Recording my podcast with Pieter Walser of BLANKbottle recently got me thinking about stories. Pieter’s wines all have a tale to tell. These yarns don’t affect the quality of the stuff in the bottle, of course – although that is invariably very good – but they make the wines more interesting. At least, they do to me.
I’m increasingly drawn to wines that resonate. Wines that are part of my story, I suppose. The appeal can be partly about the people who made it, or the circumstances in which I met the winemaker, or the first time I tasted their creations.
Earlier this week I had dinner with some friends and picked three such bottles. The first was the 2019 Scions of Sinai Granietsteen from Bernhard Bredell. On my most recent visit to South Africa I spent a special morning tasting and visiting the Sinai Hill with Bernhard. We talked about our late fathers, we talked about wine and legacies, we bonded as human beings. I bought that 2019 and a bunch of other wines to help him out during the pandemic.
The second bottle was the 2016 Artuke La Condenada from Rioja. I can still remember visiting this resurrected vineyard for the first time with Arturo de Miguel. It was condemned to abandonment and rescued by Arturo and his family. To me, it encapsulates everything that is wonderful about modern Rioja. Going out on a limb, I gave 100 points to both the 2020 and 2021 vintages. The 2016 marked the start of Artuke’s ascent to greatness.
The third bottle was also Spanish: the 2021 Gerardo Méndez Do Ferreior Cepas Vellas Albariño from a pergola-trained vineyard in Rías Baixas planted in the 1790s. I first heard about it over dinner with the Vega Sicilia team in Galicia. It was 11pm, but Vega’s oenologist Gonzalo Iturriaga said he’d call Gerardo’s son Manu to see if he could receive me the next morning. He did. And the wine was the highest rated in my 2023 Rías Baixas report. On Sunday, I’m flying to Santiago de Compostella. This time, my appointment with Manu is already in the programme.
Wines that connect with us speak to us in a different, more engaging tone. We are right to seek them out.
Cheers,
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