This year's California Wine Fair rolls into Ottawa on Friday and it promises to provide the same great experience for 800 ticket-holders as in past years.
California wine has been coming on strong during the past few years and there are some good trends to note. One is that we're getting wines from a wider range of American wine regions. Not that U.S. wine ever came only from the Napa and Sonoma valleys, but they had a real grip on California wines, not least because the two giants Gallo and Mondavi were located there.
But in recent years we've seen wines from a lot more regions with significant variations in climate that favour grape varieties as different as Pinot Noir and Zinfandel.
One region that's really come to the fore is Paso Robles in the Central Coast area. This is the heart of California's Rhone-style wines, which are made from varieties like Syrah, Mourvedre and Grenache. You might look for a very good 2003 Syrah made by Liberty School in Vintages' April 1 release at $19.95 (942383). It follows Liberty School's excellent Cabernet Sauvignon.
Aside from different California wine regions, we're seeing a wider spectrum of varieties, even if Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon still dominate. Although wine writers go on and on about the ABC (Anything But Chardonnay) movement, Chardonnay has never been more popular. In California it's far and away the most widely planted variety; more than a quarter of all California wine sold in the U.S. is Chardonnay.
Compare that to Zinfandel, which is California's signature grape. Red Zinfandel makes up only two per cent of California wine sales in the U.S., while white Zinfandel, which is usually made in a sweeter style, accounts for 14 per cent. (By the way, there's a clutch of very good red Zinfandels in the April 15 Vintages release.)
How about Pinot Noir and the Sideways Effect? The movie Sideways, which centres on an odyssey to taste Pinot Noir in California, is said to have pumped up Pinot Noir consumption in many places. In the eight months after the movie's release (from October 2004 to June 2005), sales of California Pinot Noir rose 18 per cent compared to the same period one year earlier. I suspect that any effect of the movie was confined to the U.S., and it will be interesting to see if the upward trend has continued.
Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot continue to dominate California reds, though, and there are quite a few Cabernets from the excellent 2001 and 2002 vintages on sale here. Overall, there's been a slight shift toward red wines in California, a shift that mirrors consumption trends in Canada and elsewhere.
The California wine industry seems to be responding well to consumer demands. Actual vine area has declined slightly, reflecting global overproduction of wine (some of you are just not drinking regularly enough!). And California wine producers across the board really seem to be paying close attention to quality and to price.
Good wine at a fair price is a winning combination. And speaking of fair, don't forget the California Wine Fair. If you can't make it, keep checking Vintages releases for wines from the Golden State.
California Wine Fair
This perennially popular, sell-out event showcases scores of wineries and hundreds of great wines.
When: Friday, 7 to 9:30 p.m.
Where: The Westin Hotel
Tickets: $55 for invited guests, $50 for wine club members. No sales at the door. To receive an invitation, call the California Wine Institute at 1-800-558-2675 or visit www.calwine.ca.
Four California wines today — a tiny sample of the hundreds available for tasting at the California Wine Fair.