Rootstocks: Building Blocks to Good Wine
The other night I had a Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon that was called Root:1. It was a 2005 from Colchagua Valley. I wanted something big to go with the blue cheese hamburgers on rosemary ciabatta and asked for a Cab. When BK suggested this Chilean one, I was a little hesitant at first. Sometimes I find them to be a little on the vegetal side. But we went with it because you never know. Besides, that Amplus One was really tasty and the only red I’ve had from Chile in quite some time. Was I disappointed with the Root:1? No. I found it surprisingly soft and smooth with red fruit (raspberry, cherry, plum), cocoa, leather, and vanilla. A nice pairing with the burgers and by itself after they were gone. Was I a little intrigued by what seemed like it could be a marketing ploy on the front of the bottle? Yes…
The label featured a grape vine but also pictured the roots beneath the ground, with words stretched out behind it. What they spoke of were the rootstocks, original to the European vitis vinifera, instead of grafted native American rootstocks, used after phylloxera hit and ruined so many of the vines of the Old World. I can’t remember exactly what the text said, but it was something to the extent that Chile’s isolation allowed it to keep those original cuttings and thereby meant higher quality.
That boast got me thinking. Are rootstocks really that important? I asked one of our winemakers the other night and chatted about it for a little while during our Northern Rhone tasting. He said that while he had never had a chance to do a comparative tasting of wines grown on original rootstocks versus, it could be possible that might make the wine better. After all, sometimes when white vines are budded over to red, the first year may result in blotchy colors thoughout the vineyards.
Of course, I had to look into this a little more. According to The Oxford Companion to Wine, it seems that rootstocks are really no more important than any other factor that affects quality: climate, soil, weather, and other aspects of terroir. All these factor in, but I probably wouldn’t base a marketing scheme on one.
Anyone know more about the claim of their importance?
Tags: 2005 Root:1 Cabernet Sauvignon, Chilean Cabernet, the importance of rootstockRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Cabernet Sauvignon, Chile
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