As this week is all about the orange, the skin-contact, the skin-fermented, whatever you want to call them….here are some notes from notable sips of white grapes that were left to be.
Any of the bottles of white grapes left to be produced by Roberto Henriquez
Within this tribute to white grapes left to be, it is only right that I mention the man who had me drinking them long before they became a trending topic. I remember sipping @henriquez_rober’s Semillon and saying, “WEON, what have you done to make this so spectacular?!” And he explained how he picked them and then kind of forgot about them, just let them be in Raulí. Skin-fermented Semillon in endemic Chilean wood 😍 Oh how I miss being able to call him and meet up for magnums…If you’re so lucky as to come across any of his wines, grab ‘em up! 🍷💃🏼
Pa’ro Bianco by Buccia Nera Winery.
Skin contact and real women have two wonderful things in common: curves. Something to squeeze 🤌
The Pa’ro Bianco by @buccianera is soft, yet powerful like my flanks. The nose crushes white pepper over grapefruit juice. She whispers “dream a little dream of me,” as she caresses underneath your tongue. Medium acidity, body and alcohol. In tune. A lovely finish of cantaloupe spritzed with orange juice.
Trebbiano and Grechetto from Tuscany. Veni vidi vici. 💋
Uivo PT Nat Curtido by Folias de Baco Winery
A natty nat. Ratatat tat. Pineapple crushed with grass and spicy peppers. Very fresh, crunchy and punchy. High acidity in the mouth with lots of tropical fruit. Portugal is stepping up its natty game and that makes me happy!
Made by Tiago Sampaio among the Douro’s cooler slopes in Cima-Corgo. Not the only Folias de Baco wine that you should try.
MusCat by Maurer Oszkar
Serbia…tell me more! The nose starts by blowing out a candle, that brief flash before smoke billows and you wonder if the alarm will go off because you should have trimmed the wick. Imagine a jalapeño with pineapple insides laying upon orange blossoms with fresh linen in the distance. Non-linear and quite fun to sniff.
The mouth is a guava papaya party with corn on the cob as DJ 🎧🌽👊🏻He skips beats and makes a sound that will stand up to intense food flavors, especially of the Asian persuasion.
Also written in my notes that I cannot for the life of me decipher: 4 Days a Week 🤷🏼♀️ Nonetheless, a @maurer_winery skin-fermented Muscat Blanc from Subotica-Horgos, Vojvodina, Serbia. Absolutely the cat’s MEOW 😻
Amb Tota Naturalitat by Celler Vinyes Singulars
The problem with “orange” wine is that you’re associating a color with content and concept. They don’t have to be orange to give you that flesh to flesh sensation like no other. They can be golden, or a hazy yellow haunted by amber.
With Amb total naturalitat by @vinyes_singulars we have Parellada and Malvasia de Sitges left to touch one another well beyond fermentation.
White peaches spritzed with a yeasty jalapeño-pineapple juice in the nose.
The mouth is skinny with some COVID fluff and flab. There’s a dirt road off in the distance from sweet peach and cantaloupe flavors.
A skin-fermented natty fizz is much like raw Flamenco. A gypsy spirit. Carlos Montoya. Taken from the album sleeve with regards to gypsies, to which I add in white grapes left to be: “An intuitive, creative people who far surpass accepted formal education methods, with their inherent worldly-wise knowledge of the soul and the heart. A soaring free spirit.”
And as a bonus for reading: “There have been many definitions of flamenco. It is like the best American jazz, improvisational. You are tasting the creation of a living musical experience.”
Cheers to tasting life!
Liquid Skin by Mother Rock Wines
Ooooo baby, I got a story for you! I was sipping this with my girl @ashambirge and my notes say sour hay in the nose while she said blown wheat.
I have very little experience with South Africa, so when I went to study the origin of Swartland prior to fleshing out this tasting note, I read: “Most of this vast area is undulating wheatland, green in winter and burnished gold in summer.”
Sense of place for the win(e)! Beyond fermented hay you get aromas unripe apricots and cold crushed pineapple straight from the metal can. The mouth is a tart bite with underlying sweet hints. Oranges and lemons with unripe pineapple.
Love the name. Chenin Blanc. Fermented nine weeks on the skins.
Mtsvane by Anapea Village
Drank at the park while eating cheese and enjoying the breeze…no notes taken, only palates shaken by the depth of this Georgian Mtsvane left to be for six months in qvevri, followed by another six months aging off the skins in cooler qvevri.
An appropriate close to my week of highlighting skin-fermented whites. Because guess what Mtsvane means in Georgian? GREEN. Not orange 💋
