As an early vounteer in the wine with flavor brigade, I am working with one of the high priests of the AFWE to develop a point/counterpoint wine blog which, if it passes muster with the powers that be, may become a regular feature. Here is my first effort, which I offer to all of you for critique and criticism. Give me your best shot.
If you have to search for flavor in your wine, buy something else
If I’m going to write a blog about wines with flavor, I might as well start with a wine that dances across the tongue with the force of an Alvin Ailey composition, instead of a Petipa ballet who, by the way, trained in Bordeaux. So let’s go rummage in the cellar to find a wine that has some of that God-given flavor that has drawn people to the fruit of the vine for thousands of years . . .
Gee, there are so many choices. This is going to be tough. All those delicious Thomas Rivers Brown wines from Outpost, Two Hands and River Marie, let alone the Schrader To Kalons. There’s the power of the Big Man, Phillip Cambie of Chateauneuf, who once said to me, “Non Non monsieur, I am not the Michel Rolland of Chateauneuf; he is the Phillip Cambie of Bordeaux.” I’ll bet that makes members of the anti-flavor crowd quake in their boots, if not change their diapers.
But today, it was the bright orange, pumpkin-colored cardboard three-packs that drew my attention – Cayuse, the home of the $6,000,000 Frog. Since my desperate attempts to get The Frog have thus far been thwarted, I was forced to go with the 2008 Camaspelo, a blend of 80% Cabernet Sauvignon and 20% Merlot from the Walla Walla Valley in Washington. A left bank Bordeaux blend from the left coast of the good ole US of A.
Drinking a 2008 Cab is extreme infanticide, but we are the brigade of the extreme, so why waste time waiting 40 years to taste a namby pamby wine that couldn’t spell flavor if you spotted it the F-R-U- and I. Cayuse says that they are trying to “craft food-friendly wines of incredible depth, individuality and character.” Well, I’m going to drink it with a standing rib roast fire roasted on the Big Green Egg, so it sounds like a perfect match. Let’s give it some extra time to breath, so we’ll start with a violent splash decant at 5:30 pm.
While we wait for dinner, let’s talk a minute about biodynamic wineries. All Cayuse wines are made biodynamically, which means no fertilizers, chemicals, insecticides or fungicides. Some of their vineyards are plowed with horses, and they use an astronomical calendar to guide some of their farming choice. I’m not convinced that it really matters. Charles Massoud from Paumanok once told me that owners who care about their vineyards and pay attention to them can make good wine, and that biodynamic wines were good because their owners paid attention to what they were doing and cared enough to do a good job. When I met Nicholas Joly, the high priest of the biodynamic religion, I got the sense that he had a double dose of aluminum foil under his hat, but he’s a special case.
Ok. It’s 8:00. The rib roast is at 120 degrees, the crab cakes are ready for the appetizer, and it’s time to start pouring the good stuff. Since Cayuse and crab cakes might be the worst pairing in history, I grabbed a half bottle of 2001 Trimbach Cuvee Frederick Emile as a starter. Nice wine with up front white and tropical fruit, minerality and bit of sweetness that was not overpowering. No petrol yet, which is fine with me, because I cannot understand why people enjoy drinking gasoline with their Riesling. The minerals worked well with the seafood.
Now it’s time to pour the heavy artillery. The bomb. The ne plus ultra. The wine to kick the behind of those wimpy Frenchy cabs. The nose is strong red and black fruit with just a hint of coffee. The palate is the nose, in spades, with a bullet. A bit of chocolate with the red fruit, and some good Mozambique vanilla in the background. This is why I love wines with flavor. Let them explode in your mouth. Let them touch the depths of your soul. Let them surge through your brain until you can sense the flavor coming out your ears and eyebrows. Feel them from your hair follicles to your toes. That’s right boys and girls. This wine gets a big WOW. Sit back, relax and enjoy it. A single sip floods your mouth with the reason your are drinking the wine in the first place. You do not have to get out a shovel and dig deep to find something to excite the palate. It’s right there in front of you. Do not over-intellectualize the wine. It’s a powerful alcoholic beverage with massive flavor. You know wine. That’s the stuff that people have used to sanctify rituals for thousands of years. So you think they would have done that if it tasted like water. Of course not. So why would you like your wine to be a hybrid mix of water and “real” wine? You wouldn’t. Put that weakling stuff away and enjoy the good stuff. Life’s too short to spend it search for flavor in your wine.
Cayuse says you should let this wine sit and keep your hands off it to let it age. I have some more and I’ll try to do that, but there’s no shame in drinking it early, especially when it tastes like this. I think I’m a bit stingy with points. I hate those critics, including those from the forefront of the flavor brigade whose palates align with mine, who think that if you like a wine, it should get north of 95 points. Not me. I want to use the scale so it’s meaningful to the reader. On the other hand, this is really good. Let’s say 93 points, which is the middle of the outstanding category.
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