Attended an offline recently with a 1998 “P” in attendance. This is the same wine I reported on the other week. Again, a mid-90s Parker wine.
Those Chateauneuf fans in attendance said this was a better example of the lower level of brett that can “add to complexity.” The individual who brought the bottle said this was more typical for this producer. Given some of them had much more experience with that producer than myself, I found it interesting, because although it was not the absolute brett-monster I had the week before, I still found it to be seriously flawed and bretty (to me, ANY noticeable brett is a flaw, since all you need to do to avoid it is be sanitary.) The leather and stink was masking the fruit, just not as much as the 2004 I had the last week. It is the kind of brett than can come off as earthiness, but really is more along the lines of saddle and barnyard. Oddly, it did not seem band-aid like.
Well… I decided to test this bottle as well. Remember that the threshold for most people for 4-EP is 140-425 micrograms (ug/L) per liter. Here was the result…
This level of brett in any wine in America would send the winemaker running for the filter, and rightly so.
Interesting. The 98 is one of the few Pegaus that I think deserves the accolades and aggressive price increases. I do remember detecting much brett in it but not overtly.
FWIW, I rarely find the sweaty sock, barnyardy or band aidy brett smells all in the same wine.
FWIW, I’m pretty tolerant of Brett, but I remember having a bottle of 2004 Pegau several years ago that was so bretty that I couldn’t even bring in near my nose let alone drink it. Rather than toss the entire bottle, I chose to put the cork back in the bottle and stick it in the fridge. I tried it three days later and it was fantastic. Weird.
It would be interesting to see a plating result to see how many live cells were in the wine. Maybe the winemaker did notice the Brett, and did filter or add DMDC (shudder)… but the 3ep levels were already present.
Of course since this is a repeat offense it’s not likely that the producer is concerned about Brett levels…
No, I wouldnt be shocked as Ive heard that often. What is interesting to me is that despite this I very rarely encounter bandaid, sweaty or barnyard aromas in the producers I usually drink. When I do notice brett I usually find the wine undrinkable. Sometimes I think people are confusing reduction with brett. I guess thats the main reason I’d be curious in seeing numbers.
I also think reduction is confused with brett. Oh its stinky so it must be bretty and flawed. This is a place where I find the ‘brett is always a flaw’ mantra to be misguided. It teaches consumers the wrong thing.
I have sampled Burgundy with brett. I do not think it is as prevalent as in CdP but I do think it exists.
Ironically I think ive found more brett in California wines than in Burgundy. It might be the higher PH. The brettiest wine ive ever had the misfortune to put to my nose was a 2001 Peterson Floodgate. Some of my friends like that wine but I find it wretched.
Where I have noticed the most brett in Burgundy is with high PH vintages like 2000. Thats one thing I worry about with 2009. I hope 2007 doesn’t have that problem as I boought fairly heavily (for me) and while I havn’t read anything I would guess that is a high PH vintage.
Do you get the “metallic twang” aftertaste often in wines you find bretty? I have found it rarely over the years but when it’s there it has been consistent across bottles and it often ruins the wine for me, most recently my second bottle of 2009 Clos Saron Home Pinot (first one too, not quite as bad). I had this in one bottle of Beaucastel, a huge leaker from 1989. While many Beaucastels are bretty in aroma, I have only had the aftertaste in that one bottle. The other wines I remember that had this were a whole case of 1998 Vieux Mas des Papes, and a a bunch of bottles of a late release of 1990 Bosquets des Papes.
If you read various descriptions of brett as a wine flaw, this aftertaste is mentioned. I’m quite sure it’s not TCA. These wines have no other characteristics of TCA taint.
I will when I get the chance. I was going to do so IN SPADES at Le Paulee but I was attending the Napa auction yesterday. I would be very interested in running alcohol numbers, especially in warm years, as I am convinced they are 14% alcohol in many cases, with Whites hitting 14.5%.
I know someone at a local lab that has several times, although I would not post specific details here because it is my own back yard. But the general results show that more than a few wines have up to 3-10g/L and that the sweetness some associate with ripe fruits is in fact RS leftover from grapes picked at 28-30 brix that fails to finish fermentation. There are machines that can cut the sugar by half but none that can eliminate it.
I also read a study that as one gets more overweight, their palate tends to like sweeter wines, and when one goes on a diet and gets closer to optimum weight, that sweet tooth goes away. I suspect that this also explains why, as Americans are getting more rotund, that a bit of sweetness in a Cab is becoming more and more of a preferable thing, whereas 30 years ago it might not have been. I would be very curious to see if those who are most moving away from sweeter tasting wines correlate with being thinner.
Sometimes. Its not consistent. Kris and I have gone around about that before but metallic after tastes are something I have always associated with brett and have never had correlate with a corked wine.
I don’t know if metallic is accurate either, but I get the “twang” part - it’s a weird sensation and taste. However I never got this in a bunch of wines that people find brett in, like Beaucastel (the one bottle excepted), Pegau, Trévallon, Bandols, Musar, Gruaud Larose, etc. All the regular flavors associated with brett don’t bother me but that aftertaste does me in.
Thanks for going to the lengths of finding out the truth in numbers behind possible flaws. Im very sensitive to Brett and yet I love Rhone wines, so I wish all reviews\ would come with a brett level number.
If you dont mind sharing, what would a test like this cost?