Got a telling little mail from a friend, Fredrik from Sweden, after he'd read some of my posts around here:
"Say, do you like any wines that are still being made, or at least made in the style you used to like?"
Or it my have been the other round (not quite sure anymore):
"Say, are any of the wines you like still being made, that is, in the style you used to like?"
(Translation's mine, from German. Note that when he says "like" he meant something much stronger, of course, way beyond the recognition of quality or irreproachability, something more like "true love.")
I stared at that sentence for a while. My first two thoughts were that A) it is true my tastes are old-fashioned and perhaps on the conventional side, and B) that I nevertheless pride myself on curiosity and a certain "impartiality", that is, usually liking everything that is good, regardless of what it might be or wherefrom (all right, minus Rosé and to a lesser extent bubblies).
Having said that it is true that C) I wish at least three quarters of the red wines I get to taste at trade tastings had less oak, showed more soil characteristics, were more natural-tasting and reflective of their terroir and grape variety/varieties, that D) I could easily think of wines/wineries I used to count among my favourites and no longer do (fifteen years ago Rayas was one my top ten, or twenty years ago Heitz Martha's Vineyard my favourite New World winery/bottling), and E) I seem unable to think of a wine whose style - in contrast to its quality, provided the two can be kept apart fully and/or in a sensible way - improved (for example, although it was my impression during a winery visit that quality is being taken more seriously at Léoville Poyferré than perhaps ever in my lifetime, the jury is still out as to how much exactly I like what they are doing right now - and so it is with most "resurrected" monuments, that is, with the exception of a handful wineries in Tokaj-Hegyalja).
And all that even though I know it is emphatically not true everything used to be better sometime in the past (my past, pre-phylloxera is a different matter). I remember very well what it was like being taken or sent to by my parents, for example, Burgundy trade tastings in the early eighties, constantly on the look-out for uncleanliness, mustiness - in short, flaws.
Which brings me to this question: Could you enumerate some wineries whose style (not just the average quality of their wines) you feel improved, so that you are thinking more highly of their wines than ever?
Gradual fine-tuning counts, too, although it is not high-class problems I meant to discuss (for example, Mjolnir mentioning a very modern-styled Gaja bottling a few days ago, ironically one I find hard to reproach but do not "like" - precisely what Fredrik meant - which reminded me that his top five Nebbiolo based bottlings show yet better oak management than his wines from the eighties did versus his earliest barrique-aged efforts, thus should age more gracefully in the sense of developing greater finesse). Then again, all problems discussed here inevitably seem high-class...
Greetings from Switzerland, David.
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„J'ai gâché vingt ans de mes plus belles années au billard. Si c'était à refaire, je recommencerais.“ – Roger Conti