La Ciccia, San Francisco, California
Tasted Thursday, July 30, 2009 by rjonwine@gmail.com with 4,574 views
This is a new category to me, as I'd only tried a couple of these unusual wines prior to this tasting. For an excellent summary of the background of these wines, see this piece on Thor Iverson's oenologic blog: http://oenologic.blogspot.com/2009/08/adventures-in-skin-trade.html
There were 11 of us on hand for this tasting, seated at two tables. Our two orange flights, consisting of six wines each, were poured blind, and we had about an hour to linger over each flight. We later learned that Slaton put most of the less expensive and younger wines in the first flight. While I quite enjoyed several of these wines, and applaud the spirit of experimentation and innovation that they represent, the jury is still out for me on the future of this particular branch of winemaking. The high acidity and tannic nature of most of them may make them difficult to enjoy in their youth (and the rather unstable nature of a few of them makes one wonder how well they will age). I think they're pretty tricky to pair with food as well. There seems to be a consensus that the most ideal pairing for orange wines is uni, or sea urchin, and we were fortunate that La Ciccia was able to obtain some and offer us a sea urchin pasta so we could sample that pairing. My other concern about these prolonged skin contact whites (some of which are also aged in amphorae and other exotic vessels), is that they are winemaking wines and not wines of terroir. Virtually all of them had much more in common with each other, in terms of color, texture, acidity, tannin and flavors, than they do other white grape based wines of their particular area. Nonetheless, I do look forward to sampling more of these with some bottle age on them, and to trying some by other producers. My favorite wine of the tasting was the '06 Paolo Bea Santa Chiara, followed by the '04 La Stoppa Ageno and the '08 Natural Process Alliance Chard.
The Sardinian cooking (mainly with local ingredients) generally went well with the wines, especially the sea urchin pasta and the tender pan roasted pork loin drizzled with cooked grapes must. A good dish on its own, but poor pairing with these (or virtually any) wines was my entree of pan seared tuna, as the olive sugo sauce was much too peppery for a palate already dealing with unusually tannic white-grape-based wines.
Many thanks to Slaton for organizing us and the wines for this tasting, and for picking La Ciccia as the venue. Thanks to Slaton also for the info included in parentheticals in the TNs below on the length of skin contact and other winemaking details.
Jim, Jack and Slaton
I enjoyed four of the wines in this flight, had a hard time with the Cornelissen MunJebel (which I'm told requires a lot of airing, and can change a lot over hours and days), and was disappointed with what turned out to be the Rusticum, as I've had this wine before and enjoyed the prior bottle a lot more. The Paolo Bea, as mentioned above, was my WOTT; the Natural Process Alliance Chard was the least like anything else in the tasting, but complex and good; and the Movia Lunar was also quite good. One of our party that evening, wine board celebrity Florida Jim, was the maker of the Sauvignon Blanc which I thought was very impressive for a barrel sample.
Fregula with fresh Mendocino sea urchin
There was more similarity amongst the wines in this flight than there was in flight 1. Despite a touch of brett, I liked the Ageno the best for its complexity. The Gravner and Vodopivec Vitovska were both intriguing wines, and I look forward to trying more of those with additional bottle age. The Collio had a lovely nose, and may need time to develop. The one that was most offputting (the distinct urine smell, the sweetness and firm tannins on the palate) was the Zidarich. I was thinking it might be an off bottle, but Slaton reported that he tried what was left in the bottle over the next two days, and that it improved tremendously in that time.
pan seared Ahi Tuna served with Sardinian Olives sugo and pureed peas
2006 6 Mura Vermentino di Gallura 91 Points
Italy, Sardinia, Vermentino di Gallura DOCG
Medium canary yellow color; nice lemon rind, herbal, tart peach and very minerally nose; tasty, crisp, tart lemon, mineral palate with medium-plus acidity; medium finish 91+ pts.
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