 |
| Decideret “Hva Drikker Mølr” Copenhagen 2019 Brandini Alta Langa Brut 2019 Remi Leroy Extra Brut Champagne NV Zajc Cviček Pét-nat Dolenjska Slovenia 2022 Lodi Corazza Vino Frizzante Colli Bolognesi 2021 The ancients entreated us to not judge the tastes of others, de gustibus non est disputandum est, yet with wine (and truthfully many of the other things we put in our mouths, wear on our bodies, & etc.) that’s pretty much all we do. We’re taste accountants even if we do not like to admit to it. The well-worn chestnut, “not your mother’s chardonnay,” is seemingly innocuous; behind its utterance is there not a bit of dismissive misogyny and a bit of ageism? There is the convention-minded rejection of natural wine voiced by establishment folk happy to live in their little boxes on the hillside that all look just the same—Robert Parker’s hissy anger towards natural wine drinkers, whom he dismissed as the “anti-flavor elite.” And the countervailing sentiment, felt by naturalistas who look upon these regimented folk with sadness, is that they know that the normies will just never get it, they cannot, as they are lost and hopelessly square. All of this is a long-winded way of considering how rarely and only with difficulty step outside the boundaries of our own conventions (ayahuasca?) and thus are condemned to judge, mostly silently but sometimes harshly, the sensibilities of those with whom our Venn diagrams hardly intersect. Champagne is a wine that you might drink many days of the week, if your household budget would allow it. For some Champagne is their lifeblood, the pinnacle of all wine and all other wine is merely background noise. Others feel that the Champenois are carnival hucksters, hard selling us what is perhaps just a form of fancy beer. Tonight, we’re tasting a spectrum of fizzy wines including a Champagne, but also a rustic sparkling barbera and a dry, sour, cloudy Danish cider. It’s not an ordinally ordered list: each wine has its place, its set and setting. |