Tried these two new natural wines w/ Susan this weekend:
Christina Zweigelt Weinland/Austria (12%; www.christinawines.com/; Jenny & Francois Slctns/NY) Weingut Franz Netzl/Gottlesbrunn/Carnuntum/Austria 2020: Very dark color; rather strong earthy/loamy/root cellar some funky/natty/unclean some plummy/boysenberry/Zweigelt rather rustic/bit coarse nose; some tart/tangy quite earthy/loamy some funky/natty/rusticslight plummy/Zweigelt/boysenberry flavor w/ light rough/coarse tannins; long bit plummy/boysenberry/licorice/Zweigelt quite earthy/loamy/Kansas root cellar rough/coarse finish w/ light coarse tannins; a bit too earthy/loamy & not much fruit to my taste; not a particularly attractive Austrian red, a bit on the ugly side, more like a rustic Southern Italian red. $19.50 (KK)
Christina St.Laurent Weinland/Austria (11.5%) 2020: Med.color; somewhat fragrant cherry/Pinotish light pencilly/oak some earthy/loamy pleasant enough nose; fairly tart/tangy some earthy/loamy light Pinotish/StLaurent/black cherry/plummy light pencilly/oak bit coarse/rustic flavor w/ light bit chewey tannins; med.long rather Pinotish/cherry/plummy light pencilly/oak some earthy/loamy bit rustic finish w/ light some smooth tannins; a pleasant enough rather Pinotish expression of St.Laurent; a bit on the rustic side but very little natty character. $20.50 (KK)
A wee BloodyPulpit:
Christina Netzl is a producer of natural wines in the Carnuntum region of Austria on the Panonian Plains. I’ve had her skin-contact Gruner & her Orange Chard, neither of which I found very appealing. Of these two reds, the Zweigelt was dominated by the earthy/loamy character w/ not much fruit. The St.Laurent was the best of her wines I’ve tried, pleasant enough but just that. Her wines show a bit of a natty character, but not enough to make them unpleasant.
Again…we are told that natural winemaking allows the wine’s terroir to shine thru. I’ve not seen that much in any natural wines I’ve tried. Mostly they speak of inept winemaking. Maybe, just maybe, SweetAlice is full of it??
Tom
I don’t really know the producer, but her website suggests that the winegrowing protocols are…
100% organically grown (non-certified?)
De-stemming for the Zweigelt, carbonic maceration(+) for the St. Laurent
Wild yeast fermentation
No fining/filtration
SO2 additions at bottling
Obviously not a methodology that, in and of itself, prevents one from making wines that show terroir.
So the problem could be inept winemaking.
Or “inept” winebuying, this possibly being yet another instance where a wine maker’s goals/preferences and a wine drinker’s goals/preferences were poorly matched.
Edit: After posting I noticed the short vatting times post-press for both the reds… this could be responsible for some of the characters you note, Tom. Whether that is by design or not, I cannot say.
If the wines are billed as the “purest” expression of terroir, and a buyer buys them with the impression that they will express terroir, then that’s not really the buyer’s fault when the wines fall short, is it?
I understand the desire to explore and try new things, but I have trouble getting my head around an approach to this wine passion that results in drinking such a large number of wines you don’t like very much. Obviously it is fun or interesting for you, Tom. I just can’t get my head around it. Different strokes for sure!
