For those who think it’s the journey that counts, here’s what my white wine drinking journey up until roughly last week looked like:
Stole wine lighter fluid off the cart left in corridor at school for parents event, drank wine lighter fluid, got drunk, repeated, associated all white wine with either lighter fluid or paint stripper (variety!), swore I'd never drink it again, graduated, decided Riesling was the only way forward if the way forward had to be white which it seemed to be because girls seemed to only drink white, graduated, Riesling got sweet, no more Riesling, made friends that drank beer i.e. boys i.e. only drank beer, graduated, moved to Amsterdam, they drink a lot of beer here, learned to love oysters, made an exception and would drink tiny glasses of white wine only if ice cold and only if eating oysters >>> 2014: learned the difference between Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc but wasn't interested in either but Chardonnay was worse >> 2015: went to the Jura, had Savagnin, thought wow, this with OYSTERS, tried Jura Chardonnay, thought DIAMONDS, returned, got told, 'your wine's natural', didn’t pay much attention and just drank the wine, started paying attention, started associating wild, cloudy, juicy white wines with natural wines, started drinking white wines if they were wild and cloudy and juicy or Savagnin or Axel Prüfer, talked a lot about Prüfer, happened to drink La Stoppa's Ageno while I happened to be in Milan, got back from Milan, it got warmer, drank a lot of Sylvain Saux on the balcony in the sun, heard for the first time about skin contact, thought about Ageno, drank a lot of Nestarec and Meinklang and had a wonderful summer, made my first wine list, put Prüfer and Saux and Nestarec and La Stoppa on it, went to Friuli, picked grapes, came back sick of skin contact, drank a 2010 Sebastian Riffault Auksinis, returned from the dead thirsty, fast >>>>>>>>>> forward >>>>>>>>> 2017, February, La Dive, Robinot >> last week, Federico: ‘Let’s open the Andrea Calek "Blanc" 2013', me: ‘I don’t really like white wine…’
Tasting notes:
Lush, creamed honey and tangy beeswax that keeps your mouth coated like those tight leather lady driving gloves. Sun-washed warm and tropical, white flowers whiffed in the dark on a hot summer night. Layered and structured like scaffolding. Ever evolving.
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"Blanc" 2013
Andrea Calek
70 % Viognier, 30% Chardonnay
Alba la romaine, Ardeche
