Wine descriptions and fleeting moments on the proletariat palate.
The three wines that I am reviewing this week are about mystery, hidden beauty, devastation, the inevitability of death and the beast within.
Maquina & Tabla Paramos de Nicasia Rueda Verdejo 2018 19$ and change SAQ White
This biodynamic wine, from the harsh climate of the Douro Valley in the Castilla y León region of Spain pairs well with the somewhat morbid imagery presented on its label.
At first, a pungent malty, tobacco, peppery scent; like opening a fresh new pack of cigarettes at the end of a rainy night spent contemplating the state of your life over many beers. It then opens up and presents a light, salty, green grape mouth feel that transforms into an explosion of sourness you can feel in your teeth. Toasted tobacco finish with a hint of green parsley, penicillin and blue cheese. This wine has you enveloped in its brooding elusiveness. Like Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre, it attracts you with its delicate ferocity, envelopes you in a beautiful clear love but leaves you with the bitterness of worn out passion.
Perrini Negroamaro Puglia 2018 20$ and change SAQ Red
At first scent this wine offers us fresh cut roses and cold stone moss covered walls. Like walking into an ornately decorated flower shop or an ethereal, shimmering greenhouse. Very green, plant forward, like an overrun wet English garden. But upon first taste, things begin to shift drastically, starting with a cranberry mouth feel. It quickly evolves into something reminiscent of cured meats, an unexpected but not at all unpleasant meaty experience. I’m reminded of myself as a dehydrated and famished late teen, sitting in a deli eating corned beef in New York City after a pointless day of walking in SOHO. Inner angst, wanting to be cool, trying to emulate a New Yorker; a teen me on a trip. Self-questioning, self-discovering, this wine has me reminiscing, rediscovering and remembering my teen self fondly and in a self-loving way.
Fantasy wines or wine I can’t afford or access but maybe one day I will:
Les Lunes Astral Blend 2019 White/Red/Orange
This Califorian wine, produced by Populis Wine is described as ‘connecting the material to the mystical, or rather, the Earth to the Heavens’. This fruit forward wine is said to break down the barriers between wine categories. Imagining drinking this wine has me fantasizing about a September walk on a crisp full moon night in the forest; it is the beginning of fall but nature doesn’t quite know it yet. I wander around in a mossy dream blue green like forest and find myself in a clearing; here, in the absolute silence, I ponder and revel in my inner thoughts, my devastating contemplations and my grandiose dreams. I feel energized and drained, intoxicated by a mystical moon connection that reveals my darkest, lightest and truest innerselves.
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