U
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Hit him with a statue, Joe!
No Barrique, No Berlusconi!
Sic semper tyrannis!
No Barrique, No Berlusconi!
Sic semper tyrannis!
The Latest Fad in Wine Blogging and Wine Criticism
- Thread starter Joe Dressner
- Start date
No, I wasn't referring to you at all, Jonathan. All this confusion is probably due to the fact that I have interpreted (and still do) this strange thread, which starts with "the latest fad is to denounce the mullahs and dogmatists who are telling us what wines are politically correct to enjoy," as a continuation of another thread, launched by Thor, and entitled 'Bettane vs. Richaud'.
In Thor's thread we can read the French blogger Bertrand Celce's words about French wine critic Michel Bettane: "As Bettane tries to veer on a more moderate chat, speaker Laurent Bazin says (...) that he should elaborate more on these accusations and names like cranks (illumins) and ayatollas that he uses against the natural-wine vintners and their friends." You can read my comments in that same thread, which BTW ends for now with a post by Alice Feiring in which she gives some interesting news: "Two years ago Bettane published an article condemning natural wine." I would love to see a URL leading us to that fierce condemnation...
There is indeed. It's an interview from L'Express entitled, revealingly enough, "Le vin bio n'existe pas!" In there, he does explain that he takes issue with claiming that wine is organic, since the legal definition applies only to the grapes. He further takes issue with claims that org/bio wines have fewer pesticides, etc. Y'all with better knowledge of French can probably tease more out of this article.
Mark Lipton
Joe Dressner
Joe Dressner
Michel Bettane Article
Michel Bettane Interview
Bettane writes for L'Express, so the above is an authorized interview.
For those of you who don't read French, I have had a scholar work on a translation of the L'Express article.
Michel Bettane: Any wine meeting the standards is authentic.
The taster and joint author, with Thierry Desseauve, of the Large Guide of the wines of France 2010 * are not convinced by the natural fashion. He explains why.
Why this passion for the wines bio aggravate you does?
But quite simply because the wine bio does not exist! The word bio indeed cannot, in the actual position of our legislation, to apply that to the grape, which obliges to find another denomination to indicate a wine resulting from grapes cultivated according to the charters of the organic farming or biodynamics.
From where wines nature?
Certain vine growers and their merchants, supported by a small band of prescribers sincere, but enlightened, thus propose wines nature or authentic. But, until proof of the opposite, any wine meeting the legal standards of the EU law is inevitably authentic or natural, since resulting from the natural fermentation of a fruit which is it as much. We do not know yet culture of the vine except ground, of artificial yeast or grape substitute.
Are the wines bio different all the same?
Those which are due to this denomination bait to show the other types of wines to betray their soil and to even be dangerous for health. But they do not bring any solid argument it to prove, if not those resulting from their phantasms or their bad faith. Comparative tasting shows, on the other hand, that wines recognized by all as expressing remarkably their origin are regularly produced starting from grapes not bio. In addition, all the chemical analyses carried out by the experts do not show a basic difference in the residues of pesticides or heavy metals. Rates still too important admittedly even if they are largely lower than the thresholds considered to be dangereous because of the organizations of public health.
What do you think of the wines without sulphur?
Even if it is more reducing, this expression appears much more acceptable to me. It indicates wines worked out without addition of sulphur dioxide on the grape or in the wine. We enter then the field of a choice of technique of wine making and wine style. The consumer is not misled. At least, if one does not make him believe that it is the only way of respecting truly a schedule of conditions bio. I point out indeed that all the yeasts naturally produce a certain quantity of this chemical molecule (SO2) and that the latter generally is further increased if one did not add sulphur on the grape or the juice. There is thus no reason so that a wine without sulphur is more digeste that another slightly protected for a conservation out of surer bottle. Worse, it often does not express any the characteristics of its name and conceals quite unpleasant defects: foxs flavours and an unpleasant sparkling due to a badly controlled fermentation, when it does not feel the vinegar straightforwardly!
Certain vine growers in favour of without-sulphur produce beautiful bottles however!
Of course! It is undeniable, but I notice that much applies this rule only to one part - often tiny of their production. One will regale oneself nevertheless with the bourgueils of Catherine and Pierre Breton, Alsaces of Pierre Frick, the mill-with-wind of the Field of Tracot, or the morgon of Marcel Lapierre and the Cotes-du-Rhone wines from Gramenon.
Michel Bettane Interview
Bettane writes for L'Express, so the above is an authorized interview.
For those of you who don't read French, I have had a scholar work on a translation of the L'Express article.
Michel Bettane: Any wine meeting the standards is authentic.
The taster and joint author, with Thierry Desseauve, of the Large Guide of the wines of France 2010 * are not convinced by the natural fashion. He explains why.
Why this passion for the wines bio aggravate you does?
But quite simply because the wine bio does not exist! The word bio indeed cannot, in the actual position of our legislation, to apply that to the grape, which obliges to find another denomination to indicate a wine resulting from grapes cultivated according to the charters of the organic farming or biodynamics.
From where wines nature?
Certain vine growers and their merchants, supported by a small band of prescribers sincere, but enlightened, thus propose wines nature or authentic. But, until proof of the opposite, any wine meeting the legal standards of the EU law is inevitably authentic or natural, since resulting from the natural fermentation of a fruit which is it as much. We do not know yet culture of the vine except ground, of artificial yeast or grape substitute.
Are the wines bio different all the same?
Those which are due to this denomination bait to show the other types of wines to betray their soil and to even be dangerous for health. But they do not bring any solid argument it to prove, if not those resulting from their phantasms or their bad faith. Comparative tasting shows, on the other hand, that wines recognized by all as expressing remarkably their origin are regularly produced starting from grapes not bio. In addition, all the chemical analyses carried out by the experts do not show a basic difference in the residues of pesticides or heavy metals. Rates still too important admittedly even if they are largely lower than the thresholds considered to be dangereous because of the organizations of public health.
What do you think of the wines without sulphur?
Even if it is more reducing, this expression appears much more acceptable to me. It indicates wines worked out without addition of sulphur dioxide on the grape or in the wine. We enter then the field of a choice of technique of wine making and wine style. The consumer is not misled. At least, if one does not make him believe that it is the only way of respecting truly a schedule of conditions bio. I point out indeed that all the yeasts naturally produce a certain quantity of this chemical molecule (SO2) and that the latter generally is further increased if one did not add sulphur on the grape or the juice. There is thus no reason so that a wine without sulphur is more digeste that another slightly protected for a conservation out of surer bottle. Worse, it often does not express any the characteristics of its name and conceals quite unpleasant defects: foxs flavours and an unpleasant sparkling due to a badly controlled fermentation, when it does not feel the vinegar straightforwardly!
Certain vine growers in favour of without-sulphur produce beautiful bottles however!
Of course! It is undeniable, but I notice that much applies this rule only to one part - often tiny of their production. One will regale oneself nevertheless with the bourgueils of Catherine and Pierre Breton, Alsaces of Pierre Frick, the mill-with-wind of the Field of Tracot, or the morgon of Marcel Lapierre and the Cotes-du-Rhone wines from Gramenon.
Joe Dressner
Joe Dressner
Is the title of the Bettane article I linked to above.
My crack translator tells me it means:
No to the Organic Assholes!
Bettane also refers to the Bande d'illumins,
The Gang of Religious Lunatics
My crack translator tells me it means:
No to the Organic Assholes!
Bettane also refers to the Bande d'illumins,
The Gang of Religious Lunatics
Christian Miller (CMM)
Christian Miller
What scholar did you say did the translation? Clearly a poet of some sort!
Christian Miller (CMM)
Christian Miller
I thought that was the latest Manfred Krankl wine...or was it Orin Swift?
Claude Kolm
Claude Kolm
Where can I get some of this mill-with-wind of the Field of Tracot?
nigel groundwater
nigel groundwater
Or Yoda?
Ian Fitzsimmons
Ian Fitzsimmons
The Mancharian candidate.
Ian Fitzsimmons
Ian Fitzsimmons
Tom Glasgow
Thomas W Glasgow
Probably google translate
The Wine Mule
Dave Erickson
When you're on a bus with a bunch of other people who are living billboards, it's tolerable.
It is very lowbrow of me to admit that being on the bus with reps is okay, too. A lot of them are idiots trying to get rich, and a few of them probably will, but some of them do it for love, just like you all do.
You all do, don't you?