Impressions November 2018

originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
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?

Bingo. I'm trying to think of a good example, but that's exactly it.

Journey? Oops, I keep forgetting, you guys are much younga.

Hah! I was listening to Journey before they went pop and got a vocalist. To me Christians example references Dark Side and Who’s Next, but that’s just my college overplay experience....

Too old to Rock ‘n’ Roll, but not to drink good wine,
Mark Lipton
 
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?
 
originally posted by MLipton:
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
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?

Bingo. I'm trying to think of a good example, but that's exactly it.

Journey? Oops, I keep forgetting, you guys are much younga.

Hah! I was listening to Journey before they went pop and got a vocalist. To me Christians example references Dark Side and Who’s Next, but that’s just my college overplay experience....

Too old to Rock ‘n’ Roll, but not to drink good wine,
Mark Lipton

That first album had some good stuff, but for me it's now an example of VLM's point. I'd add a bunch of jazz-rock fusion albums to the pile. And they had complexity!
 
originally posted by Christian Miller (CMM):
originally posted by MLipton:
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
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?

Bingo. I'm trying to think of a good example, but that's exactly it.

Journey? Oops, I keep forgetting, you guys are much younga.

Hah! I was listening to Journey before they went pop and got a vocalist. To me Christians example references Dark Side and Who’s Next, but that’s just my college overplay experience....

Too old to Rock ‘n’ Roll, but not to drink good wine,
Mark Lipton

That first album had some good stuff, but for me it's now an example of VLM's point. I'd add a bunch of jazz-rock fusion albums to the pile. And they had complexity!

John McLaughlin
 
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.
 
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.

So your calendar is off.
 
originally posted by Pavel Tchichikov:
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.

So your calendar is off.
Maybe it's his biorhythms. If we put him under a plexiglass pyramid oriented towards true north, and pour his biodynamic tinctures through a ring magnet, he'll do better?
 
It's impossible to test rigorously, but I've been checking out the biodynamic calendar somewhat systematically for the last four or five years (using the phone app When Wine Tastes Best) and have found no tendency whatsoever for wines to taste better on Fruit and Flower days and worse on Root and Leaf days. If anything the opposite, but that may be because I tend to save the "better" wines for Fruit and Flower days, and have therefore accumulated more disappointments.

That said, it's not inconceivable that there is an impact of some kind, though surely not a simplistic one, so when I want to compare two wines on consecutive nights, I tend to pick nights which are of the same kind. So, for me, the biodynamic calendar has grown into a kind of inventory management tool, since I tend to be very comparison-oriented in my planning.
 
originally posted by Pavel Tchichikov:
Kind of makes a difference what we are drinking, no? remirez de ganuza will taste the same on beet day and on pickle day.

It's supposed to be a blanket effect, regardless of whether you are in a pickle.
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
originally posted by Pavel Tchichikov:
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.

So your calendar is off.
Maybe it's his biorhythms. If we put him under a plexiglass pyramid oriented towards true north, and pour his biodynamic tinctures through a ring magnet, he'll do better?

The real problem is that he was not drinking homeopathic doses of the wine. That's what allows the effect of a root or fruit day to shine through. Otherwise the taste of the wine can overwhelm the biodynamic influences.
 
Are the differences between types of days supposed to affect the wine or the sensory abilities of the taster? If it's the former, there should be experiments one could perform on the wine to determine if its physical make-up actually changes according to the calendar. Of course, if it's the former, it probably turns out that we will have to revise our whole understanding of the physical universe as well. If it's the latter, it is at least conceivable, I suppose, that we could define neuro-physiological tastes to determine whether physiological transformations were taking place, but there would be a more economical explanation.
 
Afaik, it's the former, but I wouldn't have thought it's the physical makeup of the wine that changes (otherwise it would have to physically regress to its previous state a day or two or three later) but rather something analogous to a change of humour in a person that is otherwise the same on successive days. But I don't know for a fact, of course.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
Afaik, it's the former, but I wouldn't have thought it's the physical makeup of the wine that changes (otherwise it would have to physically regress to its previous state a day or two or three later) but rather something analogous to a change of humour in a person that is otherwise the same on successive days. But I don't know for a fact, of course.

But wines, not being actually animate, much less having central nervous systems, can hardly have moods. We, of course, can project moods upon them.
 
originally posted by Jay Miller:
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
originally posted by Pavel Tchichikov:
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.

So your calendar is off.
Maybe it's his biorhythms. If we put him under a plexiglass pyramid oriented towards true north, and pour his biodynamic tinctures through a ring magnet, he'll do better?

The real problem is that he was not drinking homeopathic doses of the wine. That's what allows the effect of a root or fruit day to shine through. Otherwise the taste of the wine can overwhelm the biodynamic influences.

Jay, I like your explanation best, and certainly prefer it to being placed under a plexiglass pyramid.
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
Afaik, it's the former, but I wouldn't have thought it's the physical makeup of the wine that changes (otherwise it would have to physically regress to its previous state a day or two or three later) but rather something analogous to a change of humour in a person that is otherwise the same on successive days. But I don't know for a fact, of course.

But wines, not being actually animate, much less having central nervous systems, can hardly have moods. We, of course, can project moods upon them.

No doubt. Perhaps a sensor could be placed inside a bottle and scientists could check if the data correlates in any way with the changing BD calendar days. But I have no idea what we'd be measuring, since the chemical composition itself doesn't change with the ebb and flow of lunar gravity.

If certain gravity states were to make, say, acidity more noticeable, that would be analogous to a mood change, but I don't know how that could be measured if the actual amount of acidity in the liquid doesn't change. But there is just too much we still don't understand to completely rule out the possibility that non-measurable effects exist.
 
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)
 
I will swallow my snark. Hard for me. And just say: VLM planted the roots of this thread, then retired to perch among the leaves to observe the flowers rise from the fruits of his labor.

Terrible, I know. But the day job beckons....
 
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