Tried these two over the last few days:
1. Vandal Militia FieldBlend (12.5%; Unfined-Unfiltered-Unstable; "Things Never Got Weird Enough"; Cofrmt of 35% PinotGris/20% pinotNoir/15% Viognier/5% Chard/5% Malbec/5% Merlot/5% Riesling/5% sauvBlanc/5% Syrah; UvaImprts/Atlanta/GA; www.VandalWineCo.com) VandalWineCo/Marlborough/NZ 2022: Med.gold rather cloudy color w/ lots of tiny bubbles; fairly fragrant some PG/carnations/floral bit pineapple/R light earthy/stony bit herbal/SB-like some perfumed talc/spicy some complex/interesting attractive nose; bit soft rather honeyed/orangey some PG/floral/carnations bit rich/lush slightly off-dry (0.6%) slight tangy bit earthy/perfumed talc/orangey some complex/interesting rather exotic flavor; very long/lingering floral/carnations/PG/orangey finish that mimics the flavor; this is a very exotic/intriguing white that I like quite a lot for reasons I don't quite understand; shows no funky/natty character whatsoever, even after being open 2 days...which usually spells the death knell for a natural wine. rather Alsatian in character or much like an Sudtirol Traminer; a pretty special rather exotic white....maybe even a bit weird; but I like it quite a lot. $33.00 (KK)
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2. Ryme RibollaGialla GittensVnyd/DryCreekVlly/SonomaCnty (12.0%; www.RymeCellars.com) Geyserville 2019: Deep golden/burnished bronze color; strong VM/phenolic/skin-contact/resiny fairly floral/RG/fruity some honeyed/honey grahams/slight oragey rather complex lovely nose; quite tart/tangy/slight metallic some VM/phenolic/skin-contact lightly floral/RG/carnations honeyed/honey grahams quite savory/saline quite complex flavor w/ some tannin/astringent bite; very long/lingering strong VM/phenolic finish that mirrors flavor; starting to show some VM maturity but still needs 3-8 yrs to ameliorate the tannins; a lovely VM/skin-contact RG that will onlt get better. $36.00
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More sittlebros from TheBloodyPulpit:
1. Vandal: This is a natural wine from NewZealand. There is also a Vandal Wine Co in Languedoc/Roussillon that I think is now out of business.
I really wanted not to like this wine & was prepared to write a TN thoroughly trashing it...easy to do when you're reviewing natural wines. The label was a bit too hipster for my tastes. And what the heck does "Unstable" mean on the label??...that's not too promising.
Vandal is the effort of three NZ winemakers who want to remain anonymous. The pic on the Web shows the three wearing masks to disguise their identities. Over a few beers, they decided they wanted to make some wines they couldn't do with their day jobs. So the Vandal label is what they came up with. They make other wines other than the Militia White.
I'm a bit puzzled by the price. The most I saw on the Web were in the upper $20's to low $30's. But I also saw it at $12/btl as well.
Anyway, despite my leanings, I liked this wine quite a lot.
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2. Ryme: This VinoMacerati is moving right along to classic VM maturity. But it still has yrs to go yet. I tasted this over a 3 day period and it was changing all over the place. When first opened, at cold temperature, the VM/phenolic character really stood out. But the character of this wine is very strongly a function of the wine's temperature. At cool room temperature, the RG fruit really comes to the forefront and the tannic VM character receeds into the background. Really quite an exotic expression of RG.
Tom