Ed McCarthy, CWE Wine journalist Mary Ewing-Mulligan Master of Wine • Evaluate and enjoy California wine • Explore the different wine regions from Napa Valley and Sonoma Santa Barbara • Pair California wines with food • Get the most from a winery visit Learn to: California Wine Making Everything Easier! ™ Open the book and find: • An overview of California wine today • Wine recommendations for all budgets • Explanations of wine label language • A map of wine regions • Tips for aging and collecting California wines • Winery tasting etiquette • The ins and outs of recent vintages • Top wine country travel destinations Ed McCarthy, CWE, is a wine columnist for WineReviewOnline.com and for Beverage Media. Mary Ewing-Mulligan, MW, is President of the International Wine Center in New York. Together, they are the authors of many For Dummies wine guides, including the perennial bestseller Wine For Dummies. $16.99 US / $19.99 CN / £11.99 UK ISBN 978-0-470-37607-2 Cooking/Beverage/Wine & Spirits Go to dummies.com ® for more! Want to be a California wine connoisseur? This friendly guide gives you the knowledge you need to appreciate these fine wines, showing you how to taste them, select a good bottle, pair wine with food, and much more. You’ll see why certain wine regions are renowned and how to further enrich your wine- drinking experience. • California wine 101 — understand the range of California wines, what makes them unique, and what a varietal wine is • Review the regions — explore the major wine r eg ions of California and what makes each one special, from the soil to the climate • Open the bottle — become fluent in the Big S ix : Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, and Zinfandel • Go beyond the basics — appreciate Pinot Grigio, V io gnier, Syrah, sparkling wines, and more • Round out your wine experience — pair and share win es, learn about the proper glassware and serving temperatures, and prepare for a winery visit Discover the nuances of California wines and increase your drinking pleasure California Wine McCarthy Ewing- Mulligan spine=.57” 01_376072-ffirs.indd ii01_376072-ffirs.indd ii 3/13/09 10:41:45 PM3/13/09 10:41:45 PM California Wine FOR DUMmIES ‰ 01_376072-ffirs.indd i01_376072-ffirs.indd i 3/13/09 10:41:45 PM3/13/09 10:41:45 PM 01_376072-ffirs.indd ii01_376072-ffirs.indd ii 3/13/09 10:41:45 PM3/13/09 10:41:45 PM California Wine FOR DUMmIES ‰ by Ed McCarthy & Mary Ewing-Mulligan 01_376072-ffirs.indd iii01_376072-ffirs.indd iii 3/13/09 10:41:45 PM3/13/09 10:41:45 PM California Wine For Dummies ® Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River St. Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permit- ted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written per- mission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http:// www.wiley.com/go/permissions . Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. 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Library of Congress Control Number: 2009924128 ISBN: 978-0-470-37607-2 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 01_376072-ffirs.indd iv01_376072-ffirs.indd iv 3/13/09 10:41:45 PM3/13/09 10:41:45 PM About the Authors Ed McCarthy and Mary Ewing-Mulligan are two wine lovers who met at an Italian wine tasting in New York City’s Chinatown and subsequently merged their wine cellars and wine libraries when they married. California Wine For Dummies is the seventh wine book that they co-authored in the For Dummies series — including the best-selling Wine For Dummies and two of their favorites, French Wine For Dummies and Italian Wine For Dummies. They also wrote Wine Style: Using Your Senses to Explore and Enjoy Wine (Wiley) in 2005. Together, they have taught hundreds of wine classes, visited nearly every wine region in the world, run five marathons, and raised 12 cats. Along the way, they amassed more than a half a cen- tury of wine experience between them. Mary is president of International Wine Center, a New York City school for wine professionals and serious wine lovers. As U.S. direc- tor of the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET), the world’s lead- ing wine-education organization, she works to make the courses she offers in New York available in more and more parts of the United States. She is also a freelance wine writer. Mary’s most impressive credential is that she was the first female Master of Wine (MW) in the United States and currently is one of only 26 MWs in the U.S. (with 277 MWs worldwide). Ed, a New Yorker, graduated from the City University of New York with a master’s degree in psychology. He taught high school English in another life, while working part time in wine shops to sat- isfy his passion for wine and to subsidize his growing wine cellar. In 1999, Ed went solo as author of Champagne For Dummies, a topic on which he’s especially expert. He is contributing editor of Beverage Media, a trade publication. Both Ed and Mary are also columnists for the online wine magazine WineReviewOnline.com and are Certified Wine Educators. When they aren’t writing, teaching, or visiting wine regions, Mary and Ed maintain a busy schedule of speaking, judging at wine com- petitions, and tasting as many new wines as possible. They admit to leading thoroughly unbalanced lives in which their only non-wine pursuits are hiking in the Berkshires and the Italian Alps. At home, they wind down to the tunes of k.d. Lang, Sarah Brightman, Bob Dylan, and Neil Young in the company of their feline roommates, Dolcetto, Max, Ponzi, and Pinot. 01_376072-ffirs.indd v01_376072-ffirs.indd v 3/13/09 10:41:45 PM3/13/09 10:41:45 PM 01_376072-ffirs.indd vi01_376072-ffirs.indd vi 3/13/09 10:41:45 PM3/13/09 10:41:45 PM Authors’ Acknowledgments This book would not be possible without the amazing team at Wiley. We thank Publisher Diane Steele, who along with Acquisitions Editor Stacy Kennedy engaged us and encouraged us to write California Wine For Dummies. And special thanks to our Project Editor, Chrissy Guthrie, for her patience with us and for her invaluable suggestions to improve the text — and make it all fit! We thank our Technical Editor, fellow wine writer and esteemed California wine expert Alan Goldfarb, for his expertise. It’s a better, more accurate book because of you. Special thanks to Steve Ettlinger, our agent and friend, who brought us to the For Dummies series in the first place and who is always there for us. We thank all our friends in the wine business for your input and suggestions for this book; the book reviewers whose criticism of our previous books has been so generous; and our readers, who have encouraged us with your enthusiasm for our earlier books. We are inspired when we recall how many of you have told us that Wine For Dummies was the first wine book you ever read. Mary gives special thanks to Linda Lawry and everyone else at International Wine Center who enabled her to have the time and peace of mind to work on this book. Thanks, also, to Elise McCarthy; E. J. McCarthy and his fiancée, Kim Espinosa; and Cindy McCarthy Tomarchio and her husband, David, for their encouragement and support. And thanks to Jason and Michael Tomarchio for the joy they bring us. 01_376072-ffirs.indd vii01_376072-ffirs.indd vii 3/13/09 10:41:45 PM3/13/09 10:41:45 PM Publisher’s Acknowledgments We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Dummies online registration form located at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002. Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following: Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development Senior Project Editor: Christina Guthrie Acquisitions Editor: Stacy Kennedy Senior Copy Editor: Danielle Voirol Assistant Editor: Erin Calligan Mooney Editorial Program Coordinator: Joe Niesen Technical Editor: Alan Goldfarb Editorial Manager: Christine Meloy Beck Editorial Assistants: David Lutton, Jennette ElNaggar Art Coordinator: Alicia B. South Cover Photos: © Gerald French/CORBIS Cartoons: Rich Tennant ( www.the5thwave.com) Composition Services Project Coordinator: Kristie Rees Layout and Graphics: Samantha K. Allen, Reuben W. Davis, Christine Williams Special Art: Interior maps by Lisa Reed Proofreader: Nancy L. Reinhardt Indexer: Potomac Indexing, LLC Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher, Consumer Dummies Kristin Ferguson-Wagstaffe, Product Development Director, Consumer Dummies Ensley Eikenburg, Associate Publisher, Travel Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel Publishing for Technology Dummies Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher, Dummies Technology/General User Composition Services Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services 01_376072-ffirs.indd viii01_376072-ffirs.indd viii 3/13/09 10:41:45 PM3/13/09 10:41:45 PM [...]... Ratings Important in Buying California Wine? 244 How Long Should California Wines Age before I Drink Them? 245 Are the $100+ California Wines Worth the Price? 245 Do California Wines Age Well? 245 Are California Pinot Noirs as Good as Red Burgundy? 246 Are California Chardonnays Too Oaky? 247 Are California Rosés Sweet? 247 What’s the Story with California Merlots? 247 Chapter... 10:43:03 PM xvi California Wine For Dummies Preparing for Your Visit 238 Gather specific info on winery visits 238 Know the restrictions on transporting your purchases 240 Part V: The Part of Tens 241 Chapter 14: Answers to Ten Common Questions about California Wine 243 What’s the Best California Wine? 243 Do Vintages Matter for California Wine? 244 Are... the U.S., wine is California wine is not a huge exaggeration If you want to begin finding out about wine, the wines of California are a good place to start If you’re already a wine lover, chances are that California s wines still hold a few surprises worth discovering To get you started, we paint the big picture of California wine in this chapter Covering All the Bases in Wine Production Wine, of course,... discovering the various wine regions that specialize in making your favorite type of wine increase your appreciation of 03_376072-intro.indd 1 3/13/09 10:44:03 PM 2 California Wine For Dummies the wine? We hope so We hope that our passion and the passion of our favorite winemakers will become contagious so that you can find your own passion for California wines In every other For Dummies wine book that we’ve... and sweet wines Part IV: Enjoying California Wines This part of the book brings all that information about California wines home — home to your table, your neighborhood wine shop, your guests at dinner, and your vacation plans Chapter 12 reveals our secrets for pairing wine and food and tells you which California wines go best with which types of dishes We also describe the ins and outs of California s... consider that almost 70 percent of all the wine consumed in the U.S is California wine This book is our attempt to fill that gap and to help you complete your wine knowledge and increase your wine- drinking pleasure You probably drink California wine already, because wines from California are the top-selling wines in the U.S Could you find other wines from California — other grape varieties, other tastes... In a universe of wines with complicated foreign-language place names, California s wines, named for their grape varieties, were a beacon of simplicity, welcoming uninitiated wine drinkers to the pleasures of wine These days, California wines are still welcoming (they don’t get to dominate wine consumption in the U.S by being difficult to enjoy!), but the number of wineries in California has exploded... Pink: California Rosés, Dry and Sweet 211 Serious, dry rosés 212 White Zinfandel and its blushing cousins 213 Sweet Dessert Wines 215 Part IV: Enjoying California Wines 217 Chapter 12: Pairing and Sharing California Wines 219 Matching Wines to Foods 220 Elements of the match 220 Try this with that: Wine pairings for specific foods 222 Aging and Collecting California. .. on the wines’ labels, as well as follow the fascinating history of California wine from its origins to the present day Most important of all, you can travel vicariously from one wine region to the next and discover what makes each one special 04_376072-pp01.indd 10 3/13/09 10:44:56 PM Chapter 1 Introducing California Wines In This Chapter ▶ The gamut of California s wine production ▶ California wine s... Recommended California red Rhône blends 200 Cal-Ital: Italian Varieties in California 201 Cal-Ital red grape varieties 202 Recommended Cal-Ital red wines 203 Other Varietal Reds 204 Chapter 11: Bubbly, Rosé, and Dessert Wines 207 California s Sparkling Wines 207 Characterizing California bubbly 208 French- and California- owned brands 209 Recommended sparkling wines . 10:41:45 PM California Wine FOR DUMmIES ‰ by Ed McCarthy & Mary Ewing-Mulligan 01_376072-ffirs.indd iii01_376072-ffirs.indd iii 3/13/09 10:41:45 PM3/13/09 10:41:45 PM California Wine For Dummies ® Published. California Wine For Dummies is the seventh wine book that they co-authored in the For Dummies series — including the best-selling Wine For Dummies and two of their favorites, French Wine For Dummies. Questions about California Wine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .243 What’s the Best California Wine? 243 Do Vintages Matter for California Wine? 244 Are Ratings Important in Buying California Wine? 244 How