Retsina, Aligote, Willamette Valley Orange Wine
Hi everyone! Back from Cali, thank you so much for holding everything
down here. I'll be brief this week so I can catch back up (or at least
try) but there's a few interesting additions Uznea put on that I'll
talk about.
Kamara Retsina
At some point in the past two hundred years what we now consider
"wine" was slowly, unconsciously codified. Grapes (typically vitis
vinifera) were now what wine came from, and other fruit wines slowly
fell out of fashion. Port wine and sherry fell out of fashion as well,
as did most sweet wines. What we were left with in the 90s was wine
was in a much narrower range than it was. Retsina, from Greece, is a
rare wine that reminds of the anarchic time before the British Empire
decided what wine was for everyone. Retsina (from the root word resin)
is a very, very traditional greek white wine that is flavored with
pine resin. The origins of retsina were, like most things, origins of
necessity. Pine resin was used to seal the old clay vessels used to
store and ship wine (this is roughly 3000 years ago), which would also
flavor them. Later, when barrels became the standard for storing wine
and pine pitch was no longer needed the Greeks found that they had
grown a taste to the wine and retsina was born, and has an unbroken
3000 year history of production. To say retsina is a unique tasting
wine is an understatement. It absolutely has a strong flavor of pine,
and it has a very salty/savory taste that pairs well with pungent
cheeses and strongly flavored dishes. It's definitely a casual wine
and definitely something that needs a caveat before serving. It's not
something I would ever suggest to something as a first course, for
instance because it can tend to overwhelm any wine that can afterward.
It's also a wine for small pours and sipping (it's very much like
sherry in this way). But for the truly curious it's a completely
fascinating wine to try. This particular one comes from Thessaloniki,
in northern greece and is a 50/50 blend of Roditis and Assyrtiko, two
of the better Greek white varieties (we're trying to get more Greek
wine in, but it's tough going in Louisiana).
Naima and David Didon Aligote de Bourgogne 2020
In 1395 Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, started what would be
become the basis what we know as the modern French wine classification
system when he banned Gamay from Burgundy. Gamay had been discovered
some 40 years earlier, a mutation of another grape. Winegrowers,
decimated by the black plague greeted gamay as a godsend. It was
hearty, high yielding, and much, much easier to grow than the fickle
Pinot Noir grape. Duke Philip, who supplied the courts of Europe with
Burgundy and realizing that perhaps Gamay was a threat to the quality
of the wine, finally outlawed it in 1395, alongside any non-Pinot red
grape. It took hundreds of years to enforce this, coming at a time
when laws like this were just necessarily hard to enforce. This purge
was followed up in the early 18th century with the outlawing of Melon
de Bourgogne (which later found a home in Muscadet after a devastating
frost wiped out most of the grape varieties there). So slowly in
Burgundy it went from multiple grape varieties to almost exclusively
Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, and the curious case of Aligote. The reason
why Aligote was spared the chopping block has been lost to history but
many suspect that the fact that it much more frost resistant than
Chardonnay meant that even in bad vintages the poorer areas of
Burgundy where it was mostly planted would have wine to sell. This
wine comes from around the town of Bouzeron, which is widely accepted
to be the best terroir that aligote has. David and Naima are new
vignerons, having only a scant 2 hectares to their name. However David
comes has lots of work experience, working with the famed
ultra-traditionalist Volnay producer Etienne de Montille, a producer
who vociferously fought against the march of modern winemaking in
Burgundy. He also learned in the fields from legendary biodynamic
producers Dominique Derain and Julian Altaber. The wine is a high
toned, crisp high acid hit.
Here's a great little write-up:
https://www.offshorewines.com/didon
Ovum Wines Orange Rose
Cloe asked me about this one. Is it a rose? And Orange wine? I had no
idea, turns out it's both. A 50/50 blend of Ovum's Pink Salt (which we
also carry), which is a mostly cabernet sauvignon rose, and skin
contact pinot gris from the Columbia Gorge in Oregon. Ovum is a
project from Ksenija and John House that has been making really great
wine since 2011.
http://ovumwines.com/
Until next week,
Cory