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Wine Examiner
Showing entries for Category: connectedness

POSTED May 5, 7:00 PM

OK, getting’ right back to it, round two of “What Make Great Wine Great?” The top two qualities in assessing great wine were complexity and varietal characteristics. The next would be connectedness, which is also elusive and possibly the most difficult quality to determine. Connectedness is the union between the plot of land the grape was grown on and the wine itself. The ethereal concept of connectedness defines something as “different from other things” and therefore worthy of appreciation.

Wine writer Karen MacNeil defines connectedness as “cultural identity—the links between people, their culture, and their homes.” She says, “Wine without connectedness to the ground from which it came may be of good quality, but there is a limit to how deep one’s aesthetic appreciation can be.”

The quality of a wine appears when its flavors and aromas are clearly defined. This quality may also be referred to as “eloquence.” Some wines display their character with focus and clarity while others are dull or muddled. If you take two well-produced wines, from two superior vineyards, from the same decent year, it isn’t crystal clear why one might not be as eloquent as another.

In this case, the winemaking itself may be at fault. But it is not uncommon for certain vineyards—consistently, year in and year out—to easily produce eloquent and expressive wines. Integration in a wine refers to more than just balance. It is a state whereby the components of a wine (tannins, acid, alcohol, pulp, sugar, etc.) are so perfectly interwoven that no single component or characteristic stands out markedly. Integration implies that all the components have come together in a well-balanced synthesis.

This quality is what we specifically seek in a wine. Non-integrated wine is much easier to describe than one that is integrated. Aspects such as oak, tannin, or acidity may reveal a wine that is not fully integrated. Comparatively speaking, an integrated wine presents itself as “round” in the mouth. Its degree of harmony is such that one cannot easily grab hold of any single component.

Self-admitted “ordinary” wine drinkers should occasionally sample a great wine (and this part pains me…) on not to regular a basis. The reason for this is in the beauty of comparison, as you want to see where superior qualities stand out. To drink a wine alone evokes melancholy; there needs to be someone there with which to share the experience. And as an experience, it needs analyzation, discussion, and speculation shared and savored with another.

Salud!

Categories: connectedness

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Leslie Cramer
Leslie Cramer has worked in the fine wine industry for twenty- something years. Known in some circles as "The Wine Wizardess," she'll cover topics from wine education, to trends o' the day and how to properly propose a toast, to health benefits of the grape.