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Trinidad Vineyards in Chile, courtesy of Flickr user Dear Garou

On Saturday, one of the strongest earthquakes in recorded history struck Chile, killing more than 700 people and destroying the homes and livelihoods of many more. In addition to donating to relief organizations, another way to help some are suggesting is to buy Chilean products, including wine, one of its biggest exports.

Chile is the world’s fifth-largest exporter of wine (after France, Italy, Spain and Australia), and its wine industry has been badly affected by the 8.8 quake. Damage is still being assessed, and it’s too early to know what the extent of the long-term impact on the wine industry will be. But James Molesworth, an editor for Wine Spectator magazine, has been tweeting reports from wineries in the quake zone, and early indications are that many have lost inventory, buildings, or both (but, thankfully, so far, no loss of life among employees has been reported). One witness described the smell of wine along the roads in front of wineries.

Power outages, road closures and general upheaval will further complicate this season’s harvest, which, since it is late summer in the southern hemisphere, was scheduled to begin soon. As Eric Asimov writes on the New York Times wine blog The Pour, even if the grapes can be harvested, wineries that have sustained damage may not have the necessary resources to produce wine.

Even before the earthquake, Chilean winemakers were having a bad year. As the Los Angeles Times reported just two weeks ago, the wine industry there has been suffering the effects of the global economic crisis. Although foreigners have been drinking more Chilean wine than ever, they have been shifting to cheaper wines just as Chilean producers were trying to make inroads into the fine wine category.

Chile, which has a topography and climate similar to California’s in many ways, has been producing wine for more than 500 years. Only since the end of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in the late 1980s, though, has Chile become a force in the international wine trade, establishing a reputation for good-quality, affordable wines.

Of course, climate and topography are not the only similarities between Chile and California—both are prone to earthquakes. Although the famous wine regions of Napa and Sonoma counties mostly escaped damage from the 7.1 Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989, the lesser-known wineries in the Santa Cruz mountains, close to the epicenter, were not so fortunate; many buildings and inventories were lost. Silver Mountain Winery was completely destroyed, but within five years had rebuilt and was back on its feet.

Here’s hoping that the Chilean wineries, and the country as a whole, are able to do the same.

Chef José Andrés comes across as bright and lively; approachable, yet a bit dazzling—in short, the life of any party—and the same could be said for the Spanish wines he introduced me to last week.

Chef José Andrés. Photo by Pablo De Loy, courtesy ThinkFoodGroup.

“Spain is so funny, because historically, or at least when I grew up, people consider the best white to be a good red,” joked Andrés, who was born in the northern region of Asturias and was named today as a semifinalist for the prestigious James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Chef . “But I’m a big fan of whites. As a chef, I look for wines that tend to enlighten you; wake you up, almost like a sunny day.”

When I met Andrés at Jaleo, one of seven restaurants he owns in and around Washington, D.C., he was hosting a mid-day wine tasting to celebrate the launch of several Ribeiro wines in the U.S. market.

Never heard of Ribeiro, the “denomination of origin” (DO) wine region in Spain’s northwest corner? Don’t feel bad; neither had I. There’s scarce mention of it on most of my favorite wine blogs, although I spotted a few references to its neighbor, Ribeira Sacra. On a map I was shown, Ribeiro appears as a mere drop of red spilling across some 12 square miles at the base of Galicia, just north of Portugal.

But it’s a drop worth drinking.

Ribeiro wines at Jaleo, courtesy Deussen.

Whites are Ribeiro’s signature, representing over 80 percent of the region’s average annual production, which totals 16 million kilograms from 119 wineries or bodegas. Seven of those were represented at the Jaleo tasting, including Casal de Arman, Viña Mein, Sanclodio, Nairoa, Coto de Gomariz, Docampo and Viña Costeira. (I only sampled the first three, since it was the middle of a work day and I’m not very skilled at spitting.) Most retail for less than $20 a bottle—a bargain, if you can find them over here. A few U.S. importers of Ribeiro include P.R. Grisley, Eric Solomon and De Maison Selections, though that’s certainly not a comprehensive list.

I enjoyed everything I sampled, but my personal favorite was Sanclodio, owned by acclaimed Spanish filmmaker José Luis Cuerda. His 2008 Ribeiro Blanco, a blend of five native grapes (treixadura, godello, loureira, torrontés and albariño) is lovely. Its soft, peachy flavors flirt with sharper citrus and mineral notes, wrapped in a whiff of honeysuckle—exactly what my imagination expected from the man behind a film titled “Butterfly’s Tongue.”

Andrés said he especially admires Cuerda and other Ribeiro winemakers who have helped revive the cultivation of some of the region’s lesser-known native varietals, like godello.

“When it’s a grape that has been in the area for centuries, maybe it’s the one that’s able to interpret the story of the earth better than any other one,” he mused. “And I think protecting the integrity of our history is the only way to preserve who we are. A grape might not change humanity all of a sudden—but it means something.”

Healthy wine grapes, courtesy Flickr user Bensheldon

Occasionally, winemakers find a silver lining in rotting grapes, but most of the time, rot is just plain rotten. It ruins the grapes’ natural taste and thus the flavor of the wine.

In the United States, one of the most common culprits is bitter rot (greeneria uvicola), a sneaky fungus that hides its presence until the grapes are ripe. As the unsuspecting grower prepares for what might look like a great harvest, the latent spores stage a coup, turning the grapes soft, brown and pimply in a matter of days.

If as little as 10 percent of infected grapes make it into a pressing, it can make the whole batch of wine undrinkable (the taste, as the name implies, is horribly bitter). Obviously, this is a problem!

Cayenne peppers, courtesy Flickr user ArielAmanda

But a Louisiana microbiologist named Tony De Lucca has come up with an unusual solution: Cayenne pepper. Well, technically just one component of it, a saponin called CAY-1 that he named and patented in 2001, along with several colleagues at the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service. They’ve been studying its anti-fungal properties ever since, and have discovered dozens of promising applications for both agriculture and medicine.

Recently the group reported another victory for CAY-1: This potent little pepper compound can be a lethal foe for bitter rot.

This discovery was prompted when a local vineyard called to report some diseased grapes. The scientists collected samples, isolated the fungi and put each type in a test tube with varying concentrations of CAY-1. It proved highly effective against greeneria uvicola, as well as several secondary pathogens.

“It begins to kill within ten minutes (in the test tube),” says De Lucca.

He’s been fascinated by medicinal plant compounds for a long time, he adds.

“If you look in other cultures, particularly in hot areas around the equator, they use a lot of spices, and I think they use it in part to protect against bacteria. Things like thyme, oregano and garlic have some really potent anti-microbials.”

Much more testing and a commercial backer are needed to develop CAY-1 into a marketable product, but it could potentially become an organic alternative to common synthetic fungicides. (And no, the wine wouldn’t taste like pepper!)

“I think nature is just chock full of stuff like this,” De Lucca says. “It’s just a matter of looking.”

For another angle on the connection between spice and fungus, check out this recent Smithsonian feature about the chili-hunting ecologist Joshua Tewksbury.

An active 2008 wildfire season affected some northern California wineries. Image courtesy of Flickr user rskoon

Vintners in two of the world’s biggest wine-producing regions, California and South Africa, have been fretting lately, and not just about the global recession. At least the economy affects all grape-growing nations more or less across the board. But the problem these winemakers have is decidedly site-specific: something seems to be happening to their terroir (the geographic characteristics of their growing region) that has them terrified.

Strange flavors are not necessarily a bad thing in wines. For instance, some good Bordeaux are described as having hints of leather. But certain aromas are decidedly rank and have no business being in your beverage. Among these, I would have to say, is burnt rubber.

That’s the bouquet ascribed to many South African wines by a tart-tongued British wine critic, Jane MacQuitty of The Times of London. As Barry Bearak reported in the New York Times, MacQuitty caused a stir in 2007 when she wrote that many of the reds she tasted from the country were tainted by a “peculiar, savage, burnt rubber and dirt odour.” She later called several top-rated South African wines “a cruddy, stomach-heaving and palate-crippling disappointment.”

This scathing string of adjectives stung the region’s winemakers, who felt the burnt rubber comments portrayed all South African wines as being, well, tarred with the same brush. Now scientists in the department of viticulture and oenology at Stellenbosch University are trying to figure out the source of the acrid aroma, and if it even exists. As molecular biologist Florian Bauer, who is heading the team, told Bearak, “We were not even sure what smell we were looking for. This research is a response to an ill-defined description in a newspaper.”

The subjectivity of flavor (and the suggestibility of tasters) is another problem. André van Rensburg, the winemaker at the Vergelegen Wine Estate, said critics at tastings “talk each other into a frenzy… If one of them picks up the taste of apple, the other guy says, ‘Yes, yes, and I taste cinnamon too.’”

Meanwhile, the question vexing winemakers in California’s Sonoma and Mendocino Counties is not what’s affecting their terroir, but how to deal with it. The rampant Northern Californian wildfires of 2008 subjected their grapes to a significant amount of smoke, according to an article by Jon Bonné in the San Francisco Chronicle. Although white wines have been relatively unaffected by the smoke, red wines, which contain more of the compounds from the grape skins, are more likely to be affected by “smoke taint.”

A smoky aroma is not necessarily a bad thing in wine. In fact, sometimes winemakers age their product in toasted barrels specifically to capture the scent. But, Bonné wrote, an ashy taste on a wine’s finish “can be bitter and almost throat-scratching.”

Australia, another significant wine-producing country, dealt with a similar wildfire problem in 2003. Winemakers there used reverse osmosis and other filtration techniques to remove the smoky compounds, a path being pursued in some California wineries.

Others are taking a laissez-faire approach, and allowing the smoky undertones to stay, Bonné says, as a “signature of terroir.” As one winemaker told him, “Each vintage has its character and talks about the place and the year. That’s a big part of honest winemaking.”

As I wrote last week, hot weather often makes people reach for chilly white wines. But there’s no reason to reject reds!

Although most people think red wines taste best at “room temperature,” that’s not as warm as you might think, especially in summer. Between 60-65 degrees Fahrenheit is ideal for most red wines, and some taste good even colder. Put the bottle in the fridge for a few minutes before serving, or for a fun touch, use frozen red grapes as ice cubes that won’t water down your wine.

Here are some types I like (based partly on a recent Smithsonian Resident Associates tasting with wine educator Kelly Magyarics):

Type: Pinot Noir
One to try: Domaine Chandon Pinot Noir, from the Carneros region of California
Average retail price: $30
Tastes like: Plums, blueberries and pepper
Pairs with: Cedar-planked grilled salmon, orange-glazed seared duck breast, BBQ chicken, lentil salad.

Type: Malbec
One to try: Trivento Select Malbec, from the Mendoza region of Argentina
Average retail price: $12
Tastes like: Dark berries, pepper and cocoa
Pairs with: Peppercorn-crusted beef, BBQ ribs, pizza with spicy toppings, Caprese salad.

Type: Cabernet Sauvignon
One to try: Solaire Cabernet Sauvignon Central Coast, made with Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from three of Robert Mondavi’s vineyards in California
Average retail price: $15
Tastes like: Blackberries, plums and vanilla
Pairs with: Grilled ribeye steak, lamb kebabs, hard cheeses.

Type: Beaujolais
One to try: Louis Jadot Beaujolais Villages, made with Gamay grapes from the Beaujolais region of France
Average retail price: $11
Tastes like: Strawberries, licorice and pepper
Pairs with: Hamburgers, grilled fish or chicken with Cajun spice rub, mild to medium cheeses.

Type: Rosé
One to try: Toad Hollow Eye of the Toad Rosé, made with Pinot Noir grapes from California’s Sonoma Valley
Average retail price: $10 (2007 vintage)
Tastes like: Strawberries, watermelon with a slight zing of citrus
Pairs with: Fried chicken, hot dogs, sushi, melon balls…pretty much anything!