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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

Colares DOC – An Ungrafted Sandy Oasis

I had the opportunity to taste a very unusual and interesting wine recently, a wine made from ungrafted, pre-phylloxera vines. Something that I have had the opportunity to taste only a handful of times in my life.

thewinedoctor.com

My colleague, on a recent trip to Portugal, brought back a 50cl bottle of wine from the Colares DOC. The Colares DOC sits along the Southwestern Atlantic Coast, Northwest of Lisbon.  The vineyards are situated on a sandy plateau where the vines must be planted deep into the clay subsoil below. Because of the sandy soil, the vines are free of Phylloxera and, therefore, have never been grafted to a different (American) rootstock. Colares is best known for its red wines, which are made primarily from the Ramisco grape (who’s vineyards are reduced to a measly 10 ha, or 100,000 square meters). The wines are generally tannic and full-bodied with spice like aromas that require considerable aging. (Information on the Colares DOC borrowed from epicurious.com’s Wine Dictionary)

The wine I had the opportunity to taste was produced by the Adega Regional  De Colares, and was 100% Ramisco. At first glance, the wine showed its almost 10 year old age, light in color with slight browning on the edges, reminding me somewhat of  an aged Nebbiolo. On the nose, it reminded me of the wines I have tasted from the Bairrada region made with the Baga grape. Scents of roses, (sour) cherries and some tar. The nose promised something special was awaiting my lips. On the palate, the wine’s fruit was “showing” significant age (or was it?) and was overpowered by its earthy tones and aggressive tannins (something I love by the way). Some oxidative notes were also there.  The finish was around 20-30 seconds. Interesting…

Vintage: 1999

My initial thoughts were that this wine was on the decline and the fruit faded. However, I paused and began to think. Maybe this is exactly what the wine is supposed to be like. Is this the way wines tasted in Europe before the devastating effects of the Phylloxera louse more than a century ago? Very rustic, earthy and tannic? Where was the “fresh” fruit we look for in today’s wines that help create balance? Is this the way this wine should be? Or, had it seen better days? I am afraid I don’t know the answer to this. From my research these wines need extensive ageing, so assuming this bottle was stored correctly (should I assume this?), then maybe this is the way wines used to be.  Maybe some of you out there have tasted a Colares DOC wine?

I suppose I should try and get my hands on a few more bottles to make my assessment, but since very few bottles make it out of Portugal’s Colares region, I may have to wait until I take a trip to Portugal!
(Check out TIME’s Rare Earth article from April of 2008 for more on Colares DOC)

Vintage: 1999