It’s great to have a palate that can appreciate a wide range of wines, and an attitude that puts enjoyment ahead of dogma. Tonight I’m drinking a glass of 2004 Penfolds St Henri. Nowhere near the heart of my wine interests these days, but also far from their most archetypal ‘prestige’ red style, and as a reminder of a style I drink little of these days, it’s certainly enjoyable. A change can be good.
I think that I’ve drifted from being an “I can find something to enjoy in any well-made wine” kind of guy to one who has a few wine styles that just don’t have much appeal. That said, the profile of what I drink would not fall into either AFWE or Flavor-Party camps; it spans them.
Cheers,
fred
It’s connects Brooklyn and Manhattan and it can be yours for the low, low price of $3 million.
Such a bargain!
It’s interesting what happened to that Termanthia Jay. The Egurens sold to LVMH and the next year opened another winery making similar wines close by - Teso La Monja. They’d already bought the land in Toro and pretty much duplicated the Numanthia wines with a low, mid, and upper tier, and they added a super duper one. But then they pulled back a bit and while they’re always going to get big, full-bodied wines in Toro, they dropped back a bit on the oak and ripeness, at least the last vintages I tasted. Still isn’t going to be confused with something from the Loire, but it’s something quite enjoyable sometimes.
Some roads (palates) lead away from spoofy. Some people gravitate toward spoofy wines as they age; I’ve gone the opposite direction. 40 years ago I was more tolerant of alcohol, rs in red wine, oak, and extraction than I am now. Likely, I think, due to the fact that currently I only drink still wine with a meal. Spoofy doesn’t go well with most well-prepared food. A dinner table wine’s first job is to be refreshing. Spoofy ain’t refreshing.
The improvement in winemaking throughout the USA is very, very impressive.
We still don’t do terroir or funk or minerality like France or Germany or Italy, but we’re so much better than we used to be.
USA winemaking is starting to move out of its childhood & into its adolescence.
Tom,
I have always had a very old-world oriented palate (as you know from old school posts). That said, I was never closed off to new world styles. They do have a much higher hurdle over which to leap for me personally, but I still have the occasional night where I want something lavish and new world. It’s easy to dismiss all Napa Cab as spoofy, but then you have the right wine and it has an elegance and ethereal quality that is really quite lovely and special (and often more intriguing than modern Bdx). SQN can pull it off as well.
When they work, they really do work. They may not be my preferred idiom, but I always thought people who dismissed them out of hand were doing so in no small part to attract the plaudits of others.
I’m more recently into wine than beer, but I think there’s a decent comparison. The first beer I started buying was Sierra Nevada and I’ve always been into craft beers. But give me a cold Bud light at a baseball game and I’m happy as a clam. Everything has a time and a place.
This is really common…your preference will change with you as you continue to taste more wines. It is VERY common to make a transition like you describe. I’ve seen it in most folks around the 6-8 year mark as they continue to slowly get introduced to wines that offer a wider variety of styles, scents, and flavors. California wines account for only 4% of my cellar. I still like to have some of these wines around, it’s just not very often that I find myself thinking, “I feel like a California Cab/Syrah/Grenache tonight”.
California Cabs can start to seem like a one trick pony after some time exploring the Old World. I recall having a 30+ year old Clos des Lambrays with a friend that almost exclusively drank Cabernet…you couldn’t give them a glass of Cabernet after that. They went to Gattinara, Rosso di Montalcino, and other old world wines. Not everyone gets to the top of the Everest so it’s hard to try to wrap your mind around what that experience is like…I see that similarly with wines. I hope one day I’ll get to my “Everest” in wine…
For me spoof wines can taste good in a tasting format, but then often tire me out with a full glass, particularly with a meal.
The 20 years
Is it regarding the cellaring of CA PN?
Does it get drinkable 