Gripes and opinions 2-5-2025

This is the weekly column

Wine columnists are expected to have opinions, and I have many. Here are four to rile up readers.

• Stemless wine glasses. They do hold wine and they are harder to break and easier to clean than traditional stemware, but they also commit three cardinal sins for wine enjoyment. First, you have to hold the bowl to use them. That means fingerprint smudges on the glass, diminishing a vital part of wine enjoyment—admiring and evaluating the wine’s color. Second, it is somewhat harder to swirl wine in a stemless. Third, bowl holding warms the wine, diminishing the taste of the wine. See, swirl, smell, sip, and savor are classic—if simplified—elements for tasting wine. Stemless glasses mess with three of the five elements.

• Over-inflated prices and heavy bottles. You produce a decent $30 bottle of wine. Then you put it in a very heavy bottle and charge $60. Studies indicate if people know the price and feel the bottle weight, they consider the heavy bottle, higher-priced wine a better wine than the exact same wine poured from a lighter bottle with a lower announced price. Price is an imperfect indicator of quality. Bottle weight has no impact on wine quality.

• Commodity/supermarket wines with added sugar, high alcohol, and oak. I get it, many people, especially occasional sippers, enjoy wine with those qualities. If that is good wine for you, enjoy away. But sweetness, high alcohol, and big oak are the enemy of wine’s best place in your life—paired with food. Also note, added sugar, elevated alcohol, and oak are proven ways to hide flaws of inferior wines.

• The ABC (Anything But Chardonnay) crowd. I once was part of that throng when the chard I tasted was suffused with butter and overladen with oak. Thankfully, those days are passing, and many California chardonnay makers have seen the humiliating error of their ways and now strive to strike a balance between reasonable and food friendly alcohol, complex layering of fruit flavors, and a lingering finish. Chardonnays with no oak are lean and crisp with stone fruit flavors. Chardonnays with appropriate oak present fuller body and a creamy mouthfeel. If you have lingering antipathy toward chardonnay, try one of today’s quality chards to change your mind.

What are your gripes and opinions?

Tasting notes

• Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars KARIA Chardonnay, Napa Valley 2022: Graceful, fruit forward, some depth and complexity. Nice Napa chard from historic maker. $36-50 Link to my review

• Austin Hope Cabernet Sauvignon, Paso Robles 2021: Plush, smooth, powerful cab. Luxurious instead of smack-your-face power. $56-75 Link to my review

Last round

My four food groups: cabernet, chardonnay, malbec, Champagne.