Thanks to Tom I had the fortune {ahem} to try this wine. The only thing I would add to Tom’s excellent notes is that it has a finish that seems to go on for ever. Bonus. Thanks for sharing Tom.
The cafe next to our shop has this on the list. I can’t resist heading there for a bottle next week!
Will report back.
Why do you waste your $ on this crap? 2x shame on you.
Sounds like Brian!!!
It’s his money.
Hands down your most legendary thread that I have read to date Tom. Kudos to you for buying two shitty bottles to prove a point to… us random readers on a niche website! Love the pulpit.
Love this thread.
Not sure what I am more shocked at… the ridiculous group mindset from the [mindless] supply chain that this must be good because we bought it this way; or the local wine merchant that would benefit from listening to their customers lecturing you on your palate and what you should expect given the wine producer intended the [shitty] result.
Therefore, no bottle is ever really flawed (or returnable) in that line of logic. Flaws don’t really exist if they are “intended”.
Nice
Actually… I’m going back to buy a 3’rd btl. You have no idea (probably) how difficult it is to go out and buy a btl this bad!!
Tom
1 Like
Perhaps the 3rd bottle should be a livestream video with you, the shop owner and the importer ![[popcorn.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/1/1ca9f29573458cca2424a66a50d6c1261081dd3e.gif "[popcorn.gif]"){kind=small}
Well, Rich…over the last few yrs, I’ve taken about 3 btls back to this merchant (two w/ excessive brett, and this Radikon). All w/ little wine drawn from them.
At no point as he acknowledged my criticism of the wine nor offered to replace them or give a refund. He has a supreme knowledge of wine that nobody
else can approach. Not sure what he’d do if I returned a corked wine.
But, to his credit, he does bring in some interesting wines that nobody else has, because of his connections. And, by & large, they are good.
But I know longer offer up any comments on the wines I buy there unless it’s to acknowledge that it is an excellent wine. Sometimes they’re just
bland & boring & I just let it lie.
Tom
Had this third btl for breakfast wine this morning. Still a raging volatility w/ huge EA level, but a bit better than Btl#2 as not as much CO2/refermentation going on. Shows some pickle juice character now. But still very much undrinkable.
But that’s the way it’s supposed to be, so who am I to criticize??
Tom
1 Like
Wow - I do admire your diligence.
The crazy thing? Others who tried the bottle and had your same reaction and brought it back to the retailer might have been swayed that this was the way the wine was supposed to smell and taste and accepted it - and perhaps look for other wines with these same ‘characteristics’ aka faults.
That to me is the challenge in our industry - and that PIX article you posted confirms some fears I have.
Cheers
Hmmm, is Tom secretly starting to like this wine? He returns to it repeatedly 
. People habituate to and grow to like all kinds of crazy things, look at Kim chi and retsina…
I do find the wine store owners appeal to authority hilarious. We may not like this but people higher than us in the wine hierarchy have told us we’re supposed to like it and we don’t dare disagree!
Marcus,
And you KNOW many people do believe your last statement - I know it was made in jest but that’s the real challenge here.
Cheers
Well, the interesting thing is that we sometimes do rely on authority to educate our tastes. An aged Burgundy might at first be a little harder to appreciate than a cheap sweet Aussie shiraz with a picture of a kangaroo on it, but you eventually come to realize it’s better.
With that said, I do find that people, including novices who have previously only tasted supermarket stuff, tend to recognize quality wine very quickly. Almost as soon as they’re exposed to it in fact - it’s striking.
FWIW I am strongly of the opinion that it’s got nothing to do with better, as personal taste is *everything. If I were to treat critics as revered gurus, then I’m sure I would learn to despise what I love and instead work to love what they said was worthy. What a grim scenario that would be.
- there is however some grey area, of better understanding wine styles and of giving them a fair chance. e.g. encountering tannins for the first time in wine can be an unpleasant shock to people. If it is unpleasant, then sharing an understanding of how the wine changes with age / with food can be important. It’s not about convincing them they should like it, but giving them enough knowledge to give the wine a fair shot. The same can be true for natural wines, but that’s more about understanding how they differ, and how some old wine ‘truths’ are being challenged. We may still stand by a preference for (say) zero VA or Brett, or remain convinced that many natural winemakers are incompetent fools, but we may also change our own perception.
Ian,
I hear you and I completely understand where you are coming from. That’s what the PIX article was mentioning - and the one point I strongly agree with that is that ‘little imperfections’ make wines more distinctive. Now I am not taking about true ‘faults’ that distract from the elements of the wine - and I’m sorry but really high VA and EA are just that. But a touch of earth balances fruit; a little more acid than one might expect may make a wine ‘more alive’. A touch of VA may elevate the aromatics.
To justify ‘faults’ as something that ‘are meant to be’, though, is another story. I wonder, when talking with many natural winemakers, if they feel that EA is ‘what they’re after’ or even ‘acceptable’ to them. It may be - as ‘the process’ may be more important than ‘the end product’, but that’s up for debate as well.
Cheers
1 Like
Definitely had to read this tasting note – “short/boring” we’re used to, but I don’t recall ever seeing “short/boring/painful.”
It’s possible you missed the intended purpose of this wine, Tom – have you tried using it to remove your nail polish?
Very fair comment Larry S. There have been other instances where it appears arrogance has prevented people realising a natural wine was seriously problematic, though we’ve all probably experienced the same with a corked ‘normal’ wine.
FWIW I’ve long been a fan of Ch Musar, arguably before I really got into wine. It’s certainly been a wine with a fair few faults over the years, yet for me, almost never crossing the line into where they have been a problem, indeed I’ve been concerned that recent vintages have been a little too clean for my liking (LOL)
It remains important to retain our ability for critical reasoning, albeit I personally find it harder as our points of reference aren’t always relevant to what is being aimed for. There was a great (perhaps typically English?) tasting group running on Wine Pages called ‘Oddities’. The aim was to simply taste out of the mainstream, be that grapes, regions, winemaking or even a wine you wouldn’t expect from a better known producer. There would typically be a few natural wines, alongside other unusual wines. The tasting was done blind, and guesses could be rather futile, considering we’d have been unlikely to have experienced any (e.g.) Belgian wines before. What this tasting was very good at, was getting us really focused on what was in the glass.
1 Like
OMG, I’m loving this thread Tom! I’m just waiting for you to go back and try it in large format. If he runs out, you might have to special order a case! At least you’re protecting your neighbors from the experience.
Cheers,
Warren