Have you ever heard the term ABC uttered in a wine bar? In a health juice bar it stands for apple-beetroot-carrot and few things can induce a gag reflex faster on a Saturday evening, especially at a wine bar. ABC, in vino context, stands for “Anything But Chardonnay/Cabernet”, an oft-used anagram to express the general ennui that wine lovers face when presented with a wine list that comprises 95 per cent of wines from these two grapes or blends thereof. Sure the same grape makes for different expressions and nuanced differences but the world of wine is so vast that even with all its expressions these two would add up to a narrow taste profile.
If you have ever felt the need to try new wines — and I don’t just mean Malbec or Riesling — but been unsure because of the surprises that may lurk around the corner, here are a few tips on what to look out for when experimenting. These tips aren’t entirely new, so to speak, but still are, by all means, ideas whose time hasn’t quite yet come. In view of this uncharted potential, now is as good a time as any to jump onboard and form your own opinion of them.
Biodynamic WinesThese are wines that have been made by applying the idea of cosmic energies to the science of wine-making. Energy, as we know, can neither be created nor destroyed; it merely changes form. In this viticulture and vinification techniques, winemakers try to balance the energies in the vineyard and the winery. Rather than use artificial external means to combat problems, they look to use natural ways to harness and divert energies in a manner that they create equilibrium. These include harvesting under a full moon to spraying special hand-churned mixtures of cow-horn manure to using the faecal matter of particular animals to redress certain vineyard issues. The whole process generally alternates between the logical and the occult, but sometimes it’s simply outlandish. Nevertheless, many biodynamic wines win medals and accolades the world over, not to mention the vineyards which seem significantly healthier than those that still rely on chemical sprays and the like. Top wines: Clos de la Coulée de Serrant, Bonny Doon, Chateau Beaucastel, Alvaro Palacios, Cullen, Alois Lageder, Domaine Leflaive, Domaine Leroy, Henri Jayer, and Joseph Drouhin. The list can go on but these are some of the top names one should start getting curious with.
Natural WinesIf you thought the idea of biodynamic wines was too much to absorb in one go, this one will leave you gasping. Imagine discarding not just the science of it but everything that the modern world has bestowed to the winemaking world to revert to, ‘how it all began’? The naturalists, if I may use the term, make wine in clay amphorae, all naturally fermented with no addition of yeast. They stick grape, stalks, et al into earthenware vats which are then buried underground where nature has its way with it. The resulting wine is often bottled without filtering or correcting in any manner. From pale cloudy red to a rusty orange, it’s rather a bare-naked product, clearly not for everyone.
Personally, for all the natural wine exploring I have done, I am yet to find a brand that I would order over a regular as-we-know-it-today wine. There has been the odd exception that answered a curiosity pleasantly but there was little merit to them beyond that.
That said, natural wines seem to be a growing trend around the world. However, unlike biodynamic wines, they seem to have a clear effect on people — you either love them or loathe them; nobody is lukewarm about them. Popular ones to try are Cos Pithos, Weingut Sepp & Maria, Muster Erde, Dario Princic Jakot, Foradori Nosiola, Castagna Harlequin, Pheasant’s Tears, and Dirty & Rowdy Semillon.
There are many many more natural wines out there but I leave them for you to discover if your interest gets piqued by any of these. Oh, one last thing. I certainly detest how these wines are somewhat self-christened as natural wines, as if the rest of the world has been making wines in part-time meth labs all along.
Unoaked Complex WinesFor the longest time we have been led to believe that a good wine is one that is aged in oak. While that is true to some extent, it is by no means the gospel to live by. A new breed of winemakers is making wines without any oak ageing whatsoever and yet delivering unsurpassed complexity.
The common misconception is that an unoaked wine is by default a quaffer, one for the simple palate and can never amount to anything complex or intriguing. And such wines are never worthy of cellaring. A few winemakers (and there are very few indeed) turn this idea on its head and make wines which show as much complexity and layers as an oak-aged wine.
Silval Port wines come racing to mind and for a Port house to make wines with no oak ageing is almost unheard of. Another is Les Griottes by Martine et Pierre-Marie Chermette, a lip-smacking fruitilicous wine from Beaujolais.
Unusual WinesAs if the list so far hasn’t been something for the X-files, there are even more quirky wines out there: wines, some of which are a long-standing tradition, that don’t quite fit the usual commercial definitions. From Jura’s Vin Jaune (literally yellow wine) to the more common Mistelle, or the rarest of rare Essenzia from Tokai, Hungary. Vin Jaune is made by ageing wine for a minimum of six years without topping up the barrels which imparts an oddly oxidative note to it. It is also sold in 620ml bottles (as against 750ml), to compensate for the amount lost to evaporation over six years.
Mistelle is a wine made from adding brandy to grape juice which has just begun fermenting, resulting in a sweet, crisp, fresh, flavourful and heady number. And Essenzia, the world’s sweetest wine (almost 450g/l of sugar) is so rich and concentrated that it is more like a sauce one has in a teaspoon than a wine drunk in a glass. And yet these rarer-by-the-day wine styles and regions are fading away as awareness diminishes and fewer people clamour for what were once iconic beverages.
In the world of wine there are no superlatives. It is almost impossible to compare any two given wines no matter how similar the production conditions. What often drives prices are standard economic equations adjusted for that variable called illogical human emotion. In other words, it is hard to be objective about wines as it is largely a matter of personal preferences.
For a serious collector this can sound like a nightmare but for the nonchalant adventurer this signals the beginning of a marvellous journey, one that will last many lifetimes and yet never repeat a taste or sensation.
