Description

Behind the Burner goes "behind the vine" to tell you about grape varietals. We visit Bodegas Aragonesas in Aragon, Spain with expert Josh Hackler to discover what makes Spanish Tempranillo, Garnacha, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah so special.

Transcript

Divya Gugnani Today Behind the Burner goes behind the vine to tell you a little bit about Red Grape varietals before they hit your glass. I’m Divya Gugnani at Bodega Aragonesas in Aragon Spain, so let’s go behind the burner and meet the experts. I’m here with the President of Spanish Vines, Josh Hackler. Josh we have this great red grape varieties in front of us which is which? Josh Hackler: Well, we’re going to talk about four red grape varieties today. We’re personally in Spain so we should really know that there are two main grapes that are indigenous to Spain. First the Tempranillo, probably the most popular in the United States right now and it got natural of being one of most popular red grape varietals in Spain. Tempranillo, the fundamental difference between this one and the rest of the grapes in the table is you notice that the particular grapes are a little bit bigger. They’re a little bit more lash. Divya Gugnani: They look a lot bigger. Josh Hackler: Yeah. Divya Gugnani: They are just like really juicy and big fruit. Josh Hackler: Exactly! Divya Gugnani: Noticeably different and everything else on the table. Josh Hackler: But at the same time a lot of concentration within the fruit. We’re at an area in Spain where there’s a lot of elevation. This is about 600 meters of elevation, and so you get a lot of concentration of the fruit because of the climate. You get warm climate, dry, it has a lot of wind in these areas, so it’s really nice concentrated Tempranillo. For other regions besides Campo de Borja that Tempranillo grows in is Rioja and Ribera Del Duero and Penedes a little bit, and then all throughout Spain, very, very common, common red grape varietals in this country. Divya Gugnani: It tastes very juicy. It’s got lot of fruit and it’s just a big burst of flavor in your mouth as a big grape. And so this you mentioned before also indigenous in Spain is Garnacha. Josh Hackler: It’s Garnacha and particularly this one is 40-year old vines. It comes from 400year old vines Garnacha, and one of the things that we should know about that old vines as opposed to young vines is there’s a lot of work that the vine has to do in order to really create a grape wine like Garnacha. And what happens is that the vine really struggles as it’s older, and worst, the more struggle that the Garnacha has, the more concentration that the wine will have and— Divya Gugnani: A more character on the wine. Josh Hackler: A more character exactly. Divya Gugnani: And you know what’s so interesting about this is that each grape is so small. They’re like their tiny little grape, but they are so sweet I would say. Josh Hackler: Exactly! And one of the things that—well Garnacha in particular really, really thrives well in a dry climate, very little humidity like Campo de Borja. Divya Gugnani: Yeah. Josh Hackler: And a lot of wind. It also thrives in those kinds of areas and you get just ton of sweet— Divya Gugnani: Sweetness and a little bit of berry. Josh Hackler: Exactly! Sweet blackberry, ripe plums. This kind of flavor that it’s just great, and this particular grape varietal ripens a little earlier and has a little bit of higher sugar content. Divya Gugnani: And so we have two other grape varieties here that we haven’t tasted yet. Josh Hackler: Yup. So right here is the Cabernet Sauvignon. The most famous if you go back a long way, the most famous Cabernet Sauvignon being from French. Divya Gugnani: Of course. Josh Hackler: In Bordeaux, being aged with most commonly Cabernet Franc and Merlot, but most recently some of the new world countries like Australia and California has been producing 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, but this particular—the Cabernet all together usually has higher acidity, higher tannin and— Divya Gugnani: It tastes totally different than the Tempranillo and the Garnacha we have. Josh Hackler: Right. Divya Gugnani: And so this is the last one. Josh Hackler: It’s Shiraz. This is thicker Shiraz, when it’s young what’s typical is that it’s very—it’s got a little bit of tar, a little bit of spice, higher in tannins. Divya Gugnani: So was that about licorice? Josh Hackler: Yeah. But this one, what’s interesting about this is the climate that we’re in. It melts very well for only ripening for the Shiraz and a lot of concentration. Divya Gugnani: So you hear the words tannins and acidity thrown around a lot. What are they really mean? Josh Hackler: Tannin is not a taste. It’s not something that you can actually taste. It’s actually a feeling, a sensation that your mouth has whenever you do take a sip of the wine or whenever you—like right now actually just tasted the raw grape. Tannin is a feeling that you get on the side of your, really on the roof of your mouth or on the side of your tongue that it’s a sensation that would choke your mouth off, so the more tannin the more chookiness that you’ll get with the wine. Now, acidity is one of the things that you really get on the backend and you really feel the acidity in this area and what you want in a wine is a fine balance between tannin, acidity and fruit. Divya Gugnani: Right. Josh Hackler: That you want to find harmony on those three characteristics always. Divya Gugnani: Thank you so much Josh for teaching us all of that red grape varietals. Josh Hackler: Not really, it’s my pleasure. Divya Gugnani: Stay tune to Behind the Burner where we give you the tips, tricks and techniques that are lighting the culinary world on fire. For Q&A, photos and more, visit behindtheburner.com.