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California Wine

The vineyards near America 's West Coast are among the most beautiful in the world. Yet does the relentless pursuit of technical perfection in Californian wineries create wines that are the stuff of dreams or are they, er, a little bland?

Anyone who has ever driven north across the Golden Gate through Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino will tell you that California's wine country is God's own country.

Its sweeping, perfectly formed terrain, lush vineyards and exquisite cuisine wineries with welcoming visitor centres make California an ideal place to learn about wine. Few places could be further removed from the dishevelled vines and locked gates that meet visitors to so many European wine-producing regions.

Not only are California's vineyards fabulously well groomed - so are its wines. There are those who argue that many Californian wines are textbook examples of the winemaker's art. The region's critics believe that great winemakers don't need textbooks, that perfect wines are bland and lacking in character. It won't be until you have drunk your way around the Californian wines that you will be able to take a view, so until then keep an open mind. Like any wine region, California evades generalisations. As you will discover, it's the home of good and boring wines in equal measure.

One problem that has blighted the Californian wine industry in recent years has been competition. Until recently the region's winemakers had a near monopoly over the market for non-European wines in the United States. However, the recent arrival of goodvalue wines from Chile and Australia has generated fierce competition. Another fly in the ointment has been oversupply. The exponential growth in the number of wineries has created such a serious glut that Californian producers have had to drop prices in order to remain competitive. The result is excellent news for drinkers: oversupply means good-value wines - in many cases superb examples of their type.

TASTE TEST - WHITES

Californian Chardonnay
Australian Chardonnay
Good Californian sparkling wine
Good Champagne
Australian sparkling wine

TASTE TEST - REDS

Californian Cabernet
Australian Cabernet
Red Bordeaux
Californian Zinfandel
Californian Pinot Noir
Good-quality Burgundy
Australian Cabernet Sauvignon
Good-quality Cabernet-based red Bordeaux
Rhône red

COMPARE AND CONTRAST

Having tried the wines blind, try the following line-up:

Californian Chardonnay + Australian Chardonnay
Californian Cabernet + Australian Cabernet + Cabernet-based red Bordeaux
Californian Zinfandel + Rhône red+ Californian Cabernet
Californian Pinot Noir + good-quality Burgundy
Good Californian sparkling wine + good Champagne + Australian sparkling wine

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ZINFANDEL

Almost every wine region has a grape - or grapes - that it has made its own. Burgundy has Chardonnay and Burgundy. The Loire has Sauvignon Blanc. Australia has Shiraz. South Africa has Pinotage. California's speciality is Zinfandel, a grape of obscure origins that makes wonderfully bold reds and terrible rosé known as 'blush'.

A POTTED HISTORY OF CALIFORNIAN WINE

Vines have been grown in the region since the 1770s, but it wasn't until the gold rush in the 1850s that an influx of thirsty prospectors created a market for locally produced wines. In the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth the double whammy of phylloxera - a devastating disease that destroys vines - and prohibition gave the industry a bumpy ride. Things improved after the Second World War, although the market - like that in Australia - was still for sweet wines. In the 60s a new generation of dry table wines - notably Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay - gained serious recognition, notably at a landmark tasting in 1976 when some Californian reds beat some of Bordeaux's top chateaux in a blind tasting.


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