They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and yesterday, in a small way, this became evident. I bought a $25 Gelber Muskateller from Austria expecting a little of that heady Muscat essence that I love so much, especially in a crisp, dry version.
And what I got was lemon, wet stones, white grapefruit, and a very slight rose petal aroma that I’d never have noticed if I hadn’t been searching frantically for it. It was a beastly hot day, and I enjoyed my lemony-high-acidity, low-alcohol quaff well enough, but it got me thinking about typicity.
Typicity in wine is what should be expected from a certain wine type or grape variety, with a lot of wiggle room that takes location, harvest conditions, and other factors, into account. Basically, typicity says that if you’re growing the high-acidity grape Riesling but you end up with a low-acidity wine, you’re either a) doing something wrong, or b) intentionally altering what is typical for that grape—and if you’re going to do it that dramatically, why not start with a different grape to begin with? Low-priced wines, say under $10, will generally express less of the grape or wine type (less typicity) than handmade, small-production, single-vineyard, and/or higher-priced wines.
Knowing what to expect can tell you a lot about a winemaker’s values, and what he or she is doing in the vineyard and winery. It also, of course, sets parameters: If you go into the grocery store for a jar of tomato sauce, you’re not expecting it to taste like macaroni and cheese. In my case, “Yellow Muscat” set me up—but only for a disappointment.
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