Wine Comparisons

Why do grape varieties taste different depending on region?

Among the endlessly fascinating facets of fine wine, comparing and contrasting bottles of similar make-up and style from different sources is among the most compelling. Why does this Pinot Noir from California taste so different to that Pinot Noir from Burgundy? How does this Alsace Riesling stand up to that Australian version? And – most importantly – how can you be sure which ones you will prefer?

In the past, it was all too easy to stereotype, stylistically, wines from different regions. ‘Old World’ wines were elegant and ethereal; ‘New World’ wines were powerful and punchy. Such broadbrush thinking is now as outdated as the geographic terms themselves. And even if you drill down a little further, it’s still a touch simplistic to paint all California and Australia wines as big, burly beasts, and Burgundy and Bordeaux as the home of silky, savoury subtlety.

Today, climate change, swings in fashion and an evolution in winemaking know-how have all contributed to making the wine world a more joined-up place. Yet there are still some broad conclusions that can be drawn around the signature regional renderings of the world’s most widely planted grape varieties.

Pinot noir – how different climates transform this ethereal grape

Let’s start with arguably the most popular – and variable – variety of them all. Pinot Noir. Being a sensitive, thin-skinned grape, Pinot is particularly subject to the impact of both its vineyard environment and its handling in the cellar. That malleable character is best harnessed in cool climates where the temperate conditions allow it to harness the delicacy that makes Pinot what it is – light, elegant, perfumed, refreshing. Hotter climes eradicate such nuance – hence why Pinot is rarely seen in the Barossa or Rhône Valleys, or the southern reaches of Spain or Italy.

There is a reason why so many winemakers from ‘emerging’ regions claim a ‘Burgundian’ character to their Pinot. Such a descriptor is shorthand for elegant, subtle, nuanced – all characteristics that are prized by today’s consumers. How accurate their claim is is another matter. Burgundy is seen as the apogee of such a style – largely because of its history. The monks were making wine here in the Middle Ages, and subsequent generations have fine-tuned this know-how to pinpoint the best sites and burnish Burgundy’s reputation. Such harnessing of centuries-old terroir is surely a factor in the earthiness that is seen in red Burgundy – even a farmyardy character in some quarters – that is hard to replicate elsewhere.

Southern Hemisphere and/or younger regions have terroir too, even if some of it is only now being fully harnessed and understood. Perhaps as a consequence, the hand of the winemaker tends to be a little more prominent, as producers strive to hit a consistent style. And even amid such parameters, winemakers often coalesce around a signature regional identity. New Zealand Pinots tend to have a certain florality on a darker, iron-and-blood-tinged core; Australian iterations, from Victoria and Tasmania, are noted for their fresher, red-fruit purity; while Californian Pinot, notably from Sonoma, often showcases a slightly riper, darker fruit allied to a touch more structure, sometimes buttressed by a lick of oak.

Chardonnay – the chameleonic white

Burgundy also provides the global benchmark for its signature white variety, Chardonnay, the most notable renderings of which showcase a depth and profundity that is a world away from the cheap-and-cheerful caricature that plagued the variety for many years. Chardonnay is planted almost everywhere, and as with Pinot, it is very sensitive to both its surroundings and the hand of the winemaker. As a result – and as one might expect given its spiritual home in the Côte d’Or – the most notable non-Burgundian examples tend to come from the same places as Pinot. Australia, for years associated with the generous ‘sunshine in a bottle’ identity has now gone to the other end of the scale via chiselled, lean bottlings. The most notable herald from cool-climate Victoria, and are sometimes marked by a ‘reductive’ note imparted by rigorous winemaking, which translates to a gunflint, struck-match character. By contrast, Californian Chardonnay still tends towards that rounder, richer feel, often marked by a touch of oak, perhaps as an attempt to ape the generosity of Meursault and Montrachet. New Zealand and South Africa, meanwhile, offer a happy medium somewhere between the two.

Riesling: From lusciously sweet to lip-smackingly zesty

If France is home to most – if not all – of the world’s most widely planted grape varieties, Australia is the southern hemisphere country that provides the most direct comparisons. Here you will find Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Riesling, and even Sauvignon Blanc in places. As with Chardonnay and Pinot, Riesling is a variety that is hugely transparent in nature. When the great German winemaker Erni Loosen teamed up with Clare Valley counterpart Jim Barry to make a Riesling down under, he was struck by the lime-tinged note found in so many South Australian examples. The Clare Valley is much warmer – and drier – than the Mosel, and as a consequence, its Riesling is more demonstrative than a delicate, balletic 8.5% Mosel Kabinett. What Loosen couldn’t fathom was whether the limey note came from the terroir or the winemaking. But when he made a Riesling with the same fruit, but via a traditional German vinification – extended ageing in large oak barrels – the limey element disappeared. The weight and structure was still there, though, and it certainly didn’t taste like anything from his Mosel homeland.

Today, Loosen makes Riesling in this manner in Australia, Oregon and Washington State, and they all taste different. Which is a vivid illustration that regional styles are dictated by both the local terroir and the prevailing winemaking philosophy. In Australia, that approach is all about cleanliness, a lack of faults, and showcasing primary fruit. In France, meanwhile, those savoury, farmyard notes are more often encouraged, be it through extended lees ageing, use of whole bunches (including stems), or sometimes even via tolerance of the controversial yeast spoilage Brettanomyces, which Australians regard resolutely as a fault. The divergence in approach is perhaps best encapsulated by Australians’ devotion to screwcap, which stifles the ageing of wine but guarantees pristine condition, over cork, which allows oxygen ingress, thereby allowing the wine to age but risking oxidation or cork taint (despite his best efforts, Loosen couldn’t persuade the team at Jim Barry to bottle the Wolta Wolta Riesling under cork).

Classic French varieties, transformed

There is another inherent element at play when it comes to regional diversity. The age of vines can make a huge difference to a wine’s character, with older vines more likely to impart that complexity and savouriness that is the hallmark of classic reds. And naturally, the more established wine regions – Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rhône – tend to be home to more examples of such vine material. But that’s not to say the likes of Barossa Valley, Napa Valley and Stellenbosch don’t also boast several historic sites, rather putting the lie to the term ‘Old World’.

Nowhere are those complex savoury tones more vividly captured, however, than in Bordeaux, whose top reds develop a wonderful, almost incomparable tertiary character with age. The great Cabernet blends of California and Western Australia develop similar earthy, forest-floor notes, but many Cabernets (and Bordeaux blends), from Chile to South Africa, Washington State to Tuscany, highlight primary fruit and velvety mouthfeel first and foremost. Some never develop such tertiary characters.

It's the same with Syrah/Shiraz – so much so that the very nomenclature that a producer chooses for its label tends to betray its intent. The Syrah of the variety’s northern Rhône heartland shares a lifted, perfumed, peppery edge with that made by the best South African producers, notably in the Swartland, most of whom use the French version of the grape variety on their labels. Australian renderings, on the other hand, still tend towards more dense, plush and rich tones – and are almost invariably listed as Shiraz.

Sauvignon Blanc – so zesty and zippy in New Zealand, especially Marlborough, whose wines are immediately recognisable – takes on a more herbaceous green-apple note in the Loire (and hits somewhere between the two in Chile and South Africa). Bordeaux’s rendering of the variety – usually blended with a splash of Semillon – is rounder and fuller still, largely thanks to ageing in oak. This is the style that Californians call ‘Fumé Blanc’ (not a different grape variety, but a term first coined by Robert Mondavi to denote a barrel-aged Sauvignon Blanc).

All around the world, variety of terroir and approach brings a wonderful diversity to the variety of grapes at winemakers’ disposal. Sometimes the resultant styles are predictable, sometimes less so. And therein lies the beauty of wine…