What about red wines?

The other day we talked about rosé wines and Xynisteri, but we did not say anything about the red ones. We left it for today.

Diagnosis: Most red Cypriot wines have a deep or a rather deep colour. Aromatically, they have improved considerably as they are more condensed, concentrated and pleasant. In some cases, they have a fine and delicate aroma, but often they preserve the rustic profile of wines produced in a hot and dry climate (harsh, grassy and plain).

As for the taste, things have not changed much. Most Cypriot red wines still have harsh, dry and non-evolutionary tannins, while at the same time are high in acidity. The coexistence of these two elements (harsh tannins and high acidity) results in wines with aggressive flavour profile that the modern consumer does not like. Remaining in the issue of flavour, I should also refer to the poor most of the times fruit, a fact that accentuates the aggressiveness and the lack of a flavourous balance.

Causes: Due to that above diagnosis, the investigation of the causes for the organoleptic or sense-related characteristics of Cypriot red wines is unavoidable. What is to blame? The answer is extremely simple: the vineyard is to blame, the fact that the viniculture is left far behind despite the wine improvement that has been achieved. With regard to the vineyard, we are still at infancy since we have not yet concluded as to which red varieties to plant and how to plant them, at which altitude (the most important of all), density and with what way to form the vines (linear, cupulate) and so on. We have not decided yet on the vine yields we will keep, on how and when we will harvest and on many other important vinicultural issues. Since the production of red wine depends much more on the quality of grapes than the production of white or rosé, we end up with poor quality red wines and good or excellent quality white or rosé ones. The grape skins take part in the vinification of red wines while they abstain from the vinification of white wines. In the case of rosé, the grape skins are used only for a few hours, usually 12-24 hours the most. For the production of quality red wines is not enough to have only sugar maturity of grapes, but much more essential is the phenolic maturity, the unhurried that is maturity of tannins and anthocyanes, all phenolic components of the grape skin.

Suggestion: Tasting repeatedly all Cypriot red wines, I have concluded that Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot are varieties unsuitable for Cyprus as their results are organoleptically poor. Carignan, Alicante Bouschet, Lefkada and Mavro are varieties that could hardly produce remarkable red wines on their own. Syrah, Grenache and Mourvèdre with the contribution of Cinsaut are varieties that have adjusted the best to the island, producing fine quality wines especially the first two. I left Maratheftiko behind, as it deserves a special reference that we will make next Sunday.

29/09/2009