New and emerging wine regions

Napa Valley and Sonoma County were once emerging wine regions, rated well behind other U.S. areas in terms of wine quality.

Today considered the kings of America's wine regions, more than 125 years ago Napa and Sonoma were spoken of as emerging wine regions when author Frona Eunice Wait wrote a book about the nascent state wine industry, "Wines and Vines of California."

True, Prohibition destroyed most of California's early pioneering spirit, but even at its start in the 1880s, California was already behind such states as New York, Ohio and Missouri in wine production.

And quality.

Leading the image parade in California back then were regions including Los Angeles (with plantings by Jean-Louis Vignes), Rancho Cucamonga (the Italian Vineyard Co.), and Santa Clara County.

It wasn't until about 1915 that Napa and Sonoma began to show winemaking dominance, and even then many Americans disparaged the state's wines.

Wine country regions develop in odd ways and are often slowed to a crawl by local disparagement.

The late Leon Adams explained this in the preface to an edition of his book, "The Wines of America." Adams mentioned the Mexican term "malinchismo" as a term used in Mexico to describe locals' disparagement of Mexican-made goods, including wine. And derision can live a lot longer than you can imagine. Often decades.

I was visiting Virginia in 2006 to judge at the annual Governor's Cup wine competition, and a national magazine editor and I met for coffee.

"Why are you in town?" he asked.

"To judge Virginia wines," I said.

"But Virginia wines are terrible," he said.

"When was the last time you had a Virginia wine?" I asked.

"About 15 years ago," he replied.

The fact is, Virginia has come a long way in the last 20 years, to the point where literally dozens of wines are now being made that show world-class qualities.

The same with New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, New Mexico, Indiana and now Colorado.

A recent trip to Colorado was an eye-opening trip to yet another emerging wine region. Dozens of wineries (mostly in the western part of the state) are making some dramatic wines from high-altitude vineyards.

I tasted superb gewurztraminer, cabernet sauvignons and syrahs, and some exciting wines from lesser-known varietals.

Yet the state remains, at least in the minds of many older Coloradoans, as a place that makes some of the wines they remember from about 1990. And by that I mean, not very good.

Here we go again, I thought. If you think the above-named regions can't make great wines, only you will be the loser. With modern grape-growing and winemaking techniques, quality wine is now being made in many places not normally associated with wines. Younger generations, not saddled with images from earlier periods, seem eager to try new wines and are less inclined to disparage something new until at least they've tried it.

Wine of the Week: 2008 Baily Meritage, Temecula Valley ($20): A startling fine wine from a region (the south coast appellation near Los Angeles and San Diego) that offers a classic sauvignon blanc aroma and the subtle complexity of 30 percent semillon. Temecula is another emerging region that is going places.