Thread: The Wine Thread
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Old 01-27-2011, 09:47 AM   #367
TheRiddick
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Default Re: The Wine Thread

Moses,

This is the same thing Parker claims, brett is "terroir". And I say BS! Here is the challenge I presented to him, which he obviously declined as he knew he is set up for utter failure. Same one goes to you:

I will set up a blind test, each and every bottle will be a single varietal (Cab, Merlot, etc.). Each and every one will be infected with brett. All I want you to tell me is what varietal is in every bottle, nothing more than that.

You won't be able to as brett will be the single most defining character in each wine. How is that "terroir"? How is brett in France differ from, say, bretty bottle made in Australia or Mongolia? They all smell and taste the same at that point and the only thing they will all show is brett. BTW, frernch are not the only "guilty" party, OR Pinots are notorious for brett as well (hmmm, they do claim "Burgundian" style).
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Seth,

Good points and ideas. Sterile filtering is the only safe option. And wineries in CA are known to banish bretty barrels from the floor altogether, brett spreads like wild fire and I've seen barrels literally carted out to the parking lot for the owner to remove them ASAP. At the facility I am one intern a few years back was doing punch downs (per owner's request) and decided to cut corners. Instead of cleaning the punch down tool (stainless steel) between each bin he simply went from bin to bin (hey, not his wine and not his problem, right?). You guessed it, many wines at the facility that year (this is a shared facility) experienced a problem with brett, I was the lucky one since that particular day I was there and told the idiot to stay away from my bins (as well as educating him on proper winery standards of cleanliness, too bad I caught it too late into the task and a good number of bins were already infected).

Brett in beer is a different ball game, many Belgian beers are great because of brett.
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