…selling for about $8 US but it is STERILE filtered:
Is this a cynical bid for one part of the natural wine demand (no added sulfites) while kicking another part (no fining or filtering) to the curb while hoping consumers don’t notice?
Umm, yes? How much “purity” do you seriously expect a wine lover to engage in before you become some pretentious indie-rock scold?
See your natural wine/punk rock analogy in the KL Natural wine thread you posted. Did punk rock die? No. Did real punk get co-opted for marketing purposes from the Sex Pistols to Avril Lavigne and beyond? Yes. You can’t seriously be surprised by this. Shall I link the various “organic,” “NSA” and “biodynamic” wineries that are far larger than any advocate of those principles would ever dream of supporting?
The number of people who want “real” punk rock fade in comparison to the number of people who want commodity punk. This equation is complicated by the fact that most real punk sucks and a lot of commodity punk is kind of catchy, if less principled. Most people who think they want real punk have never been anywhere near the lifestyle which produces the real thing, which often involves (in no particular order) parental abuse, the puking of Malt Liquor, lying in gutters and miscellaneous human sorrow, and less fighting for economic principles and feeling good about one another, whilst somehow being slightly angry. But it is nice to romanticize real punk from a distance. Especially while listening to commodity punk and arguing over who is a sellout.
This also applies to wine.
Roberto - serious question - have you ever been deeply invested in the production of a wine (both emotionally and economically), or just the retailing of it? How black and white is your world? Do shades of gray exist for you? Why do you seem to celebrate ideology above all else?
Jim, you are confusing my INTEREST in this discussion (which has lead me to do some research and then post interesting cases like this one or devil’s advocate bits like the punk rock thing to incite further discussion of just how influential the natural wine thing is / will be) with me having some ideological / religious / dogmatic attachment or affiliation with the “movement”. I don’t. I just find it AND the backlash to it very interesting.
If I “celebrate ideology above all else”, why are my notes from two major Natural Wine shows in Italy last month full of things like “Not only is this bad by any standard but the guy doesn’t seem aware of it which is really sad” and “this guy’s terroir must be the local landfill…bleh!” as well as praise for some of the actually good to great wines we tasted?
As to shades of gray: I spend my LIFE trying to show people there are thousands of shades, styles, expressions and uses of wine. That’s the joy of it…
Roberto,
Please. No I am not. You are and have been a big part of IT (the attachment to the “movement” and the “backlash”), and have been for a long time. Almost anytime someone finds something “very interesting,” whilst pretending to just be a a casual observer = full of s–t. See apologizing to Lyle for being a “fellow traveler” as well. No doubt the backlash makes for great WE newsletter copy, which just happens to be “very interesting.”
If I missed these notes, post them. Sorry if I missed them. I think I have more than just a little credibility to establish as someone who will welcome a nuanced view of wine.
Those notes aside, do you really think ideology isn’t important to you? Asking as a fellow traveler with less frequent flyer miles…