Butterfly Effect?

WINE TALK
1

2012 Effet Papillon Cotes du Roussillon

I know almost nothing about this wine:
It’s cheap.
It’s really good.
It’s totally misnamed (the name means ‘butterfly effect’).

From an excellent, underrated vintage in Roussillon, this has a healthy medium-dark ruby color to the rim. The aromas are ripe Grenache, with more red than black fruits, more earth than mineral. There’s enough mineral to tell me it’s more than a basic Cotes du Rhone, if it wasn’t for the label I could be thinking Montsant or even Priorat, as well as Roussillon. The palate is ripe, with good balancing acidity, purity of fruit and excellent density. This hits the sweet spot of power and balance. The finish is moderately long.

I don’t get the name at all. This has multiple orders of magnitude more heft than a butterfly. Metaphorically speaking, if it landed on your head, you’d have a concussion. It’s closer to a heavyweight than a butterfly.

This wine competes with the core of what I sell in my own import business, but kudos for something truly excellent at what I know was a really good price (I doubt I paid more than $15). Rated 91.5, ready to drink but will easily hold for a few more years.

Dan Kravitz

2

Sounds great.

Is the name perhaps a French idiom?

3

I’d think this refers to the “butterfly effect” in physics or math, which is the idea that a small change (as might be set off by a butterfly going by) can over time get magnified into a very large change like a storm. This can happen in chaotic systems, like the weather.

Don’t ask me what that has to do with wine, tho!

4

+1

5

We did ladybugs in Burgundy a few years ago, so why not butterflies? [snort.gif]

6

"I don’t get the name at all. This has multiple orders of magnitude more heft than a butterfly. Metaphorically speaking, if it landed on your head, you’d have a concussion. It’s closer to a heavyweight than a butterfly. "

You have become an agent in the spread of the butterfly effect. If many of us try it, like it, and re-post about it, a super spreader.

7

I know the term ‘butterfly effect’, as in a butterfly flaps its wings in Turkey and you get a tsunami in Japan. But like Peter Kleban, I have a very hard time connecting it to a name for a bottle of wine. Sure is good though! Will probably finish the bottle tonight, left it in the fridge overnight.

Dan Kravitz