A lot of premium wines (> $20 a bottle) are often packed full of oak flavors. How can you tell? Just go to the nose. Think about it, smell the glass before swirling. Is a pine, cedar, or wood nose coming in, on the “front row” so to speak. This is a balance issue between the fruits and the “oak” that is in the wine thanks to excessive oak used in the wine making. Also the aging of wine (anything over say 3-5 years old), will diminish the fruit flavors over time. Maybe the strawberry notes, turn to dried strawberries with age. What dominates over the fruit flavors with time are tertiary flavors that happen in the bottle. What are tertiary flavors, those are things from mushroom, and forest, to tar and smoke, and everything in between. Heavier oak usage is most common in the Sonoma, Napa, Paso Robles areas of California where as a group they are striving for that $100-$500 wine. It often goes along with the “big wine” phenomenon which is also (too) common, where wines are 14-16% alcohol. Oh how we should yearn for more complex, artfully made, 11.5-13.5% red wines.
One of the most memorable wines I have ever had was “free run” Syrah from a natural wine maker here close to my house. It was just outstanding, and you best drink it young. Because the fruit in the wine and its complexities (the many phenols) that come out with the fermenting grapes is so exceptional. So much incredible Rhone varieties grow here in my region because of the soils, climate and geography. Often crushed mountain granite, mixed with volcanic, iron and mineral rich earth. There is a lot the grapes can give, just from the crush, maceration, and fermentation processes themselves. It can be amazing. A free run wine can be very complex, and totally fruit drenched as well, in aromas and taste.
Don’t get me wrong, oak is a vital part of wine making I know, but you will so often find it dominating the nose and palate, and influencing the finish as well. This is sad, all these $1,000-2,000 barrels getting overused so I can take my $40 wine to $80-$200 and beyond. Really? So I suggest if you love fruit forward wine, to take a step back and maybe find a good wine store that understands natural wine making. This is the category that will open the door to possible access to less invasive wine making. Don’t assume you can find free run readily at these stores, these kind of wines are very hard to find. Exceptionally hard, but the sommelier will understand your needs and get you a swathe of these types of wines that are closer to what free run can provide.
Here is a natural wine store that does really well in San Francisco, if you want some unoaked or less oaked wines, call them or send them an email and I am sure they will derive a case or small mix for you, that will be exciting if not life changing. Ok, maybe not life changing. 🙂
San Francisco’s Flat Iron is one of the best at this art.
https://sf.flatiron-wines.com/collections/natural-wines
Also two winemakers that I have drunk excessive amounts of their wine and know they will not oak you out are:
https://hollyshill.com/ – A Rhone centric pair of seasoned winemakers that know all about “not” over oaking their Rhone varieties. Which is sadly very rare in my region, but a few have gotten it, and continue to deliver like Carrie and Josh can. Always finding balance before oak indulgence.
https://belongwines.com/ Belong wines is a Napa company that actually smartly sources a lot of amazing fruit from El Dorado AVA, and this gives many more people the chance to try mountain spice. This wine company will delight you with the open, fruit forward, lightness of their wine. They make an amazing mountain spicy Mourvedre. A wine that really delights. Try some of their wine and see if this beautiful style works for you. Never overpriced, and always a very cleanly made varietal is what you can expect. They can reliably be found at K&L. Who will ship them to you.
Remember, there is not a lot that the bottle’s label reveals, so ask some open ended questions. You can also get some details on the wine making process in the winery’s details pages. This is all varied of course, but an expert winemaker wants to import some important details on their site. Here you can see a methodology of letting Grenache be Grenache, ok light skins, means lighter color, so maybe some blending was done for color. But anyway these type of descriptions should make you want to try this wine. Based on the thesis of this blog.
I still remember when Lava Cap was on allocation for their Grenache. There is a distinct reason there is a second block of Grenache on this property now. The soils, the elevation, Grenache loves it…