In Search of Authentic Wine

Image by Cooking Up A Story via Flickr

I watched a documentary on food last night that changed the way I look at the raw materials of my meals. Politics aside, I think we have a problem right now that will take a long time to sort out. And in the meantime, I’m going to spend more time looking into the providence of the meat, grain and produce I buy.

The same can be said about wine. It is rare that I taste a truly flawed wine and when I do it is almost always in the context of a natural wine and not something made in a factory. The flaw — be it brett, VA or reduction — is more often the result of the winemaker pushing bounties and falling short. Not unlike the high-wire trapeze artist who missed the catch and falls into the net. You admire their effort and the resulting wines are most always interesting.

But a lot of wine these days seems to tick all the boxes to make sure it is what consumers want. Forward fruit. Check. Good color. Check. Sweet oak tones. Check. Bright acidity. Check.

All of which can be added to the vat at some point before bottling. The resulting wines are all technically “correct” and rarely show any flaws (although I have had some issues with over sulfuring). There is just one problem.

They don’t have any soul.

So I’m searching for real wines made from real people who want to tell their story in the glass, on the podcast and here on the blog in the form of reviews. If you have such at tale, let me know.

And I do have some great examples of such “real wines” to share with you this week…