So I’m a big fan of less interventionist / more natural methods both in the vineyard and in the winery. Without opening the can of worms regarding what that means, let me say, though, that less is not always more, as evinced by a wine I opened today.
The nose was best characterized as hot pickle juice celery candy. Did I mention the pickles? Can you say wicked VA? Spritzy, thin, green and weedy on the palate. Comments from three experienced tasters at the table included “some terrible 5-10 year old CA whole cluster pinot disaster that is going off in the bottle,” “god this is awful, it’s so hot and stewed it’s gotta be from CA,” “maybe it’s some fucked up super ancient winemaking disaster from Italy or Croatia,” “maybe there is some version of that disaster in Spain?”
The wine in question:
- 2006 Frank Cornelissen Etna Contadino 4Italy, Sicily, Etna DOC (9/1/2009)
This isn’t natural winemaking, this is a trainwreck. The amount of sediment isn’t “the product of natural methods” it’s a product of “not racking clean.” This wine is hot, stewed, weedy, and features the most VA of any wine I’ve ever had. And that is before you taste it. On the palate it is tart, pickled and super green, while maintaining the heat. Hurts to swallow. One of the worst wines I’ve ever purchased, this shouldn’t be considered a commercially acceptable product. (50 pts.)
I’ve had two bottles of this, and my experience was different than yours, but I have no doubt it easily could have been similar. I am not a wine maker and I have no numbers to offer. From past experience whenever I know or suspect a wine to have sediment or suspended fine lees, I make the effort to decant it. My bottles were cellared standing up for several months. They had settled to crystal clear. I took extreme care to open and decant off of that sediment. I managed to get about 80%poured totally clear. I let that sit for an hour. The wine changes from intensely bright red to a unique red with a certain black tone to it. Dark red fruits with a certain sharp tingly edge on the tongue. I hate to say it but the tannins have fine pumice like feel. Both bottles gained depth and intensity.
I also tasted what remained in the bottle and it seemed to be a concentrated version of what you describe. I would expect that if I popped and poured an unsettled, cloudy bottle, the experience would mirror yours. Unfortunately a wine this “natural” requires some planning, effort and care to be what I have seen it be. One also must have impeccably handled bottles. These are very fragile.
If all that seems far to fussy to bother with, then definitely avoid these wines, although I’m guessing it’s too late, you’re never going to try one ever again anyway. I certainly understand.
My bottle was received from Garagiste in good condition and stood up in the cellar in the dark for months and was carefully decanted (despite the back label suggesting not doing so [suicide.gif]). It probably sat for 20 minutes before we took a look at it over the course of 45 minutes or so. FWIW, VA and heat and green tannins and a bizzare high pH / high TA character and a thin palate aren’t characters that settle out with the lees, in my experience.
No amount of careful handling was going to save this wine, it was grossly flawed, end of story, at least for my bottle. I’d be willing to bet a fair amount of money there will be bottle variation with this wine though!
I was quite curious to try this wine, and I’d be happy to try one again. I like a lot of oddball wines, I can go a long way with “character” in a wine that others would call flaws. But, for me, for this bottle of wine, on this day, this wine wasn’t full of character, it was just shit.
Ned – You didn’t say anything about VA. Did you not detect any? Or not at an objectionable level?
Josh and Linda – To be fair to the wine (which I’ve never heard of, let alone taste), the VA could be a cork/seal problem, no? If the wine had an elevated VA at bottling, I would think the condition of the cork would be key, because a little more air and the VA could really take off.
Frank Cornelissen Contadino 4 (2006) -We offered this last year but many of you asked for a few more bottles so here you go (this is different than the 2007 Contadino 5 we offered a few months ago). If Christmas cake could melt into a soil infested mold of living bacteria swimming in a murky mess of orange essence and sappy, cloudy, tobacco-tinged sarsaparilla, it would be this delicious treat cut from the active hillsides of Mount Etna. While the above description may sound horrific, horror is in the eye of the beholder and I know many Goths from my teen years that would find this not only tame but plebian. An homage to the natural “wine” movement and an experience to initiate one’s palate to better understand the rest of the wine world (see above referenced Musigny comment). The fact that we’ve had so many re-order requests for this is telling -a beverage unlike anything else. Cornelissen does not recommend decanting - I do, for at least 15 minutes. Keep in mind, natural wine gobbles oxygen quickly and this is best consumed on the first evening.
John, I received the wine last winter, had a bottle in the spring and a second 6 or 8 weeks ago. I didn’t do written notes
so I’m going on memory. I have to admit that I’m not particularly tuned to distinctly assessing VA. Settled and decanted,
this performed and drank as “wine”, not as some freakish grape juice liquid.
The most noticeable “flaw” was a slight tingle on the tongue at first that dissipated. Consistent showing both times. These wines seem very polarizing and I’m sure that there are many factors in play. Innate bottle variation, shipping, handling differences, service (decanting, temperature, aeration) and so on. Which reminds me, this wine really also needs to be cool, 58-60 F as it is much more sensitive to showing badly above 64 then normally produced wines.
Based on that written description, I wouldn’t even be moved to order it, much less drink it - seeing any wine analogized to sarsaparilla would be a stopper for me.
I am curious about one thing, though - how do you know it had that level of VA? Is that included on the label?
“If Christmas cake could melt into a soil infested mold of living bacteria swimming in a murky mess of orange essence and sappy, cloudy, tobacco-tinged sarsaparilla, it would be this delicious treat cut from the active hillsides of Mount Etna.”
Wow, It is just plain stupid to bottle, much less sell a wine with those kind of numbers. Curious what the free S02 levels are at.![[oops.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/1/1f129ddad071ffe5db6c99817c3cab666035a70a.gif "oops"){kind=small}