WBW #29: Beauchatel Bergerac 2002 (C-)
The word “biodynamic” is second only to “terroir” in it’s ability to inspire diarheaic diatribes and heated debates. I don’t have a lot to say about either except that I love the wines from the first biodynamic winery I visited (Topolos, which is no more, alas, but I’m happy to have several bottles in the cellar). I’ll admit to being drawn to organic and biodynamic wineries and wines but I don’t expect them to be intrinsically better than any other wine. I like to support anyone who is exploring sustainable farming (and business) methods (not to suggest that one must be organic or biodynamic in order to be sustainable). I used to think that organic winemakers were risk takers and pioneers and therefore more likely to be artisans or high craftsmen but that’s probably outmoded thinking (and possibly naive even in it’s day). We’ve come a long way from the time I visited Fetzer’s tasting room and, when I asked why they didn’t include the word “organic” on their Bonterra wine labels, was told that the concept was too unpopular and would hurt sales! Now it’s among the largest visible words on some of their ads.
The first important quality I look for in a wine (and who doesn’t?) is how it tastes rather than how it was made. Next in importance is price — I have to be able to afford it in order to be able to drink it — and once I’ve narrowed the field with those two criteria I enjoy exploring and learning about wine-making methods and winemakers in general. Of course, choosing an unknown wine for WBW (or any other occasion) requires a willingness to try something I might not like which pretty much shoots the above rationale to smithereens.
WBW #29 is hosted by Fork and Bottle, whose site includes a wealth of information about Biodynamic wine — it’s too bad it doesn’t display properly for this Mac OS X user making it hard to read.
[Update - After a concerned (and prompt!) email from Jack about my trouble viewing the site I went back with the intention of taking a screen shot that would demonstrate the problem (it had to do with overlapping type — a problem which occurred on several visits) but everything is displaying just fine this morning. Either Jack has a crack web designer who was able to quickly identify and fix the problem or it may have been a font problem on my end.]
The wine I chose for this month’s return to the frenzy, Beauchatel Bergerac, is made from 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc. Sounds like a nice trio to me. Red wines from Bergerac in Southwest France (not far from Bordeaux geographically but nowhere near it’s reputation), are supposed to be aromatic and acidic and are best when young (2-4 years). I could find very little information about the region online apart from this page at Terroir-France.
Finally getting to the point with a Tasting Note: The lovely nose of raisins, ripe dark fruit, chocolate and tar and the dark brick color suggest a brawny heavyweight, even reminding me of an Italian Valpolicella or Amarone. No such luck once tasted but this is still a decent wine. It tastes much lighter than expected, like slightly mentholated maraschino cherries from a tin can — but in a not bad way. It costs $9 at Whole Paycheck so you can probably buy it elsewhere for $6 (if you can find it).
Never Mind — I made the above notes while tasting the wine before dinner with some water crackers. I just finished dinner of roasted potatoes, onions, lima beans and chicken sausage and this wine completely failed to match up. It tasted thin and weak so I downgraded from a plus to a minus.
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