Winter, Ripeness and Thoughts about Spring Cleaning

WINE TALK
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Tis the season for hearty fare and robust wines. Yet, I find my preferences more averse than usual to “over-ripeness” and alcohol. Even as the snow piles up and Punxatawney Phil has price-lined a 6 week Disney deal, I want nothing to do with heat. I keep hearing about balanced reds with 15%+ listed alcohol or whites with 14%+. Sure. Do they exist? Probably, but I’ve really lost patience with the fact that almost every high test bottle emerging from my cellar…is a dud. There are prunes and raisins in the pantry and scorched flavors are just minutes away using the Weber. There’s a cabinet full of virtually untouched liquor just waiting to provide some burn.

Ripe wine fans argue that low alcohol numbers are no protection against heat…but in my experience, the exceptions are few and far between. One of my favorite alcohol checks is the “walk down the street test”. Recently I split a bottle of Muscadet with my wife over a raw oyster lunch and subsequently hit the Paris streets for a stroll. The first thing I noticed…were my wits. Pleasantly buzzed and no major dysfunction…well, no more than normal. After sharing a couple hundred bottles in a similar fashion, I’ve learned that big = drunk. Not that there aren’t times for social lubrication, but most of my wine is consumed before, during and after a fairly low key dinner.

The number of 2003 wines I’ve enjoyed recently is a very small percentage of those tasted. Based on labels, as inaccurate as they can be, my sweet spot is < 14% for reds and < 13% for whites. My wife’s preferences are even lower. She’s become quite perceptive at spotting higher alcohol, long before I reveal what she’s drinking. If the wine tastes good, I want to drink it without worrying about slurring, slobbering or a groggy morning. More often than not, excess ripeness prompts a rejection, an addition to the cooking queue and a return trip to the cellar.

A Spring cleaning is approaching, and mine is going to involve purging a number of table wines listed 15%+ and quite a few in the 14.5 - 15% range. I expect to find a number of appreciative high test lovers…and my short term loss will likely be their gain. It’s not about finding fault with “big wine” lovers, I just can’t imagine that my palate’s pendulum will swing that direction again.

RT

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Cool post, Richard. Nothing wrong with spring cleaning. And, I am sure for every bottle of high test wine, there may be a happy taker for them.

Cheers

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You have prunes in your pantry [scratch.gif] .

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I agree with the points in your interesting post, but the sentence above is the one that induced a momentary fugue state for me… that sounds so perfectly pleasant.

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That’s what it sounded like to me too Bob.

The last time I strolled down the street in Paris, TX, I was slurring, slobbering and groggy. You have to watch those Gulf Coast oysters, expecially in months that don’t have an “r” in 'em.

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The last time I got rather buzzed in Paris I thought it was rather nice. Sitting at a nice table on St. Germain sipping on a nice red overpriced bottle. The sun was good, the women were hot and the wine hit the spot. Took a long stroll to wear off the effects and to get ready for the next feeding.

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Sitting at a table on Saint Germain with a bottle and watching the world go by is a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon.

-Al

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The ones in the basement are the problem.

RT