Matthew's World of Wine and Drink

About Matthew's World of Wine and Drink.

This blog began as a record of taking the WSET Diploma, during which I studied and explored wines and spirits made all around the world. Having passed the Diploma and become a WSET Certified Educator, the blog has become much more: a continual outlet for my passion for the culture of wine, spirits, and beer.

I aim to educate in an informal, enlightening, and engaging manner. As well as maintaining this blog to track my latest enthusiasms, I provide educational tastings for restaurants and for private groups. Details can be found on the website, and collaborations are welcome.

Wine is my primary interest and area of expertise and this blog aims to immerse the reader in the history of wine, to understand why wine tastes like it does, and to explore all the latest news. At the same time, beer and spirits will never be ignored. 

For the drinker, whether casual or professional, today is a good time to be alive.

The Pacific

The Pacific

“I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams”
— The Shawsank Redemption

When Ferdinand Magellan rounded Cape Horn, leaving the wild Atlantic behind, he discovered calmer waters. He called the newly discovered ocean Pacifica, “peaceful sea.” Along the west coast of the Americas, from Chile to California, the Pacific provides a cool, moderating influence, bringing in breezes and creating fog, ideal grape-growing conditions in otherwise warm climates.

The Pacific, the world’s largest ocean, isn’t always so peaceful. There are many volcanic islands, seabed earthquakes cause tsunamis, there are cyclones, the ocean can bring in monsoons. The temperature of the water varies, as high as 31°C in the south but much colder to the north.

There are 25,000 islands in the Pacific, central to its culture. Polynesia, which has over 1,000 islands, has a sea-based history, tribes moving from a set of islands to another over the course of 3,000 years. One set of islands populated by Polynesians was the Hawai’i archipelago which has 137 volcanic islands; the final set was what is now New Zealand, probably settled in the 1200s. No one had ever lived on these islands beforehand, making New Zealand one of the youngest countries in the world. Because the Maōri did not farm the land, instead hunting and fighting by sea, the soils of New Zealand were untouched until the Europeans arrived in the nineteenth century: fertile soil perfect for farming. The country, however, was known as the wild west of the Pacific because of its remote position, difficult to navigate around, and the conflicts among Europeans and with the Maōri.

The spines of New Zealand’s two islands are mountainous, and those mountains protect the wine regions from rains coming in from the Pacific. The western coast of the country is wet: the vineyards north of Auckland and in Nelson on the South Island receive much more rain than those on the eastern coast. The Pacific isn’t that peaceful around New Zealand.

The biggest island in the Pacific is Australia, so large that its status as a continent or an island is disputed. There are several oceans around Australia. The wine region most influenced by the Pacific is Hunter Valley, a strange, hot, humid place first planted more than 200 years ago. The climate is almost sub-tropical due to the Pacific, but there is also a strong continental influence coming from inland, bringing in storms. That’s why the unique style of Sémillon exists, the grapes picked early to avoid the autumn humidity and dangerous storms. Growers would see storms coming in from the distance and rush to pick the grapes, resulting in wines that have high acid, low alcohol, neutral aromas, and a mysterious ability to become quite wonderful after years of bottle ageing.

In Chile and California, the influence of the Pacific is quite different. The geography of the two countries is similar, despite their different shapes. The Pacific brings in breezes and fog; coastal mountain vineyard sites are cool, but beyond the mountains warm air falls into the central valleys where ripening is easy. That warm air drifts up the mountains the other side of the valley, where it falls as snow. The style and quality of wines along California’s coast are defined by the Pacific, just as a wine from Casablanca in Chile is very different from one of the historic Central Valley regions.

In Washington, the influence of the Pacific is entirely different. It’s wet, rain falling heavily on the Olympia mountains. That rain continues into Seattle and then into the Cascade Mountains. These act as a rain shadow and all of a sudden there is no Pacific influence as the climate becomes warm continental and arid. The Puget Sound AVA around Seattle only accounts for 1% of Washington wine because it’s so wet due to the Pacific. To the south is Oregon, the most famous region, Willamette Valley, receives plenty of wine, but the coastal mountains protect the vineyards and allow full ripening of the grapes. UC Davis, back in the 1960s, thought it was impossible to make wine in Oregon because of the strong Pacific influence. They were wrong, because that Pacific influence, its wind and its rain, is why great wine is made in Willamette Valley..

It’s not surprising that an ocean as vast as the Pacific should have such a strong hold on so many wine regions, nor that its influence changes so dramatically. Tasting wine from New Zealand, Chile, or Washington are all different experiences, except the Pacific has something to say.

The Atlantic

The Atlantic

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