air can
get in and most of the freshness of the
wine is preserved. It seems to me that
similar new plastic bags could be sold for
wine lovers to fill with more expensive
wine, preserving the wine indefinitely.
Would it work Certainly. I have long
saved the emptied plastic bags, rinsed
them out with water and then with a few
spoonfuls of the wine to be saved and
then filled them with the expensive wine,
and have kept the wine fresh for extended
periods. Another positive factor is
price. Few of us can afford daily bottles
of expensive wine but can well afford less
expensive wines to accompany dinner,
family gatherings and similar functions.
ORIENTAL RESTAURANTS. One area
where wine enjoyment is still in its infancy
is oriental restaurants. Wine lists in such
restaurants appear to be prepared with
little thought given to whether the listed
wines are appropriate for the food. I attribute
this largely to the fact that most
wine lists appear to be prepared by wine
salesmen seeking commissions and not
by restaurant personnel. In actuality, any
oriental restaurant could limit its wine list
to two sparkling wines, with little diminution
in customer enjoyment: one wine
would be a medium dry rose sparkling
wine to accompany beef dishes and
the other a medium dry white sparkling
wine to accompany the other dishes. Of
course, multiple offerings of each could
be offered, as could a bigger red wine for
those customers who insisted, but two
wines would do the basic job nicely.
WINE AS A GIFT. A start has been
made but this is one of the most ne-
glected (but still most promising) aspects
of wine enjoyment in Arkansas. Not many
things pleases a wine lover more than a
gift of his/her favorite wine. The difficulty
comes in the donor not knowing just
what the favorite wine might be, often
resulting in gifts of bottles or cases of wine
that will never be drunk. Far too many Arkansans
categorize a dry wine as “sour”
and wonder why anyone would drink it.
If you are absolutely sure of which wine
is the recipient’s favorite, give that. If not
sure, give a sweet wine. Start with cream
sherry (either domestic or imported from
Spain by way of England and proceed to
Port, Madeira and many others.
HYBRID WINE. When Europeans
first came to America, they found native
American grapes (vitis labrusca) growing
in great profusion and immediately set
about turning them into wine, to their immediate
disappointment. Native American
grapes simply didn’t measure up to
their taste for wine made from European
grapes. European grape vines brought
to America succumed to cold weather,
insects and various plant maladies. The
solution seemed to be to cross the two
varieties so as to obtain grapes not subject
to the maladies but with the taste of
those from Europe. This hybridism continues
but has to a large extent served
its purpose since areas have been found
in America (California, Oregon, Washington,
New York, Ohio, others) where the
full-blown, un-hybridized European vines
do well and, while hybridism continues, it
seems to have lost some of its importance.
RESTAURANT WINE LISTS. These
seem too often to be prepared by the
salesmen of wholesale dealers and don’t
give much information about the listed
wines. My thought is that they should
be prepared in-house by restaurant
personnel. Certainly they should be
clean, individualized, have no penciled
in changes and should actually give
information the customer can use.
WINES FROM NATIVE AMERI-
CAN GRAPES. These grape varieties
originated in America and are entirely
separate types from European grapes.
They include such varieties as Concord,
Delaware and Catawba. There’s not much
way of describing them but tasting some
Concord grape jelly will make a start. There
is a great deal of snobbery connected
to American vs. European grapes and
American varieties are usually denigrated,
despite the fact that they have won
prizes in European competitions. Most
American tastes are slanted toward
American grape wines but snobbery
demands that the stated preference be
for those from Europe. To test this theory,
serve a guest an unidentified wine from
American grapes side by side with one
from Europe and the stated preference
will usually be, overwhelmingly, for the
American. however don’t expect the
guest to buy American on the next trip to
a wine shop but let’s do work on it since
it does offer a wide avenue to additional
wine enjoyment.
WINE INFORMATION. The amount
of wine information available is simply
overwhelming. Most people have access
to the internet and this is likely the
broadest, most available. Simply enter
any wine term and be overwhelmed. A
practice I have followed for years is to go to
Friends of the Library book sales and buy
every book pertaining to wine. The price
of twenty books is about the same as that
of one book from conventional sources. At
home, I examine my purchases at leisure,
keep the books that appeal to me and
return the rest to the library to be offered
again at future sales.
I have posted basic information about
wine and other subjects on the internet
and believe it provides a good starting
place. Go to www.barnesandnoble.com.
Click on Nook books and in the search section
which comes up, type my name, Ken
Forrester.
Assuredly, my crystal ball is no less
cloudy than yours but together let’s pursue
the thought that Arkansans are ready for
great things in wine. I will be pleased to
have your thoughts, pro or con. MM
K
en Forrester, a retired administrative law judge,
is the published author of numerous articles and
columns on wine.
Ken is a member of the Authors League, the American Wine
Society and the Society of Wine Educators.
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