All roads lead to spoofy?

Good evening all,

Earlier today I dropped off some bottles at storage and happened upon a tasting being set up for this evening. I was kindly offered a couple of quick sips in advance of Martinelli Pinots- the 2016 Bondi Home Ranch and a 2012 Three Sisters. They were both robust with some cola notes to accompany the fruit, and the Three Sisters was quite warm on the end. Everything I often dislike about domestic Pinot. But overall, I really liked them. I actually ended up placing an order for a few since there are specific types of future occasions where they will be the perfect thing to serve.

It got me thinking about something new that has happened in the last few years as I passed the 20 year threshold of actively tasting and cellaring wine.

That something is how very often I find myself saying in a TN something along the lines of, “not my kind of wine- but I really liked this”. I have been saying it a lot about SQN for a start. And more generally I am speaking of the newer generation of highly extracted and/or heavily oaked wines- hence my use in the title of the term “spoofy”.

And now it is no longer a matter of admiring these kinds of wines, but I actually procure them in small quantities at times because I can think of particular settings where they will work out quite nicely.

My palate has not changed. Most of the time I still strongly prefer the old ways- and I mean hard core as in Chateau Magdelaine and Faiveley as it used to be- as well as the most ethereal of ethereal wines like Clos St. Denis and Willi Schaefer Rieslings. When tastings the new age high octane wines, I still notice very much what I would consider flaws or excesses in many of these bottlings, and I still think 90% of them are average at best (which can be said of traditional wines too, can it not?) but at the same time in the overall picture I see a place for the good ones (I think I finally understand the genius of SQN for a start), and a time when I will enjoy them.

Wondering if this has happened to anyone else- especially given how so many of us have campaigned hard against many of the broad stylistic changes most evident in Bordeaux and Napa over the past 20+ years.

Tom I appreciate the sentiment. My palate is unequivocally ‘old world’. Lean, acid-driven wines with lots of savory/tertiary characteristics.

And yet over time I’ve transitioned from ‘tolerating’ to even ‘appreciating’ a more modern/riper expression in certain wines. I absolutely detest that cola
note in pinots you reference, but can enjoy something like a more subdued Kosta Browne. I wouldn’t seek them out, but have enjoyed the few SQNs I’ve had. I’ve enjoyed the more lush expressions of Napa cabs that are not complete oak bombs/blueberry milkshakes.

Chardonnay is the more interesting one for me in that I originally detested any chard that had been through malo or had an oak presence. And yet over the last few years I’ve even begin to seek out more rounded expressions that have a more detectable malo presence, though I’m still oak-averse.

Hopefully what I’m about to say doesn’t cause me to lose my card… I began to recognize this a year or so ago when I had my first glass of Rombauer. Detesting all prior buttery expressions in wine I was ready to hate it. And yet upon my first sip I remember thinking “this is less detestable than I would have imagined!”.

Oh my lord, I banish y’all from the AFWE.

There’s a difference, though, between just bigger, more flavorful wines, and over-ripe, over-oaked, OTT wines. I can enjoy a bigger, richer, California Syrah, maybe as much as a sinewy St Joseph. But when it crosses the line to being noticeably overripe (which, sorry to say, most Martinelli Pinots do), and/or overly oaked, just not something I much enjoy.

I was at a wine lunch last week, where someone brought a 99 Shafer Hillside Select. That’s a top of the line Cali Cab, from a good vintage, with almost 20 years of age. It was just too much. Too rich, lush, and definitely too much oak. In my first decade of exploring wine I probably would have loved it. A couple of decades later, not so much.

The variety of fine wine is a big part of the fun. If all great wine came in one style, it could get boring. I love old school Bordeaux, crisp German Riesling, as well as traditional Burgundy and Barolo/Barbaresco. That being said there is something about the unhinged fun of a big, ripe California Cabernet.

Yes, some wines do indeed go to far. I had a Chateauneuf du Pape special cuvée the other night that was the most disgusting thing I had drank in a long time. It was notably sweet, hot as all hell, and came across as a manufactured wine versus a wine of place. Awful stuff.

There are always lines. Everyone draws them in a different place.

My journey is taking me the other way. I find more enjoyment now in wines with less oak, less alcohol and less ripeness. I seek crushed rock, herbs, balanced fruit. I opened a few Saxums recently and I find them just so over the top, yet people leave high scores for them on CT. I guess there is something for everyone.

I worry 'bout you, boy. What’s next, critter wines?

Tom - I sometimes have similar experiences, though I have not yet been moved to purchase such wines.

Perhaps our taste buds are just deteriorating as we get old.

FYI, “spoofy” isn’t necessarily the same as overripe, which is usually the problem with Martinelli wines in my (admittedly limited) experience. I think of spoofy involving lots of tricks in the cellar – fermentation enzymes, malo in barrel, heavy oak, reverse osmosis, water additions, big acid adjustments, and the like.

People have always liked sweetness in wines and always enjoyed a variety of wines including sweeter ones. Look at Port, as traditional a wine as there is. You can’t get bigger, sweeter, or more alcoholic than that. Look at Amarone.

Tom, if your palate hasn’t changed - you still like the traditional producers - I would say that your preferences have widened to appreciate (tolerate?) a broader range of styles.

I’ve gone in the opposite direction. I started out liking modern, ripe, fruit forward wines and now strongly prefer the traditionalists. I’ve become less tolerant of the uber-ripe style but can still enjoy a young fruit forward wine if it’s not overdone.

“Big” wines don’t bother me though they are not my preference. Where my preferences have changed is my tolerance for oak. Not just dill, coconut infused wines that overwhelm but also “toast”, “charcoal” etc. Its to the point where I can’t even enjoy a glass of wine where oak is noticeable to me. It has cut down on wines I enjoy and purchase.

Tom

Tom, like you, while I lean strongly traditionalist, there are more modern wines that I think are well made (even if not my style) and that I even enjoy. The enjoyment may be more visceral enjoyment compared to a “profound” wine.

And I buy these in small quantities for the right occasion, which tends to be when we have guests. Thinking forward to Christmas, we are hosting about 16 people. Without a doubt, the bottles that are not my style will be long gone before the Sociando, VCC and PLL.

That something is how very often I find myself saying in a TN something along the lines of, “not my kind of wine- but I really liked this”.

Then it is your kind of wine.

I think people use wine, like so many other things, as a signifier and a form of self-identification. It’s almost like writing those awful self-descriptions they used to have in the free papers like the Village Voice - “I’m all about spirituality, wear black, downtown attitude.”

I would see stuff like that and I’d think douche bag, but some people must have thought it was cool.

If you get past that, there’s a lot to like in this world even if it doesn’t fit the self-definition you might imagine for yourself. No reason not to like something that’s good.

(BTW Tom - I’m not calling you a DB!)

The more you learn, the less you know.

“Spoofy” was the first word that came to mind when I tasted a 2011 Jones Family The Sisters a couple of weeks ago. It had “stuff” sticking out every which way - made me wonder if I was consuming 30% mega-purple… Cheers!

Agreed, big style wow wines can be enjoyable at the right time.
In tastings and for pre dinner cooking wine situations, I enjoy some of the more extracted, higher octane modern wines, but with food which is how I consume most wine, I prefer to specifically pair them with certain aged cheeses, they can simply overpower most foods.

I disagree. It can be an “it’s fun to have once in a while” sort of thing. Too much of it would make me dislike it at all times.

I still retch at SQN but I did like a modern Spanish wine a few years ago. Terabithia*? Newman Thea? Something like that.

Still haven’t lived it down.



* if you believe I don’t really remember the name of the wine I have a bridge I can sell you…

Numanthia is winery and Termanthia is their flagship wine

It’s connects Brooklyn and Manhattan and it can be yours for the low, low price of $3 million.