Community Tasting Note

Loren Sonkin wrote:

Wednesday, April 12, 2017 - Orange, Sicily, Cowan and some others (Chagrin Falls): I love these wines. The first time I tried it was at a bar in Boston (waiting to meet Ron Kramer) and I ordered the 05 not realizing that it was "orange" or Slovenian. It was a pedestrian list with this on it for some reason. I was already a fan of this type of wine, but it blew me away that night. It can be hard to find, so I was excited to hear it was coming to Ohio. Actually, i was told it was the Lunar 9 (Chard), but I prefer this Ribolla Gialla.
This bottle has a ton of sediment in it. The bottle was decanted leaving about a cup of grey/green sludge (more on that later). Medium orange/gold in color. The nose is great. Oranges, slightly nutty, dried fruit, and nutmeg. On the palate, this has some viscosity. Great acidity. Deep and layered with oranges, orange peel, cinnamon, minerals and honey. Really different but so interesting. Very fresh and yet hints of oxidation at the same time. How does that happen?
After having this wine, I thought about the sediment. After all, this sells for $48 and to lose almost a third to sediment is a lot. I tasted it and it was great as well. The nose was virtually the same but perhaps a bit more yeasty (or did I imagine that). The sediment is very fine grained and really not texturally noticeable. It is fresh and vibrant and I am not sure I would decant it. I get why one would. This is such a different and difficult sell when clear, that to serve it that cloudy would take a real wine geek. But that's ok. I would not decant and I would only serve to someone getting their geek on. Fun wine. I bought a couple and looking to see how well it ages.

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