Oh the sadness that is natural wine...
$15 event @ astor, saturday feb 21st, 2009
A good summary of the day:
A winemaker standing by her wares, picks up a bottle of white wine and dislodges a massive cloud of sediment that rises up to the top third of the bottle. We stare, slightly aghast. She hastens to explain how the wine is natural; something how regular wine has some kind of protein glue thing dipped into it during the wine-making process that gathers the sediment (I presume its some kind of agglomeration process?).
"And i don't know about you, but *i* don't want any proteins in my wine," she ends her speech, uneasily.
Four biologists stare back at her with that "let me see your primary data" look.
Most of the wines there had an off-odor or taste, especially the reds, that highly resembled gueuzes. Now, I'm not fond of gueuzes to begin with, but at the right acidity level, they're not bad. However, that sour yeast-lab-gone-wrong scent doesn't quite belong in my wine. Maybe proteins do instead.
Domaine Didier Monchovet (Cote de Nuits, Burgundy, France)
Bourgogne Hautes Cotes de Beaune Blanc, Monchovet 2007 - "tastes like rancidity"
Bourgogne Hautes Cotes de Beaune Rouge, Monchovet 2005 - "easy like a chinatown hooker" - B
Comptoirs de Magdala (Provence, France)
La Chance, Escapade, Amourvedre - *shrug* unimpressed stick figures. something about how these are all made from one very specific type of grape
Le Loup Blanc (Minervois, Languedoc-Roussillon, France)
Le Regal du Loup, Le Loup Blanc 2006 - (-_-) wtf?
Le Trois P'tits C, VdP Val de Cesse, Le Loup Blanc 2006 - >_<
Domaine Cousin-Leduc (Anjou, Loire, France)
Saumur Brut, Cousin-Leduc NV - dry. not exciting but drinkable o_O
Grolleau "Le Cousin", Cousin-Leduc NV - this wine has a mosquito opening a bottle of wine on the label. which is always a good sign. the 4 members of our party proclaimed
"musty"
"like rancid yeast"
"very assy"
"wet carpet"
Anjou "Pure Breton", Cousin-Leduc 2006 - smells the same as the mosquito of death, and we didn't dare try
Catherine and Dominique Derain (Burgundy, France)
"Allez Goutons" Vin de Table, Derain 2007 - "basically the soul of a lemon... their souls just happen to smell good"
"Chut Derain", Vin Mousseux Brut, Derain NV - "It's like, what if the soul of a lemon had seltzer in it."
Mercurey "La Plante Chassey", Derain 2004 - a pinot noir. well. we didn't die from drinking it.
Domaine Oudin
Chablis "Les Serres", Dom, Oudin 2006 - OK (high praise for the afternoon)
Chablis 1er Cru "Vaugiraut", Oudin 2006 - not special, not worth it
Domaine Binner (Alsace, France)
This winery was the single saving grace of the entire afternoon.
Cremant d'Alsace, Extra Brut, Binner 2004 - very dry. good, eh.
Riesling "Katzenthal" Binner 2004 - an amazingly earthy fungal riesling. I set off a chain reaction after exclaiming, "how wonderful would this be with mushroom risotto??"
B: "Oh my god. Mushroom risotto."
J1: "Wait, did someone just say mushroom risotto?"
J2: "Huh, did someone just say mushroom?"
Gewurztraminer, Binner 2005 - hallo jasmine perfume! very aromatic. quite different.
Natural wines = lose.
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