Eric Narioo: jihadism is the problem not sulphur!
France under one roof – part 4
'Phwoarr wines at FUOR
France Under One Roof
This was mini Real Wine event for us. We racked and stacked some seriously good kit on our two tables. Scrolling through the FUOR catalogue I couldn’t see a table in the room which wasn’t stuffed with anodyne, manufactured, sulphured, blancmange wines. More than ever I feel that real wine accurately describes our approach; we source wines that have a soul, for want of a better word, a communicable spirit of terroir, and whether you like them or not, a strong identity.'
Grapevine posted 11th March 2010 on Les Caves site
Predictably Les Caves de Pyrène was one of the busiest tables at the tasting and deservedly so, as Eric Narioo and his band import lots of interesting wines, are happy to take risks and go out on a limb. It is good to see that this approach has brought Les Caves success, which is why I'm so disappointed to see such fatuous triumphalism posted (see extract above) onto Les Caves' Grapevine blog. It is arrant and arrogant nonsense to claim that of all the 90 exhibitors present only Les Caves were showing wines with a strong indentity and that all the rest were 'anodyne, manufactured, sulphured, blancmange wines'.
Marc Kreydenweiss and Michel Chapoutier, to name but two, – anodyne, blancmange wines?! Or Domaine Fouassier with 53 hectares in Sancerre currently in conversion to biodynamics. It is good to see Les Caves promoting wines from small scale producers like Sylvain Martinez etc. but they don't carry the same responsibilities as a large domaine with 50 hectares of vines. If Sylvain stuffs up with his two hectares there will be many fewer losers than if the decision by the Fouassier family to go biodynamic turns out to be disastrous. They have a number of employees whose livelihoods are dependent on their decisions.
All wines are manufactured. Some of the best wines I have drunk are what you call 'natural' or 'real' wines. Equally some of the most disgusting have also been 'real' wines. Faulty wines that shelter under the 'real-natural' wine label – often sold at ludicrously high prices to 'sophisticates' in Paris and London. Wines that could well do with a bit more manufacture and probably a discreet dose of sulphur. Or perhaps I just like 'blancmange' wines – nothing wrong with chocolate blancmagne in my opinion.
I fear a tendency to jihadism is starting to take root at Pew Corner. Remember that Mark Angeli, not a man who could be accused of making 'anodyne' wines, decided a number of years ago that unsulphured wines were too dangerous and that he would use a small dose of sulphur at the moment of bottling. His wines are the better for it.
It would be a great shame if Les Caves became Fatwa Wines.
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Notes on wines tasted to follow...
