A visit by wine importer Joe Dressner gave me the excuse to make my first visit to the natural wine scene at Terroir in San Francisco. I got lots of helpful guidance from Joe, his west coast rep, and there were plenty of wine geeks there to help me along my way. Loads of fun.
I started out with the 2003 Stanislao Radikon Friuli-Venezia Oslavje (Friuli-Venezia Giulia, northeastern Italy), mostly because Radikon is one of those names that I've heard of, but have never experienced and don't know much about. Evidently this wine is a blend of sauvignon, chardonnay, and pinot grigio. Radikon is pretty keen on not adding sulfites so uses a variety of other techniques to make sure the wine is stable. Three months or so of lees contact and extended time aging before being released and a specially designed 500 ml bottle with a narrower cork to minimize oxygen transfer and pair with the producer's philosophy that a 500 ml bottle is a better size for a meal, allowing a couple a bottle of white and red to share with dinner. The wine looks quite weird, browning-orange, reminding me of a cider or a beer, and the nose was pretty pungent (think rotting peaches and sour cherries), but somehow still appealing. The mouthfeel was completely unexpectedly silky and the flavors were delicious--fall fruit, sour cherry, yeast. The wine was sharp yet soft at the same time. Clearly this was one of those love-or-hate wines, but, though I was told it performed particularly amazingly with food, I was enamored with it just enjoying it on its own. I don't even want to know how much a bottle would cost, as the techniques sounded costly to me. I adored the wine, though. I could enjoy many bottles of this.
Next I went with the 2006 Arianne Occhipinti Etna Il Frappato (Etna DOC, Sicily, southern Italy) mainly due to the fact that I've never had a wine from the frappato grape before, so this allowed me to cross another off my list. It appeared cloudy dark purple, and had a very intense nose of stinky socks and battery acid that made me think of volatile acidity. Yet, though to describe it sounds nasty, I really enjoyed the nose. In my mouth, it tasted soft then a touch of well-contained acid, richness and funk, battery acid again. This wine was certainly weird, but delicate. I enjoyed my glass, but not sure how much of this wine I would want to drink. Appeals yet repels, interesting.
Continuing with the weird noses on the 2006 Dard et Ribo Crozes-Hermitage [Syrah] (Crozes-Hermitage AOC, Northern Rhône, France) which appeared a normal ink-black purple, but smelled of singed hair and an electrical fire, yes, I felt like I was in a hair salon gone awry. It was fizzy upon entering my mouth but had an amazing transformation to soothing fruit and spicy peppers, much more welcomingly subtle in my mouth than on the nose. A beautiful heavier syrahesque mouthfeel combined with lightness I would not expect. Adorable wine.
Then I was wisely advised by Dressner's west coast rep not to miss the west coast debut of the N.V. François Pinon Touraine Sparkling Brut Rosé (Touraine, Loire Valley, France) which was a blend of gamay and grolleau. It appeared a beautiful lively pink and smelled divinely of berries and tasted refreshing--strawberries, raspberries, lively acidity, yum, yum, and yum again. A perfect match for the warm streak of weather that's been sticking around the Bay Area.