Harlam Estate, Ridge or Mondavi, to give some well-known examples, are some of the mythical names attached to the great American wines, but they are not the only ones. Nowadays, the states of California, Oregon and Washington have a significant number of winemakers who make fantastic wines and who have consolidated the American wine world on the wine map of the globe.
A few months ago, at a tasting with my friends from Terroir a Ciegas, I served them, logically blind, a Piedrasassi wine, Rim Rock 2017, from the Californian region of Arroyo Grande Valley. The wine was tremendous. When I tasted it, despite knowing what the wine was, I was surprised that it was an almost exact replica of a great Hermitage, but with a modern twist that made it extremely enjoyable. Watching my friends taste it, I had no doubt that they were sure it was a syrah, but I was convinced that they would not aim for the New World, but would go towards the Rhone, either to Saint Joseph or to Hermitage. They didn’t hesitate for a second: “a textbook Saint Joseph”, they said without hesitation. I would have said the same thing. The resemblance was uncanny. We still remember the anecdote because of the striking resemblance Piedrasassi had achieved with his wine.
Americans tend to be good at everything and in the world of wine they have made no exception. Any impossible mission is a challenge from which they usually come out on top. Just think back to the two Paris trials. Nowadays, most of the wines I have tasted from the country of the Stars and Stripes have been great. Generally speaking, because there are specialities everywhere, I admit that I usually enjoy drinking a wine from Oregon, Washington or California. They are round, bright and clean, always with a technological note that, in a way, have become their hallmark. Everything must be in its place, and it is. Any variety expresses the grape’s own characteristics, but so well placed that its modern and technical point is part of the landscape.
As always, to appreciate each of its nuances, there is nothing better than blind tasting or comparing the same varieties, but from different countries, such as France and its legendary Burgundy, South Africa or New Zealand.