Voodoo Lounger

L

Levi Dalton

Levi Dalton
About '94 or '95 was the Voodoo Lounge, and my parents asked me if I wanted to come along. I said Whateves. We scored some tickets off a (helpless) scalper around the gates and sat one row a part in the nosebleeds of Oakland Coliseum. I remember that Mountain Girls from a decade past were dancing the shimmy snake in their seats alone, a couple of drunk dudes yelled and tried to have more fun than the rest of us, and Mick was surrounded by blowup dolls. And it didn't make a lot of sense. And it was far away. They played some standards, they played some new tunes, and then they went back to the classics. Mick dude could really get around the stage. And that was that. We went home.

About that time R. Kelly was huge in around my school and all the others in the flatlands. You couldn't walk to class without somebody singing out "Pretty Brown Round, Drivin' Me Wild, Ohh Child, Things Are Going to Get..." around your head. That was the way things were. It would take maybe 5 years for me to listen to the Stones again. And maybe 7 for me to declare that they were my favorite band of All-All time, and to wish I had been there when. These days I watch those clips on YouTube and it is just so clear that I didn't even know what I was watching when I saw it, even from that far away.

It has been over a decade (and a half!), so of course I can admit now that I was an idiot. My folks had tried to show me what was what and I had looked the other way. Fair enough. I never criticized them for trying.

'Cause tryin' is the thing.

I'm not sure why it isn't cool to talk about natural wine on the World Wide Web.

I'm not a winemaker. That's right. Also it is the Internet, also true. I'm still holding the faith. Seems like somebody has to try to share the what is what of the excitement.

Do you think that if they were 20 years younger that Terry Theise or Kermit Lynch would be writing on scraps of paper? I remember a Capo for Kermit told me of his frustration trying to setup a website: Kermit didn't want to do it. "But we spend more money painting over the stripes in the parking lot than we do maintaining the website" - Kermit still wasn't into it, probably still isn't. That's cool. I know where he is coming from. I appreciate a long from, thinking out a day between the margins as much as he does. Maybe more. But tell me that the Internet, Usenet, World Wide Webster isn't the choice of you and me and everyone we know. Come on'. This is where we talk about things. What we like, what we love, it all goes up and on here. No reason that should be denigrated.

So we talk Natural on the Web. I'm okay with that.

BECAUSE someone needs to interpret this for other people. Somebody needs to say, Look this is Exciting!! And this is not Beast of Burden, this is Painting it Black! this is the real deal and now is the moment.

The bit about not being a winemaker? I'm also okay with that. THIS IS NOT TO SAY THAT I AM BETTER OR KNOW MORE THAN ERIC TEXIER. I am an idiot. Eric Texier knows a lot of stuff. It's Ridic, actually. Even idiots like me know this. But I will tell you this: non-excitement doesn't sell wine. That's right. "No comment" is not a verb. And I would, and this is a guy who sells wine talking, like to sell more Natural wine. Only because I love it. Honestly, are you asking me if I make more comission off of La Mission or Calek, well, you know the answer already. Just I would like to see people try the latter out, is all. I mean, just a spin around the block. You tell me if it isn't at least interesting. I find it interesting. Maybe not today will you, Dear reader, find it interesting, but godamn if you won't one day. I stake my (very minute) reputation on this. And I'm happy to drink the wine in your company.

No I don't think all Natural wine is great wine. Neither do you. But I do think that if you support people doing cool stuff now, then later on down the line they will do even more refined, more subtle stuff. Because they got there. They were able to with your help. And that's how it works. Remember when They (All-Mega Brewery) said that home brews were all lumpy and blah, and now what? Small brewers are all that matters, except to the tourists. You are telling me Calek isn't the future? And to that I say you are wrong.

And I don't feel any shame about saying this online. I don't. I think you should know that there are cool things going on, I think the person next to you should know that cool things are going on, and the guy next to him also. Let me be honest: it is hard to sell Natural wine right now a bit of a half block from Madison Ave. That's what is true today. But what if we talk about this thing and it gets better and we interpret and share the good word? Maybe tomorrow is a different day.
 
Levi,

I am not sure that I understood everything alright. Please excuse me in advance if you feel I am over-reacting or if I misunderstood your point.

But I am desperate than your feeling is that I am using my position of winemaker to make my opinions stronger.
Being a winemaker doesn't make you to understand or have a better appreciation about wine. In fact, it is very often the opposite. Most winemakers don't even taste their neighbour's wines.

If I hope you are wrong about the future of wine it is because after tasting thousands of wines from all over the planet, my personal taste goes toward diversity and terroir expression.
Maybe it is old school and petit bourgeois, but this is my taste and my culture as a wine lover, not as a winemaker.

My deep feeling about very extreme examples of natural winemaking (extended macerations on whites, use of raw amphoras, systematic uses of cold carbonic on red leading very often to fermentation aromas) is that it has a globalization effect, with the same intensity than modern " la Rolland" winemaking : wines taste according to the method that was used for making the wine not anymore according to Chauvet's trilogy : terroir varietal and vintage.

And for my taste, Calek blonde taste very similar to Columbaia frizzante naturale (from tuscany) or to Benoit Delorme's Bibine (from Cte Chalonnaise)or many other examples of pet-nats from the natural wine world.
All these wines are very lively, enjoyable and truly natural. No doubt about this.
2 of these producers are close friend, that I love and admire their work. I heard the best things about Calek.
My friends from Donkey and Goat are doing a trial this year to make a similar wine from California grapes.
We are not far from an "Internationale des Petnats".

There is something going on in the natural wine world that makes me feeling strange : winemakers and wine lovers are more and more focusing on the style of the wines, the techniques used, the varietal (menu pineau is sexier that chardonnay, remember?) and over all the intentions behind the beverage.

All this doesn't suit my philosophy of wine, as a wine lover first. And as a winemaker of course.
I don't want the wine world to be part of the huge consumerist illusion.
And to me making wines according to a trend or a style is flattering the market appetite for novelty or conformism, according to the social positioning of the buyer.
Traditional terroir wines were and still are made without considerations for the market wills (exept labels maybe?). I find this admirable and priceless in today's world.
I am proud of trying to be part of it.
What you see as the future of wine is the exact opposite. And I really cannot see this as a good thing for the wine world, even if I know your skills, reputation and your far more extended knowledge about wine than mine.

My main concern is that if you comply with these natural winemaking standards, no one will go a little further to check what is the really behind the communication.
No one should be able to communicate about naturalness, native yeasts, low sulfur and spray glyphosate in the vineyard. If the natural wine movement is not able to get rid of this then it will be soon a marketing tool for big companies.
Do you know that a South Africa company will soon market industrial wines without added sulfur and filtration? They say they can market over a million cases a year!!!!
They just need to add a 6 week maceration and deep amphoras pieces in the wine.

There is no way industrial companies will ever make a Morgon like Lapierre's or an arbois Pupillin like Overnoy's.
I see a lot of objective reasons to believe that petillant naturel from anywhere and any grape can be produce at industrial rate because my feeling is that it is a processed wine, with no history or terroir attachment, especially in the case of chardonnay-viognier in Basse Ardche.
 
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