Oswaldo Costa
Oswaldo Costa
2008 Thierry Puzelat Touraine La Tesnire (Pineau d'Aunis) 12.5%
Completing three consecutive nights of Puzelats, this was the one I was most looking forward to, having really enjoyed the 2007 last year. Rich aromas of stemmy red berries, church spices and sous bois. A surfeit of secondary fermentation fizz makes me regret not having decanted, or at least double decanted for three hours like I did with the 2007 (note to self: read previous notes; ya might learn something). Good acid/sweet balance, good structure, but just too fizelat for transport to take place (when the sulfite's away, the mice have their day). Still quite drinkable, but compromised. Must try an udder.
Any conclusions from the trio? There has been some discussion about the "sameness" of natural wines, and the paucity of sulfites has been singled out as a possible cause. Well, there were strong similarities betwen the 07 Gamay, the 08 Pinot and the 08 Pineau. But I would attribute this to neighboring terroirs and cellar practices before pointing the digit at SO2. Hardly scientific, of course; for that, we'd need a triple blind trial involving three blind laboratory mice and those three see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil monkeys. Bring on the white coats.
Completing three consecutive nights of Puzelats, this was the one I was most looking forward to, having really enjoyed the 2007 last year. Rich aromas of stemmy red berries, church spices and sous bois. A surfeit of secondary fermentation fizz makes me regret not having decanted, or at least double decanted for three hours like I did with the 2007 (note to self: read previous notes; ya might learn something). Good acid/sweet balance, good structure, but just too fizelat for transport to take place (when the sulfite's away, the mice have their day). Still quite drinkable, but compromised. Must try an udder.
Any conclusions from the trio? There has been some discussion about the "sameness" of natural wines, and the paucity of sulfites has been singled out as a possible cause. Well, there were strong similarities betwen the 07 Gamay, the 08 Pinot and the 08 Pineau. But I would attribute this to neighboring terroirs and cellar practices before pointing the digit at SO2. Hardly scientific, of course; for that, we'd need a triple blind trial involving three blind laboratory mice and those three see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil monkeys. Bring on the white coats.