The UnCorker

Weird Wine of the Week-Breaky Bottom Sparkling Brut 2004 Cuvée Donna Elvira

We will admit right off that this is gratuitously weird; like we’re trying to be too clever by half, or ironic in that smug, annoying hip way that we thought our friend, recently returned from England was being when he gave us this bottle of Breaky Bottom(yep, Breaky Bottom) Sparkling Brut 2004 Cuvee Donna Elvira. So it sat on the desk at The UnCorker headquarters for awhile, until we realized we’d be crazy to not run to our first chance to drink English wine.

We poured and raised our glasses all toasting ‘Breaky Bottom’, and we were, well, fairly impressed; this was real methode champenoise wine- straw yellow, green highlights with apples, pears,  hazelnut and a yeasty finish. Not a fine Champagne, or Franciacortia- but lets face it, our expectations weren’t exactly high either. So maybe this piece shouldn’t be a WWOW, maybe it should be a Weird Wine Region piece. We decided to look into the British wine scene(at least as best we could, there are no English wines imported to the States) and it seems that in England, there is a confluence of events and trends that are rapidly changing the agriculture of Southern England.

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Weird Wine of the Week: Primitivo Quiles 2002 Alicante Raspay Reserva Tinto ‘Brut’

Ok. We admit it. The UnCorker staff has maybe 20 years, combined, of serious wine snobbing under our belts – and most of that has been more or less on the cheap. So who are we to call one of the oldest wines in one of the oldest wine countries in the world, weird? Apparently a fancier version of this stuff called Fondillan was on the table of the Sun King himself, Louix XIV, paired with sponge cake. And given that this is a hearty, unfortified Valencian red, that’s a little weird – wouldn’t you say? C’mon, sponge cake? (ahem… just getting warmed up here). Dissecting the label is the first challenge. Primitivo Quiles is the name of the winery. Alicante is the name of the DO (There’s also a grape named Alicante which isn’t popular in it’s namesake DO.) Raspay is the name of the town. Tinto means “red.” (Ok that one was easy.) And ‘Brut’ (quotes are theirs) just doesn’t make any sense whatsoever in this context. We guess that they are just contrasting this to the sweeter, and more famous, Fondillan.

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Monsters!!!!!!!

Monsters!!!!!! Huge Teeth Staining Monsters!!!!!

Some wines are like love notes, delivered from across the seas, others like post-it notes on the fridge- still others are like like gruesome horror films, powerful in their ability to hold our attention, yet monstrous in conception, overwhelming and bloody.  We at The UnCorker were struck this week by the similarity of two wholly disparate wines that, like a horror film, repelled and held us bound in equal measure. Like a Hollywood film, these wines have glossy production values, lots of style and no substance.

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2007 D. Ventura Vina Caneiro Ribeira Sacra

The UnCorker moves it’s way through yet another obscure Spanish DO – this time a tiny neighbor to Bierzo that also specializes in the Mencia grape – DO Ribeira Sacra. Here is an appellation curiously immune to international “tastes” and the Spanish tendency to oak and/or blend their way towards uniform flavor profiles. A region that emphasizes natural wine-making, vine-to-bottle minimalism, finesse, and terroir – a Spanish wine region that’s basically, well, umm… French – at least the pre-modern, pre-Robert Parker France of Kermit Lynch’s imagination. Comparing this wine to a cru Beaujolais is not a stretch – it’s fruity and soft, combines freshness with minerality, and has acidic grip and expressive terroir. It’s fun to drink and great at table, and it doesn’t kick your (or your palette’s) ass. Is it worth $27? Well, that’s another story. That all depends on your point of view, and how much of a wine-store-clerk reactionary anti-snob you are against black, tannic, extracted oak-monsters. We like it all, but frankly – based on pure taste, if this wine was $5-$8 less we would feel better about the deal.

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Weird Wine of the Week-2006 Re Manfredi Basilicata Bianco

Basilicata is an isolated and obscure region, second to only the Molise as the smallest in wine production in Italy. Known primarily, and only really recently for Aglianico del Vulture (the region’s only DOC wine), Basilicata doesn’t seem a likely place for a cutting edge weird wine- its like stumbling on haute cuisine in your grandmother’s kitchen- at first, it seems so unlikely, its suspicious- but when you try it, it makes delicious, perfect sense.

So, some mad genius at Re Manfredi looked around Mount Vulture and saw something maybe nobody else had even considered; that the potential for northern white grapes was huge, and that taking a chance might pay off. And why not? German grapes have thrived in the Alto Adige for centuries; the Adige valley is searingly hot during the day, but the nights, nice and cool. As you have read in these pages, the Aglianico in Basilicata is one of the latest harvested grapes in all of Italy- the slopes of Mt. Vulture have vineyards planted up to 800 meters, giving a huge temperature differential between day and night. Traditionally, what white grapes there are in Basilicata are the ubiquitous malvasia and moscato, dry and sweet, still and sparkling, and with the rare exception, uninspiring, and not much exported.

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2007 Descendientes De J. Palacios Bierzo ‘Petalos’

The soils of the Bierzo DO, in the northwest of Spain, are primarily slate, granite and schist- not its only parallal to Priorat; there were also old neglected hillside vineyards full of low yielding mencia, showing potential for terroir driven wines. And like Priorat, ambitious quality minded producers flocked, much to our benefit.  Of course the rush was followed by those that planted mencia on unsuitable, fertile soils, producing light and often insipid wines with no character and lots of dilution. The similarities don’t end there-the Palacios name is one of the giants in Priorat, and they have done for Bierzo what they did for that region, reclaiming small old vineyards and making deep wines.

The 2007 Petalos is the entry level wine from Descendientes De J. Palacios and is The UnCorker’s vote for best wine under $20- just a touch of new oak before being put in big old tonneaux this wine is concentrated, with dark berries and accompanied by some smoky, crunchy minerality. Blackberry on the nose accompanied by smoke and flowers, fields of flowers! Violets and white flowers- a well integrated and sweet tannic bite on the back end adds complexity and a tautness that surprised us- really, the pleasure this wine provides is immense- the kind of wine that makes us UnCorkers gush.

2005 Vinos Pinol Terra Alta Sucra Natura Organic Red

Deep garnet-purple in color. Aromatic with dark cherry, cassis, rosemary, and kalamata olives.  Northern Rhone-like terroir – with minerality and chalky tannins from the poor, calcerous soils. Great extraction – but a bit stewed & raisiny on the finish. Moderately enjoyable with some spicy, oily salami to cut the tannins – but the flavor is not there and the wine does not present an integrated whole. At $14 a decent play for a certified organic wine and peaked our interest in the obscure D.O. – “Terra Alta” – which is yet another up-and-comer from Northeastern Spain.  DO Terra Alta is a poor-man’s Priorat – throw it in with Montsant and Tarragona – in that it has a similar arid, windswept, scrabbly mountain landscape and limestone soils, and a predilection for foreign-style blends (mostly the indigenous Garnacha and Carignena with the imported wonder grapes Cab. Sav. and Syrah thrown into the mix).

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