Red, white... and blue

Bricco Buon Natale Santa Barbara County Barbera 2005. Photo / Babiche Martens

When Barack Obama was voted in as US President last year, the country's wine industry had cause to raise a toast. After years of having a teetotaller at the helm, the successor to George W Bush is known to like a glass of wine and there will be plenty of eyes on what the Obamas are drinking tomorrow with their Thanksgiving dinner.

It may come as something of a surprise, given United States wines are rare in New Zealand, that the country is the New World's largest wine producing nation. Despite an industry that really only got going in the 1970s, it's up there in the rankings after France, Italy and Spain.

The US isn't a natural wine producer. Its native vines produce wines with an unsavoury musky character. Swathes of its land are unsuited to cultivating the more appetising vitis vinifera grapevines of Europe, with much of the south too hot and humid, while the winters of some other regions are too cold for the vine to survive. Add to this 14 years of Prohibition, the presence of the vinifera-devouring vine pest phylloxera and the Great Depression and it's clear the US wine industry has faced a mighty amount of challenges.

However, over time the States got hold of the right vines; winemakers realised the roots of their own vines were resistant to phylloxera, so grafted these on to the great European varieties and planted them in regions where they thrive.

California is the country's most important wine state, responsible for more than 90 per cent of US production.

The Sonoma, Napa and cooler coastal valleys produce the finest wines, some of which sell for silly prices, and the warmer inland areas produce everyday quaffing wines.

Super-sized cabernet sauvignons and chardonnays, in which oak, ripeness and alcohol were pushed to their upper limits, used to be the region's staples. However, a backlash against these blockbusters has resulted in more subtle specimens in recent years.

The region is also home to the flagship US grape, zinfandel. Introduced to the country in the mid-19th century, DNA testing has now revealed it to be genetically identical to Italy's primitivo and Croatia's crljenak kastelanski. It's even taken root in Hawkes Bay, where Kemblefield and Stonecroft make tiny quantities worth trying.

When made as a red wine, this black grape can produce full-bodied, spicy, darkly fruited wines. However, these account for around 2 per cent of California's zinfandel production only, with the majority used for "white zinfandel", a popular but simple semi-sweet blush style.

Some very classy pinot noirs also come from the cooler climes of Oregon in the Pacific Northwest. A New World pinot pioneer, it's had a head start on a country like ours with plantings starting in the mid-60s.

Sadly, we don't see many American wines in our market given the country's thirst for its own products and focus on supplying larger and more lucrative markets. However, there are some importers here bringing in great examples, endeavouring to convert Kiwis to the American wine dream.

"The greatest US wines are some of the best on the planet," says Chris Carrad of Wine Circle. "Once we get people to try US wines a road to Damascus type of event happens and they experience their complexity and quality, and a different flavour profile they haven't seen before."

President Obama for one seems to be a fan of his country's wines, although it appears he's a man of relatively modest tastes. He named a popular mid-priced Californian chardonnay as a staple in the Obama household, and it could well be that, rather than a cult label, that is in his glass this Thanksgiving.

American dreams

Original Zin

Ravenswood Vintners Blend California Zinfandel 2006
$22.95

An affordable introduction to America's flagship grape, this has the variety's characteristic mouth-filling sweet and ripe plummy, pruney, dark berry fruit with notes of spice, chocolate and hint of tea.
(From Wine Direct, Millar & Co, Fine Wine and Chocolates, Nobilo Huapai Cellar Door)

Bien Barbera

Bricco Buon Natale Santa Barbara County Barbera 2005
$28

From the Bien Nacido Vineyard in the sub-region of Santa Barbara, this spicy, earthy full-bodied wine with juicy briar fruit was made by California's legendary Au Bon Climat winery.
(From www.winecircle.co.nz)

Presidential Cuvee

Cristom Willamette Valley Mt Jefferson Cuvee Pinot Noir 2007
$59.75

A great Oregon estate, Cristom's wines are must for most pinotphiles. Its Mt Jefferson Cuvee is an elegant and well-structured wine with pretty red cherry and cranberry fruit supported by complex notes of dusty earth, sweet spice, smoke and game.
(From www.dnfinewine.com)