It’s always good to learn new words. I don’t advise eating the stuff, though.
It doesn’t sound like something I would seek out. Is like terra cotta or flan?
Like custard or (British) gravy its reputation has been forged by countless school , hospital and other institutional kitchens. The Pinot Grigio of the dessert menu. Done right can be good, usually it’s meh. Too often made from powder.
There’s also rice pudding ….
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Extraterrestrial blancmanges that turn everyone into Scotsmen so that the aliens can win Wimbledon is the plot of a famous Monty Python extended sketch. I can’t even begin to explain it — the top Scottish tennis player is named Angus Podgorny, for example — so here is the most concise summary I have found:
https://montypython.fandom.com/wiki/Blancmange
Blancmange started its life as a kind of spicy meat pie evidently. The current version is a Victorianised pudding. Its ingredients are milk, cornstarch and sugar (some recipes evidently gussy it up with lemon peel or almonds according to the internet; I’ve never tasted that, but I doubt it would help), which are baked into a sweet, bland, goopy pudding. I am a scholar of Victorian literature and culture, but such horrors are not what the period is justly renowned for.
My first encounter with blancmange was from The Canterbury Tales, read in high school class.
In the prologue a chef, Roger, is described as highly skilled, and known for his blancmange. He is further described as having a running ulcer on his leg.
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2023 Clos du Val Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley
“Quite red-fruited, building with strawberry and violet notes, rose stem, and sun-dried tomato. Medium-bodied on the palate with raspberry preserves, building with bergamot, and black-tea-scented tannins, with a lingering graphite mineral finish.”-Jonathan Cristaldi, WE 93"
So many questions…
Note to self: I must cut one of my rose bushes and see whether the stems have a scent.
Do tannins have scents?
And what on earth is a “graphite mineral finish”?? There was a lengthy discussion above (and an empirical experiment!) about whether graphite has a scent (or whether people use the term when they’re really thinking about pencil shavings, which are cedar). I’ve never heard graphite used to refer to a wine texture.
This guy – a “renowned millennial wine critic” – has given tannins a scent and has turned a purported scent into a texture on the finish!
And yet, I get the feeling you’re not going to herald him as a genius…
I can’t wait for black forest tannins and clove-clipped finish!
Sounds horrible.
I’ve had that wine but this leaves me utterly confused. Bottle variation? Or maybe just vintage variation - haven’t had it for a while.
Starts with strawberries, goes to rose stem (!) and sun dried tomatoes, and then ends up with raspberry preserves. WTF? The progression seems horrid but what preseves? Bonne Maman, Hero, Smuckers, Annie’s?
And are we discussing the rose stem from a virused rose, a rose with rose rosette disease, or a healthy rose? Nor whether it’s a young or fully-lignified stem. How can we possibly know what to expect from such lack of precision?
As to the mineral graphite - I’m glad that he clarified the type. The non-mineral or synthetic graphite, made in factories, is quite different from the naturally occurring mineral with it’s many impurities.
But John - I did you a favor. I ran the description through ChatGPT. This is what it said:
Based on the flavor markers and structural elements described, this wine is almost certainly a Nebbiolo (such as a Barolo or Barbaresco) or a complex, cool-climate Pinot Noir (like one from Burgundy or Oregon).
Rose stems do have a scent. No comment about the rest of the note except wtf.
Pencil shavings are cedar but I don’t think we’ve ever solved the mystery of why pencil shavings smell different from all other cedar if the actual pencil filling is odorless.
Rose stems might in theory smell different from other stems but I imagine it would take a remarkable talent to call it in a blind sniff without the actual roses present.
I’m at a loss to imagine how a scent of black tea might be attributed to tannins smelling like black tea as opposed to other things smelling like black tea. I don’t think I’ve ever found a wine to smell like tea though.
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You haven’t? Black tea (leaf) is one of my favorite burgundy notes ever. Not the most frequent of scents, but it was certainly there today in a 2014 Arlaud Clos de la Roche.
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Rose stems do have a scent. No comment about the rest of the note except wtf.
The young green ones do but that scent is from green leaf volatiles, which you also get from freshly cut grass. The lignified canes smell a lot like other wood. They probably have more tannins than some wood, but it’s not something that you immediately pick up and identify like you could with cut pine branches. In fact, unless you’ve pruned a lot of roses, the descriptor is pretty much useless.
OMG. ‘A subtle huskiness.’
I quite agree, the smell of tealeaves is a lovely note. (Not the tea, though, the dry leaves.)
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A missed opportunity. What a great name for a lost alterna-80s/90s band, like That Petrol Emotion or A Certain Ratio or A Flock of Seagulls. (Yeah they aren’t all alternative. Work with me people)
Light straw with inviting aromas of fleshy, ripe stone fruits, grapefruit and citrus with hints of grilled nuts, soft spice, pressed flowers, rice pudding, nougat, green apple skin and deftly-judged oak. It’s a wine of poise and grace on the palate, textural aspects simpatico with fruit purity and mineral cadence, sliding across the palate in harmony; citrus, stone and brine borne of soil at its core with great length of flavour, detail and clarity as it fades off. I loved this release.
We have a new player!
Wow! I’m impressed. Who is responsible for this work of creativity?
‘Grilled nuts’ is a prime nonsensical tasting note. If you tried to grill nuts, they would FALL INTO THE FIRE, becoming CHARRED NUTS.
And that hurts!
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