wine does not need to be draped in the mystique in which it is often clothed even though Sometimes it merits magical status. At a tasting for Domaine Romanée Conti years ago I was lucky enough to sample a 1948 Richebourg. FOr me that was a once in a lifetime opportunity, but just because that was as special as it was, it does not mean that I cannot enjoy a $30 bottle of wine from the Languedoc-Roussillon. It is the same with food. Just because I had a spectacular meal at Alinea doesn’t mean that a cheeseburger cannot be a proper religious experience. FOr someone like me who rarely drinks DRC or dines at Alinea the everyday wine and food has to bring me joy as well. Wine is food. I believe that it should be a part of your meal. Yes, perhaps even breakfast (cristal anyone?). Not that I condone wine with every meal - necessarily - But I feel that we should look at wine as an important part of how we eat. We should strip away the notion that wine is only for special occasions. We shoud be rid of the idea that if we drink wine we should be spending a ton of money on a bottle with centuries of pedigree and provenance. Wine can be simple and delicious, constructed for the proletariat, and consumed with a bowl of beans and rice while watching whatever show we are binging this week.
In other words, there is nothing to be afraid of. Do not be concerned whether or not you’re doing it right. Find a wine you like. buy that bottle that you have been seeing on the shelf at your local bottle shop. accept people’s suggestions. Support INDEPENDENT producers. There are a lot of wines being made in the world, try as many as possible.
Wine should be delicious. I have tried countless wines the last 20 years. many of them I found very interesting and cerebral and I enjoyed the experience of drinking them. Some of them I CONSIDERED FLAWED, but I was still thankful that I was able to log them into my memory. Not all of them did I find delicious and that’s what we are looking for if we are to consider wine to be food - something delicious.
That is all I try to do when I am making wine - make it delicious. I am not trying to make a statement, reinvent the winemaking wheel, or draw a line of ethos in the sand. I’m a craftsman not an activist. My wines are usally categorized as Natural wines. Even though my wines fall into most people’s interpretation of what it means to be “Natural’ I dislike that term as it is undefined. It is true that I hope not to add anything to my wines other than SO2 as a preservative - and for the most part I am successful. However, If I need to manipulate my wines (acid adjustments or filtering for example) in order to make them tasty OR TO KEEP THEM STABLE then I am completely transparent and unapologetic about it. Winemaking is a series of small decisions that in theory will prevent me from really messing up great fruit that I have purchased from a very talented farmer.
That’s really about it. I hope you really like them. And all that stuff about trying as many wines as possible is true, but the whole point of having a website is to sell wine, so I hope you come back and order often.
