I have a few old wine books - old enough to be oddities rather than useful day to day. Among those is a 1983 edition of Hugh Johnson's Modern Encyclopedia of Wine. I was flipping through it for some background on an article I'm writing, and found this in the introduction to the California section:
Heartiness suits Americans - at least the Americans of today. It suits many wine drinkers everywhere. But it is an important sign of the maturity of the California wine maker that today he is talking in terms of toning it down. A year or two ago the terms of highest praise were 'impressive fruit,' 'heaps of varietal character,' 'distinct notes of French oak.' Today, 'delicacy,' balance,' 'harmony,' and 'elegance' are becoming fashionable terms of approval... With what may be an over-reaction, some of the big California wineries have even started marketing extremely low-alcohol 'soft' wines.
Interesting indeed. It reminds of this bottle I got as a gag gift recently, which probably dates to that period, judging from the label design. It is not vintage dated, naturally.
Perhaps more interesting is the trend that Johnson points out. It seems that in the early 80s, California vintners had been making big oaky fruit bombs, and were starting to back away from that style. Does this ring a bell for anyone? A recent conversation with Bill Easton of Amador County's Easton and Terre Rouge wineries yielded a similar anecdote. According to him, the style for Zinfandel back in the late 70s was huge and extremely alcoholic, followed by a period of restrained "claret-style" zins.
The book of Ecclesiastes (or the Byrds song, whichever is more familiar to you) yields a similar lesson: there is nothing new under the sun. An point of note for your next chicken little-type discussion about the end of terroir as we know it. (For an even-handed and high-minded discussion on the topic, see a recent post and comments on Vinography.) Let's just hope that no marketing geniuses find an old bottle of Diet Chablis - Zero Carb wine notwithstanding - and get revivalist ideas.
Comments