Border Radicals

This is a personal post - my comments and views are not necessarily shared by my fellow Garagistas. And again, I have Cynthia to thank for her help, interest and support.

You know, I know I'm right. I am, I really am. Well, maybe not, but here's the thing: when I face challenges and struggles and need some support to either show me the way or confirm my view or thoughts, or just tell me I'm not crazy, things start to happen that support me and keep me on track and sane.

I've been having a feeling lately that the wine isn't for everyone. Won't stand up to scrutiny. Isn't well received. Isn't like Mssr Proprietaire's Fin Vin. Considered crap! And I can provide reasons for these feelings which are valid. So you can imagine that I need some support here. And support came.

It came in the guise of Josko Gravner and Ales Kristancic. They are like-minded Border Radicals and I hear myself saying what they say. I have said what they've said.

I'll let them speak through their own words. Those that follow the blog will recognise the themes and those that know me will laugh.

Josko Gravner.
(by the way - he makes wine in terracotta amphorae - from primary fermentation to bottling - 100% since 2001 - next year in Italy I'm visiting him).
"We removed...the machinery years ago. I don't need them anymore."
"Thing thing that tipped the balance was a trip to California, where I first tasted wines with synthetic aromas. I was horrified. I had to change everything - or stop making wine altogether" (I remember my first Stateside wine and all I could taste was wood - and they were all alike - and you know - they're still chemical soups. I now understand why my Dad, who loves wine and gets it by the demijon when in Italy, NEVER buys it from stores, even when he has run out).
So Gravner also stopped filtering and fining and eliminated sulphur. He stopped using Yeasts...
"How can anyone know which yeasts to select? And how much? And when to add them? It's like artificial insemination: That's fine for humans, if they need to do that, but grapes don't need it. They already have their own yeasts,...chosen by nature. It's absurd to think you can improve on that." (Hoo-bloody-ray! The wild yeasts!!! Oh fear of doom!!! Contrast that with hi-aspirational lifestyle mag "Wine Spectator" who this month runs an article about yeasts for wine with "Yeasts as a Vintner's Closest Ally." All you need is a sense of when its balanced and done).
He doesn't call himself a biodynamic nor an organic winemaker, he mistrusts labels, "Talk is cheap. Words like "natural' and "biodynamic" can be - and are - misused, especially now that it's becoming popular. Many winemakers, some of them well known, say one thing and do another. The important thing is not what people say or what's written on the label or in the promotional material but what's in the bottle and how it got there."
His wines also taste and look different (look due to a 100% maceration technique no crushing / pressing). If you're used to the usual engineered stuff, you probably won't like this, but there's no accounting for taste is there. By the way, his wines are expensive and not for everybody.

Ales Kristancic.
(may be close enough to visit too after Gravner)
He gets back to basics too, but has adapted barrels and other equipment in a biodynamic way. He's not as non-interventionist as Gravner but still draws from history and he has some interesting techniques. The validation I got from him is in the appearances and tastes of the wine, whereas what I got from Gravner was over technique.
So let Kristancic take you into an uncomfortable (but not wrong) world of cloudy wine...
By the way, Babbo in New York sells the wine.
He bottles with no intervening decanting. Uses no sulphur. Lets it all sit in with the grape for months, not pressed, nor crushed. Has designed the barrels to mimick a grape and recut the bung hole accordingly etc etc. he is different.
This is his wine -
COLOUR - nut brown ale coloured
CLOUDY - how can he be sure it won't start fermenting again? How stable is this - bottled 5 months after picking straigh tout of the must. "..he'd wavered on the issue of drinking his wine cloudy or clear. He preferred the wine cloudy with all its solids in suspension - "If you decant it, you have to drink the wine that day. If you leave it mixed with everything in suspension, then the wine will last 3 or 5 days with less oxidation."
"If you have a natural process, a wine with all the life inside, with all the different bacteria, then when it stops [fermenting], it should be stable. You can come to stability by taking away the bacteria and cleaning the wine, or you can leave this jungle as is, with different types of bacteria that create the perfect stability. That's the way of making natural wine. If you touch one thing, you break all the natural balance, then you have to filter and add sulphur to take away everything."

He goes on about technicians at a Lab didn't believe a cloudy wine could be stable but when they conducted an analysis they found that the wine was stable even though it was not clean.

I'm getting encouraged now. I have a different wine. It's a different standard entirely that is respected, and few people will appreciate it and fewer can appreciate it as the crap is now the standard and has heavy marketing to keep it that way. This sums it up...from Wine & Spirits "Best Of" edition...

"Such a beverage is different from what we normally associate with wine, particularly commercial wine. It may seem strange, but the wine tastes good. Vintage is extremely limited. It's still less than a year old and...may not obey all the rules Kristancic laid down for it."

Did I mention all this stuff is expensive? Think I did, but here's something, why are these ignored by the lifestyle marketters? You'd think this would fit right in with their ads for Porsche, Lexus, Ghiradelli, range Rover and Cigars.

So, I'm back! Everything else IS crap and engineered and false - they have stripped it of its essence, its being, and created a monster.

And since I'm right, I'd like to add that Marty was and still is, stone cold sober, as he was last Friday. Honest. Well, you can see that mug of raspberry tea he's holding in the picture where he's seated.