Reasons to be Cheerful
Perhaps not surprisingly, they all have to do with natural wine. By Kate
No blogging for a while now and I cannot lie; it has been bleak. I really do not feel inspired to write about bleak and anyway, who wants to read about it? There is enough which is far from cheerful going on.
When everything seems an endless wait for something good that might happen but never quite does; it begins to wear enormously but this too shall pass. I am sure I feel it beginning to do so already and several good things are starting to take a more concrete shape than they have before. Hope, if not yet springing, is certainly stirring.
So, in the spirit of eternal optimism, here are things to do with wine that have made me feel better recently. Some cheered me up enormously and some made me think which is always positive.
A person should never, ever stopthinking.
1. Frank Cornelissen 10th Anniversary Dinner in Hackney
Dinner to celebrate the 10thanniversary of the wines of FrankCornelissen, the Belgium refugee on the slopes of Etna making some of the most extreme natural wine in the world. This event was everything hardened cynics would expect of this world.
The space was so tiny that Frank sat on the floor. Dressed in a green t-shirtand Khaki’s, he also wore Birkenstocks with thick-ish socks and later on, he took both off so that his feet were bare. The audience were entirely composed of woman and when Frank said things like “Obsidian has a neutralising effect on the emotional instability of the wine”, there were no snorting sounds.
Frank is utterly uncompromising. From the beginning he was adamant that sulphur would be an entirely banned substance in his winery and he has never used wood because of the difficulty of cleaning it effectively without. He therefore started out by fermenting in unlined clay amphora, wanting utter neutrality from the vessel. This worked fine the first year although he admits the fruit then was not as good as it is now.
From the second year though, the amphora were suffering from bacterial infection and things began to go awry. Now, he uses epoxy lined amphora and cement tanks with both plastic and stainless steel for holding tanksand pipes to convey liquid. He also works with a gas called Argon to protect from oxygen although this does not have the antibacterial properties of CO2 or even nitrogen – often used by other naturalists.
Tasting through a range of vintages of both his whites and reds was more work than pleasure, but it was important work. To try to get a proper grip on the fluid counter culture that is natural wine means investigating all of its aspects and one of the most important things about Frank Cornellison is that he has never been afraid to push things and to make mistakes. Mistakes which we can all learn from.
His very earliest wines are not pleasant to drink; crippled as they are by their own volatility. These are wines that are impossible to truly love and even for me are too far over the fault line.
Volatile acidity in wine is one of the most damaging clubs the anti-naturalists use to beat the hippies with. And often, they are right to. I am as irritated by those who claim that something is wonderfully challenging and a wine that makes one think when in fact it is simply wrong and gives no pleasure as I am by those who quibble over the deliciously vibrant bite that a dash (and sometimes a goodly one) of volatility can bring.
Frank is not an idiot though and he has adapted. He has also acknowledgedthat he now sees the value of intensely pure fruit; something which he almost dismissed as too simplistic in the past. It is clear that he has some extraordinary vines on Etna and that he is getting ever more proficient at getting the best out of these, so it all bodes well The later wines tasted were much more about depth of purity than about obtuse, hard to swallow angles and that is a very good thing.
So, much thanks then to Frank for being such a fearless pioneer. I will continue to watch his wines with interest.
2. Dinner with natural wine makers at Bar Battu
Imagine. A fantastic venue in the city crammed full of most of my favourite wine people, having dinner. This was a last minute invitation on a night I already had plans but the fact that this meant I was in An Outfit and feeling light and happy made it even better.
Rebecca and I will shortly be running our tastings and courses at Bar Battu and we are all enormously pleased and excited. These are good people and it is a fabulous place with an exceptional wine list. As an added bonus, I discovered that the head chef is a very old friend from my Mezzo days –someone I used to work in the kitchen with. Seeing the team in action and tasting the food on Saturday made me even more pleased to beinvolved so do keep an eye on both of our websites for details of events there. They are going to be good and as a place to drink exceptional wine and eat seriously good food in the city it cannot be beaten.
I sat closest to two wine makers who spoke no English but we got on fine. Wild-haired and bearded Blair Pethel from Domaine Dublere(utterly wonderful Pommard and Volnay as well as a smattering of Grand Cru) and his friend Phlippe Bonard from the Jura. Philippe’s hair was less wild but still slightly eccentric - floppy at the front with a tiny nub of a pony tail at the back. We even managed, I think, a conversation about my new tattoo which they greatly admired.
At least, I am pretty sure that is what it was. Either that or they were talking about how early the season was this year while I nodded enthusiastically and kept turning around to show them my back.
I drank some of Frantz Saumon’s Mineral Plus which was box fresh and delicious, effortlessly carrying it's residual sugar. The new vintage of the Domaine de Montrieux was off the charts though – pure, raspy red fruit with a perfumed bite. I was sorely tempted to just stay and drink probably too much of that but the lure of a dance floor in Dalston was too strong. I haven’t done that for too long and was feeling the effects of withdrawal. This is my church. Not dancing all night for ages does me no good.
Blair and Philippe seemed to be seriously considering joining me later on but with 3 days of the natural winefair stretching before them, wisely decided against this at the last minute. We all decided that we would make sure we danced together next time.
3. The Natural Wine Fair,
There was very little sleep that night but I was up early the next morning and at the Natural Wine Fair by the afternoon. I did not have nearly enough time there but some is better than none and again, the energising effect of so many of the people I most admire and respect and their extraordinary wines in one place is not to be discounted.
Highlights:-
Again, Mon. Alain Castex of Casot de Mailloles. I completely adore the earthy rusticity ofhis fruit and for me, his wines never tip even slightly into the dirty/ unpleasantly feral arena. Neither do they ever feel imbalanced by even minor faults and yet he too is as uncompromising as some of the most ardent of the counter culture. There are many who can learn from him.
The white wines of Rene Mosse –sublime expressions of Chenin Blanc. They have a hint of viscosity and enough richness to the fruit to keepthe harder edge of this variety at bay and they achieve this without losing any of their elegance.
My friend from the night before,Philippe Bornard and his extraordinary Ploussard. I LOVE this grape when it is done right and my goodness, he absolutely does itright. It sparkles with bracing minerality (literally – there is some C02) and insanely good scented red fruit. We will stock this soon.
Emile Heredia of Domaine Montrieux again and his utterly sensational Boisson Rouge as well as the Montrieux red. We tried to explain to his wife why the former was the quintessential dancing wine but I think she was left merely confused.
Finally, completely new to me, the wines of Domaine des Vignes du Maynes in Burgundy. They have been natural forever and, without any fuss, are making wine that could definitely change your life. Your life would have to already be pretty orted; this is not going to perform miracles but if you are amazingly lucky and all you need you are the vital, biodynamic berries on top of your flawless existence than trust me; these are it.
There was a simplicity to the purity that was completely beguiling. They had no idea of how good they were and didn’t scream for attention in the mouth but attention should be paid. Everything is there, in layer upon layer of mineral and fruit; a whole saga of flavour and texture that ends as beautifully as it begins. Pure class.
We have to stock these too.
I ended there both because I knew that on a Spring Sunday, it would get no better and because I was being pickedup, on a motorbike, to be taken for tea in Shoreditch. I haven’t been a passenger on a bike for a long, long time and I have never done this in central
I can now report that there really is not much to beat riding
It was completely invigorating though. You need a driver who moves his machine with confidence and at enough speed to make it worthwhile and thankfully, mine did both. Traffic was as nothing to us; and the traffic was not inconsiderable.
I was home long before the effects of the wine or the tea had worn off and that, in
So - almost 48 hours of feeling cheerfuland optimistic mostly because of and in conjuction with wines that are products of nothing more than fruit and clever energy from the people who makethem.
Co-incidence? I think not.
