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Video Transcript: What are the Varietal Fingerprints of Wine

Written By: ClassicWines.com Team on Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Brian Freedman: Welcome to The Classic Wines Minute, brought to you by ClassicWines.com, I'm your host Brian Freedman. Join me as we explore the world of wine with the Sommelier instructors, here at The Wine School of Philadelphia.

Keith Wallace: I'm here with David Snyder, one of the Sommelier instructors at The Wine School of Philadelphia, and today we're talking about Varietal Fingerprints. What I mean by that is that every single wine grape has a distinctive personality, no matter where it's grown.

David Snyder: It's important to understand that a winemaker could do a lot of things to a wine in between when they pick the grapes to when it finally makes it to the bottle but these varietal fingerprints are going to be the same at the core regardless of what the winemaker does to it or regardless of where these grapes are grown.

The first wine we have today is Pinot Noir, and the two main varietal characteristics of this grape are barnyard and roses. So let's take a sniff of this. This is amazing!

So what you're getting in this is unswept barn, fermented hay, I mean this is the fragrance of nature. If you're going to spend time in a barn you know exactly what that means. It's just absolutely fantastic. What about you Keith?

Keith Wallace: Well I have one on the complete opposite end of wines. I have a syrah and this wine -- let's give this a swirl. This is not ethereal like a Pinot, this is just monstrous; this jumps out of the glass; this is animal; this is intensity; this is grilled steak; this is beef jerky and white pepper, and there's always that white pepper there too. So these are the distinct varietal characteristics of syrah, game, gaminess and white or black pepper.

David Snyder: Without the fruit.

Keith Wallace: That's a good point. Now, the fruit on this -- syrahs are going to be jammy, heavy, blackberry, blueberry, intense in the body, full rich heavy and the tannins, the bitterness is just intense, overwhelming in some wines.

David Snyder: And on the opposite end of the spectrum of the Pinot you're typically going to get something that's lighter bodied, that's going to have finer tannins with the fruit, you're getting strawberries and maybe a little bit of ripe cherry.

Keith Wallace: Also a great point, I guess, so that you have the feminine wine and I have the masculine wine today. But those were great points, Dave, thank you so much, and I'm going to send you all out with some homework today. Go grab a few bottles of wine, pick your favorite varietal, go find it from many different areas of the world, try it. Notice how the wine is different but always remains the same in that there is a certain core that whether it's a Cabernet or Merlot or Chardonnay, it always tastes the same.

And folks, I hope you continue to watch and join us again as we continue our journey through the World of Wine.

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