You hit it on the head, Dave, when you mention "balance" as being the key. A little Brett (the barnyard fecund strain, not the band-aid one!) can add to the deliciousness of a wine. I hope that "Bad" and "Good" have left the wine lexicon, slump-shouldered and red-faced. It was easier in the past when there were "classic" aromas and flavors for Bordeaux and Burgundy. When there were only a couple of places that made "quality" wines, they were the benchmarks...their signatures were like John Hancock's. Now, though, the rise of wines from newer parts of the world have tipped acceptable organoleptics on their head. But no matter how different Cab Franc from California is than Chinon, if the wines are not balanced and cohesive they are not 'good" wines. Balance, a synonym for Beautiful wines in my language, are proportionate and appropriate for the grape. Oaked Cab Franc in any language is a sin.
Ha ha! I've had some oaked Cab Francs from Virginia and South America that I've really enjoyed. Though also those that have made it indistinguishable from it's child Cab Sauv. It's all about find the right amount of everything, given the context/place/climate/etc.
Good point about the benchmarks from the "before times". When I mention the "wisdom" of previous generations I don't use that word cynically - it truly was wisdom. But FOR a specific and somewhat narrow context. The struggle in growth is always, at least in part, about opening up to the new, and that the new isn't meant to outright mimic the old. Otherwise why are we trying anything new at all?
Can we take it another step forward and apply this to wine pairings? The idea that certain combinations of flavor (like a pyrazine-y, tannic carmenere) can and should be paired with spicy food if the goal is to accentuate the structure and the usually “undesirable” greenness?
"Acceptable" pairings are so 1960s. That world was circumscribed by only a few "classic" regions. There was no conception that wines from California and South America could ever approach France (specifically), and this myopic view of what was possible in wine certainly infected the world of wine and food. It will take time, but I hope there comes a time when the emphasis is not on some putative correctness of pairing but on what makes each of us...the happiest!
Heck yeah! As I briefly mention in the post, we’re only just enterting an era where global cuisines are being paired by somms coming to the table with whole new perspectives - it’s a brave new world out there. Pushing beyond established “wisdom” and pleasing more than one kind of palate is what we SHOULD be doing!
You hit it on the head, Dave, when you mention "balance" as being the key. A little Brett (the barnyard fecund strain, not the band-aid one!) can add to the deliciousness of a wine. I hope that "Bad" and "Good" have left the wine lexicon, slump-shouldered and red-faced. It was easier in the past when there were "classic" aromas and flavors for Bordeaux and Burgundy. When there were only a couple of places that made "quality" wines, they were the benchmarks...their signatures were like John Hancock's. Now, though, the rise of wines from newer parts of the world have tipped acceptable organoleptics on their head. But no matter how different Cab Franc from California is than Chinon, if the wines are not balanced and cohesive they are not 'good" wines. Balance, a synonym for Beautiful wines in my language, are proportionate and appropriate for the grape. Oaked Cab Franc in any language is a sin.
Ha ha! I've had some oaked Cab Francs from Virginia and South America that I've really enjoyed. Though also those that have made it indistinguishable from it's child Cab Sauv. It's all about find the right amount of everything, given the context/place/climate/etc.
Good point about the benchmarks from the "before times". When I mention the "wisdom" of previous generations I don't use that word cynically - it truly was wisdom. But FOR a specific and somewhat narrow context. The struggle in growth is always, at least in part, about opening up to the new, and that the new isn't meant to outright mimic the old. Otherwise why are we trying anything new at all?
Love this take!
Can we take it another step forward and apply this to wine pairings? The idea that certain combinations of flavor (like a pyrazine-y, tannic carmenere) can and should be paired with spicy food if the goal is to accentuate the structure and the usually “undesirable” greenness?
Or is that too far? 😂
"Acceptable" pairings are so 1960s. That world was circumscribed by only a few "classic" regions. There was no conception that wines from California and South America could ever approach France (specifically), and this myopic view of what was possible in wine certainly infected the world of wine and food. It will take time, but I hope there comes a time when the emphasis is not on some putative correctness of pairing but on what makes each of us...the happiest!
Heck yeah! As I briefly mention in the post, we’re only just enterting an era where global cuisines are being paired by somms coming to the table with whole new perspectives - it’s a brave new world out there. Pushing beyond established “wisdom” and pleasing more than one kind of palate is what we SHOULD be doing!