[quote=TomHill post_id=3370418 time=1636396958 user_id=4967]
Tried this wine new in the NM last night:
1.
Radikon Rosso RS18 IGT: Venezia Giulia (13.0%; EB; Louis/Dressner; 50% Merlot/Pignolo) Radikon/Oslavia/Gorizia NV (2018?): Med.dark color; quite volatile/fumey/EA some earthy/dusty rather plummy/grapey Merlot slight plastic waste basket/new vinyl pretty ugly nose; very soft very volatile/hot/fumey/EA some plummy/Merlot rather bitter some earthy/dusty flavor w/ light soft tannins; very long very volatile/fumey/hot/raging EA-level finish w/ light very ripe tannins; one of the most volatile wines I've ever had; so much EA that it actually stings the nose; undrinkable. $44.00 (AV)
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. Whenever I buy a Louis/Dressner natural wine; I always try it with low expectations. But this wine blew me away. I've never had a wine so loaded with EA that it actually stings/burns the nose. This was a rare fail from a producer I normally like his often eccentric wines. I seldom take a wine back to a wine shop because it's flawed....I'm generally pretty accepting of flaws in wine. But this wine is soooo volatile that it is disgraceful to sell it to a customer. I can't believe that Brian had not tried this wine & found it acceptable. A bad btl, maybe?? I have my doubts. VA is something that is seldom btl-dependent.
Tom
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So....I pretty well trashed this wine for its extreme VA/EthylAcetate. Excess EA in wine is worse than Acetic Acid (vinegar) becaus it's much more painful. Think smelling fingernail polish remover
vs. smelling vinegar. The level of EA in this Radikon was sooo high that I am fully confident that it was well above the 0.14% legal limit for red wines. It stung on the nasal passages and burnt going down the
throat, plus was slightly sweet. Just absolutely undrinkable it was sooo painful. I pour a lotta wines down the drain, not so much because they are badly flawed but because they are boring/vapid/bland.
But this was one of the most badly flawed wines I can recall....did I mention it was painful to drink?? I took the btl down to Pig+Fig for them to try & they both found it pretty vile wine & undrinkable...but didn't really
explain exactly what the problem was to them.
So, after consuming a little over a cup of this wine, instead of dumping it, I stuck the cork back into it & dropped it off at the local wine shop (one of my favorites) for him to taste and confirm that it was
flawed, had an excessive level of EA, would then open another one from his shelf to see to see if they were all like this, and if this btl was not excessive EA, offer to replace my flawed btl with another good btl.
I had suggested that maybe I just happened to get a "bad" btl. Alas, that was not what happened. I am fully convinced he did not even bother to try the opened btl I brought back. If the other btl had this
excessive EA level, then I would hope he would return the rest to the distributor and ask for a refund.
When I went in a few days later, I asked him what he thought about the opened btl I brought in. He then proceeded to acknowledge that I've tasted a lot of wines over the yrs but that this was how Sasha
made the wine and this was how it was supposed to taste!! He then proceeded to lecture me that, even though I taste a lot of wines, I have no right nor expertise to tell a winemaker that he has produced a flawed
wine. That I should get down off my high horse and learn to be more accepting of wines that are "different" and learn to broaden my horizons w.r.t. wine. Hmmm.... I try a lot of "natural" wines & think I'm pretty
accepting of a lot of them...maybe not like them but accept them for what they are....except for some of the extremely mousey/hantavirus wines.
Then what he said next really took me aback. He says that he, too, does not at all like this Radikon (no mention of the high EA level...just that he doesn't like the wine). Most of the reputable wine merchants I
deal with would not even think of putting a wine on their shelf they don't like. That's the purpose of a good wine merchant...to connect his customers up w/ good wines...wines that he's tried & liked. At least,
that's the way I thought it was supposed to work?? Maybe it doesn't work that way in the real world. But I rely a lot on my wine merchants for advice on wines I might like. Mostly they're spot on. Sometimes
they make a bad rec & I have no qualms about telling them that...from my perch atop my high horse.
Then the real kicker. A few days later I got an e-mail from him reiterating that this very high EA level is how this Radikon wine is supposed to taste. It was bttld by the winemaker, it was imported by the importer
(Louis/Dressner), it was sold by the NM distributor (PM Wines), and it was put on the shelf by him. After all this vetting by those along the line (who just happened to have a wine they want to sell), he asserts
"what makes you such an expert that you think you can cry foul on all those involved?". At no point in all this discussion does he mention actually tasting this wine and finding an excessive level of EA. I think I might
have enough tasting experience to recognize excessive EA in a wine...but maybe not...I admit I'm still learning about wine.
I sent a copy of my TN trashing this wine to the distributor, Louis/Dressner Imprts, and Sasha Radikon. And, of course, no reply from any of them. "Ohhh, gawd...
yet another TN from that crank in LosAlamos"!!
So...at this point...I'm going to let this matter lie. I'm not going to get into a pi$$ing match w/ the wine shop owner. I will probably go back and buy another btl just to assure myself that I didn't just get a "bad"
btl...that all the rest of the btls are equally flawed. Maybe this new btl will be totally drinkable & I'll like it...or tolerate it...don't know. But if it has an unacceptable EA level, I will probably share it around with friends to demonstrate
what excessive EA in wine actually is. I may just send some off to Leo/Vinquiry to have it tested for legality.
Anyway....I generally like the Radikon wines...or at least find them interesting. But I'll be a bit more careful as to what Radikon wines I buy. And be much more reluctant to patronize this shop that
has no qualms about selling "bad" wine.
Which, of course, leads to the other thread I posted on about accepting flawed wines and the "natural" winemaker who wrote it suggesting that we accept flawed "natural" wines because that's
how they're supposed to be:
https://www.pix.wine/the-drop/embrace-wine-flaws/,
a viewpoint I have some difficulty accepting. But this Radikon was simply not a wine I could accept.
Tom (speaking from atop his high horse)
