Tried these three w/ Susan last weekend:
1. A WineWork Orange Orange Wine ViBlanc (10%; Frmtn in Amphora for 40 days; www.Sicus.Cat; No chemical or thermal treatments; Cartoixà/Cartoixà Marino/Malvasia/Macabeo varieties; JosePastorSlctns; LlauradorWines/Fairfax/CA) Sicus Massis/Borastre/Tarragona NV (L-2019): Rather orange/near rose some cloudy color; rather earthy/dusty/OV rather herbal some phenolic/resiny/VM slight natty/funky slight orangey rather strange/interesting nose; quite soft bit tangy/metallic strong resiny/VM/phenolic fairly earthy/dusty/OV precious little fruit slight orangey fairly tannic slight funky/natty flavor w/ light tannic bite; long soft bit tangy/metallic strong phenolic/VM/resiny slight orangey very little fruit somewhat austere slight natty finish w/ some tannic bite; pretty strong VM/phenolic some tannic character w/ precious little fruit; may develop into something interesting but a bit of a gamble; not a lot of pleasure in this wine right now. $31.00 (KK)
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2. Cochonnet Melon WW VinDeFrance (12%; Melon de Bourgogne grape; MFW Wine Slctns; T.Elenteny Imprts/NY) Earl Stephane Orieux/Vallet 2019: Deep gold/burnished bronze color; rather orangey/honeyed light VM/phenolic/resiny slight floral/carnations bit earthy pleasant nose; quite tart/tangy/bit metallic light phenolic/resiny/VM/skin-contact lightly floral/carnations/Melon slight spicy/cardamon/floral quite pleasant flavor; med. light phenolic/VM/resiny lightly floral/carnations slight earthy/stony finish; a rather pleasant skin-contact white w/ good balance of phenolic & low-key Melon fruit. $22.50 (KK)
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3. UBE Bodegas Cota 45 Ube de Uberrima Miraflores/Andalucia Lentejuelas, Lustrilles y Tusc-Cerrabao (12%; Listan/Palomino grapes; Llaurador Wines/Fairfax/CA; Jose Pastor Slctns) Purtico de Bajo Guia/Espana 2020: Med.dark gold color; rather earthy slightly natty/funky slight phenolic/VM/skin-contact slight floral/fruit nose; bit soft light metallic/tangy light natty/funky light phenolic/VM/resiny very slight fruit fairly earthy flavor; soft slight metallic/tangy bit unclean/natty/funky light VM/phenolic/skin-contact bit oxidative finish w/ unpleasant wet dog fur aftertaste; a rather unclean/natty/low fruit bit phenolic/VM rather unattractive white; overnight develops a dreadful wet dog fur aftertaste that wells up in your mouth; 20 min later when I did a slight belch, the wet dog fur welled up in my mouth; pretty much undrinkable because of the wet dog fur aftertaste; way overpriced at $31.00 (KK)
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A wee BloodyPulpit & Rant:
1. We I go down to SantaFe on Thurs or Fri afternoon, I usually stop into Kokomans to find out what's new I might want to try. I always ask Mark what's new from Paul & Martha that I should avoid, being as they specialize in natural wines. He is usually pretty good about steering me away from the super-natty wines and towards something that might be "interesting". If I want something good to drink w/ Susan, I have plenty of my own that I can rely upon. But Koko probably has the largest selection of natural wines of any shop in NM & apparently there is a market for some of these wines that he caters to.
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2. Not a good showing for the JosePastor natural wines. There have been more & more of these showing up here in NM. Most of them are not very good, to my taste. When I was up at the Taos Winter Wine Festival, I visited a bit with the JosePastor national marketing director & commented that I'm seeing more & more of the Jose Pastor natural wines here in NM. He then proceeded to enlighten me that Jose Pastor pioneered the natural wine movement in Spain, a claim of which I'm a bit skeptical. I related to Chris that I find a lot of the JosePastor natural wines not very good. The UBE above is a good example of such...undrinkable. He then proceeded to scold me for loving to "hate" on wines. I explained to him that I love to "hate" on bad wines....wines that I can't choke down or are undrinkable. He then countered that wines are all a matter of taste & that I should be a bit more open-minded on wines. I asked Chris if he's ever had a "bad" wine that he found undrinkable & he just kinda shrugged his shoulders. I guess I need to work on my taste for drinking bad wines.
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3. As mentioned in a recent TomWark blog post, there's a newsletter published out of Paris by a Aaron Asycough that focuses on natural wines. Its title?? "Not Drinking Poison". This newsletter highlights to me one of the big problems of the natural wine movement...the arrogance & sanctimonious attitude that so many of its adherents display, starting way back with our own Sweet Alice Feiring, one of the early proponents. A wine that is not natural, but is industrial, given that natural wine is not a well defined concept, is bad for you?? That it's "poison"? I don't think so. I've had wines that have had mega-purple added to them for color & have lived to tell about. I've had wines that were made with non-natural/commercial yeasts and have not croaked from them. The same people who drink only natural wines because it gives them a superior attitude towards all the rest of us are the same people who make a diet of boiled kale and steamed tofu. To each his own I guess.
I find most of the bad/undrinkable/flawed wines that I encounter are often natural wines, usually imported. But they don't have to be flawed. There are plenty of natural wines that are great drinking & without flaws. I would cite the Broc and MarthaStoumann and MontOlivia and Clarine wines as some, though I don't know exactly how natural they really are. But something like the recent Radikon Rosso natural wine...blech..there's no need for these kind of wines in my wine world.
End of rant.
Tom