WTN: Brezey

[David M. Bueker]

2006 Éric Texier Côtes du Rhône-Brézème
Windy (really windy) night in Connecticut. It was so windy that a big maple tree and an apple tree are not just down but gone! Oh wait, I paid someone to take them down yesterday.

Given the weather, this wine seems appropriate in a twisted, pun-ish sort of way. If you're not ready for acidity it can punish you as well. Given my tastes, I like the liveliness & brightness of the profile, and the 100% Syrah shines through with meaty, dark fruit that properly counterbalances the acidity. It's a very food friendly wine, seeming more like a summer time red, but it's what I wanted at the time.

2006 Éric Texier Côtes du Rhône-Brézème
Windy (really windy) night in Connecticut. It was so windy that a big maple tree and an apple tree are not just down but gone! Oh wait, I paid someone to take them down yesterday.

Given the weather, this wine seems appropriate in a twisted, pun-ish sort of way. If you're not ready for acidity it can punish you as well. Given my tastes, I like the liveliness & brightness of the profile, and the 100% Syrah shines through with meaty, dark fruit that properly counterbalances the acidity. It's a very food friendly wine, seeming more like a summer time red, but it's what I wanted at the time.

Texier seems like a really interesting guy, breezy even, witness his participation on this very informative thread:
http://winedisorder.com/comment/56/2657/

The worst thing is that now I feel tempted to buy that gadget so I can measure the pH, RS and SO2 of everything I drink. OK, commit me.

2006 Éric Texier Côtes du Rhône-Brézème
Windy (really windy) night in Connecticut. It was so windy that a big maple tree and an apple tree are not just down but gone! Oh wait, I paid someone to take them down yesterday.

I'm also wondering whether I should have some of my trees taken down. A three minutes freak storm last May caused my next door neighbour's mature sweet chestnut to fall and crush part of my garden and a few other trees in the neighbourhood also fell; no houses touched fortunately. Several of my other neighbours have reacted by making a holocaust of their trees leaving mine even more exposed . I bought the property here because I love trees.

[David M. Bueker]

Oswaldo - don't do it! Wine is about pleasure, not about analytical figures that then become the topic of discussion. Witness the alcohol debate. Does anyone care what the wine actually tastes like anymore?

Tim - I would recommend that you get your trees inspected by someone qualified & then trim/remove where appropriate. Both the trees we had taken down were not healthy anymore.

Oswaldo - don't do it! Wine is about pleasure, not about analytical figures that then become the topic of discussion. Witness the alcohol debate. Does anyone care what the wine actually tastes like anymore?

But for me it's a source of pleasure to not only drink a wine but also to try to "understand" analytically why I love some and not others. A mix of the sensual and the didactic. In some cases it's obvious. In others, not so much. For example, if I find a dullness, I may suspect that it's SO2, but have no way of checking. Or if the acidity and sweetness are not in balance, it's not always obvious if it's too acid or insufficiently sweet, or insufficiently acid or too sweet. Also alcohol, the % on the label often doesn't jive with what one experiences.

IF I were to do this sort of testing, I might abandon it later as useless, but it would be part and parcel of what wine pleasure means to my temperament, which incldues attempting to "understand" a little bit better some of the maddeningly elusive variables. While it will never be possible to fully understand wine (or anything), it's perfectly possible to care immensely about how a wine tastes AND at the same time want to understand the levels of some of the crucial variables.

[David M. Bueker]

Oswaldo,

Your explanation makes sense to me, though I have been down that road in the past & found that for me it was a dead end into analysis paralysis. There was a time when I could roughly tell you the acidity and residual sugar of many a German Riesling without seeing the specs. What happened was that I forgot to decide whether or not I liked the wine.

Your mileage may vary.

I loved the previous vintages, but I don't know if the '06 is imported here. But the Pergault '06 was awesome when Eric was visiting Finland a short while back. I'm beginning to think that Eric doesn't do anything wrong. I'm hoping one wine will prove me wrong and bring Eric back into the "human being" category.

[David M. Bueker]

Never fear Otto. There was a time when Eric used synthetic corks which caused his wines to go downhill much too quickly.

See, he can make mistakes!

What happened was that I forgot to decide whether or not I liked the wine.

For a while I stopped taking pictures when traveling because it interfered with "being there." Now I carry a camera, but keep it tucked away, and only reach for it when something "demands" it. You take good pictures when you travel, does that sort of interference happen to you? Taking pictures is not the same as being analytical, but it seems analogous because it was once a veil between experience from reality.

With wine, on the other hand, the analytical and the sensual seem to reinforce pleasure. I don't care about knowing or guessing the absolute levels of sugar or acid - it's about understanding the differenmt ways these can be in and out of balance, because pleasure is much harder without balance.

[David M. Bueker]

You take good pictures when you travel, does that sort of interference happen to you? Taking pictures is not the same as being analytical, but it seems analogous because it was once a veil between experience from reality.

It used to. Now I actually take even more pictures, but I also make sure to take a few minutes every now and then to just be there.

What happened was that I forgot to decide whether or not I liked the wine.

Isn't that what scoring is for?

Jokes aside, this sounds lovely particularly given the weather we've been having recently. (I am really looking forward to a few weeks of vacation in the tropics, after some of the cold and snow down this way!)

I'm beginning to think that Eric doesn't do anything wrong. I'm hoping one wine will prove me wrong and bring Eric back into the "human being" category.

What do you think of his off-dry viognier?

I'm beginning to think that Eric doesn't do anything wrong. I'm hoping one wine will prove me wrong and bring Eric back into the "human being" category.

What do you think of his off-dry viognier?

Never had that, sorry. Sounds interesting (whether euphemistically meant or not, I can decide only after tasting).

Never had that, sorry. Sounds interesting (whether euphemistically meant or not, I can decide only after tasting).

You should try it. Consensus seems to be that it is not yet executed to its full potential, so that might give you the negative he-is-human-afterall vibe you're looking for!