Here six brief observations on wine quality today, based on the goodly quantity of wine I’ve tasted over the past year or so.

1. This continues to be a great time to be a wine lover. Wine quality is as high as it has ever been and keeps getting better. The improvement is notable in all segments, but especially at mid-range price points, say $12 to $20, and from countries/regions which have been known for high-volume but not necessarily high-quality.
2. One big area of improvement in that mid-range segment is proper ripeness. There are fewer unattractive green flavors. A bit of herb and leafiness is appropriate in many wines. Too many used to be unpleasantly green though, due to over-cropping and/or soils damaged by excessive chemical use.
3. Texture has seen even bigger improvement. This results partly from better ripeness, but it’s also heavily influenced by winemaking technique. Lovely, fine tannins are becoming the rule rather than the exception. It’s very rare now that I find a wine with hard, grainy texture.
4. Oak usage is being moderated, but there’s still some way to go. I like oak. I’m good with barrels. But too many wines are almost totally dominated by wood on both nose and palate. Recently I finished tasting a few wines for review—sipping, spitting and doing my best not to swallow any—and found myself burping oak. That ain’t good.
5. Alcohol levels are still creeping up. A significant number of wineries have made low-to-moderate alcohol core to their brand. They are the exception though. Mainstream wines are getting bigger.
6. Cork taint remains too common. I still find corked bottles at a rate of roughly 4%. Consumers should not have to put up with that. Some wine producers are going to extraordinary lengths, such as 100% testing, to eliminate the problem. Those are high-end wineries though that can more easily hide the cost of that effort in the price of a bottle. In the $10-$40 range, TCA is still a big issue.

   Copyright Fred Swan 2016. All rights reserved.