Tried these new natural wines this weekend:
1. Vandal Militia FieldBlend (12.5%; U/U/Unstable; Cofrmt: 35% PinotGris/20% PinotNoir/15% Viognier/5% Chard/5% Malbec/5% Merlot/5% Riesling/5% SauvBlanc/5% Syrah; UvaImprts/Atlanta; www.VandalWineCo.com) VandalWineCo/NewZealand 2022: Med.dark yellow color w/ lots of tiny bubbles clinging to the sides of the glass; some floral/PG/carnations some earthy/chalky/perfumed talc fairly aromatic pleasant enough nose; fairly tart/tangy/rather metallic lightly floral/PG/carnations somewhat rich/textured lightly earthy/stony flavor; med.long floral/PG finish that mimics flavor; a fairly pleasant PG but nothing unique or special. $33.00 (KK)
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2. Ino es Pituko Natural Wine Chard CuricoVlly/Chile (13%; www.EcheWine.com; T.EdwardsWines/NY) Vince Echeverria/Monina/Chile 2021: Light gold very cloudy/hazy color; extremely fumey/volatile/EA very unclean/natty/mousey very slight appley/Chard extremely flawed nose; soft very metallic/tangy very hot/fumey slightly off-dry very unclean/natty/mousey rather foul flavor; shows everything that's wrong w/ natural wine; pretty much undrinkable. $18.00 (SFW&S)
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3. Anima Mundi Gres WW AltPenedes/Espana (12%; 100% Xarel-lo grape; Llaurador Wines/Fairfax/CA) AT Roca/Anima Mundi/Sant Sadurni d'Anoia/Spain 2020: Med.gold slightly hazy color; lightly pineapply/appley slight floral/dandelions slight herbal bit earthy/coarse pleasant enough if undistinctive nose; soft/fat/porky bit metallic slight pineapply/appley/pear dandelions some earthy slight natty flavors; med.long soft/fat/porky finish that mirrors flavor; a natural wine but not particularly natty; a pretty unthrilling white w/ little character. $21.50 (KK)
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More mundiblarek from TheBloodyPulpit:
1. Not a particularly good showing for the natural wine movement. Sweet Alice would have been in her glory.
The Chile Chard was particularly bad stuff. After I had swallowed it, it left a particularly foul taste in my mouth. 10-15 minutes later, I had a small belch and this foul taste welled up in the back of my throat. Never had that before happen. I tracked the wine over the next two days. The high level of VA ameliorated significantly after a day but the foul natty taste persisted.
I posted a Wine Anti-Recc on my SFWinos Facebook page and did not pull my punches. One person scolded me for having it in for natural wines. I assured her I only had it in for bad wines. Another asked why I kept trying natural wines. I responded that sometimes natural wines have something of interest to me. There are a number of natural winemakers in Calif that seem to avoid all the wrong things of natural wine...that can make perfectly clean wines that are natural. It seems the biggest failures in natural wines come from imports.
Tom