Vinosseur.com

I work in a new and developing wine consuming country. This is both exciting and frustrating. Exciting because I can see the development right before my eyes.  Frustrating because all of a sudden everyone is a wine expert, stressing strong opinions as facts.

To be in a country where wine consumption is growing rather than shrinking (like in other EU countries) is an exciting thing. I don’t need to remind you of the common business sense that says that if you’re at the beginning of a growth curve, for sale and you play your cards right, doctor you will grow with that curve.  It’s exciting to see the choices available to us expand and improve as consumers (and importers) focus their palates. I live in an exciting place and for the most part, I am enjoying the ride.

On the other side of the excitement is the frustration that inevitably comes with living and working in a growing and evolving wine market. The biggest of which is the fact that there are suddenly so many “knowledgeable” wine “experts”.  Persons who express nothing more than their opinions, emanating from their fucking mouths as facts. The most annoying “fact”  I hear repeatedly is that the problem with natural wines is that they are “faulty”.  This is not a very well researched opinion and is often stated as a fact and as an absolute. These people are saying that “all” natural wines are “always” faulty.  I find this to be not only frustrating, but also upsetting because it does not take a genius or even a Master of Wine to see that it is an impossible statement. It is not possible that “all” natural wines are “always” faulty.

It is true that many (not all) of the first examples of natural wine imported into this country years ago were indeed “faulty”. They were terribly reductive examples of natural wines that not even I would want to sniff, let alone swallow. And some were overly-oxidized (not on purpose) and ruined beyond repair. But these faults are not limited to natural wines. All wines can suffer from these faults.

*Photo borrowed from http://www.sfgate.com/wine/article/Here-kitty-kitty-Wine-critics-love-cat-pee-2720808.php

If you are a real wine person, one with a brain and some experience, you will have an open mind. You will taste all wines and you will realize that that there are good wines and there are bad wines.  Not all natural wines are bad and faulty and not all commercial wines are good and faultless. I have said this before and I will say it again. A good wine is a good wine, natural or not. So please, for my sanity, stop generalizing. Your audience is not as stupid as you think they are, but they are smart enough to think that you are stupid.

*I promise my next post will be very soon and more positive

welcome back. Please forgive me as my site slowly comes back to life. We have moved to a new hotel and for a short while, photos will be missing and the page may appear slightly different. But don’t worry, I’ll get you back to where you left off with the help of a close friend of mine overseas. Without her help, well, Vinosseur just wouldn’t be

Since it’s fall and root vegetables are in season now, I thought I would take this time to finally, after a quiet year (of not updating much), get back to my roots.

So here are two visuals of what I consider back to roots that stimulate me. Beet roots and Rosso del Contadino. Both come from the land and from nature. Both are natural. both are delicious

The Contadino 9 continues Cornelissen’s drive to create the best wine he can from the grapes that nature gives him. Thanks to Frank’s careful attention to not disturb nature, she gives him healthy grapes. But if it wasn’t for his intellect and expertise, the wines would not be as wonderful as they are. Because  I know, and especially he knows, and despite what many winemakers say, wine IS NOT made in the vineyards. The raw materials come from the vines, but knowing when to harvest the grapes and what to do next can only be decided on by the winemaker.

This is why Frank’s wines taste of the volcano. Deep, salty and bloody. They come from a place that is undisturbed by humanity and they taste that way. So, with all the respect that is due you Frank, thank you. Thank you for understanding nature and how to take what she gives you and produce some of the most compelling wines I have ever tasted.

Dear blogger,

I have to say that it’s nice to get emails from afar, but it’s even nicer when these emails state that the reason for their contact is due to this blog (yes, this very blog you are reading – for the first time in 3 months – yes, I know..).

I also get emails from winemakers who would like me to taste their wine because they think that I might enjoy them. I have been disappointed a few times I must admit, but when Polish-born Iwo Jakimowicz emailed me one year ago (27/05/2012), I was intrigued. For one, I  live in Poland.  Two, this Polish-born winemaker claimed to make “natural” wine in Australia. Not only is Australia literally distant, but often their wines were distant as well – from the natural wine world.  I knew that they are making strides when it came to making wine with minimal intervention, but these examples were hard to find in Europe, especially in Poland

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No, not the song (even though my wheels are spinning now). I just can’t get enough.. of Brignot. The wine maker who now lives in Japan but in a previous life made grapes ferment into masterpieces in the Jura (and in other places in France, although his Jura wines are the (best) shit). He’s not a dinosaur,  but his wines are legendary, rare and gigantic on an emotional level. I have a handful of favorite producers, as anybody does, and still when I taste the wines of Jean-Marc I feel immortal…sort of the way his wines taste.

I am not going to give you a lot of factual bullshit. Google the grape and the region if you want, but here is what’s important – what this wine tastes like. Once again my only regret.. it was only a damn half magnum..

Nose:  walnuts, flowers, yellow roses, limes, underlying minerals, lemon peel, pomelo, pansy

Palate: Taste is ducking good. Juicy. Character of Vin Jaune.  This 2004 Savagnin is balanced like hell. Still in place with acid, fruit and structure after 8 years and no “preservatives” like sulfur  You think that sulfur preserves a wine? bullshit. You know what preserves a wine? Good grapes preserve a wine, that’s it.

Dear Jean-Marc,

Please please please don’t stop bottling fermented grapes. Your fermented grapes are why I am what I am and do what I do.

Hugs,

Me

On the nose mature yellow apples, panettone, flowers, salt, camomile and hints if honey and walnuts. On the palate it’s bone dry with clover honey, walnuts, yeast and salt with a long deep finish. Oily and balanced. Still very much alive and going on 12 years old. Grazie!#naturalwine #biancaravini #maule #vinosseur.com

Ok. Now we're talking! Tip top!! #naturalwine

Yes I think so part 2 #naturalwine

Happy birthday Frank Cornelissen! The Munjebel Rosso 10 Anni – 10 wonderful years that can only be celebrated with this pure Nerello Mascalese, and nothing more or less. One of your best Efforts to date. Fantastically fresh and light and refreshing yet structured and concentrated like no other wine I know. You and this wine are the reason I fell in love with natural wines. I’m looking to your 20 Anni already!

Believe it or not, when I tell people that I’m from California I feel embarrassed. Especially when people  know i focus on natural, and California wines are often far from that.  And I have always found that odd, especially when I was wolfing down organic food way before the rest of the world. For as far back as i can remember we (I) have been eating organic food in California, and i do mean as far back as i can remember, and i am pretty damn mature.

So, why in my opinion has California dropped the ball when it comes to wine? I don’t think i want to answer that, but I hear the sounds of coins clattering in the background.  But things are changing, no pun intended. How do i know this? Well for one, i have been found drinking a California wine or two lately , and i avoided them like the plague when i lived there.  And of course we are known to write about this topic these days, and a great movie highlights the natural wine movement in California, Wine From Here.

Catching me drinking a wine from California is still a rare occurrence, but of course where I live doesn’t help the situation any. I posted pictures a few years ago of Donkey and Goat’s wines and now i will do the same for Hank Beckmeyer’s La Clarine Farm.  I have been reading, as many of you have, about him and his wines more and more often. They are impossible for me to get a hold of in Poland or Norway, but thanks to Hank’s emails and  a California shipping address, I have been fortunate enough to get 3 bottles each of his 2009 and 2010 Home Vineyard bottling’s.

Hank runs his farm in Somerset, in the Sierra-Nevada foothills in California, resting up at around 600-700 meters over sea level. I don’t at what elevation Hank’s vineyards grow, but i am sure he will chime in with a response. Somerset? Surely you mean Sonoma right? Nope . Hank and his goats make some damn good wine in Somerset. Rather,  Hank works extremely hard to help nature make her wine. I am not going to go on and on about how Hank does this, if you want to read it from his own words, you can do so here

I have tasted his wines only 2 times. Yes, only twice. I bought six bottles and I have to admit I gave one (2010) away as a wedding gift to close friends of ours because they were worth it. I gave a second bottle (2009) away to Maxime  at the Green Man and French Horn in London (one of the restaurants in the Brawn, Terroir, Soif group) cause I knew he would understand it. That left me with 4.  I drank two, one of which was consumed two days ago and I can tell you that it was the fastest disappearing bottle of the evening and there was even a bottle of La Stoppa among the bunch.

The wine was everything that I really hoped for, and i mean really hoped for. After all, I had guests, they knew I was from California, and most of all, they knew that I really only drank natural wine. The wine stood up to test and was just as refreshing as I had hoped. Fresh fruit, ripe tannins and refreshing acidity. No silky, velvety mouth feel, no warm alcohol and thank god no vanilla! Glog glog wine from California, finally!

All I can say is “California, keep doing what you are doing. You’ve come a long way”