Puckery

Used to describe a wine that is so high in tannin that it causes your mouth to pucker with dryness. Most often, the wine will have been made from insufficiently ripe grapes.

What are criollas?

A. Special picking boxes used during harvest to minimize oxidation and damage to the grapes

B. A modern system of racks that can roll barrels making it easier to stir lees

C. A group of South American grape varieties that have a Spanish heritage

D. Refrigerated containers that are used to ship grapes long distances in the summer

The criollas (Spanish for “creoles”) are a group of Vitis vinifera grapes that the Spanish brought to South America in the 16th century, including the grape varities that were born in the Americas as a result of those original varieties. Some of these—such as the red grape listán prieto—were brought directly from Spain as seeds or cuttings and then carried by missionaries and conquistadors from one South American country to the next. Other of the criollas originated in South America itself, the result of natural crosses that formed between various European varieties. In Chile, listán prieto was called criolla chica (creole girl) and later renamed pais. In Peru, listán prieto was known as negra criolla, and in Bolivia, it was missionera. In Mexico, listán prieto was called misión (after the early missions where it was planted)—a name that the grape variety (mission in English) also held in California, Texas, and New Mexico. Several subsequent criollas were born in Argentina.

“Age gives a wine a sense of beauty and satisfaction that it could never have had before when it was young. In our minds, we intuit that beauty and satisfaction as a feeling of completeness. Because so much of life is incomplete, an old wine is remarkable and moving.”

—Warren Winiarski
Founder of Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars

Puckery

Get WineSpeed