the formula for relatively successful low s02 semi carbonic reds is perhaps far more widely known at this point?
A pair of Mohlin.
2021 Weissburgunder, greeny hue, oaky nose, vibrant juicy citrus, more energy than most versions. Delicious. Reminds me a bit of Chablis 25 years ago.
2020 Spatburgunder, smokey, beetroot, rust, mud. So much going on with the nose it feels a bit light on the palate. Fruit very much secondary now.
2 Likes
I really love the Chablis 25 years ago comparison.
Both sound excellent!
I would expect the 2020’s to be rather closed now. From my 16’s and some 18’s tasted in 2024, the fruit had returned to a certain degree after some years of feeling very much in the background.
I had this first in 2015 at a wine bar just a few blocks from where I lived while doing a stint at the London School of Economics. Just as good as I remember - juicy cherries and plums, pleasantly chewy tannin, the very faintest whiff of barnyard, maybe some spicy notes, and then the perfect amount of pomegranate like tartness at the end. A great experience from one of the OGs of natural wine
2 Likes
2020 Domaine de Saint Pierre Trousseau
Lacks the vibrancy and energy of the 23 Corvees a few weeks ago. A little muddy and lacking definition,
3 Likes
2022 Jean Foillard Morgan is deliciously primary, fresh berries, with a bit of icing sugar sweetness. Fine crunch to the finish.
3 Likes
Daniel Sage - Adam contre le beefsteak.
- I tend to like Daniel’s 12% wines a lot more than the 14%+ ones, this has a bit of funk though, very fresh light berries (VA) and a slightly animale feel - drunk quite quickly as I think there’s some souris ahead.
3 Likes
Bought a ‘La Corne d’Impuissance’ recently to share with a friend. Should clock in at 12%. Hope it won’t be too unstable.
2021 Daniel Sage Grange Bara
The last bottle of this was brilliant, this bottle was just good. The cork was wet and it was actually a bit fizzy in the bottle. A swift shake. Very herbal, red berries, slightly earth finish. Stayed a little spritzy,
2 Likes
I’ve really liked the Daniel Sage bottles I had, although there is a bit of bottle variation and the last one had a tiny touch of mousiness (still enjoyable, though). Still worthy wines for me, just impossible to find in the US…
Received a “Not Drinking Poison” newsletter today, with a link to a more recent but very short interview with Legeron of RAW fair. I think it’s very good to see the discussion inside this branch of the industry, but I wonder in how many cases it’s about the efforts of these skilled 0/0 winemakers, and not just the economic and social changes discussed in many other threads here on the board.
Ayscough continues;
“ I think we really need to focus more heavily on delivering wines that are drinkable, well crafted, and balanced. In the world of natural wine, it should no longer be acceptable to pour wines that are mousy, unbalanced, or fragile, and expect that the market is going to buy them,” says Legeron. “I think we’re seeing this in all markets: people are leaning away from some of the crazier bottles and returning to more controlled styles.”
A journalist might well have picked at that word, control . How, exactly, do you control a wine? And what aspects of a wine’s profile might make a consumer applaud a wine’s controlled quality?
Perhaps more pertinently, given widespread public ignorance of viticulture and the (complex but still fairly straightforward) processes of natural winemaking, why is it that wine must be controlled to conform to the market’s demands, and not vice versa?
For a renowned natural wine writer and events organizer to insist that natural wine conform to market demands is to highlight the limitations, if not the utter superfluity, of her own public platform. If many excellent masterful natural vignerons are today having difficulty selling their excellent masterful natural wines, it is rather too easy to blame unnamed but implicitly lazy or careless natural winemakers releasing bad natural wines. I would instead point to the public figures exacerbating public wine miseducation by insisting that truly natural wines should taste just like filtered and sulfited “natural” wines.
5 Likes
Henri Chauvet Au Chant De La Huppe. Pinot and Gamay. 11.5%. Didn’t show anywhere near as well as a prior bottle. Pickle juice, berry juice, slight.
3 Likes
2020 Daniel Sage Nyctalopie
11.5%, moderate VA, very crunchy and juicy berries, earthy and mineral. Lots of sediment. Crack on.
1 Like
Domaine de la Borde Côte de Caillot 2020
Quite weighty, candied peel, a bit of fat on the mid-palate, pith, stoney finish. Ok +.
2 Likes
2018 JC Lapalu Alma Mater. Clean, red fruited, delicious
One of the reasons I’ve been enjoying your posts in this thread is seeing the books you’re reading !
Ha. That’s the ‘to read’ pile. Quite slow progress at the moment.
vintage?
Edited in.