Impressions November 2018

[Jayson Cohen]

originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
Hoodoo.

But I love the idea of a sensor packed into a bottle. But what would we do with it? Sit it in a cellar? Send it in a "reefer"? Put it in a truck and drive it around Barcelona for a few weeks?

Thrills! Chills! (or lack thereof)

Use it to detect neutrinos. Still a hot topic.

 

[Oswaldo Costa]

Or dark matter.

 

[Zachary Ross]

originally posted by VLM:

originally posted by Christian Miller (CMM):

originally posted by VLM:

originally posted by MLipton:

originally posted by VLM:
2013 Kistler Chardonnay Durell Vineyard - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast (11/6/2018)
We have some Kistler that Steph's dad sent us and are working our way through it. Not a particularly interesting wine. Certainly well made with high quality wood framing, but boring. Might have been better if it were all buttery and obnoxiously Californian instead of being so polite. (89 points)

We have some dear friends in the South Bay Area who are on the Kistler, Sea Smoke and similar mailing lists. Whenever we visit, they very generously open a few of these wines and I always struggle to find nice things to say about them. First world problem, I know.

There were plenty of nice things to say about it. You could tell it was meticulously made and the wood was expensive. Someone put a lot of thought and care into tit. It was just a bit boring.

First world & 1% (or friend thereof) problem.

VLM - "a bit boring" in the sense of no complexity? Or in the sense of pretty good bands you played way too much in college and never listen to anymore?

The the, maybe?

I love this. Camper Van Beethoven?

 

[VLM]

originally posted by Zachary Ross:

originally posted by VLM:

originally posted by Christian Miller (CMM):

originally posted by VLM:

originally posted by MLipton:

originally posted by VLM:
2013 Kistler Chardonnay Durell Vineyard - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast (11/6/2018)
We have some Kistler that Steph's dad sent us and are working our way through it. Not a particularly interesting wine. Certainly well made with high quality wood framing, but boring. Might have been better if it were all buttery and obnoxiously Californian instead of being so polite. (89 points)

We have some dear friends in the South Bay Area who are on the Kistler, Sea Smoke and similar mailing lists. Whenever we visit, they very generously open a few of these wines and I always struggle to find nice things to say about them. First world problem, I know.

There were plenty of nice things to say about it. You could tell it was meticulously made and the wood was expensive. Someone put a lot of thought and care into tit. It was just a bit boring.

First world & 1% (or friend thereof) problem.

VLM - "a bit boring" in the sense of no complexity? Or in the sense of pretty good bands you played way too much in college and never listen to anymore?

The the, maybe?

I love this. Camper Van Beethoven?

YES!

 

[VLM]

originally posted by Mike Evans:

originally posted by VLM:

2014 Jean Foillard Morgon Côte du Py - France, Burgundy, Beaujolais, Morgon (11/9/2018)
Bummer, grumpy bottle. Pleasant enough, but I expected more and have had better bottles. Fuck you root day. (90 points)

Is the root day reference sarcastic or serious? I suspect the former, but I'm curious because I gave the biodynamic calendar a sort of test over a couple of years by having a friend look up what kind of day it was at the end of tastings so it wouldn’t affect my impressions of the wines. After at least 20-30 separate tastings, I found absolutely no correlation between the kind of day and my impression of how well the wines showed. My conclusion was that it is as accurate as a horoscope, which is to say, not at all. Your comment makes me wonder if your experience, if it is even something you've looked at, has been different.

Sarcastic, mostly. It was a bad wine night for reds. I think that weather can have something to do with it, not anything in the biodynamic calendar. I tried that Dutch biodynamic app, when wine tastes better and found it to be laughably useless.

 

[Pavel Tchichikov]

originally posted by VLM:
Sarcastic, mostly. It was a bad wine night for reds. I think that weather can have something to do with it, not anything in the biodynamic calendar. I tried that Dutch biodynamic app, when wine tastes better and found it to be laughably useless.

That these days exist is clear. What they are is not. Last month I had an insanely great weekend for somewhat older whites. We are talking three different wines, in each case a wine I am intimately familiar with, and all on the natural side of things. My back-of-envelope statistical analysis refuses to treat this as a coincidence.

 

[mark e]

originally posted by Pavel Tchichikov:

originally posted by VLM:
Sarcastic, mostly. It was a bad wine night for reds. I think that weather can have something to do with it, not anything in the biodynamic calendar. I tried that Dutch biodynamic app, when wine tastes better and found it to be laughably useless.

That these days exist is clear. What they are is not. Last month I had an insanely great weekend for somewhat older whites. We are talking three different wines, in each case a wine I am intimately familiar with, and all on the natural side of things. My back-of-envelope statistical analysis refuses to treat this as a coincidence.

I don't think it is a coincidence. Just not entirely sure what it is, whether lunar cycle or atmospheric pressure. But just to remind the endless number of biodynanmic skeptics, most European farmers - at least a very short time ago - scheduled their cultural practices according to the lunar cycle. Whether conventional, organic or biodynamic. You may believe it is nonsense but they don't (or didn't).

 

[VLM]

originally posted by mark e:

originally posted by Pavel Tchichikov:

originally posted by VLM:
Sarcastic, mostly. It was a bad wine night for reds. I think that weather can have something to do with it, not anything in the biodynamic calendar. I tried that Dutch biodynamic app, when wine tastes better and found it to be laughably useless.

That these days exist is clear. What they are is not. Last month I had an insanely great weekend for somewhat older whites. We are talking three different wines, in each case a wine I am intimately familiar with, and all on the natural side of things. My back-of-envelope statistical analysis refuses to treat this as a coincidence.

I don't think it is a coincidence. Just not entirely sure what it is, whether lunar cycle or atmospheric pressure. But just to remind the endless number of biodynanmic skeptics, most European farmers - at least a very short time ago - scheduled their cultural practices according to the lunar cycle. Whether conventional, organic or biodynamic. You may believe it is nonsense but they don't (or didn't).

The lunar cycle seems to have something to do with vegetative life cycles but I'm not sure that it would have an analogous effect on wines.

I think that atmospheric pressure is the biggest exogenous force in how wines show. I do think I experience this more with red wines than white wines. Unfortunately, I have not applied rigorous study, nor do I have the bandwidth or intention.

 

[mark e]

originally posted by VLM:

originally posted by mark e:

originally posted by Pavel Tchichikov:

originally posted by VLM:
Sarcastic, mostly. It was a bad wine night for reds. I think that weather can have something to do with it, not anything in the biodynamic calendar. I tried that Dutch biodynamic app, when wine tastes better and found it to be laughably useless.

That these days exist is clear. What they are is not. Last month I had an insanely great weekend for somewhat older whites. We are talking three different wines, in each case a wine I am intimately familiar with, and all on the natural side of things. My back-of-envelope statistical analysis refuses to treat this as a coincidence.

I don't think it is a coincidence. Just not entirely sure what it is, whether lunar cycle or atmospheric pressure. But just to remind the endless number of biodynanmic skeptics, most European farmers - at least a very short time ago - scheduled their cultural practices according to the lunar cycle. Whether conventional, organic or biodynamic. You may believe it is nonsense but they don't (or didn't).

The lunar cycle seems to have something to do with vegetative life cycles but I'm not sure that it would have an analogous effect on wines.

I think that atmospheric pressure is the biggest exogenous force in how wines show. I do think I experience this more with red wines than white wines. Unfortunately, I have not applied rigorous study, nor do I have the bandwidth or intention.

I'm not entirely sure either about how the biodynamic planting calendar (let's make that clear: it is not a wine tasting calendar) got applied to wine. Like the lunar cycles, I believe there is some benefit in following it for horticultural practices.

 

[MLipton]

Well, as long as we're discussing pseudo-scientific explanations for organoleptic phenomena, I'll trot out another alternative: biorhythms. To wit, perhaps what's changing is not the wine but the taster. Alternative explanations along these lines would be what one has eaten that day, the time of the day that the tasting takes place and the level and nature of air pollutants that day.

Just thinking out loud,
Mark Lipton

 

[Christian Miller (CMM)]

originally posted by MLipton:
Well, as long as we're discussing pseudo-scientific explanations for organoleptic phenomena, I'll trot out another alternative: biorhythms. To wit, perhaps what's changing is not the wine but the taster. Alternative explanations along these lines would be what one has eaten that day, the time of the day that the tasting takes place and the level and nature of air pollutants that day.

Just thinking out loud,
Mark Lipton

Is that necessarily pseudo-scientific? Not the "biorhythms" (whatever they are), but the variability of one's palate during the course of the day, for reasons internal to the taster. (IE, not due to external variables like air quality or lighting.)

 

[Jeff Grossman]

The night before a really big tasting I sit under this really big plexiglass pyramid down in the basement. Keeps me, and my razor blades, sharp.

Almost as much fun as the Cone of Silence, which it somewhat resembles.

 

[MLipton]

originally posted by Christian Miller (CMM):

originally posted by MLipton:
Well, as long as we're discussing pseudo-scientific explanations for organoleptic phenomena, I'll trot out another alternative: biorhythms. To wit, perhaps what's changing is not the wine but the taster. Alternative explanations along these lines would be what one has eaten that day, the time of the day that the tasting takes place and the level and nature of air pollutants that day.

Just thinking out loud,
Mark Lipton

Is that necessarily pseudo-scientific? Not the "biorhythms" (whatever they are), but the variability of one's palate during the course of the day, for reasons internal to the taster. (IE, not due to external variables like air quality or lighting.)

Sorry, I was only referring to biorhythms as pseudo-science. I don’t think that anyone would dispute that our tasting ability varies during the day, etc.

Mark Lipton