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When the wines for the inaugural lunch were announced, I wasn’t surprised that those selected were ones that would never be on my table, in my newsletter or in my glass. The White House has little history in sensitivity when it comes to selecting wines on taste and quality. This year, it was no different. However, in analyzing the Trump selection from J.Lohr, Delicata and Korbel (talk about a strong lobby) I did come up with something positive out of this commercial lot of wines.
All are still family owned.
But on the negative, they are examples of wineries that took the wine out and plunked the brand in. Think top of the line Nabisco cookie. The cookies have their fans but those who want something home- baked would rarely grab a second or even a first. Faux gilt instead of true gold is in line with the Trumpists. And in addition the wines were not reflective of America first, but California.
It turns out I can’t blame the wine insult on our newly elected dictator in wolf’s clothing. The wines did not trickle down from Trump regime but from the Inaugural Committee. And on that committee? Roy Blunt, Kevin McCarthy, Charles E. Schumer, Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi and Paul D. Ryan.
Now you might not know that Pelosi owns some small and very expensive acreage on Zinfandel Lane in Napa, sells off her grapes and probably considers herself someone who knows something about wine. Paul Ryan, stepped into it for drinking two bottles of $350 wine a pop at a DC resto with two others. (He claims to have had a glass, that’s a little like saying he didn’t inhale.) I have no idea what Chuck drinks, though I bet I could turn him onto natural wine easilly. No matter who was on that committee, the choices were doomed. Why? They shifted responsibility to the Wine Institute—the California wine marketing arm—and then the bi-partisan team made their decision from there.
While each day another horror unfolds from the current, administration hell-bent on debilitating the United States of America, life and liberty, as they push forward on cloaking the country in a pea-soup fog of hate and lies, it is easier for me to focus on this small event then being attached to my angst-inducing Twitter feed, so indulge me in why there's so much wrong with the way this wine decision was made. For one, there is American wine outside of California. Like in all 50 states. Hear of Oregon, for example?
However, considering the moment, the wines were poetically pitch perfect. The regime ended up with the kinds of recommendations that suit their platform, the vinous equivalent of Make America Drink Plonk Again. As a past good friend would have said, the choices were very ‘esque.’
But the concept here is bigger than they got what they deserved. It's about the continued misunderstanding of wine and it's power to be a symbol of humanity.
Here’s my hope: after the group of self-interested billionaires, Alt-Truthers get booted from their big house we can work on wine being embraced by the next administration that will respect mankind, arts, philosophy, literacy and culture. Dealing with the wine is a small way to make a difference.
Even with this current administrations embracing fantasy as fact, if they had handled the wine decision this way, it could have had impact. but it should be conducted this way:
The inaugural wines should start at a reputable local wine shop.
Take the recommendations back to a conference room.
The bi-partisan team would start to taste, debating something safer than the President’s nominees—the taste of wine.
Selections done by secret ballot. Then discuss.
This could even become the next reality TV segment and it would be one I might even watch.
Then, the wines should be paid out of the budget. If they were serving European they could keep the cap under $20, but as this is an American wine show, they could keep it under $30 a bottle. $2160 will not break the budget and anyway they would have received a 10-15% discount if they chose wisely. It could be a vote for organic, for taste, for enjoyment and celebration, peace, tranquility, joy and a true bonding experience.
Ecstasy being laced through the water supply might have a more profound effect,and I heartily support its potential to bring upon all sorts of world peace, but this little wine idea of mine, might not be so bad a small step to promote reaching a common goal.
What are the wine trends for 2017? I am looking to these top ten.
1) Natural wine noise settles down
The non-stop stories about this new natural wine will finally slow down as the world realizes this is not fad, but just a return to sensibility. In the end, what good wine is will get redefined and we can get back to the business at hand, drinking.
2) More conventional winemakers will actively seek to crash into the natural wine world
Gatekeepers like Isabelle Légeron, and The Feiring Line will prove essential to keep the interlopers at bay. This means you, who cross-flow filter your wines and grow with systemics and can't quite understand why your wines are not considered natural when there are such fine marketing opportunities you could take advantage of, if only they'd let you in. Just when I thought it was getting easier, the role of wine cop will be more intense.
3) Wine writers, critics and tasters will speak up (about mouse taint and other wine flaws)
Some of our most beloved winemakers wine's been thus afflicted with mouse taint. This is the kombuchu-like, gassy retronasal smell that messes with a wine's finish.
Over the years there has been a collusion of protection, much like when a good friend has bad breath; i noted, moved away from but rarely mentioned. In 2017--at least when talking of wine--this avoidance will stop. The discussion will be broached, and discussion is essential. Skilled winemakers are stymied, why does this happen. I even experienced it on the not hard core natural, Terroiral Limit rosé. Is it about wine in the bottle too quickly? Is it about something going screwy in malo? Too warm in the winery? Is it true that a little S02 squelches the problem or that give it some time it will resolve? (I had a three-part series on this issue over at TFLN) New drinkers will understand that this isn't merely a sign of it's natural so it's good, but that it is can be indeed be a sign of natural yet is a most unpleasant problem.
4) The new collector will start putting out the bucks for natural Burgundy
The well-heeled collector was used to going bargain hunting in the Loire for slumming but stayed conservative when buying Burgundy. But that price barrier will be breached in 2017. This isi when outlier Burgundy gets respect. Collectors will spread their reach from Fred Mugnier to let's say, Jean Yves Bizot. They will not only stock up on Jean Marc Roulot but they'll stock Pierre Fenals. As this new drinker armed with credit cards and an increasing curiosity, develops tasting chops and is ready to explore the holy terroir and will finally pay the three-digit price tag for it.
5) Reconsidering the vats
As winemakers look for the most stable and least interfering container for fermentation, stainless will continue to lose as will oak. Interest in cement and especially clay grow into preferred essential fermentation vessels. What is unclear is what the oak industry do to fight back.
6) What we will drink
More Georgian, Slovakian/Moravian wine, natural Chiléan and Austrian will be the big splash. Grapes that will rise this year? Look out for aligoté a grape that is superb but for years disrespected, makes a comeback. The Pet' Nat craze will saturate the market one more year before pulling back. Rosé stays strong.
7) Biggest Burgundy story?
Survival. With 2016 being one of the most devastating with frost and hail decimating crops and offering yet another miniscule vintage, winemakers are doing what they need to do. Look to gamay from the Loire and syrah from the Rhone and even carignan from the southwest being made in the Côte d' Or in 2016. And that means more from one of France's most sublime hi-rent district as Burgundy goes shopping for grapes elsewhere.
8) The world goes to pot
Last year when on a panel at the Grape Symposium on market disruption, the great Gilian Handelman pointed to pot as the biggest industry disrupter. We will see the beginnings of her soothsaying this year. Marijuana will impact on a certain sector of wine consumption, at the supermarket level.
9) A backlash on the vin de soifiness of carbonic maceration
While there will always be a place for the wines that are easy to drink without food, a respect, admiration and demand will be on the rise for wines with backbone and spine, as well as those who commit to allowing wine to take its time.
10) Cider and other wild fermentations
Wines that come from other sources than grape will make a break for the wine list. This means you, mead and autumn olive.
What's the big wine takeaway? In 2017, wine boundaries break down. There's an increase of interest in the exciting, no matter where they come from.
Elaine Brown alerted to me about a petition that had just gone up on the TTB site.
I went right to it. The document is dense. It is complicated. And it is stunning.
Now when industry is using less, big wine wants to use more. The TTB should understand that commercial wine and real wine need different governance. If people buy wine in the supermarket they can expect flavorings. If buying what they consider fine wine, then that category should offer the consumer some protections.
Most of the petitions have been requested by Gusmer Industries, a sales and wine consultancy that has been invaluable to me to find out what is the latest on wine manipulations. They are particularly interested in increasing the nutrients as well as the maximum dosage of additions.
There are also proposed changes to wine processing, and a special request by Constellation Brands.
I've tried to provide a cheat sheet. Please head to the website for a complete distillation, and if you don't think the amount of gum arabic, biotin, niacin, PVP, chitosan should be increased or even allowed, please speak up.
Acacia (gum arabic): TTB is proposing to authorize a maximum use rate of 8 pounds of acacia per 1,000 gallons (1.92 grams per Liter (g/L)) of wine in the list of authorized wine and juice treating materials in § 24.246. Acacia is currently listed in § 24.246 as an authorized treating material to clarify and stabilize wine, subject to a limitation that its use shall not exceed 2 pounds per 1,000 gallons (0.24 g/L) of wine.
This category has a limit of one percent acacia gum (rather than 2 percent); the functional effects for this category match TTB's uses as clarifying and stabilizing wine. TTB is correcting this mistake in this rulemaking by proposing to increase the maximum use rate of acacia gum in wine to 8 pounds per 1,000 gallons of wine. TTB's earlier administrative approvals authorizing the use of acacia at levels greater than 8 pounds per 1,000 gallons of wine are revoked.
Potato protein isolates: as a fining agent.
Sodium carboxymethyl cellulose: to stabilize wine from tartrate precipitation at a level not to exceed 0.8 percent of the wine.
Chitosan: TTB is proposing to add chitosan from Aspergillus niger, at a use rate not to exceed 10 grams per 100 liters of wine, to the list of approved wine and juice treating materials contained in § 24.246. TTB administratively approved several industry member requests to use chitosan from Aspergillus niger to remove spoilage organisms, such as Brettanomyces, from wine.
*** Chitosan previously used has been derived from crab shells, this Aspergillus niger is responsible for what we know as black mold.
Inositol (myo-inositol): TTB is proposing to add inositol to the list of authorized wine and juice treating materials in § 24.246 to be used as a yeast nutrient at a use rate not to exceed 2 ppm.
Polyvinyl-pyrrolidone (PVP)/polyvinylimadazole (PVI) polymer: wine treating material to be used for clarifying and stabilizing alcohol beverages. According to FDA FCN No. 320, the blend “is intended to be added directly to alcoholic beverages during the maturation process . . . is to be completely removed by filtration . . . and is limited to single use applications.” The amount must not exceed 80 grams per 100 liters of wine.
L(+) tartaric acid:TTB administratively approved several industry member requests to use L(+) tartaric acid, prepared using an enzyme from immobilized Rhodococcus ruber cells, to correct natural acid deficiencies and to reduce pH when ameliorating material is used in the production of grape wine.
The list of SIX new nutrients Gusmer wants added
Bakers yeast mannoprotein: TTB administratively approved the use of bakers yeast mannoprotein to stabilize wine from the precipitation of potassium bitartrate crystals,
Beta-glucanase:TTB is proposing to add beta-glucanase, at a use rate of 30 parts per million (ppm) of wine, to the list of approved wine and juice treating materials contained in § 24.246.
Biotin: The Gusmer petition proposed a maximum use rate for biotin of 25 ppb.
Calcium pantothenate (vitamin B5): TTB administratively approved an industry member's request to use calcium pantothenate as a yeast nutrient in the production of wine.
Folic acid:TTB is proposing to add folic acid to the list of authorized wine and juice treating materials in § 24.246 for use as a yeast nutrient at a use rate not to exceed 100 ppb.
Magnesium sulfate: Nutrient
Pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6): Nutrient
Machinery
CROSS FLOW FILTRATION
Both nanofiltration and ultrafiltration are capable of reducing alcohol content in wine, and this proposed liberalization will provide industry members with more tools to reduce the alcohol content of wine.
REVERSE OSMOSIS IN COMBINATION WITH OSMOTIC TRANSPORT
TTB administratively approved several requests to use reverse osmosis in combination with osmotic transport to reduce the ethyl alcohol content in wine.
ULTRAFILTRATION
In two separate requests, an industry member requested to use ultrafiltration to separate red grape juice into high and low color fractions for blending purposes, and to separate white grape juice that had darkened due to oxidation during storage into high and low color fractions for blending purposes.
USE OF WOOD TO TREAT NATURAL WINE
TTB is authorizing the use of toasted wood in this proposal. Section 24.185(b) would state TTB's position on the use of wood essences and extracts in the production of wine.
TTB is also proposing to remove the last sentence from § 24.225 (“Wooden storage tanks used for the addition of spirits may be used for the baking of wine”) and include it in the new § 24.185, and to remove the reference to oak chips from § 24.246 and include it in new § 24.185, in an effort to maintain in one location all regulatory provisions pertaining to the treatment of wine with wood.
ACCIDENTAL WATER ADDITIONS
Accidental? This is really funny. It's illegal to add water to wine but everyone uses "Jesus Juice" to bring down the alcohol. How do you drop tons of water into the tank by accident? Or is this just another way to increase sales of Reverse Osmosis?
TTB has approved the use of reverse osmosis and distillation to remove water from wine under TTB's authority in § 24.249. In those reviews, TTB considered how the accidental water addition occurred, the ratio of water to wine, and whether or not the requesting industry member has submitted similar requests in the past. TTB applied the following conditions to those approvals. The industry member must:
Return the wine to its original condition;
Transfer the wine to and from the distilled spirits plant for treatment in bond;
Not remove more water than was accidentally added;
Not alter the vinous character of the wine; and
Keep the usual and customary records of the processing.
TTB believes that proprietors should have the authority to remove small amounts of accidentally added water from wine using reverse osmosis and distillation without first seeking TTB approval.
Other Issues for Public Comment and Possible Regulatory Action
++Reverse Osmosis To Enhance the Phenol Flavor and Characteristics of Wine and To Reduce the Water Content of Standard Wine
TTB has not received other requests from industry members to use reverse osmosis to improve the phenol and flavor character of wine. However, TTB did receive a request to use reverse osmosis to improve the “sensory quality” of finished wines and to evaluate the potential sensory benefit of water content reduction compared to the resultant loss of volume.
If you believe that the use of reverse osmosis for these purposes is consistent with good commercial practice, your comments should explain your position in detail, as well as provide guidelines/standards concerning how much water (maximum percentage) may be removed. If you believe that the use of reverse osmosis for these purposes is not consistent with good commercial practice, your comments should explain your position in detail.
LET THEM KNOW HOW YOU FEEL
Federal e-Rulemaking Portal:You may send comments via the online comment form linked to this document in Docket No. TTB-2016-0010 on “gov,” the Federal e-rulemaking portal, at https://www.regulations.gov. Direct links to the comment form and docket are available under Notice No. 164 on the TTB Web site a https://www.ttb.gov/wine/wine-rulemaking.shtml
For no good reason at all---except that I flunk self-promotion, the wines I send out monthly to The Feiring Line Wine Society are cloaked in secrecy. I've a right mind to change that and giving the mono-chrome political climate, it seems correct that I break the silence with Thanksgiving.
This year the message is poignant; resist the mono-varietal supremacy and go for the blend. A melange of grapes in a bottle make plenty of sense. These can be perfectly wonderful melting pot way of celebrating the diversity that makes America great, even though some---like the current president elect---see nothing to praise.
All are in featured in my annual Econoplus issue---great wines under $18
All organic or biodynamic. All with low So2 (none here have zero).
2014 Podere Giardino Lambrusco “Suoli Cataldi"
Where: Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Grapes: Mostly lambrusco marani, lambrusco salamino, and lambrusco oliva. 10% is divided between ancellotta and malbo gentile.
Here I give you one winner from the 2016 Wine Without Walls award that I presided over at VinItaly. It's an example of how Emilia's wines are singing excitement. A red lambrusco. This specific one comes from a 1.5ha plot with a sandy clay soils locally called ‘Cataldi.’ It's firm, earthy, refreshing, blending the the bubble with tannin in an exciting way. Classic pairing is prosciuitti and all things cured and piggy, but think larger--or smaller, depending on how big a turkey you're dealing with.
NV Leon Boesch Edelzwicker
Where: Alsace, France
Grape: sylvaner, pinot blanc, pinot gris, muscat
A full liter for a good price makes this fun wine even more of an event. It's NV but based on the 2013 vintage. Absolutely perfect for Thanksgiving, whether a host gift or plunked on your own table. Why? Edelzwicker is a category in Alsace for blends, and what is Thanksgiving other than a blend of humans from all over. Celebrate that with a bottled field blend. As far as the vigneron? I'm in love with everything Boesch. Raised in old foudres, balanced, peach and peach pit, with a good dose of grapefruit acidity that makes you reach for more.
Grange Tiphaine Ad Libatum 2015
Where: Touraine-Amboise, Loire Valley,France
Grape: cot, gamay, cabernet franc
Damien Delecheneau's entry level wine has become way more serious when he stopped doing carbo. This is now reborn as a beautiful wine from organic vines between 15-45 years grown in limestone soils. Raised in tank, with no wood involvement we have purity, structure, velvet, bones, dusty fruit underneath it all.
Suriol is among those pioneering natural in the Penedes so forgive the terrible packaging. What lies beneath is and adult wine worthy of the crowd, or the Friday after the holiday when you want casual. This actually over delivers. S It's velvety, mentholated cherry and a good dollop of acid.
The blend of grapes, an ancient tradition. Never forget it.
The season of 2016 was a disaster in many parts of Europe. Hail. Flood. Drought. Frost. Mildou. Five of the ten plagues. As a result some people in the great tradition of no atheists in a fox hole, stopped their bio or biodynamic practice. It didn't help. No chemical treatment could prevent the disaster. Others kept the faith with the same outcome.
But here's the thing. Many people we drink in every vintage had almost nothing to pick. This is the year that people in Burgundy do what the Californian's do---buy grapes. This is the year you get to see what a syrah looks like when made in the middle of Chablis or a cinsaut made in Vosne. It will indeed be an assortment of strange wines emerging from the hands of familiar people. However, as fun as that might be for one year, it is really a terrible financial hardship for many, and some vignerons. And so what can you do to help? Drink and buy wine. Here's the press release.
++
Racines NY and Chambers Street Wines are participating in Vendanges Solidaires (www.vendangessolidaires.com/en/home/), an initiative started by the French wine community to aid vignerons affected by extreme weather as frost, hail and drought, formerly rare occurrences, now more common and more intense due to climate change. This year in parts of Beaujolais, Bourgogne, Loire and Languedoc – including Chablis, Morgon, Fleurie, Pic-Saint-Loup and Menetou-Salon – some winemakers lost 70 to 100% of their harvest - a whole year of work ruined by one night of frost or 15 minutes of hail. In show of a solidarity and support, Racines NY and Chambers Street Wine are joining a number of restaurants and wine shops in France to help raise money to aid the most vulnerable and affected winemakers (most have only been making wine for less than 10 years).
Financial aid collected via Vendanges Solidaires, which was formed by a group of French retailers and restaurateurs, will go to those most in need – winemakers who have been established for less than ten years and who suffered 75% losses or more. Racines NY (94 Chambers St., 212-227-3400,www.racinesny.com) will donate $2 from every bottle of French wine sold from October 24th through November 5th. And Chambers Street Wines (148 Chambers St., 212-227-1434) willdonate $1 from every bottle of French wine sold at the store October 29 - 30. In addition, those wishing to donate directly may do so by searching for "Vendanges Solidaires" atwww.chambersstwines.com, donations are accepted now until Nov 6.
The wine list at Fulgurances is filled with natural wines, which I often find a little too cider-y for my taste. But the Le Bégou I had from Maxime Magnon, that the friendly waiter suggested, was a great choice with lunch to go with all the dynamic flavors in the food.
My heart rose at the Magnon. It sank at the cider.
David Lebovitz, the sublime food writer wrote that Fulgrances review. I love David. He is smart. Funny. Wry. Talented. His recipes always work. All good shit. But it slayed me that-- probably for good reason-- he associated natural wine with cider. He is certainly not alone in believing that all natural wines are cidery, brown, mousey, fizzy and vinegary and stinky.
But they really are not. Something must be done to correct this assumption. Help.
The truth isn't the cider resemblance, which can be lovely, but that there are too many boring, sloppy natural wines being poured. Just because a wine is natural does not mean that it is worthy.
Here's the issue more clearly. Many wines are rushed into bottle way too soon. As a result, what we're seeing is a whole lot of unfinished and unformed wines on the market. I fear David has been victim to the enthusiastic sommelier/wine director pushing them as the new elixirs. Compounding the fresh frenzy for the new natural wines is the drinker refugee happily responding to aromas and flavors so refreshingly different from the commercial and often dead wines on the shelves. It's natural? Then excellent! C'est bio? C'est bon! That sort of thing.
What about that mouse?
That's the retronasal smell that tastes like crud to me, but others recognize it as fun and natural.
Hell with mouse, dragon breath is on the rampage. Fantastic.
Cider to the point of vinegar? Bring it on. Perfect fruit juice? What's not to like?
Charmed by recognizability, these folk want to like the new cool of natural. I suspect some genuinely cozy to the various questionable tastes (taste is subjective after all). They enjoy the rawness. But, quite a few of the enthusiasts are drinking for the same reason people used to drink oaky, jammy bombs of the past-- and hated them. They were told they were supposed to like them. No one wants to look foolish.
Lest you think I am a lone voice shouting into the storm, in recent times I've co-miserated with Madame Lepeltier. I’ve complained with José Pastor. I’ve bitched and moaned with Ms. RawWine herself, Isabelle Légeron, who bemoaned many of the samples that get submitted for consideration (and rejected) for the RAW fair.
Remember the old saw of two winters in the cellar or at least bottling right before the harvest? Well, how passé has that become? Very. Now vintages are being released (all: sparkling, red, rosé and white) five to six months after fermentation started. So many wines served are primary, like a soft-boiled egg that has not set. Flavors still tasting of fermentation, often with some residual or unresolved malo giving a kind of popcorn taste. The reason? Winemakers get quick cash, and besides, this doesn't seem to be a problem in the market.
Another aspect compounding this problem is the growing reliance on a simple form of carbonic maceration. This enables fruity, juicy flavors and a touch of cinnamon. It's a wonderful method for putting out wines early...though not always successful. It can be done right of course, like from Pierre Overnoy (Emmanuel Houillon). But have you seen an Overnoy released after five months? Ha. Never say never, but..never.
Some wine fairs that should know better (not all are vetted on a wine's credit but on the domaine philosophy) are very spotty. Some that are well curated? La Dive, Real Wine, Raw, ViVit, ViniVeri, Karakterre and Les Vins Libre.
I fret along the way that the tasting public, and even some winemakers, are losing the ideal and the knowledge of what is meant by a well-made and stable wine. I want to see a revival of releasing wine when it is ready.
So the problem isn't only with an upcoming drinking generation unable to taste some of the world's greats---the best of the historic Burgundies, the old-school Bordeaux, the glorious N. Rhônes, real Barolo. The responsibility rests with winemakers who have fallen into a trend. They should know better. As a result, a new drinker might actually be losing touch with what a stable and complete wine looks and tastes like.
All of this is giving fuel to the fire of critics, like M. Michel Bettane, that natural wines are for immediate consumption. That natural wine is no more than vin de soif. Which, frankly is ludicrous. Ever had any old Musar? Had any Corbineau? Had any C & P Breton? Puzelat? Chassorney? Priueré Roch? Trinchero? Pepe? To say natural wine doesn't age is completely ignorant. Mais, le monde du vin naturel? Nous avons une problèm. We do.
I consulted with the wise Mr. William Fitch ,who presides over the snappy wine list of Vinegar Hill House. He delivered to me a rant of eloquence.
"Even the natural wine world isn't immune to "treacherous" attempts to fill the maw of the world's aspirational commodity fetishism," he said. And as dew-dappled new drinkers emerge every nanosecond mistaking their own recognition for actual enjoyment, familiarity for them being a surrogate for the quality ascribed to the wine, there is always a demand for carbo pop.”
Carbo has become the poster child for modern natural winemaking. So much so that people taste it and register; natural. When they have a beautifully structured wine, even if it's no sulfur, no additives from organic viti? They think, not.
Case in point, at times Eric Texier uses no SO2. At other times he uses minimal amounts. No dogma. He mostly works with traditional alcoholic fermentation. In the past he felt ostracized by the natural community as if the hipster wine drinkers and sommelier's couldn't comprehend that a natural wine could have structure and not only be sucked down for its glouglou effect.
Without a doubt, a lighthearted vin de soif can be so delightful..(vin de soif doesn't mean that it's not finished by the way) but can never reach the heights of exemplary wines of let's say, Radikon? Or Pepe? Or Gonon? Or Texier? Man, do I ever miss Clos Roche Blanche. They're not supposed to. Their supposed to be fun, picnic, when too much attention isn't being spent on the glass, just clink clinking with friends. But those little unfinished soifs with their cute, eye-catching labels? I'm seeing them along the lines of Kawaii cuteness genre of Japan.
You know, the little girl, lunchbox, petticoat, anklet and Mary Jane? The guys who walk around looking as if the stepped out of Pokeman?
In the hands of Murakami, brilliant. On the street? Perhaps not so much.
How does that translate into wine terms?
A heluva lot of cider, volatilty, unfermented sugars, sometimes out of place fizziness and the worst of worst, not just mouse breath--dragon. Now I have nothing against a wine with cider overtones. Take a recent wine from Milan Nestarec, all brown and all wonderful! The wine must be judged on its effect individually. It needs to be taken in context. But still.
Oh, there's a place for a lovely easy wine, often. I stock plenty in my humble cellar. Even some carbo wines manage to become elegant swans, the aforementioned Overnoy, Joubert and so many others from the Beaujolais, Thierry Puzelat..the list goes on forever. More often I'm seeking out the well made naturals or natural enough traditional with structure, backbone and nerve. ( My purpose is to find them. Yes, that was just a shameful promotion. But I think I deserve one.)
Fitch evoked auteur, Jonathan Nossiter (Mondovino, Natural Resistance). Nossiter admits to having arrived late to natural wine but has made up for it in fierce advocacy. "He thinks natural wine is the last hope for real culture of any kind, but so was jazz, punk, New Wave cinema, etc. Look," Fitch said, "Beautiful weeds sprout in the garden and are instantly transferred to the hothouse and mass produced as symbols of authenticity, long extinct in the wild, barely surviving in the zoos."
Anything that becomes popular is doomed to be shipped off for China knock-offs. Nothing is sacred.
"Don't get me started," Fitch continued after I got him rolling," Even natural wine "folk" need to make a buck. If I could sell my remaining hairs at 100 bucks each I fucking would. Ergo we are all doomed. Oswald Spengler said that optimism is cowardice. I am almost there.”
Almost there, to. Almost.
But we know that we both taste enough through the years to pluck out the wines that rise above the fake and the Kawaii. We know how to find them. Drink them. Pour them. But is the next step one I have resisted, education? I suppose I have clung to the counterculture attitude, the free and emotional response to the category but, well, recently I presented The Truth of Natural Wines for the Wine Scholar Guild. Was really interesting, actually. I never thought I'd ever see a future in wine education for natural. But maybe it has to happen.
So I want to assure David and the others who share similar experiences, that there are so many more wines like Maxime's. The syllogism doesn't hold that X is a natural wine. X is cidery. That means that all natural wines are cidery (and fill in the blank.) It is not long before we just talk of what is great wine by a different standard. Great wines made with no additives, no chemical farming. Just great wine. That's the future.
No wine released before it's time: Christian Tschida (from the August Feiring Line)
"Go ahead, you don't have to stay with me," Ethel said.
Ethel, that's my no-longer-89-year-old, still doing the daily drive in from Long Beach to 'the place' on the Bowery, Mom. (Jewelry, if you must know. 82 Bowery. Piccadilly)
A few days back she had cataract surgery. At the intake they asked her about her alcohol intake. I answered for her, "Not enough."
The nurse wrote it down as two glasses a week. This showed up on the medical chart as uses two glasses a week.
Uses? Sips for Kiddush.
Glasses? Hah! Thimble-sized vessels! And she fills those thimbles with 5% mega-purple enhanced kosher wine. "The best there is," she says.
She's serious.
Mom passed the operation with courage and flair. Post, she was miserable, pissed off that she still needed glasses, terrified to find teensie balls of crud in the corner of her eyes. She, always negative, was positive the procedure failed. "You really need a drink," I said.
Not until shabbos.
Five days later, I waited for her at the Eye and Ear. She was a half-hour late. "Traffic was impossible. A two-hour trip," she said as I signed her in.
She was feeling guilty. "I can do this on my own. Go. Go." Then she stopped ranting and asked, "What is it you have to do today?"
"A tasting," I said.
"Always with the tastings," she shook her head. "Ah, well, I feel guilty enough for last week."
I was quite stunned, she actually seemed to look burdened by guilt.
"Go live your life. Not that approve of what you do..." She then shot me a look that could defeather a chicken and then added, "Please tell me you don't swallow."
In my life, swallowing is involved.
Just the other night I swallowed a particular wine. It made me happy. I needed to be happy because I was pondering a particularly pernicious oft- asked question, "Have you experienced sexism in the wine world?"
My pat answer has been to say no more than others. Then I often have reconsidered and said that introvertism and lone-wolfism had had more of an impact. "One gets ahead by networking, not sitting alone in the corner," I'd offer, "I rarely can figure out the safety route to the middle of the room."
While my shyness is a liability, so is being outspoken and opinionated, traits that are celebrated in men and in women? Hmm, not so.
Oh, that old boys club. Not exactly as profound as Roger Ailes, but the wine world has had its very own special sand box of changing characters. Finally, even to me, a woman taught to look away, to make excuses, to say, no, that didn't happen, the sexism was undeniable. Under the rubric of satire? An attempt at humor, based in ignorance without point of view is not satire. So, the next time that question comes up? Check. I'm going for it.
That crazy-assed silvaner pulled back the curtain to revelations. It deconstructed fantasy and turned it into reality. Yet at the same time it was one that would scare hoses of all sorts. The wine was 2 Nature Kinder. I knew it wasn't only a wine, for those who don't like this thing called natural wine, it could be a weapon.
The 2 Kinder's feet are in Franken, Germany. A place known for crazy high acid wines and really shitty agriculture. You know, the take no prisoners approach to pests and weed killing.
All that changed when young Michael Völker rode in on his white horse, his beautiful wife Melanie at his side to take back his dad's winery. In only a few years, in miserable weather, the wet, the rot, they showed that wine and the earth could be different. And Franken, could be known for something else other than their Mateus bottles known as Bocksbeutel. In the states they will soon be represented by Jenny & Francois. The price yet unknown. It won't be eviscerating. May they go forward and fruitify.
There's a man people call my boyfriend but-well, he prefers 'friend,' (which makes me think of little girls of the sixties who got their period, but nevertheless). My 'friend' was a little shocked by the wine.
"Is it a little too cidery?" I asked him.
Sitting at the head of the table, his fingers about to pince a green olive, he said yes. But these days he's dealing with IBS or a relative and maybe everything is tasting a little sharp, because usually, he can swing with me on the wine perversion.
"But it's so refreshing!" I declared. "And what about that zingy silver water in there, and its energy?"
The weather was sticky and tropical. The sun so bright the humidity caked. I imagined being in a solid vat of vaseline. The wine swung through it like a hulu hoop. All of the sudden I was a little girl jumping through a hose in the backyard, with Becky barking alongside, egging me to leave the hose behind and celebrate the joy of a sprinkler.
Nice stuff. Metal and cringle and edge. Sprinklers. Waterfalls. Refreshment. A time when my brother was alive. He would have been curious. The wine's finish went on all the way to the next morning. That is wine.
"I suppose it is cidery," I admitted, even though for me it was so alive and quaffable, I couldn't fault it for it, and anyway, I drink Bragg's Apple Cider vinegar by the spoonful. To me this is not a negative.
It was my second experience with the wine. I loved it as much back then when I had it in a blind tasting. Judging, actually. It showed up in April during the VinItaly Wine Without Walls award. I had my judges at my side. It was in the afternoon. This bottle in a green sock appeared. We poured. We tasted. The chorus started to sing and the sprinkler went on high. It was our afternoon beer, our breakfast champagne, it was a palate cleanser sorbet between courses. Love? Five pretty decent tasters? Oh yes. It was fine.
No sulfur added. Heart throb. Geek. Cool stuff. Hard core.
Take a look at that symbology, couldn't it describe some love interests in your life? Complex, wild, verbal, cool, and emotional. And don't misinterpret that hard core, please. Take your mind out of the gutter. I mean it here as intense. Thank you.
As my mother said, it's not that she approved of my lifestyle. She actively disapproved. I should have grandchildren by now and make shabbos ever Friday night for my doctor husband. But there I am, approving of a wine that has a good dollop of apple cider vinegar and a whole lot of excitement. I'm dangerous for a mother ruled by fear.
The end of the story? I made my friend happy with the Pignard Régnie. I sat through Mom's appointment and waited for the bus, holding the not yet fragile hand of a woman who cozies up, once a week, to Kedem Matuk Rouge. And as I sprinted off to the tasting, I thought of the paradox of it all.
Not only that, she is the oldest jeweler on the Bowery. She has a dramatic two-hour-each-way-rush hour commute to NYC from Long Beach five-days a week.
Why there's not a story on her in the Times Metro section I have no idea.
But anyway, people are always asking me for pro tips like how to clean jewelry. Want to know? Give a listen.
My friend was incredulous. Did you say you went on vacation? Did you really use that word?
I did.
She had reason to be shocked. For nearly 30-years the only days off I took were the random day or two when traveling, or when I was able to pinch a long weekend. It was all I could manage financially and emotionally. Vacation was a word that was not in my vocabulary.
As a freelancer, envied by employed friends around the world for my 'freedom,' they never truly appreciated how 'un-free' a free-lance writer can be. Yes, I was free to have my own opinions. I was free to be more political and critical than salaried colleagues (is the wine critic the only genre of pundit that is a cheerleader instead of an informed commentator?).
The idea of taking off time, in the end, was far more anxiety-inducing than staying in the chair and pounding out the words.
But the past three years were particularly brutal. And by the end of July when my first draft of the next book was sent in to my editor, I was barely able to grunt. The experience left me feeling trampled by pack of rats and as bloodless as a leftover meal stuck in a web. I determined that I would never write another wine book again. And what's more, I would take a break. Burned out? I was wearing that old dead cat on my chest, still with it's claw and scratch. I could avoid a break no longer, or I would crack in pieces.
Not totally able to leave obligation behind, I lined up a few book events (hey, they are fun, after all), rented a car and headed north to claim it. (Fun tip for New Yorkers, take the train to Hudson and rent from there, about a fifth of the price.)
The weekend began with @uncouthvermouth, Christina and Brunette Wine Bar in Kingston, NY. Excellent Spot!
The next day a little lunch at Fish & Game. Curious about it? It's stellar. Here are bloody mary tomatoes. Heaven. And yes, there's what to drink by the glass and bottle. They're committed to the good stuff.
The next day, For the Love of Wine event at Hudson Wine Merchants. Packed house. Good ego booster.
Michael's dog contemplates my reading
Next day I landed in wine Vermont, and got to drink the wine that only London gets to drink, the white blend, pétillant.
Went out to Worthy Burger (no, I did not, in fact, but opted for smoked blue fish pizza, bizarre but delish). Somewhere in the night, this happened, I picked it up from Hudson. It's worthy. Trust me.
A wine from the late Baldo's hands. 2004 Nebbiolo recently bottled.
Next day, some hikes with old friends, some fresh laid eggs from Deidre's gorgeous picnic, some cider with new friends and the La Garagista goes to Georgia dinner.
Deirdre's husband and life and work partner, the talented Caleb used recipes from For the Love of Wine. They worked! The food that he improvised was also so very Georgian. We snuck in a little La Garagista Night Music, rare (field blend from the Home Vineyard, vibrant wine) and crab apple pink and rosé delicious.
The next day to the vines, more cider, Shacksbury! Fable Farm! More vines, sunset and capped off with a dinner, which is absolutely perfect, at Hen of the Woods, Burlington with Deirdre, Caleb and toasting to the new life of Vermont wines.
The ladies who provided the eggs.
life in the vines.
Somewhere along the way I saw a shooting star of my dreams and a furry bear scampering off in the woods. I felt like a Fresh Air Fund kid.
The morning of my departure, I started out south in the still cool.
The drive down the small winding roads, was so heart- bleedingly beautiful, I couldn't be sorry to leave the hills where the vines started to thrive. I was returning to reinvent freedom and embrace it with new energy.
I'm hunting the Leon Trotskys, the Philip Roths, the Chaucers and the Edith Whartons of the wine world. I want them natural and most of all, I want them to speak the truth even if we argue. With this messiah thing going on, I'm trying to swell the ranks of those who crave the differences in each vintage, celebrate nuance and desire wines that make them think, laugh, and feel. Welcome.
And, if you'd like a signed copy of either THE BATTLE FOR WINE AND LOVE OR HOW I SAVED THE WORLD FROM PARKERIZATION or NAKED WINE, feel free to contact me directly.
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