My journey continues

[andrawes76]

Agreed with the Innkeeper and VouvrayHead. France is pretty confusing to the layman, and I recommend that you do not entertain Germany until the last possible minute (kidding). German wines are very difficult to understand.

So to add to the info that these two members gave you, French wines and most European wines are also heavily regulated by the government under a classification system which allows them to be considered a "grand cru" or "rioja" wine, for example. These rules can range anywhere from the blend of grapes used to create the wines to the amount of time that they spend in the oak barrels. One thing I recommend is that you try looking on YouTube for some videos on wine tastings per region so that you get the understanding beginning from the terroire or land from which they come from. This way you understand why French pinot noir differs heavily from American pinot noir. When it comes down to it, wines are heavily influenced by:

location of the wine region
weather
grape varietal
winemaker

The bottom two can be debated somewhat...

Initially from your post below, it sounds as if you liked something about the primitivo you tasted but perhaps it was a bit old world for you. You may want to try the zinfandel wines from the Dry Creek Valley to see two styles and compare.

So to add to the confusion you sometimes have two different names for the same grape, but it differs by style (old world, dusty) or new world (fruit forward), or by geography...

Northern Italian wines from Piedmont are too acidic for me, in particular partly because their main component is the nebbiolo grape which naturally produces acidic wines that are perfect with food but astringent if you drink them solo...

[This message has been edited by Personal Wine (edited 04-12-2010).]