tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-489299875102333272024-02-21T08:01:55.095-08:00St Etienne's WorldAn independent blog about pure food and wine Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191658429489959971noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48929987510233327.post-75455285947633523462012-11-17T00:05:00.000-08:002012-11-18T02:49:48.810-08:00How did we come to believe that food industry chemicals and processing could replace nature-made foods?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: large; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">I realise that many articles
and books have been published about the food industry and its influence on our
health and eating habits, meaning that I am pretty late with my opinion about
this matter. Fact is also that my insight about this came by the passion for
natural wine without additives some ten years ago, followed by the many encounters
with passionate cooks and foodies. I also meet more and more people who are
allergic to much un-natural stuff in food and wine, and this made me think
about the subject. And last but not least, I am a chemist, but didn’t have much
knowledge about the topic and the effect on our health, so my opinion was not
outspoken at all.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3fT3RfuEHF3ASbykbv_eYSaQjvvNt1ZVHjcvxNEps_zx3QPwG17665CnZHVHK7yKFbncfYYnBYCtXDO8E7uFL6rydq2cTkTECz_R1iZW0Q_Ygi43mMRMA2CgfascRUpnWWk3vPebKEQ/s1600/patat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3fT3RfuEHF3ASbykbv_eYSaQjvvNt1ZVHjcvxNEps_zx3QPwG17665CnZHVHK7yKFbncfYYnBYCtXDO8E7uFL6rydq2cTkTECz_R1iZW0Q_Ygi43mMRMA2CgfascRUpnWWk3vPebKEQ/s320/patat.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: large;">A hundred years ago all food
was organic, local, seasonal, fresh or naturally-preserved by ancient methods.
All food was food. Now less than 3 percent of the Western agricultural land is
used to grow fruits and vegetables, which should make up 80 percent of our
diet. Today there are not even enough fruits and vegetables to allow all people
to follow the healthy guidelines to eat enough of it a day. What most of us are
left with is industrial food. And who knows what lurks in the average boxed,
packaged, or canned factory-made science project. When a French fry has more
than 20 ingredients and almost all of them are not potato, or when a fast food
hamburger contains very little meat, or when the average teenager consumes 34
teaspoons of sugar a day, we are living in a food nightmare, a sci-fi horror
show. Do you agree?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: large; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The very fact that we are
having debates about what we should eat, that we are struggling with the
question about what the best diet is, is symptomatic of how far we have strayed
from the natural conditions that gave rise to our species, from the simple act
of eating real, whole, fresh food. When it becomes a revolutionary act to eat
real food, we are in trouble.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqeL5jBo6NL9dcIgulj8vHPNsBNFRruKaYkkqCJEW7A0vgIHsoxLI4gKHwh70bP4CIMg6BTi4lMEJj42khs0NInwADyuZI7a2HLbTM_3Bw-ZUWljwepp2eTXah9MH7x8j7d5jcircRfQ/s1600/OurDailyBread_fish.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqeL5jBo6NL9dcIgulj8vHPNsBNFRruKaYkkqCJEW7A0vgIHsoxLI4gKHwh70bP4CIMg6BTi4lMEJj42khs0NInwADyuZI7a2HLbTM_3Bw-ZUWljwepp2eTXah9MH7x8j7d5jcircRfQ/s320/OurDailyBread_fish.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: large;">The best advice is to avoid
food with health claims on the label, or better yet avoid food with labels in
the first place. The food industry is one of the biggest in the world, and people
seem to forget this all the time, despite the obvious heavy influences on media
and government. <i>Low-fat is good -- so anything with a "low-fat" on
the label must be healthy</i>. But Coke is 100 percent fat-free and that
doesn't make it a health food. Now we are told to eat more whole grains, so a
few flecks of whole grains are sprinkled on sugary cereals. That doesn't make
them a health food either. Or what to think of the more recent obsession to
avoid carbs in whatever you put in your mouth?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: large;">In the 21st century our tastes
buds, our brain chemistry, our biochemistry, our hormones and our kitchens have
been hijacked by the food industry. We need to <i>un-junk</i> our biology!! Industrial
processing has given rise to an array of addictive, fattening,
metabolism-jamming chemicals and compounds including aspartame, MSG (monosodium
glutamate), high-fructose corn syrup and trans fats, to name the biggest
offenders. MSG is an excito-toxin that stimulates your brain to eat
uncontrollably. When fed to mice, they get fat. It is in 80 percent of
processed foods and mostly disguised as <i>"natural flavorings." </i>And
trans fat, for example, is derived from vegetable oil - chemically altered to
resist degradation by bacteria, which is why modern cookies last on the shelf
for years. But do we need cookies that can stay good for years knowing that our
metabolism cannot process these trans fats which result in a shitty situation
in our bodies?</span> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: large; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Your tongue can be fooled and
your brain can become addicted to the slick combinations of fat, sugar, and
salt pumped into factory-made foods, but your biochemistry cannot, and the
result is the disaster of obesity and chronic disease we have today. On purpose
I don’t mention cancer, but even more and more normal weight people have one or
more cardiovascular risk factors, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol
or high blood sugar. Factory food makes people sick; there is no doubt about
this!! But since a couple of years the powerful marketing machine is making us
believe that products with low cholesterol is the way to go. Look in your local
supermarket for all the health labels on the products. And funny enough the
human species swallow all this nonsense. Do you really think that probiotic
milk drinks like ‘yakult’ is needed if you eat normal healthy food? But the
beauty of all those problems is that another industry lives from the more
serious cases. The pharmaceutical industry have solutions for your stomach
problems, high blood pressure, heart disease, … caused by the years of shit-intake.
Thank you very much, dudes.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxEXUZDP9eXaNapm0gAXUGhI920CDI-17ertqfrDmp6GsuLs30i0_DCJwd9ZBT4VqZhZWZgzYFEDysA7UXmnZqG9cRo17sK_Y5-rJrObso5XqpSQysi6exwFkm0Bjs7dPlaUiF5AKE0Q/s1600/industrial-food-cooking-300x225.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxEXUZDP9eXaNapm0gAXUGhI920CDI-17ertqfrDmp6GsuLs30i0_DCJwd9ZBT4VqZhZWZgzYFEDysA7UXmnZqG9cRo17sK_Y5-rJrObso5XqpSQysi6exwFkm0Bjs7dPlaUiF5AKE0Q/s1600/industrial-food-cooking-300x225.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"></span> </div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ladies and gentlemen, it is
time to take our kitchens and our homes back. Transforming the food industry
seems monumental, a gigantic undertaking. But it is not. It is a small problem.
In the small places in our lives, our shopping carts, the fridge, the cupboard,
the kitchen and on our dining room table is where all the power is.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: large; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">It is the hundreds of little
choices, the small actions you make every day that will topple the monolithic
food industry. The previous century is littered with the bodies and
institutions of fallen despots and despotic regimes -- from the fall of the
Berlin wall to the Arab spring. There is no force more powerful than a small
group of individuals with a desire to end injustice and abuse. A very simple
idea can break through the confusion and plant the seeds of a revolution. Our
bodies were designed to run on <i>real food</i>. Our natural default state is
health. We need to simplify our way of eating. <i>Un-junk</i> our diet, detoxify
our bodies and our minds and we heal. Simply choose foods such as vegetables,
fruits, nuts, seeds, healthy oils (olive oil, fish oil, avocado and coconut
oil), small amounts of whole grains and beans and lean animal protein including
small wild fish, grass fed meat, and farm eggs. There are no diets, no calorie
counting, and no measuring fats, carbs or protein grams. None of that matters
if you choose real, whole, fresh, live foods. If you choose quality, the rest
takes care of itself.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP7x-rEDJOCxkohglDwk11IK3_pSI-PbeVqn_KTWN3zJLje1O305gq2AiRRrQ37vjV8TXtMg_oTqN0dSF5o0nfqB-kYyJC8mdBYmYh_X-2O1izC3QR0kwcDKFtauz1t-q8-mZ3Wm93yg/s1600/DNER_K~1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP7x-rEDJOCxkohglDwk11IK3_pSI-PbeVqn_KTWN3zJLje1O305gq2AiRRrQ37vjV8TXtMg_oTqN0dSF5o0nfqB-kYyJC8mdBYmYh_X-2O1izC3QR0kwcDKFtauz1t-q8-mZ3Wm93yg/s320/DNER_K~1.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: large;">When you eat empty industrial
food with addictive chemicals and sugar, your body craves more, looking for
nutrients in a <i>dead food</i> where none are to be found. Remember, you are
what you eat. Mother Nature is the best pharmacist and food is the most
powerful drug on the planet. It works faster, better and cheaper than any other
pharmaceutical. Dinner is a date with the doctor. What you put at the end of
your fork is more powerful than anything you will ever find at the bottom of a
prescription bottle. Just eat real food. Each of us has the capacity to make
the small changes in our lives that will create big changes in our food
landscape and our agriculture. I hope you will use the power of your fork to be
part of the start of a true food revolution.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: large;">Did those two last paragraphs
also made you laugh? Is St Etienne greener than the most extreme hippy in San
Francisco? Why is health so important suddenly, for a guy who likes to hang
with others boozing natural wine until dawn?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: large;">Congratulation, you are part
of the happy few. The fact that you are reading a blog about food and wine
means that you are not living in a part of the world where you need to search
or beg for food. You live in an area where fresh (organic) fruit and vegetables
are easily available, if you are willing to pay a fair price for it. Daily
fresh bread is easily available. You can even find fresh fish around the corner.
You have some butchers nearby where you can buy different types of beef, from
different races and aged over different time. You have a few favourite
restaurants where they serve the type of food and wine you like and you are
willing to pay for this experience. You like to hang in trendy coffee houses
which are roasting their own beans. Oh, maybe you are from California and drive
weekly to the Whole Food Market for organic food (despite the silicone and
botox in your body) with your new green car, which recently replaced your
S.U.V. You despite fat people, as they can’t take care of themselves. Thinking
about it, there are many selfish persons, putting themselves in the middle of
the world, without taking into account the fast-growing population of the
already overpopulated world. Do you also close your eyes for the economic and
sociologic reality while eating a kiwi from the other side of the world?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: large; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Fact is that we don’t have enough
space to provide real and healthy food to the entire planet. Until a few years
ago men in China didn’t ask to each other what they had been eating, but ‘if’
they had eaten. Mass production, mass processing and mass distribution at low
prices had made it possible to provide ‘food’ into those regions. Many people
don’t care if the weed was growing organically. They are mainly interested if
they can afford something to feed their family. And the sad thing is that this
is now also pretty common in the Western world, where many people have to
survive on one-dollar menus, which is often a combination of deep fried shit or a
mix of rice.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxGtS62ImMrk6uj6Wq7ooyRB9MHQN0Lx7QQF9z_ijwLyim_be6LXoFYLcZWuUFzLdqTbe5Cq4a8LvJGHL2KTaGJv_0XfRxDM6e3ROCw3rP4hNXv4YAlJ_9NZflYHVnAgwxaH7UQb31Ow/s1600/untitled.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxGtS62ImMrk6uj6Wq7ooyRB9MHQN0Lx7QQF9z_ijwLyim_be6LXoFYLcZWuUFzLdqTbe5Cq4a8LvJGHL2KTaGJv_0XfRxDM6e3ROCw3rP4hNXv4YAlJ_9NZflYHVnAgwxaH7UQb31Ow/s320/untitled.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: large;">The public food companies
striving for quarterly higher profits are there to stay and are penetrating the
fast growing countries, like India and China. They are bringing even more
shitty body filling on the market, at even cheaper production costs. There
shouldn’t been too many complaints yet about health in those countries. But at
the same time we should also applause the fact that those companies are
providing many new jobs in the countries where they start producing. So what
advise should I provide to you? I honestly don’t know. I guess it depends on
your personal situation, so decide for yourself, but please do not forget: you
are what you eat!!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: large; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">St Etienne</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: large; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Chemist & Part of the
Elite who can afford real food</span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: large; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ps Thanks to Mark Hymann, M.D.
for providing the insides in the matter and most info I have found (and this is
not a joke) in the CIA World Factbook, but also during my professional visits
of some big food R&D centers<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191658429489959971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48929987510233327.post-22081387030170696802012-10-05T00:43:00.003-07:002012-10-05T04:09:20.866-07:00Finland: a country full of hidden food treasures<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">I could talk about
the fact that in 3 days I became the best Belgian Nordic skier, that Finnish
women are the most beautiful (at least after a few drinks) and that 28°C is
fucking cold (Finns do not specify the minus as they know that during the
winter the temperature is under zero), but as this is a food & wine blog, I
will talk about some unknown treasures…<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">In my life I try to
combine pleasure (my work) with fun, and this time this would be a trip to
Helsinki again, but this time combined with a 4-days trip to Lapland during the
winter of 2012. Finland is not known for its food culture, even being part of the
‘Nordic’ countries, which seems to be the keyword in the world of food those
days. Former French President Jacques Chirac once said: ‘After Finland, Britain
is the country with the worst food.’ Ouch!! Gangster Silvio Berlusconi agrees,
‘I’ve been to Finland and I had to endure the Finnish diet…’ Double ouch!!
Former Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen luckily replied back in the defence
of Finnish food with, ‘I like spaghetti, as long as it is not spiced too much.
I like simple food.’ Zing!!<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Dear reader, what’s
your favourite Finnish restaurant in your country? Can’t name one? Don’t worry.
No one can, as there aren’t any. Finnish cuisine doesn’t really exist. Sure
there are some specialities you won’t find elsewhere in the world, but these
were created out of necessity or durability, rather than taste.</span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglRdBti30aUK3vYWLGQmoxz_HmZbqi5QcMbU53K7qwHWmc0Mt87o8D8WI9gtSbZW2LdkPrVunn4rNvD7ucXH_3t58bRObgr8Ri1gzX89e9ARlALX6QcD3XYTiM_XD3UNTPNBBwNpypKg/s1600/457721_425732864138036_116477746_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglRdBti30aUK3vYWLGQmoxz_HmZbqi5QcMbU53K7qwHWmc0Mt87o8D8WI9gtSbZW2LdkPrVunn4rNvD7ucXH_3t58bRObgr8Ri1gzX89e9ARlALX6QcD3XYTiM_XD3UNTPNBBwNpypKg/s320/457721_425732864138036_116477746_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span> </div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">The capital has
restaurants of course, but sadly I never saw such a concentration of kebabs and
pizzeria, and most of the time the two combined and owned by a Finnish speaking
Turk. That last part deserves an enormous respect! Hot-dog stands seems also
very popular at night. Strangely enough the ‘normal’ restaurants (ravintola in
Finnish) belong very often to a group, where for instance also one of the big
supermarket chains belongs. If it rains in Copenhagen and Stockholm, then
nothing happens in Helsinki. The Finnish population, known for its innovation,
engineering skills and sober quietness seems to stay in standby mode when it
comes to food and wine. Of course there are exceptions and writing this, I know
some people who will be disappointed in my introduction. There are since a
couple of years some new restaurants popping up, but I seem to be going back to
the same ones all the time, after trying others. My favourite is without a
doubt the fabulous Chef and Sommelier (see 2 pictures) and when visiting it, say hi to Sasu.
This restaurant is a no-bullshit place with honest local organic food, prepared
in an innovative way, and full of passion*. They clearly know what to do with
all those unique ingredients, which seem to be an exception of the rule. Let
the product speaks for itself!!</span></span></span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgn6PiF9W29r0_QfQ9oS-AnGr-kGdgkWSsUFmV1mExBiB76NrZd-H0lhF8M70nQztpawwceJGNSi9VJakw-EgXqHRWxznRiuucyTfCUGp3X5MVxZTUkBpUzKPEOSnGX-osNujPiARhRw/s1600/336089_425733070804682_1346506147_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgn6PiF9W29r0_QfQ9oS-AnGr-kGdgkWSsUFmV1mExBiB76NrZd-H0lhF8M70nQztpawwceJGNSi9VJakw-EgXqHRWxznRiuucyTfCUGp3X5MVxZTUkBpUzKPEOSnGX-osNujPiARhRw/s320/336089_425733070804682_1346506147_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span> </div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">The more often I go
to Helsinki, and believe me, I have good reasons, the more I love the country.
I still don’t understand the language and I still have difficulties with the
surficial coldness of the people (they call it shyness), but once you know them
you realise how wonderful people they are. The beauty of this huge country with
its never ending landscapes is unique. And to come back on topic, they have
some wonderful nature’s pure products which belong into people’s stomachs. I am
not sure with what to start…<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiand6JZ3_ORurjhwFFdErmVPdaCbXN1Oxqa_A_VYf7kzytQIkfUVg07PrwzWG5NUV2dx9S1OeKkOnLSnRfpWXUPvpIvzMc_BMWJMFLOUHSjfvonuYogvuL693eYZZsz-zB_7WJJh4q0g/s1600/cloudberry.4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiand6JZ3_ORurjhwFFdErmVPdaCbXN1Oxqa_A_VYf7kzytQIkfUVg07PrwzWG5NUV2dx9S1OeKkOnLSnRfpWXUPvpIvzMc_BMWJMFLOUHSjfvonuYogvuL693eYZZsz-zB_7WJJh4q0g/s320/cloudberry.4.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Aloitetaas...
Far in the swamps of the Northern forests grows an orange berry, called
cloudberry (Lakka in Finnish). I felt deeply in love with this little beauty,
with her unique character. The first time I tasted it was two years ago in
Geranium (Copenhagen) and F12 (Stockholm). They are very difficult to find and
on location you pay at least 30 euro per kilo. In some shops in Finland and at the
airport you can find marmalade of it, but of course this is not the same.
During the winter you can find them frozen. A typical local coffee snack is Leipäjuusto
(a cow milk cheese) suffused with the cloudberries. The cheese is almost
tasteless, but there is no better way to guarantee the juicy taste of the
fruit. Beside this cloudberry you can find a lot of different more-known
berries. Did you know that the best strawberries are coming from the far North?
No, I am not kidding and no I don’t have Aquavit in my blood! Ladies and
gentlemen, I say without a doubt, forget our conservatory strawberries or the
one cooking in the tropical sun of South of Europe. Try to taste, at least once
in your life, one strawberry from the North of Finland, meaning the area where
during the summer the sun is not disappearing and do not cause extreme
temperatures, so that the berries can slowly ripe.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Jatketaan! Maybe
less unknown is the reindeer. I have tried during my stay in Lapland different
versions: the dried, what seems to be sold as a candy, the smoked, often
presented in a starter, the more traditional minced version with red currants
and mashed potatoes, and also a grilled version. </span><span lang="NL-BE" style="mso-ansi-language: NL-BE; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">All very tasteful. </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The only piece missing on my track record is the
liver of veal. But maybe the encounter with an entire family in the wild forest
during one of my long winter sport session made my heart soft. </span><span lang="NL-BE" style="mso-ansi-language: NL-BE; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Can it be even more tasteful? Kyllä!! </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Try a piece
of moose. Ladies and gentlemen, this is so good, that it should be forbidden.
The meat is so rich, that you can’t stop eating, but luckily the bill will make
you stop ordering more. There are plenty of other games, with bear being the
most exotic, and I guess the most exclusive. Try one of the Russian restaurants
in Helsinki if you want to taste it.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"></span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUKx0tXp69y7QvXulQ5tg0DJHUITFVhscF5A5_4QVkyXX6WIFOaYRlpkcz_ahKXKQfl16W-4hu2J3MUA81r1bCI_NaeTn_JGmnTZY2DgF_0ChSXgPi3ja_tB41oHBFplUoyBBQKnkZfw/s1600/435_reindeer.2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUKx0tXp69y7QvXulQ5tg0DJHUITFVhscF5A5_4QVkyXX6WIFOaYRlpkcz_ahKXKQfl16W-4hu2J3MUA81r1bCI_NaeTn_JGmnTZY2DgF_0ChSXgPi3ja_tB41oHBFplUoyBBQKnkZfw/s320/435_reindeer.2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Very often Finns
forget another of their national proud: game birds or at least the meat of it.
The fact that Finland has a high concentration of rifles means also that there
are no statistics about the consumption of game meat, but for sure many ends up
on Mika’s or Tapio’s plate. Speaking about statistics: addiction to illegal
drugs may be low in Finland, but addiction to caffeine is the highest in the
world. The average person consumes 1.3 kg of coffee each year, while in Finland
the average person consumes 12 kg each year. An explanation could be the long, cold,
dark winters, but how come that ice-cream consumption is also huge per
inhabitant in this part of the world? Hä?<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Writing this now in
the autumn made me also remembering the fact that everyone is free to forage
mushrooms in the many forests. A one-hour search made me once collecting plenty
of chanterelles and four boletes (they were no ceps that time). Did you know
that Finland export a lot of ceps to Italy, so remember when paying a lot of
money for those dried mushrooms during your stay in Tuscany or another Italian region
that there is a big change that they are from a forest somewhere in the North
of Europe. Wild herbs can be also found easily in nature, but surprisingly the
whole population spices their dishes with only salt and pepper, and that’s it. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Every Finn knows
that a hearty bowl of non-sugared porridge in the morning will last you until
lunchtime – which is about 10:30 – so porridge lasts about two or three hours.
And as every Finnish freezer is packed with berries and jams, so toss these in
your porridge if you’re into food with flavour. I still didn’t convinced one
Finnish person that marmalade can also be put on bread. They honestly don’t see
the point… Finland has very good bread, with dark rye as being the most common,
but you should also try the following breads during your visit (no way you will
find this outside Finland, even if you can pronounce it correctly): saaristoleipä</span><span class="hps"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, näkkileipä, rieska,
limppu,…</span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Okei, hijennetään
vähäsen... The advantage of Finland is that if you don’t have a sea close to you,
for sure there are plenty of clean lakes and rivers in the neighbourhood. And
this simple fact means that there is a large amount of fresh and pure fish and
shellfish close to every kitchen. The most exquisite salmon can be found, but I
honestly prefer the arctic char more, and if during the season they serve
crayfish, I don’t look at other options on a menu. Blini’s, the Russian pancakes
are very familiar those days, and can be found in most supermarkets wherever
you live. There is also a Finnish version, a much bigger one, which means that
you only eat one, as a starter, in combination with smoked salmon, pieces of
onion, smetana cream and little eggs of a fish.</span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-pQFiiLl1e4O0PYK-comXjyyePOR6PPOYySnEIyH0At2EX4usChW6Gj9Jt5UFpJzBuvz7szIk-DmAQ6oY0ozlS5JYVdmMYxWocfDb26ixjWz-vL4SWgQMcXvFTt2pyt1PwFYGEv0_Vw/s1600/2352140270_a2316bc18c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-pQFiiLl1e4O0PYK-comXjyyePOR6PPOYySnEIyH0At2EX4usChW6Gj9Jt5UFpJzBuvz7szIk-DmAQ6oY0ozlS5JYVdmMYxWocfDb26ixjWz-vL4SWgQMcXvFTt2pyt1PwFYGEv0_Vw/s320/2352140270_a2316bc18c.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">I should also write
about one of the most incredible and fascinating invention of food in the whole
wide world: Mämmi, which is eaten traditionally around Easter and can be found during
that period in some supermarkets. Only people with a lot of time can afford to
make this at home, as it take many hours to create this fermented rye malt. I
need to be honest at this point: I don’t know any food which has so many resemblances
to shit, but once passed this hurtle, I liked it a lot. The cook of the Italian
embassy in Helsinki felt in love at first sight (?) with the dark brown mush,
and created a fan-club and mämmi organisation, and finally published a book
about it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Probably the
biggest treasure of Finland is the pure clean water they have in their many
lakes. A pretty wasted Finn accompanied by a clearly paid lady, I once met in a
Russian restaurant in Helskini, offered me some shots of vodka, where after he asked
me if I have ever tasted the best water in the world. He asked the waitress to
bring me a jug of water and after tasting it and agreeing that I have never
drunk so pure water, they told me this was tap water, as every citizen in
Helsinki can drink. Unbelievable! About wine that I like, there's almost nothing to say, as you can't find much in Alko, the state's monopoly and distributor for consumers. I read somewhere that there is a 30% increase in sales of organic wines compared to last year, whatever it means...</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span> </div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">*Sasu: I’ll
take credit for this line and I hope you are aware of the European laws about copyrights<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Speaking
about copyrights: thanks to Phil Schwarzmann for a big inside into Finnish
society, through ‘How to marry a Finnish girl’<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191658429489959971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48929987510233327.post-29277263396595661392012-09-22T01:52:00.003-07:002012-09-24T10:47:30.742-07:00Some reflections on natural wines (part 3): you can’t reflect on natural wines? WRONG<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">I’ll try to keep it concise
this time, as life is so short. One of the most common misconceptions when it comes to natural
wine, is that their sole function is to obey one's thirst. We all know
that a good bottle of great natural wine is emptied before you can think of, let’s
say ... 20 states in the US, including the likes of Maryland, Arkansas and Alabama and remembering that there is a North 'and' South Carolina. The reason for this misconception is the encredible 'drinkability' that these pure and juicy wines posses. There are no elements that cause any hindrance upon sniffing or swallowing the wonderful content of the glas.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCM3V0ZEi-xJ7Aj_r4RUQxH99zx6829ZaADbYCfulOY8-gaNwz2OAZhL08nl_aezy-ShNQA1hMbSj3-knv9uUzOv7_4UBQpUzUB6gkEPlAL4eheK1ASW2pCGvgL9jE0sDWAiCX-U2zIQ/s1600/SDB3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCM3V0ZEi-xJ7Aj_r4RUQxH99zx6829ZaADbYCfulOY8-gaNwz2OAZhL08nl_aezy-ShNQA1hMbSj3-knv9uUzOv7_4UBQpUzUB6gkEPlAL4eheK1ASW2pCGvgL9jE0sDWAiCX-U2zIQ/s320/SDB3.jpg" width="253" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Personally, I can’t drink wines
with oak flavours, but more importantly, there are very often unnatural molecules that can potentially cause physical problems when drinking one or more glasses, depending on
your sensibility. You don’t believe me or don’t know what I am talking about, then I'd suggest you stop reading any further, as this piece is a waste of your time.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">On one hand, for reasons unbeknownst to me, <span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span>some people like to create this image of natural wine
drinkers as a bunch of drunks, who only drink it as a substitute for beer. ‘There
is no way those extremists can have civilised wine tastings or reflect on the wines,
winemakers or estates’. We are all considered as 'wild men', and come to think of it, we're okay with this description. Yes, we are wild men, but there is more…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ten years ago a
bunch of unknown, very 'normal' people came together
in a little country in West Europe with Brussels as a capital, to taste natural wines. For US and Asian
readers: Brussels is not a country, but a city and West Europe is not a state. There
were no real rules, but we decided to drink all the wines blindly, meaning that
we didn’t know what we were drinking and that everyone could say their honest opinion.
There was no right or wrong! Most of the time we tasted 12 bottles and we tried
to have a kind of a 'theme' for the evening. We came together every 2 months or
so and after the tasting we shared a good meal together, as we had 1 or 2
excellent professional cooks amount us. Always make sure
that in whatever group you create, you have a good cook in the mix. Most of the time, those Monday evenings ended up
very late (or should I say early?) and were great fun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> During those days </span>we had 2 wine importers of
natural wines in the group and strangely enough the majority of it is
selling wine now and they are each other’s competitor in professional life. I am one
of the exceptions, but remain friends with all of them. It is not surprising that
people sharing a passion for pure wine and good products start liking each
other’s company, especially when seating them around the same table. I learned a lot about
wine during those sessions, but definitely don't consider myself as the greatest
taster of them all. The fact is that I know now how to recognise a pure wine. I can
smell if the wine was made from indigenous yeast or not, I'm knowledgeable on the stability of a wine, and I know how an equilibrated wine should
taste and that for instance, I know the importance of the quality of the aftertaste.
I discovered some ‘real’ wine makers and during the last 10 years I have
visited most of the French ones.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Since (and because of) those late Monday night
sessions, I only drink natural wine. Very occasionally, for professional reasons
such as during business meal meetings, I receive a glass of conventional wine.
Out of courtesy, I will put my lips to that glass, knowing that I can’t drink it
and will then switch over to water, sparkling water. Some people will not understand
this, but I really hate the smell and taste of unnatural wine, as I also don’t
like Martini or pudding. When invited by family or friends to their home, I always take some bottles with me, likewise when going out to dine, always with a bottle in each hand, whatever restaurant.</span></span> <o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">That being sais, on the other hand my taste for
natural wines is not dogmatic or ideological. The ‘sect’ side of some natural
wine lovers is ridiculous. In their own way, they merely imitate the snobs of the ‘prestigious
label’ drinkers, which they supposedly hate so much. There are even ‘fundamentalists’
ready to <span class="hps"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">excommunicate</span>
the ones who are not ‘pure’ enough in their eyes and self-proclaimed ‘specialists’
ensuring that nobody encroach what they consider their exclusive domain. Like
any ‘society’, the natural wine scene has it share of heartburn and jealousy.
Whatever! For my part, I drink these wines because I like them so much, because
they surprise me all the time and they have an ever-changing character like human
beings. They are also naked, freed from all makeup. Sometimes I can honestly feel
the winemaker’s personality as well as his environment in the wines. And last but not
least those wines don’t cause any headache at all to me the day after. After a
night of boozing I am ready to go to work, without any problem. OK, the evening
after I will be more tired than usually, but if this is it what it takes, go
for it. Suggest me any juice beyond labels that satisfy all those conditions and
I am a happy man. 99 times out of 100, at least, it is an unfiltered wine
without any artificial yeast or other additives. That’s what I also learned
during the many blind tastings. But the most important thing I learned about
wine is that it is there to share. I love sharing wines with people and see
their reactions when exploring the wine. I am curious about their feelings,
about what they have to say, even though if it is difficult to express...</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="hps"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Thanks to Manu, Rob, Stefaan, Tom, Ilse, Gerd,
Peter, Wouter, Hans and of course Jacques for those long Monday night sessions</span></span></span><span class="hps"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="hps"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p><span class="hps"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">Inspired by Vinejo and C. Authiere</span></span></span></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191658429489959971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48929987510233327.post-39552853961004283892012-09-07T00:16:00.002-07:002012-09-10T08:28:01.303-07:00The worst restaurant in the world is located in Belgium<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #303030; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">The world’s worst restaurant is
Belgian, or at least located in Belgium, but maybe there is one even worse in
Bosnia-Hercegovina (this needs to be investigated urgently, but I doubt it). I
hate bad restaurants!<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #303030; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">St Etienne eats really well. I have here
and there my favourite eating places and if you stick long enough with my blog,
you will find out where. But of course I am still looking around for new
addresses, where the product is everything and where the wine is pure. </span></span><span style="color: #303030; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Last winter I was invited by company
Z for a lunch at restaurant X from cook <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and owner Y, a very well-known place in
Flanders, the Northern part of Belgium, where people if they don’t complain
about the weather like to wave with ugly yellow flags with a black lion on it.
Arriving at the location I was surprised to see such an ugly building, typical
for the seventies, a period where architects forgot that there are some aesthetics
rules to take into account. To accentuate this ugliness the owner built a huge pebbled
parking space around it. I hate parkings, but do understand that they are
functional for car drivers. The welcome at the reception was very cool and since the many
culinary television programs I know that a warm welcome is key. The interior
was a mix of modern ugly objects and tasteless classic and this caused an
unpleasant feeling, due to the impression that someone couldn’t make a choice.
And it was this strive for indecisive that came back during the entire meal.
Also the modern tight chairs sat so uncomfortable that even the most athletic
person would have myalgia and a sour ass by the time the starter was served. Is
it that difficult to choose seats that provide comfort for the entire duration
of a meal?<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #303030; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></span></div>
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</span></div>
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<span style="color: #303030; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">When invited the host makes the choices of the lunch meeting, and for once I decided to stay passive. The
aperitif was not an aperitif, but a non-fresh sweetened fruit juice, supplemented
with a shot of alcohol and a mint leave. Painful! It made me very thirsty and
luckily there was a bottle of sparkling water on the table. The decision was to
go for the 7-course degustation menu, with matching wines, something I didn’t
do for years. Shall I start with the dishes, the wines or the combinations?
What was the worst or do we have to start with the best? I frankly don’t know,
but in fact it doesn’t matter, as everything was bad. I never take notes during
a meal, as people might think I am one of those inspectors. This mean I need to
dig into my organoleptic memory for this awful experience and believe me this
is not fun.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #303030; font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #303030; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">The meal started with appetisers served
in some ‘artistic’ table service (see picture). There was a lot of deep fried
stuff, as this restaurant wanted to proof that Trans-fat is healthy whatever science
says. I also remember clammy cheese, again accentuating the point that the kitchen
didn’t know the concept of freshness. And as so often the appetisers are a good
indication for what will follow. The first plate was a pumpkin soup, characterised
by an intense dominating nut smell and accompanied with a floating long hair
from a black haired employee. I received a new plate, but this time someone
decided to add some cream, as if the cook realised that the taste of walnuts should
be masked. Do you serve wine with a vegetable soup? In restaurant X they
do and why not a sweet Austrian Riesling, only loved by fat old ladies who
survive on cake and pie. The next dish that I remember was a creation of coloured
foam, the kind you can find in your bath after you have been spilling wildly with
some liquid soap product. The taste of it was mainly basil and according to the
menu there should also be tomatoes in it. This made my stomach turned upside
down and this for three reasons: the taste was without a doubt awful; my
stomach is not made to digest a foamy material and serving summer product, even
in an unrecognisable form deserve a knee kick in the nuts. Foam and wine? Yep! To
accentuate the air bubbles on the plate, we now received a sparkling wine, one
of those so badly made that it can only be served at cheap receptions for old
war warriors. The very effeminate sommelier looked astonished that I didn’t
touch my wine glass. I needed water, a lot of sparkling water. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #303030; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">The saying that ‘prawns are for
queers’, once pontificated by a wannabe cook on television, is something which
I will always remember, especially also because for years I have influenced a
growing grandnephew by saying at every family meeting that ‘cake is for queers’,
as I don’t like it. This Pavlov experiment wonderfully succeeded, as my
grandnephew doesn’t like cake or at least he never tried it. Prawns are very
often tasteless and that’s why you need to add something to it. Cook Y of
restaurant X thought that curry in a fatty cream would match perfectly with the prawns, which
made me think that an amateur cook took over the
entire kitchen. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Was this candid camera? Where
were the hidden cameras?</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #303030; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span> </div>
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<span style="color: #303030; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Suddenly a few stumps were put on the
table. When looking closer we could detect glasses of broth with Mediterranean
herbs. This was clearly a gimmick, but one with profound consequences. After
drinking the extremely salty liquid our entire taste palate was insensitive.
Afterwards this was not too bad, knowing what plates was still
to come.</span></span></span><span style="color: #303030; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #303030; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Getting a tasteful and well-prepared
fish in a restaurant seems to be a challenge, and so also in this restaurant. I
don’t get a hard-on from an over-cooked piece of cod on a fucking spread of
leek and mashed potatoes, ‘pollinated’ with a sweetened sauce on the basis of a
‘vadouvin’ mix. The art of seasoning was another thing that Chef Y didn’t
master, as all dishes were over-salted. I hate it when too much salt is used. Somewhere
in between we also received a sorbet of parsley. Now, you can make sorbet from
all kind of ingredients, but really parsley is not recommended based on this
experience. The meat was wild hare and sucked big time. The only thing I can
say for sure is that the animal most have had 4 legs and a tail, but I am not
sure if it was hare, and for sure it didn’t taste wild. Cheese croquettes, yes
cheese croquettes were served with it, accompanied by caramelised chicory and a
sauce of red fruit. This plate was unworthy any restaurant and I felt the need
to rush into the kitchen to check if today’s cooks were replaced by the
dishwashers. We skipped the cheese plates, although I was curious about the
‘exquisite’ selection. But I didn’t have any illusions; choosing good products
were by no means a hobby of Mister Y. For dessert there was a choice between
something completely with chocolate or some kind of modern panna cotta. I went
for the chocolate, which is often a ‘safe bet’, but not here. How is it
possible to serve tasteless chocolate in Belgium? I don’t know, but cook Y of
restaurant X can. And this made me sad.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #303030; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">The toilets were clean, just proofing
the point that when it is good we say so, but like so often in this part of the
world they were too cold. Not that I am so sensitive to it, but this was ever
reported to me by a foreign lady. First I laughed it off, but now not anymore…,
as it is so true.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #303030; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Oh yeah, I forgot the wine. The wines
were industrial wines from regions that don’t give me goosebumps: Bordeaux,
Chili and Australia for example. Probably they have good wines in those
regions, but bland woody expensive wines are not for me. With the so so espresso
they served again this tasteless chocolate and also some unpleasant sticky
sweets, just to accentuate that the entire meal has being going downwards (yes,
down the drain). When leaving the place we received a little bag of candy in
memory of a splendid experience, what made me smile spontaneous. This was
Belgian – this was surrealism! Paul Delvaux was not far away. I love Delvaux.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #303030; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">I guess you are now wondering when I
will reveal the name of this place, but actually the answer is already given,
even twice, but well-hidden. Should you not find it, please send me a mail, so
I can prevent you from an unpleasant meal.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #303030; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Your humble servant,<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="NL-BE" style="color: #303030; mso-ansi-language: NL-BE; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">St Etienne</span><span lang="NL" style="mso-ansi-language: NL;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191658429489959971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48929987510233327.post-14474860929298950172012-08-26T00:28:00.000-07:002012-09-04T13:08:32.946-07:00Why I don't want chicken shit in my wine!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #303030; font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: large;">After many years of wine tasting you are a real wine connoisseur. At
home you have collected an impressive wine cellar full of exquisite wines. You
know all wine regions and the most common grapes. When you have visitors at
home you always know how to impress people with a well-chosen bottle of wine.
During restaurant visits the wine list always ends up in your hand and people
are staring at you full of admiration while you are selecting a white for the
starter and a red for the main course. When tasting a wine with the
well-dressed sommelier standing next to you still presenting the bottle, you
feel like a king!</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #303030; font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: large;">Probably you have followed one or two wine courses, where you confirmed that
you are good with wine. You are a gifted taster, at least better than your
family members and many friends. Besides you are subscribed to one or more
international wine magazines, out of interest, but also to discover new wines.
Often you are surfing on the web to obtain extra information about a wine,
winemaker or wine region, and so you end up on the holy grail of the web, the
many wine blogs. The best proof of this is that you are reading this article.
You already have met many winemakers and you always know what to ask them. You
know the basis of wine making and you know that to obtain healthy grapes a lot
of work has to be done in the vineyard. You often are involved in wine tasting
sessions and when tasting blindly you sometimes make a fool of yourself, while
being jealous of someone next to you who seems to be able to provide better
descriptions of the tasted wines. I guess you start to sit uncomfortable on you
chair by now, as you really recognise yourself in the above description. No
need to, as I just described the average wine lover, and not you specificly, as
I probably don’t know you.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #303030; font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: large;">OK, I just continue my article, well knowing that I start skating on
thin ice and that some people will felt attacked. I frankly don’t care about
people masturbating while looking at a prestigious wine label on a bottle. Everyone
needs his pleasures and comforts, just like a baby like to suck on a piece of
plastic in the shape of a female nipple. But I read and hear more and more the biggest
nonsense from wine journalists or connoisseurs or even sommeliers when
describing a wine. And I have to say, I am sick and tired of this bullshit. Wine
tasting is reduced to a recital of subjective taste sensations: ‘red fruit, I
think red berry, but very ripened, even sultry, oh but also some leather, a
kind of sandal leather and after a while even development of butter... and prunes and yes, also graphite and
King-mints (I am not joking)’. Tasters are just happy while detecting a smell of dry grass in their glass, where I think it is much more interesting to think about the equilibrium, purity, freshness, drinkability, minerality and stability of the wine, but also the quality of the finnish for instance. I have read wine tasting notes where the
juice was still described as wonderful even having impressions of varnish, a
likable paint odour, touches of turpentine, warm wood glue, Tipp-Ex, a typical
rubber nose, black elastic (I am still not joking), old cheese, a smelly well,
nice burned flavours (?), gasoline, hairspray or a mysterious sulphur scent.
According to me those are all errors in a wine. What am I saying; those are for
sure all faults in a wine that even can be explained chemically. Apparently
there is a diminishing of norms taken place in the area of wine. Believe me; if
these characteristics are reflected in a wine, then something seriously went
wrong during the vinification. There is even a chance that the wine is already
in an irreversible phase on its way to vinegar, certainly if you detect
acetaldehyde (ethanal) or ethyl acetate ester. There might be the frequent use of
chemicals in the vineyard and in the cellar, where after the formation of H2S
in the juice other chemicals as mercaptans and/or thiols are formed, which
provides unpleasant odours. Personally I find it important that any wine
drinker is aware of this type of information and realise that this impurities
should be avoid in a wine or any drink. There is no sane and critical person
who wouldn’t scratch his head when detecting those kind of smells in a plate of
food. ‘Yes, Mister 3-Michelin stars Chef, the sole with grilled, smoked and
lacquered Oosterschelde eel, served with fresh quinoa with aromatic herbs and
season vegetables, spider crab emulsion and dashi was delicious, especially
when combined with that subtle scent of burned rubber giving the whole creation
an extra punch.' To clearify my point we all know for sure that every glass of industrial orange juice with the smell of Tipp-Ex will stay untouched. I still don't rest my case...</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #303030; font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: large;">Also when I occasionally read the international wine press, I am
shocked by so much amateurism and ignorance. I recall a wine tasting note from
a top wine from Rhône, written by the most loved and hated wine journalist on
this globe, where he described the delicious flavours of ‘chicken manure’.
Indeed, chicken shit, or rather manure, but we all know what the first phase is
of manure. Probably there was an infection of the Uncinula Necator fungus, but
please do not see this as something positive in a beverage. Another common
attack is Brett (from Brettanomyces yeast) with ethyl 4-phenol as a
notable derivate. A slight contamination will provide a nose of stable or leather.
Most of the time I associate it with the smell of Geuze-beer. But with higher
concentration your wine starts to smell like shit and I hope we can agree that
this is not what we are aiming for.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</span><span style="color: #303030; font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #303030; font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: large;">‘Quel beau nez Petrolé’, is what you hear quiet often when describing
the nose of a Riesling. This typical smell of petrol should be due to the
unique minerality of the terroir some tried to make us believe. In fact the
North American specialised press label a Riesling without these characteristics
as atypical. Just be sure that most German winegrowers exclaim a loud big ‘scheisse’
when detecting 1,1,6-trimethyl-1,2-dihydronaphthalene in the juice, knowing at
the same time that they will be able to sell the wine anyway. Look, that you
and you and you and basically half the planet like the smell of petrol in a
wine glass should not bother me too much, but I like it when people are informed
correctly. By the way I would also advice to look up the nearest refinery in
your area and to drive regularly towards it if you like that smell. Also avoid
washing your hand after fueling your car. With a bit of luck you can still smell
that perfume at night in bed. Not sure if your partner will like it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #303030; font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: large;">Another molecule is however considered at the slightest sensation by any
wine drinker as an error: 2,4,6-trichlooranisol. When detecting even a ppm of
this substance in the wine every connoisseur will ostentatiously and clearly
conditioned thrown away the wine and to make sure to warn everyone by a big shout
of the word ‘cork’. There is absolutely no question to try to detect other sensations
to this devilish wine.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #303030; font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">To finalise this article, I would like to focus on natural wines. Let’s
face it: there are a lot of bad natural wines on the market. As the demand is
growing fast, there are more and more (young) wine makers who tried to make the
step, sometimes forgetting that there are many obstacles to the creation of a
pure balanced stable wine. Their bottles are imported by the many wine
importers who are dying to get new ‘organic’ talents in their wine range. One
of the biggest problems, according to me is the stability of the wines. Very
often they are not, which you can easily detect, except most wine importers. This
means I get more and more remarks that natural wines are awful except a few
exceptions. </span><span lang="FR-BE" style="color: #303030; font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR-BE; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">I tend to agree with this statement!!</span></span></div>
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</span><span lang="FR-BE" style="color: #303030; font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: FR-BE; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: large;">"<i>En dégustation, ce qui nous intéresse, ce
n'est pas la longueur, mais la qualité de la longueur. Mangez de la merde, vous
verrez, c'est long en bouche!</i>" Pierre Overnoy (winemaker in Jura) Nov
2008</span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191658429489959971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48929987510233327.post-39718951036070211922012-08-22T01:47:00.000-07:002012-09-04T13:09:19.435-07:00Anne, Françoise and Joseph: the real pioneers of natural wines<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">This is probably the most
difficult piece I will write on this blog. It’s about an encounter I had with the
two sisters Anne and Françoise H, former winemakers settled in the heart of the
Loire wine region in France. The 6 hours that I spent with them on one icy cold
Saturday afternoon-turned-evening has affected me tremendously for many
reasons. I was slightly reluctant to enter their world, and I felt a certain
kind of sorrow to see so much misery, combined with the disbelief of how cruel
people can be towards the atypical among us. But above all, I have a deep
respect for the fact that these women have spent their entire lives swimming
upstream in the very conservative world of wine. They have worked so hard and lived
in such inhumane conditions, that they both practically walk like cripples -
hunched over a piece of branch which they use as a walking stick to prevent
them from falling over and never standing up again. Fortunately though, they do
have each other and it's been that way ever since they can remember. There was
simply no time or place in their world to start a family of their own. To Anne
and Françoise, the options were either to make wine in what was viewed as an
'extreme' way, or leave one another to raise children. Their outlook has been
so hardened by the constant harassment they've endured, that they don’t care
about what other people might think, and have no qualms with speaking their
minds freely. I now know for sure that people mainly change under the influence
of other people. They have certainly triggered things inside me, if only for
the time being, most definitely for the better! I've grappled with the thought
of sharing this precious encounter with them publicly, but have come to the
conclusion that it would be a good thing to do, so long as I remain honest and
integer. Of even more importance though, I felt a deep longing from Anne and
Françoise's side, to tell the story of theirs as well as that of their deceased
brother, Joseph.<br />
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The first time I heard their names, actually I read it, was via a label on a
bottle of wine – there is a wine from Domaine Les Griottes called Anne
Françoise Joseph, a homage to the family H, as the newly emerging winemakers
were able to use a piece of their vineyard. A few days before my trip, I had
lunch in restaurant Veranda with Wouter De Bakker, a famous sommelier and
successful wine importer. The meal prepared by Davy Schellemans was fabulous,
as always, and the wines were very juicy and pure, as we like them. So in
short, the lunch was splendid and while drinking coffee afterward, Wouter told
me the story about the two sisters and their wines. The description of the
estate left me with the desire to pay them a visit as soon as possible, which
happened only a few days later.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">In the wine region Coteaux-du-Layon,
somewhere in Anjou, a young man called Joseph started in the ‘50’s to make wine
with the help of his two younger sisters. He wanted to produce wine without any
use of pesticides and other shit in the vineyard and chemicals during the
vinification. He could obtain 6 hectares of vineyard, mainly existing of
Chenin-vines that never saw a molecule of non-natural matter. Why this pioneer
was so obsessed to obtain natural wines, despite the increasingly relentless
pressure of the other winemakers and growing wine industry, seems now with the
ecological trend self-evident, but was for that time too crazy for words. The
heavy lung problems of their father, due to chemical gasses used during the
First World War has certainly left its mark on the entire family, as they had
to move to a tiny cottage due to financial problems. It is a fact that brother
and sisters saw it as a mission in life to make pure wines free of any
additives, despite the many setbacks. They were poor as a church mouse, but
they still insisted. It was the few compliments from occasional passengers that
motivated them to continue that lonely road. The wine making process was very
simple at first sight: after picking the healthy grapes they were pressed, so
the natural fermentation could start of the juices, where after it was aged for
6-9 months in old barrels of 220 litres. The only intervention was the
occasional heating of the cellar during the winter as they couldn’t afford that
the wine wouldn’t be finish in time, as the year after they had to use the same
barrels. Each year it was a battle to obtain the ‘appellation’(awarded by an
organization composed of other winemakers who didn’t understand their wines),
so that they wisely decided in 1989 to sell their wines as "vin de
table". Since then their wines received a number on the cork, starting
with 1 and ending with a 14 in 2003.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The day before I left, I had one of the sisters on the line who assured me that
I was welcome to visit. A female navigation voice brought me to the small
ancestral house right on time. The yard was a mess and full of old, used
equipment and tools. There was clear evidence that indicated to the making of
wine, and not in such a distant past it seemed. I also couldn't help but notice
some clucking chickens, a few dogs, an abandoned old cow and a vegetable
garden. Upon arrival the door was already open in spite of the winter cold. I
guess they must have heard my car. My first thought when entering the living
room was that no one lived there besides three dogs, five cats and two abashed
beings. Clearly I was not expected. They probably thought that whoever had called
them up on the phone, like so many before him, would not show up - especially
considering the bad weather conditions. The tiny room was filled with rubbish
(if you do not have much, you don’t throw anything away) and the table had not
been cleared, for what must have been several days! Sometimes people lose their
determination.<br />
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After the fading of the initial embarrassment and after presenting them with
two boxes of Belgian chocolate, the atmosphere became very open and amicable. I
discovered two very strong personalities, who had an opinion about everything.
I was really amazed by the eloquence of both women. They complemented each
other very well, to the extent that when one began with an argument, the other
automatically completed it. This must be the result of living in such close
quarters! There was a big need for them to talk.. and talk, but never was there
a moment where I was bored. Anne was 86 and the younger sister, Françoise, was
close to the 84. They were genuinely pleased with my visit, my interest in
their wine and my knowledge of natural wines. I was able to taste all the
vintages they had in stock and this was a huge challenge. The wines are stored
randomly in a sort of stable. There is little light and you must try to
decipher the vintage on the cork. I found the 1975, 1976, 1986, 1987, 1993,
1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001 and the outsider, the 2004. Not bad for a first
encounter with a wine estate during a first visit, and of course incredibly
fascinating to have a tasting of real natural wines from many different, yet
all very specific years. Both sisters used their elephant-like memories to
remember each year as if it was just last week. I was pleasantly surprised by
the aging potential and stability of the wines without any added sulphur as an
anti-oxidant. I won't divulge any tasting notes, even though I wrote down many
impressions. But I will say that 3 wines were phenomenal, some 'very good' and
some just 'good' and that you can taste the effects of global warming very
clearly when moving gradually from the ‘70’s to the ‘90’s. The region of Anjou
gives of very rich wines and this you could taste clearly, especially when
tasting younger vintages. Most of the wines tasted fairly young and some
bottles still contained carbon dioxide, which is the perfect prevention of
oxidation of the liquid. Longer aging periods in barrels would have rounded off
and completed some of the wines, but I have to admit that I do like this sleek
style. The theory that you should store your wine at a temperature inferior to
14⁰ C has now been proven to be false for good, as those so called 'sensitive
natural wines' saw fluctuations between 5⁰ and 30⁰ C and for 20 or 30
consecutive years at that.<br />
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We spoke of the wars, about a famous forest in the area, about faith and
religion, about the 'others', about burglars and of course about real wine,
because that’s how Joseph labelled his own. The rest should not be called wine!
It is noteworthy to realize that those 3 people began and continue to make
natural wines totally isolated from other pioneers. The names of Pierre Overnoy
and Jules Chauvet didn’t ring any bells to them. They vaguely remembered a
visit of Eric Callcut, an incredible winemaker between 1995 and 1999, but they
were not aware that after 4 years he left Anjou to do something completely
different, as far away as possible from the world of wine. About Claude
Courtois, they asked me if he was "the big man with the long beard"
but they couldn't tell me more than that about him.<br />
<br />
At the end of the day I had bought some of their wines, wines that I will
cherish for the rest of my life. My fear was that by writing about them it
would entice people to invade their premises, like a kind of tourist
attraction. This is not just a selfish reflex, but rather a clear conclusion
after observing that those beautiful old souls are not equipped to receive and
deal with people, let alone to sell bottles of wine. It took more than an hour
to prepare only a few bottles, including manually writing and sticking the
labels on the dirty surfaces. I encapsulated all the bottles myself, as they
lacked the necessary power in their shaky hands. During the farewell, they
asked me if they could kiss me and of course, I allowed this. It is after all
the French way, two kisses, one on every cheek. Anne made the symbol a cross on
my forehead with the movement of her thumb, exactly as my grandmother did to me
before bedtime, and Françoise gave me one of the sweetest compliments you can
receive as a father. A few minutes later, sitting in my cold car, I saw in the
reflection of tears in my eyes in the rear view mirror.<br />
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Epilogue<br />
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In 2005, Joseph passed away due to a combination of poor medical treatment and
the absolute refusal of taking antibiotics to combat a wound to his right hand.
His last vintage, the 2004, remained in a forgotten barrel for five years until
some visiting winemakers questioned what was inside it. After tasting the wine
they begged to bottle it: the wine had received a ‘voile’, which gives it an
oxidative character. Some abhor it. Myself and others are fond of it. So much
later than expected, the 2004 was born and it was decided that it would not be
given the number 15, since the wine was not in line with all other wines from
the family H!<br />
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To watch a movie: <a href="http://vues-sur-loire.com/index.php/vues-sur-loire?idReportage=193&idTheme=5#reportages" target="_blank"><span style="color: #3b5998; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">http://vues-sur-loire.com/index.php/vues-sur-loire?idReportage=193&idTheme=5#reportages</span></a></span></span></span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191658429489959971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48929987510233327.post-21198163993063648462012-08-17T05:51:00.001-07:002012-09-04T13:09:58.900-07:00Some reflections about natural wines (part 2): a plea to name natural wine from now on just 'wine'<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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One of the oldest definitions I've found about wines dates back from the end of the 19th century and originated in Fance: le vin est une boisson acoolisee obtenue par la fermentation naturelle du raisin, fruit de la vigne (wine is an alcoholic drink obtained from the natural fermentation of grapes, fruit of the vine). <br />
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There are probably even older definitions, but I can live with this one. It
speaks of natural fermentation. Also, Louis Pasteur who studied the matter
intensively, always spoke about natural fermentation. In the current
definitions about wine the term ‘natural’ has been omitted. It is clear that
these days the process of fermentation (talking about beer, wine or food
products, e.g. cheese) is almost always enhanced and accompanied with the
necessary interventions and for sure controls. There is no way we can still
talk about a natural fermentation.</div>
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Therefore, I plead to reintroduce the old definition of wine. It is the product
which comes from a natural fermentation. This means that the use of the term
‘natural wine’ is a pleonasm. Wine should be, by definition, natural! We really
should just be calling it ‘wine’ instead of having to state the obvious. There
are many others, ones which are fabricated, that should NOT be classified as
wines anymore, as they are mere surrogates* of wine. And so, let us call it
what its is. A surrogate.</div>
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* Definition of surrogate according to Wikipedia: product that substitutes
another, but with less quality!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191658429489959971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48929987510233327.post-92066510274871486462012-08-11T04:08:00.001-07:002012-09-04T13:10:10.479-07:00Some reflections about natural wine (part 1): it began in … Paris<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">I still remember my first sip of natural wine. Real
natural wine. Some events possess the power to change lives and I honestly
believe that during that tasting, something changed in me. It was in Paris
during the autumn of the year 2000. I was walking the streets of this wonderful
city on my own when I stopped by a small wine shop as I was interested in some
of their wines. The shop owner, an older man called Monsieur Audry (I recently
came across his business card again) presented me with a glass of wine. It was
a Chenin Blanc from 1996, from a totally unknown winemaker in Anjou. I vividly
remember what struck me the most about that wine: the nose had a very wild
character and a broad spectrum spanning in all directions – it seemed that
nothing was properly defined! The mouth was very refreshing, with a higher
acidity than that which I was used to, but the kind that you can find in fresh
fruit. The juicy taste stayed in my mouth for a long period of time. The
winemaker was Eric Callcut, and his wines were sold under the name The Picrate.
I decided to buy many boxes of different cuvée’s, all made in 1996 and in 1998,
as the prices in French francs were ridiculously low. Coming home, I tried to
smuggle all those bottles into my cellar, but my wife caught me and couldn't
understand my need to purchase such a large quantity of wine. That being said,
she is now my ex-wife, and I still have some of those bottles left as well as
the regret of not buying that shop's entire stock of Les Picrates. A few years
later Monsieur Audry sold his shop and moved to Sancerre where he started
renovating an old castle. Sadly, Eric Callcut decided in the same year that I
discovered him to stop making wine. Drinking, and also sharing his wines, still
fills me with enormous pleasur...</span></span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191658429489959971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48929987510233327.post-427400643891925022012-07-24T07:23:00.003-07:002012-09-04T13:10:39.450-07:00Ode to insignificant vintages<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #303030; font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #303030; font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Every year, impassioned, many wine lovers
look forward to the vast ratings of the latest wine vintage. The questions on
everyone's lips are: "What will it be this year?" "Good, very
good or outstanding?" 'Bad' however, simply doesn't exist anymore. The
average person feels that some pressure groups are trying to influence the
score of certain important regions. This is big business! Anyway, it is plain
to see that everyone needs some guidance these days, isn't it?</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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Wine magazine X rates Bordeaux as 'excellent' and wine guru Y pins it as the
'year of the century' in Rhône. During your visit in the region Z, you'll hear
every wine maker boasting that it was an 'excellent year' and, at the same
time, your wine importer will reassure you that the specific year of the wine
in question has 'great aging potential'. You start to notice tables everywhere
with points per region, and before you even have time to think, you succumb.
After all, you are only human.. a consumer who fell for the fad. You'll try to
convince your partner that this year you need to invest in Chateauneuf-du-pape
because supposedly there will never be another year quite like it. (Looks like
that new bathroom will have to wait!) Over the next couple of months the prices
are increasing, and of course, this is an affirmation that all those wines are
absolutely outstanding. You were right. But above all, you are now officially a
wine connoisseur. Congratulations!!</div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span><br /></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">What happens next? Well, you have someone who
occasionally writes about food and wine. (Has no degree in either field mind
you, as well as never drunk a Premier Cru Classé) and searches special abnormal
expressions in wine. Et ce con, Monsieur, c'est moi!! Let me just say: I way
prefer the 'insignificant' vintages. I'm not talking about the real shitty
years where the grapes couldn't mature because of the cold and rain (remember
1991 in the whole of France.) No, I cherish the less hailed years that didn't
receive any credit from most wine professionals. </span></span><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The forgotten years, if you will, depending of course on
the different regions, but I have 2004 in Beaujolais and Loire in mind. The
same applies to 2008, 2010 and 2011 - especially compared to the ‘magical’
2009.<br />
<br />
<br />
In preparation for this article, I have studied four different vintage charts
and - forgive my naivety and frankness - but those charts are (according to
yours truly) pure bullshit! There are years which have been clearly highlighted
as being exceptional in most overviews, but very often there is a clear
inconsistency between the different sources. Added to that, the difficulty of
rating an entire region or country with one score: Germany 85 points – Spain 92
points – Iceland 99 points. Personally, I already have difficulties in rating
ONE bottle of wine (most of the time: good or bad), so you can understand my
skepticism for this kind of work. I also noticed that the so called 'less
important' wine regions are discriminated. Bordeaux often receives a score for
the left and right bank, including the two different colours, and sometimes
even Saint-Julien. Then, Pauillac will get a different rating while a gigantic
region like Loire only gets one point (regardless the dry white, the red or the
sweet wines). It doesn’t surprise anyone anymore that the average score of
Loire never exceeds that of the Bordeaux’s. Is this not a form of Apartheid?!
Anyway, those marks are a much needed hook for so many wine consumers of the
gigantic industry. Ouch, that hurts! Associating wine and the word 'industry'
in one sentence…</span></span><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mankind wants to quantify everything, as long as no
mathematical equation need be solved, with the exception of an average. We are
the masters of averaging. Let’s not consider ourselves as mushrooms, shall we,
(in the dark, and full of shit) the ratings are often purely based on the hours
of sun, and therefore mainly based on the concentration of sugar/alcohol. Also,
if it didn't rain much during the last period before the harvest, then we have
a great year. Have I simplified things? I probably have, but this fact has been
confirmed by the composers of those charts.</span></span></div>
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It does depend on what you are looking for in wine, of course. If you are
indeed biased towards body and structure, then follow the recommendations.
Truth is that those types of wine will have more aging potential, which is also
a merit.<br />
I truly do prefer the quality of freshness in a wine, as that allows the wine a
digestive character. I’m looking for juiciness, and believe me, this you will
find more easily in a lesser year, provided the wine has been made by a good
wine maker. I search for something that was once described to me as "l'eau
de source" - water from the source. You don’t have a clue what I am
talking about? No worries, but try to discover it, even if it becomes an
addiction.<br />
The taste is difficult to describe, but it's really similar to the sensation
you get in the mouth which, when swallowing, reminds you of that when you're
drinking pure/fresh water. It's almost one in the same! "Is St Etienne on
crack? If I want to taste water, I will drink a bottle of water!! Diluted wine,
no thank you!!" Relax, it is not really diluted, it just makes you realize
that more than 85% of wine is in actual fact, water. I do know a wine maker who
is probably the only one on earth who waits for rain during the harvest. ‘You
must be kidding?’ Nope, it's true. I guess his neighbour wine makers declared
him to be totally insane a long time ago, which is not entirely true. But you
can call him eccentric, nonchalant, stubborn and perhaps even cocky. Or simply,
a genius.</div>
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Fact is that when tasting his wines, I am always amazed by the juiciness of
them, and after every gulp, I have this lingering sensation of purity.
According to me, those sensations are much more difficult to obtain during hot
vintages. That being said, I also find tasteful acids essential in wine, the
kind of oddballs which from beginning to end keep your mouth fresh, and are
responsible for the sensation of precise ecstasy. I also want overwhelmingly
new impressions after each glass rotation. I want minerality in the nose, but
also in the mouth. I want character, I want to taste the wine maker in the
wine, the clay from his the boots. I want a bit of everything and at the same
time… not too much.<br />
During warm years the alcohol quite often gets the upper hand above all the
described sensations. There is a lack of freshness and the needed equilibrium
is far away. I shudder from pinot noirs and gamay’s with the alcohol percentage
above 14°, even if nature dictates it. A small sadistic part of my personality
also knows that those smaller years require more labour than the big ones.
Because of the increased intensity in labour during those more difficult years,
the hand of the master is more recognizable. More risks are taken too, which
leads to either brilliant or sometimes disastrous results. The skills of the
wine maker will, without a doubt, come to the surface more evidently during
those vintage.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> I would like to finish with a statement
that this is not a call for a 'U-turn' as only politicians, bankers and
football coaches are qualified for this. But please continue to consult
different sources, buy wine from top years to possibly store in your cellar,
but above all: be open for the insignificant vintages. Do NOT exclude them.
Sometimes you will be pleasantly surprised by the level of those so-called
brats. Discover, compare and seek for ‘l’eau de source’ in wine.</span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191658429489959971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48929987510233327.post-47014457608053938912012-07-22T05:24:00.001-07:002012-09-04T13:11:04.912-07:00The forgotten wine grapes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #303030; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">I
estimate that 80% of all wines in the world are made from Cabernet Sauvignon,
Merlot, Shiraz, Grenache, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Riesling, Chenin or Sauvignon
Blanc grapes. Aside from those, you have 19,99% of the grape varieties that are
notorious to certain wine regions or countries: Tempranillo, Sangiovese, Nebbiolo,
Barbera, Primitivo, Zinfandel, Pinotage, Malbec (Côt), Gamay, Pinot Gris, and
let’s say Gewürztraminer. Eventually 10.000 grape kinds have been described in
the literature (numerous clones and hybrids included.) So where are the other
9.900 varieties? Well, most of them are totally unsuited to produce wine, and
stating that this article is about wine, we can forget about those for the time
being. In France alone, there should be around 300 kinds of grapes to cultivate
wine.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #303030; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX28KOToWUSA94sVKPpYc0PKFUd7q74bzFG1nkzIwZN-AYX0iwvKK4MSW1l2aWZuZclhtUGmvWLZbDE72oRhoq1iLwlthUA8rBJIjO7zKMfzhhRbB38UyP_-vpURqF71vP3plq2XcSnw/s1600/012.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX28KOToWUSA94sVKPpYc0PKFUd7q74bzFG1nkzIwZN-AYX0iwvKK4MSW1l2aWZuZclhtUGmvWLZbDE72oRhoq1iLwlthUA8rBJIjO7zKMfzhhRbB38UyP_-vpURqF71vP3plq2XcSnw/s1600/012.JPG" /></a></span></span></span></div>
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I would like to talk about the other 0.001% of wines made from the forgotten
grapes which never made it into the final selection of supermarkets, aren't
mentioned on the long wine lists of prestigious restaurants and are never
served on Queen Elizabeth’s table. They are the wines made from grapes that
have never been heard of by most sommeliers, and have also therefore, never
been tasted by them. Those grapes are the black sheep or the inglorious
bastards of a rich family. Quite often they are fragile creatures which have
difficulties with extreme weather conditions and only flourish on very specific
locations. A long time ago (around the 13th - 15th century) those species were
planted by monks who observed them on specific locations over long periods of
time. Those abbots had all the time in the world of course, and we welcome
everything that takes TIME. For hundreds of years, wine agriculture was a
continuous coalesce between man and nature, until in the 20th century when
mankind forgot this sacred relationship due to economical interference.<br />
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After the phyloxera disaster at the end of the 19th century which destroyed the
entire French wine production, our friends in the the minority were resurrected
because due to low yields, or because the resulting wines weren't up to the
people’s taste standards. There was clear financial reasoning to avoid
replanting those forgotten sons and because of this, the possibility of their
bright future vanished. It was much easier to switch to stronger and more
productive competitors. As the phyloxera epidemic occurred in sync with the
industrial revolution, the demand for wine increased. Most certainly in France,
where men received a modest three litres daily, and women even more so, with 2
liters on top of their salary. This was regulated by law, as the quality of
water was poor and sometimes even deadly. Three litres of wine seems like a
lot, but if you browse into some historical literature you will find that mine
workers, masons and obviously grape pickers easily consumed eight litres on
particularly hot days. Don't forget that in those days the wines contained the
average percentage of only around 7-10°, yet still you can imagine a lot of
happy faces on the work floor. By the way - good thing there was milk available
for the kids to drink up otherwise they'd have to switch to wine too!<br />
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We should embrace the fact that courageous wine makers have a new found vision
of potential for those rare grapes and have started making wine with them
again. Quite often those traditionalists have moments of lunacy, which,
according to every honest shrink, is the most important condition to be in when
exploring new paths to revolution. I am extremely happy that because of the
limited amount of vineyards of those grapes as well as the enormous
organoleptic potential, they have been planted once again.</div>
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For some strange reason, those apostates received beautiful names after their
birth; Ploussard, Menu Pineau, Pineau d'Aunis, Romorantin, Oeillades,
Fer-Servadou, Verdanel, Bourboulenc, Négret de Banhars (talk about a black
sheep!), Enfariné, Ondenc, Pinotou d'Estaing, Portuguais Blue, Prunelard,
Lledoner Pelut, Ribeyrenc ... just to mention a few examples in France. In
Italy, their names sound even more exquisite; Refosco dal Peduncolo, Aglianico
del Vulture, Coda di Volpe, Casavecchia, Pallagrello Bianco, Chiavennasca and
Brugnola.<br />
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And of course in Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria and Switzerland you can find
names that are almost dead like: Godello, Listan Prieto, Cayetana Blanca,
Sercial, Croatina, Gouais, Himbertscha, Lafnetscha, Rèze, Humagne, Rotgipfler,
(there goes my beautiful name theory) Ortega, Trollinger, etc.</div>
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I don’t know all of those grapes, but the ones I do know, have something in
common. Wines made by Ploussard, Menu Pineau, Pineau d'Aunis, Romorantin and
Rousette all (upon reaching ripeness) contain a higher level of acidity than
most of the other, more commonly known grapes. It is this balance that creates
a nice tension in the glass and provides enormous drink joy. It is clear that
due to their delicate character, those anonymous wines can’t cope with wood,
and luckily there are talented wine makers who have realized this. The
discovery of a good bottle of pure wine made from one of those forgotten
grapes, with it's specific aromas and taste, should be something that every
wine lover should strive for. I really do not understand that some wine freaks
are obsessed with Cabernet and Merlot wines that are way over priced, that
mainly smell like wood, have dried out in the finish, and due to an alcohol
percentage of 14° are as interesting as Lance Armstrong trying to reassure us that
he didn't take anything illegal during his whole career.</div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">On the
other hand, I would like to avoid the situation of all wine drinkers now
turning their backs to industrial wines in search for the wines that I am
looking for. Fuck a duck, I am no Saint like pope Joseph Alois Ratzinger.
It won't be the first time, and it definitely won't be the last time that I
conclude an article with the statement that our actual taste diversity is poor
and that standardised mass production is responsible for a serious loss in our
taste buds. So be it! But it is clear that the revaluation of this minority
will increase their production, analogue as with forgotten vegetables. There
will be more and more talented young wine makers who prefer the ‘road less
traveledl’ than to take the much faster highway to the Carrefour or The Walmart
super chain.<br />
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On a side note. Once in a while I am confronted with wine snobs who like to
show their prestigious wine cellars, or at least talk about them. On those
occasions I like to interrupt them immediately with a very simple question:
"But do you also have aged wines made from Trousseau? No? Well that’s a
shame!!"</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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