Wine tasting as a professional is work. I’m not saying it is brain surgery type of hard work, I’m not even saying it is pharmaceutical rep hard work. After all, if I tell someone that the blend in a bottle of wine is 60% cab and 40% but it is 50/50, there is really no consequence. If a pharma rep gets the facts wrong, it can have major consequences.
Last week I attended the Skurnik Grand Portfolio Tasting. There were 190 tables. 1041 wines, 324 spirits, 34 sakes. I know from social media that one wine snuck in so it was a total of about 1400 adult beverages. The tasting was open for 5 hours. If you wanted to taste everything you would need to only spend an average of 1.57 minutes per table or about 0.28 seconds per item. That would be assuming you didn’t listen to the wine representative tell you about the wine, you don’t take notes, and you don’t have to wait behind other people who are waiting to talk to some of the most popular people such as Pax Mahle, Cathy Corison or Raul Perez.
This means that you absolutely cannot taste everything. I started by tasting some champagne from Mousse and then moved on to Becky Wasserman.
The notes I take at such large tastings are not thorough but they are evocative of emotions I have about the wines. The logistics of tastings can become complex. The move to digital tasting books means that you are trying to type on a phone and manage a spit cup and a wine glass. I use a notebook and pen. Also now instead of writing the name of a wine I write a number starting with one and take photos so the order of the wines follows the photos. It is a juggling act of glass, spit cut, pen, phone, notebook. A click pen is best and a thin moleskine-type notebook that measures 5×8.5.
After tasting thru the Becky Wasserman wines, I focused on Spanish wines, stopped to see some other people because of a personal interest, and left after several hours. Did I want to spend more time tasting French wines to see what they were like and see how climate change has affected them? Of course! Did I want to do the same for German wines? Once again yes. Maybe in two years when they do the Grand Portfolio Tasting again, I will focus.
The following are my shorthand notes on the wines I tasted. There is no way to taste at events like this and give everything your undivided attention. You can attempt to evaluate but the first thing I think is “Do I like this wine or not?”, do I want to sit with friends and sip it? I think more complex wines that would develop in the glass and continue to evolve are challenged by large tasting such as this. The caveat to that of course is that you have to know what you are tasting. Wines from certain areas might take time to mature so you have to use your imagination.
*Yes. I use swear words in my private notes but I will figure out a way to give the same emphasis without saying “fuck”.
Becky Wasserman & Co
Jean Baptiste Boudier Pernand Vergelesses Blanc 2021 Lots of acidity. Complex in a mild way.
Chateau de Plaisance “La Grande Piece” 2021 Anjou Blanc On the label is “Ronceray”, that is code for dry Quarts de Chaume. Beautiful wine. Sharp.
Antoine Sanzay “Les Salles Martin” 2020 Saumur Dry, lots of acidity. Feel like tannins.
Domaine Marcel Deiss, Complantation 2022 Alsace Beautiful wine. Love this.
Domaine Marcel Deiss, “Ribeauville” 2021 Alsace Village Blanc Another beautiful wine.
Domaine Marcel Deiss, “Engelgarten” 2022 Alsace Cru Blanc High acidity
Domaine Marcel Deiss, “Schoffweg” 2018 Alsace Cru Blanc Love this
Domaine Marcel Deiss “Le Jeu des Verts” Gruenspiel 2021 Alsace Orange I gave this 3 stars (Stars are one of my shortcuts). Amphora, no additional sulfur added. Beautiful nose and mouthfeel. Dry finish.
Kiki & Juan Orange 2022 (Liter) Macabeo and Sauvignon Blanc. Decent tasting
Red 2022 (Liter) Bobal and Tempranillo. Crisp, bright tannins. Good
Spanish Delights* *the name of this particular table, not the importer/supplier.
Bodegas Arautava, Arautava, Listan Blanco 2022 Holy shit. Love
Bodegas Arautava, Finca La Habanera, Listan Blanco 2021 Beautiful wine.
Dominio do Bibei, La Pola, Ribeira Sacra Blanco, 2020 More fruity. Really pretty.
Escabeces, Cartoixà Vermell, Tarragona, 2021 Interesting delight. Not sweet. Grows on you. I wanted to taste this because I am on a mission to go to Tarragona and visit the Museu del Vermut Restaurant
Bodegas Arautava, Arautava, Listan Negro, 2022 Intense tar like
Beyond the Spanish Delights were the Spanish superstars of Raul Perez, Artadi, and La Rioja Alta. In between all of those was Finca Torremilanos* Tasting with Vicente Peñalba of Finca Torremilanos was such a nice experience. Vicente, along with his brother and mother, runs the winery. Per Vicente, the wines are all organic and biodynamic.
Speaking the language of the winery I think brings one closer to the wine. Anyone who speaks a language fluently I think, knows that the conversation can be deeper and more exciting. One of the advantages of speaking Spanish is that there can be a comfort level in talking to Spanish winemakers in Spanish. There is a generosity and facility in conversing with someone in their language. It also allows me to practice my Spanish and enhance my Spanish wine vocabulary.
Finca Torremilanos/Peñalba Lopez
Finca Torremilanos, Vino Blanco, ‘Peñalba Lopez’, 2022 Beautiful wine with no sulfites added.
Clarete ‘Ojo Gallo’, 2022 Awesome wine with no sulfites added. This is a clairet is a blend of Tempranillo (50%), Garnacha/Cariñena/Bobal (10%), Albillo/Viura/Malvasia/Airen (40%)
‘Montecastrillo Tinto’, Ribera del Duero, 2022 Easy drinking with tannins on the finish.
‘El Porron de Lara’, 2022 100% Tempranillo. Delicious wine, a fun label. No filtering, no fining, no sulfites added.
‘Los Cantos’, Ribera del Duero 2020 Easy drinking but tannins show.
‘Torremilanos’ Crianza, Ribera del Duero, 2019 Could use some time in the cellar. 2% Merlot
‘Cyclo’, Ribera del Duero, 2020 Elegant but needs time. Good spice on the finish but not hot.
‘Torre Albeniz’, Reserva, Ribera del Duero, 2019 Beautiful nose. Age worthy.
Auditing a course at my alma mater has become routine. I sign up and I learn things. I’ve taken French and an anthropology, a translation course as well as one on the role of the senses in literature. The classes have been like discovering that there is a bug under a rock rather than a blender. In other words, yes I have learned things but they were as expected. The seminar World Histories of Wine, taught by Trinity College history professor Jennifer Regan-Lefebvre was not like the courses mentioned above.
When I stepped into the classroom with about ten undergraduates I expected that the course would help me with my book proposal. I thought I would be examining how histories are put together and what they entail.
What the class did was make me question whether, during my wine sales career, I’d been a stooge for the overall patriarchal and nationalistic nature of the wine industry. If not a stooge, perhaps a mouthpiece for countries that have long held a monopoly on the hegemony of wine.
The seminar was not a wine appreciation course. We did not discuss the grassy undertones of a sauvignon blanc, the lanolin-like qualities of a chenin blanc, or the brioche-like qualities of an older champagne.
Per the syllabus, “This seminar explores the history of wine, a young and growing research field. We will consider how wine has been produced, traded, and consumed in both continental Europe and the “New World” since circa 1600. We will try to view wine through comparative and world history approaches. Topics will include: approaches to commodity history; wine, terroir and the construction of national identity; protection and global markets; technological change and modernisation; networks, trade and information exchanges; and the creation of consumers and experts.” That description and what the class entailed is like the difference between eating beef Wellington and making one—the former is easier than the latter.
In class, we examined wine as a commodity just like milk, cheese, sugar, or tea. Yet, we cannot look at those commodities without looking at the political struggles, the colonizing effects, or the economic impacts that affected such commodities.
The course pushed the boundaries of wine writing because the literature we read was mostly written by scholars in such fields as cartography, economics, anthropology, political science, and other academic fields.
The course allowed me to juxtapose the wine reading I have done and examine my career in wine and spirits. The course ended up being a deep dive into wine as a beverage composed of yeast and sugar as well as politics, economics, and culture.
The evaluation of wine as both a cultural subject and a commodity was a unique way to introduce undergraduates to the subject of wine without the marketing hype or romanticism usually attached to it. I was surprised that some of the students were familiar with the sabering of champagne, various cuvees of Dom Perignon, and celebrities associated with luxury wine brands. The same student who sabered champagne at her grandmother’s birthday did not know that Argentina makes wine. The Eurocentric world of wine is a constant at a school that once held a sherry hour following academic and social events.
The seminar revealed some of the chasm that exists between what some college students knew about wine, how they learned about it, and what the academic readings entailed.
We did not read any Clive Coates, Alice Feiring, or Hugh Johnson. There were no readings by Andre Waugh, Andre Simon, or Andrew Jefford.
There were two required books. The first was Paul Lukacs’ Inventing Wine: A New History of One of the World’s Most Ancient Pleasures. The book was used to discuss the structure, what questions were not answered, and whether the book added anything new to the body of knowledge. Lukacs is a professor of English and has been writing about wine and culture for a long time.
The second book was James Simpson’s Creating Wine: The Emergence of a World Industry 1840-1914. Per Princeton University Press, “This is the first book to trace the economic and historical forces that gave rise to very distinctive regional approaches to creating wine.” Simpson is a professor of economic history.
Both books served as contrasts in what we were looking to do in class. While Lukacs’ book is more popular and currently ranks overall at 982,308 on Amazon, Simpson’s book is more academic and ranks at 2,567,041.
I recognize that the readings we did were in English but we have to ask ourselves what are we missing when we only read in one language. Despite the English-only articles, the writers wrote about Argentina, France, Algeria, South Africa, Portugal, etc.
We read approximately 20 academic papers that added to our collective knowledge of ideas. With each article, we added another perspective and I kept having to think about how my historical book proposal was going to have to consider not just such things as transportation, the elevator, and refrigeration but also politics, science, and chemistry.
Despite the seminar being set in the History department, I think that the seminar also pushed the boundaries because the readings were multi-disciplinary. Quite often departments operate in silos but in this case, anthropologists, economists, geographers, and architectural historians contributed to the overall syllabus. Here are some examples of the readings and their titles:
Marion Demossier’s “Climate and the Crafting of Heritage Value in Burgundy Terroir”. Demossier is a professor of French and European Studies and a social anthropologist. One would be hard-pressed to read this article and not think about the price of burgundy, politics, and nationalism.
Paul Nugent’s “The Temperance Movement and Wine Farmers at the Cape: Collective Action, Racial Discourse, and Legislative Reform, C. 1890-1965” Nugent is a professor of Comparative African History. The article discusses the temperance movement, the wine industry, and race. The wine company KWV, familiar to wine drinkers of a certain age, played a role in the temperance movement, the wine industry, and racial politics.
Daniel Gade’s “Tradition, Territory, and Terroir in French Viticulture: Cassis, France, and Appellation Contrôlée,” Gade was a professor who taught geography at the University of Vermont. He stated that his “aim in this article is to present a concrete case of how the patrimonialization process works to construct a unique sense of place and to shape rural environment and society.”
Joe Boehling’s “The Sober Revolution: Appellation Wine and the Transformation of France.” Boehling is a professor of history at Portland State University. We read the chapter titled “Appellation Wine and the Transformation of France.” It examines wine drinking and how a variety of organizations and entities worked to increase consumption along with strengthening an allegiance to French wine.
We also read two non-wine related commodities pieces: Sidney Mintz’s Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History and Deborah Valence’s Milk: A Local and Global History. From my non-class reading, I would also add Erika Rappaport’s A Thirst for Empire: How Tea Shaped the Modern World. These readings have allowed me to look at commodity histories that are not as personal and to consider how one shapes the telling of a tale.
Although wine is an ancient practice, we study it in the present. In the wine industry, we prefer not to be inconvenienced by the historical or political controversies of a wine region except as it moves the sale forward. We instead talk about vintages and regulations without consideration of the politics or the culture. When we do speak of wine in the past it tends to be about vintages and climate and less about the politics and the economic structures.
The seminar also pushed the boundaries of wine because none of the people writing were in the wine business or in the business of writing about wine. Demossier, Nugent, Gade, Boehling, and others consider wine an academic subject to be examined holistically and not separate from its environment. Geography, anthropology, and economics have been applied to the commodity of wine. Wine as cultural history without the gloss of glamour or the marketing jargon allows us to understand wine within political history, economic boundaries, and ethnographic studies.
Without using the word “decolonization” the course disavows what we have been taught in numerous wine appreciation courses, promotions by regional wine bureaus, and wine dinners sponsored by importers, wineries, and distributors.
It is not enough to know about wine as a separate entity divorced from the state and it is not enough to know the history of wine as presented by popular books. Dispelling romantic notions of the history of wine allows us to reexamine what we already know as well as introduce a younger generation to wine. The romanticism of wine obscures the reality that people in power have shaped our understanding of wine as it is now. Even as wine becomes much more popular there is still the association of it with luxury. As a product, wine’s luxurious image or even its referral as “an everyday luxury” is at odds with its very agricultural and yes, political status. Wines such as burgundy, champagne, and port have entered our consciousness as luxury products divested of the struggles that have occurred in the corresponding regions.
As I expand my knowledge of how I write about wine and spirits, I cannot ignore other pieces that play into the history of wine as a commodity. Asking ourselves such questions as what is transportation like, what is the price of labor, what is the price of equipment and raw materials, all contribute to a better understanding of wine. Does the rising price of steel make equipment more expensive? How do tariffs impact one particular sector of wine but not another? It may not be as fun as writing a tasting note but at least I can be aware of what the total non-monetary cost of the wine is.
We cannot separate political science, geography, and economics from the world of wine. Wine cannot “stay in its lane” because wine does not spring forth from the ground fully formed and in the bottle. Wine is as much a commodity as sugar and tea, both of which have histories we don’t think about because their tumultuous histories have made their way into the quiet cup of our morning lives.
“World Histories of Wine” pushes the boundaries of wine and it has pushed me to consider wine from a broader angle. When I write about wine now, I have to think, “What else is in this bottle?”
I did not expect to be making a trip to France at this time. It happened by chance, things were happening in Paris, friends invited me to things, and so I ended up on an adventure. It may not have been April in Paris but the temperatures were so gentle it really felt like springtime. Leaving the cold of New England for what I thought would be a warmer but still cold clime felt really good.
Day 1—Departure Hartford, Connecticut
Getting to JFK from Hartford is never an easy task. I have done the CT Limo (which from what I could see does not exist anymore). We have done the rental car thing which is actually a good money saving option if there are two or more people traveling. This time around I went with Amtrak to Penn Station to the LIRR to the AirTrain. That sounds like a lot and it is but if you keep luggage to a minimum you can do it. Just remember—elevators and escalators may not always work so be prepared to haul whatever you are carrying up and down the stairs.
Amtrak leaving out of Hartford at 6:30 in the morning is not so bad. The prices for Amtrak to NYC have come down—they used to be ridiculous. I brought some breakfast with me and I arrived at the new Moynihan Train Hall (MTH) at Penn Station three hours later. The MTH is pretty nice and there are lots of options for dining. I bought a ticket on the LIRR to Jamaica.
At Jamaica it is an easy escalator ride up to the AirTrain platform. AirTrain fare ($8.00) can be added to a Metrocard.
Although I booked on Delta my flight was a codeshare with AirFrance which meant I couldn’t use the Amex lounge at Delta. I was able to use the AirFrance lounge with Priority Pass. The food and wine at the AirFrance lounge was more than fair and it was nice to enjoy a meal so I wouldn’t be subjected to an airline meal I might not like.
Lesson #1: If you are going to be using AirTrain when returning make sure to buy your return fare at the same time because there can be lines when you leave. Also to exit the AirTrain at Jamaica you have to pay. It is the only time I have seen where you have to pay to leave a station.
It has been such a long time since I’ve written on here. But just because I haven’t written on here doesn’t mean I haven’t been writing or learning. Between taking courses about mindfulness and writing, a workshop on writing fiction and another called “Empire of the Senses”, it has been a couple of busy years.
2020 started off with…well, I don’t really need to tell you do I.
Things I really missed about 2020:
Windham-Campbell Prizes. The festival that surrounds this award gives us writers a chance to talk and listen to writers from all over the world. I always fear what this festival will become as it becomes more popular.
The remainder of the live classes from the fiction workshop I was taking.
B United is uniting with nature in the western hills of Connecticut
Nestled into hills is the headquarters of an beer importer named B. United yet they are so much more.
I’m not sure how the beer importer B. United got its name but its ethos I’m pretty sure is built into it. It’s mission perhaps is to “be united” with its environment.
Earlier this past summer I was fortunate to be the guest of B. United, an importer of beer, in western Connecticut. Truthfully the company is so much more than an importer. It experiments with food, and it finishes beer at its location—kind of like an affineur does with cheese.
I arrived mid-morning at their facility in Oxford to find others also in the the wine and spirits industry.
I knew we were off to a fine start when we were invited to have a beautifully hand pulled espresso and some rosemary cake. It was made all the more special by the fact that they roast their own beans, the flour for the cake was ground on premise, and the rosemary was also grown on site.
We broke into small groups and got ready for six different seminars and tastings that would open our eyes to what is possible.
Sake Tasting with David Frost
The sake nomenclature can be as confusing as that of any other beverage but David gave us a good run-thru of terms. While this wasn’t an indepth seminar on the premier rice beverage, it certainly set us on the right path.
Kurashizuku Junmai Ginjo Usu Nigori
This is an unfiltered sake that showed a bit of cloudiness and had a little bit of sparkle. It had a forward nose with______flavors that can be a little alcoholic. It has a little grassiness to it.
Note: Daiginjo=50% polished
Ginjo=60% polished
Gekkakow Koshu Bottled in 2017 (brewed in 2014)
Clear. 3 years aged in stainless steel. Soft subtle white peach, white flowers, soft soursop flavors. Subtle and lovely.
Gekkakow 2002 vintage Nose a bit more mushroom. Mellow, soft, licorice, anise. Short soft finish.
Note: Junmai=made only with rice, water, koji, yeast
Honjumai=made with the above but alcohol also added
Gekkadow 1986 vintage
Lovely boxed presentation. Color has some greenish tints, complex aromas, viscous mouth feel. Subtle flavors, spicy white pepper finish, white fruit. The finish is flat fruit. Although not aged in cedar it does have some cedar notes to it. Not inexpensive.
Kiuchi Brewery Hitachino Nest Awashizuku
This is a sparkling sake. It is sweet and sparkling and a bit of a shock to the palate. I think of this as a good introduction to people who people who like sweet, sparkle and want to try something new.
Note: SMV=Sake Meter Value; a scale that evaluates sake sweetness
Kiuchi Yuzu wine
Lovely citrus and pear aromas. Delicate and delicious on the palate. A treat for those you want something light, easy, fruity with no overwheming sweetness. I had the idea to mix it with yuzu juice and make ice cubes then pair with Campari and gin…I’ve got to get working on that.
Kiuchi Ume wine
Beautiful nose reminiscent of gewurztraminer. Beautiful on the palate. A real eye opener. Certainly not what I expected and with a dry finish. Empty glass aromas of red apple peel.
Baladin Tasting with Teo Musso
What a treat to taste with the man who has done so much for craft beer in Italy. Teo singlehandedly put Piozzo on the map by founding Baladin brewery. It was (still is) a small town with 800 people, 11 churches, and not bars. Teo changed that. Even now, when I looked it up on Wikipedia, it doesn’t have a fully realized page—that’s how small the town is.
Baladin Isaac (6% abv)
Named after his son. Subdued yellow color with beautiful clean aromas. Medium to light bodied. Beautiful flavors; a little orange, subtle coriander. Clean finish. Excellent flavors. Unpasteurized and unfiltered. 90% of the raw ingredients he produces. Also responsible for the first hops cultivation in Italy.
Baladin Wayan (5.8% abv)
Beautiful malty aromas. Medium bodied with a dry finish. Very tasty and almost full bodied beer but not so much that it’s filling. Named after his daughter. He suggested it goes with fish, oysters, clams, seafood.
Baladin Nora (6.8% abv)
Nora is mother to Isaac and Wayan. It is a golden color with warm fruit aromas. Rich but not heavy with great freshness. Well balanced beer that has a lot going for it.
Baladin Nazionale (6.5% abv)
The nose blows you away! It has a grassy spicy nose but not in a crazy way. Deliciously nutty on the palate. Seriously good beer. It is a 100% Italian beer made with solely Italian raw materials. It even includes one of my favorite things—bergamot.
Baladin Super Baladin “Floreale” (85 abv)
Pretty nose of malt with just a hint of hops. Complex flavors, fruit, round with warm non-spicy spices. 8% alcohol but not alcohol forward.
Baladin Al-Iksir (10% abv)
Honeyed rich aroma, Christmas spices like Three Kings spices. Rich but not overbearing. A little bit like a spirit (no hops).
Xyauyu Barrel Aged (13% abv)
Smells like whiskey! Sweet, holy shit! Rich, honey. Drinks like a bourbon with chocolate coffee ginger hints. Amazing. Also, it ages; serve non-refrigerated.
Xyauyu Fume (13% abv)
Rich malt. Smoky aromas, flavors are rich. Aromas a little bit like arenca. Aged in whiskey barrels and I would drink after dinner, maybe late at night with a cigar. Also, it ages; serve non-refrigerated.
B. United Tasting with
Matthias Neidhart & George Flickinger
This was a tasting of items distributed by B. United. Matthias is the man who heads up the whole thing at this place.
Schneider Brotzeit Bier (4.5% abv)
One of the oldest wheat beer breweries in the world. Having said that this is not a wheat beer. Clean aromas, very dry on the palate. No wheat malt here. Sourdough yeast culture. This is a clean fresh beer. 50% rye malt, rest is Vienna and Pilsner. This post workout, post mowing the lawn, post anything strenuous beer.
Baby Jasmine Tea Lager (5.4% abv)
Beautiful nose; undertones of delicate flowers. Elegant beer wth more formal jasmine tones on the end and with a dry finish. Master Gao is considered the grandfather of craft brewing in China. He roasts the jasmine six times with each time adding new fresh jasmine and using care not to have to high a temperature which can draw out the tannins. There is just the slightest amount of tannin on the end which contributes to the overall body.
Birrificio Almond 22 Awa (5.6% abv)
It’s good if you want a beer that you don’t want to think about. It is brewed in Italy, cold shipped in a tank and canned in Oxford. It is part of what has made B. United a leader in the industry. Fresh clean nose, medium bodied with a dry clean finish. Fresh. It’s what’s called in Abruzzo (home to the brewery)a “white pale ale”.A little sundried orange peel. Made with emmer—which I have just found out is wheat, aka farro, and red spelt.
Hitachino Nest Dai Dai (6.2% abv)
Slightly citrus aroma with some sharpness. Medium malt bodied. Beautifully balanced and made with Japanes Fukure Mikan (wild mandarin oranges) and a little bit of bitterness on the finish. Fukure Mikan also means “orange which will bring fortune happiness.”
Wild Creatures Tears of St. Laurent (6.2% abv)
This is a not crazy sour beer from the Czech Republic. No sweetness but with some fruit flavors and a completely dry finish. It would be interesting to have some people try it as I only know St. Laurent as a grape from Austria.
Gurutzeta Sagardoa Basque Cider (6% abv) Interestingly enough although it is made in Basque Country it does not require that all the apples be from the Basque region or even from Spain. This is a very very dry cider that is definitely to be paired with food. Apparently it’s drunk as shots with food. It is a member (certified?) of/by Gorenak—a group that has certain standards and has come to be known as a quality group.
Cider Cork
Ola Dubh Ale 10th Anniversary Edition (9% abv)
A dark ale with a rich aroma. Malty, nutty finish porter with roasted barley. Matured for two years in Highland Park whiskey barrels. Intense but finishes clean and fresh. Smells a little like the Puerto Rican drink known as Malta.
Idromele “Nettare di Bacco” (14% abv)
Holy cow! This mead smells amazing. It has an intense rosewater, orange blossom aroma. I couldn’t stop writing the word amazing. It has very middle eastern flavors and aromas…things like dates, golden raisins. So not like anything else I’ve ever tasted. Amazing.
Viking Blod (19% abv)
Another mead but this time a little less intense. Pretty nose of hibiscus. Beautiful floral and spicy flavors and aromas. Lighter than I thought it would be but elegant. The bottle, which is black and kind of medieval looking, is in complete contrast to the lovely liquid inside.
OEC Tasting with Tony Pellino
The OEC brewery, housed on the same property as B. United, focuses on wild and sour beers. OEC is Latin (kind of) for Ordinem Ecentrici Coctores—Order of Eccentric Boilers. They make many beers and just celebrated their fourth anniversary. The beers we tasted were but a sampling of the portfolio of beers they offer.
Baudelot Blanche (4.5% abv)
No oak. Clean aromas of apples, and malic fruit aromas. It’s sour and clean on the palate. Spices such as coriander, dry thyme. Reminds me of a Berliner.
Exilis Dry Hopped Hallertau Blanc (3.8% abv)
Fresh clean aromas with a little green funkiness. Nice sour and very refreshing. Semi-spontaneous fermentation (yeah he admitted that makes no sense). The hoppiness is not overwhelming. Really a delicious beer if your are fan of fresh clean non-malty beers. Empty glass aroma is clean. Apparently this beer ages well.
Fluorescence (8% abv)
Hoppier and more IPA per Tony. As close as they get to producing an IPA. It is a young Exilis X three? Clean dry pineapple aromas, very much sour citrus on the mid-palate. Can be off-putting but it is so well made that it’s like the “jolie laide” concept. It has a strange likeability. It may be 8% abv but is drinks more like 4% abv. Clean finish.
Foeder Saison (5.2% abv)
Clean nose; citrus-apple nose; medium bodied, citrus on the palate. clean.; lemony, grains of paradise, coriander, black peppercorns used. Clean finish and some of the grain of paradise flavors come thru.
Tempus Blend X (5.9%abv)
Golden color. Complex nose of spice and warm fruit. It is a sour with a sharp piquancey that reminds me of smelling weed—green wild grass. Sour concrete to oak treatment. Sharp and spicy finish with an almost habanero like raspiness. It’s a blend of beer and each blend is different with even numbers being frutier and odd numbers being more savory.
Vindemia Rouge (8% abv)
Base is Flanders red. Warm dried red fruit aromas. Medium bodied sour but not overly so like Tempus. It has a good berry flavor profile. Very good finish; sour.
Tank Container Tasting with Brendan Kingston
One of the things that B. United does is buy beer from producers to can or finish and can at their facility. It is a method that’s about getting the freshest beer to the customer and about solving some of the enviromental costs involved with the transportation of beer. Each tank looks just like the oil or gasoline tanks you see on the road. The tanks we tasted from are divided into four different compartments allowing B. United to pick up different beers from one brewery. We tasted beers that were poured int the glass directly from the tank. We couldn’t get fresher beer if we tried.
Saison d’Erpe Mere
Clean aroma. Medium bodied. Good spice and lots of flavor. Lots of effervescence. Delicious beer.
Aecht Schlenkerla Helles (4.3% abv)
Slightly smoky nose. Outstanding creaminess. Excellent beer with delicate smoked dried arenca aromas. Not directly smoked but done in the same copper kettles and with the same yeast as Aecht Schlenkerla. Slightly smoky but subtle.
1809 Berliner Weisse Style
Clean aroma; clean flavors. A little banana, a little sour. Very tasty and delicious.
Abbaye de Saint Bon-Chien 2017
Done in Chateau Latour barrels. Weird kitchen/food aromas. It’s like a sour beer, wine and sherry all rolled into one delicious spirit like concoction.
Tipolis (the only one of these we tasted from can) (5% abv)
Golden color. Clean flavor. It does have some banana aromas but not overwhelmingly so. Good clean flavors. No thinking required yet it has enough complexity.
Old Style Yamahai Sour Genshu (17% abv)
This is a cask strength sake that is only available in kegs. It is a bright clear color. Clean banana aromas. Bright melon flavors, a little sourness and a little bite giving it texture. Light feel for 17%.
Facility Tour with Michael Opalenski
Each component of B. United—whether it’s the tank beer, the exotic imports, or the OEC beer, happen in an environment that is directly related to the vision of Matthias. This vision is one in which the geography of the quiet hills in this western section of Connecticut are being transformed into a climate that is welcoming of all sorts of ethereal visitors. The idea is to create climate that is welcoming of bees, bacteria and blossoms that will enable the entire facility to become a micro/macrocosm that helps all of the components.
While B. United was started in 1995, it moved to its current location in 2009. There is geothermal cooling in the warehouse, they have set up an octagonal columnar building to take care of roasting and baking and they are growing grapes such as traminette and cayuga—not to make wine, but to help in the making of beer.
The section of a building they call the Fermentarium is all about experimentation with vessels—everything from a terracotta amphora that contains a Barleywine Hydromelita Blend to a blue granite take that contains a Gewuerzgose with a “flor” to a large Sangiovese cask that contains a Flemish Red to a shelving unit that contains beautiful vessels from Kenya. Hanging in the middle of all of this looks likea pork shoulder air drying for what I’m sure will be a tasty treat for a future lunch.
There is much going on outside as there is inside. There is an icehouse that has barrels in it so experimentation withtemperature and liquid can happen, there is a shed in which balsamic vinegar is being made with Aventinus. There are two greenhouses—one devoted to herbs and another to citrus such as Yuzu and keffir limes. There is a strawberry patch outside the latter greenhouse, berries that were part of our salad at lunch.
B. United’s vision for what they want to do is clearly focused on fermentation and they look everywhere for inspiration. Perhaps the most surprising thing was the something called the Urwagan (at least that is how I heard it) pit that comes from Uganda. It is pit in which contains two barrels that have been buried—one of the barrel contains 2017 Berliner Weisse; we couldn’t read the label on the other one. The technique of the buried pit helps to control fermentation, especially in an environment that gets really hot and would make it diffiicult to control fermentation.
I left B. United with a great amount of knowledge and the desire to know more. The whole day was but a slice of what they do, know and show. No one who creates something like B. United does so without having the vision that the whole world is your inspiration and that your laboratory can be in a warehouse setting which has been transformed into a bucolic scene worthy of the Latin tradition.
Note: B. United’s Brewery OEC is open to the public. The rest of the facility is not open to the public but the B. United products are available thru various retailers and restaurants.
Saturday night I did a private tasting that compared old world and new world wines. There were five flights and the penultimate flight was Cab Franc. The matchup was between an Italian CF and the 2011 El Enemigo from Mendoza Argentina.
This particular CF is made by Adrianna Catena. Cabernet Franc and an affinity for it rinds deep within the Catena family as they are both fans of Cheval Blanc.
I liked El Enemigo for its red berry fruit, very dry dried fruit finish and its hint of blueberries at the end.
I talk a lot about wine. It has become my career. I also know that for a lot of people it is a subject fraught with the unknown. To me, sometimes it seems easy. I tell people all the time to not be afraid, it is only wine and that unless the wine is truly flawed, there is nothing to be afraid of. Pick up the glass and drink.
perature and liquid can happen, there is a shed in which balsamic vinegar is being made with Aventinus. There are two greenhouses—one devoted to herbs and another to citrus such as Yuzu and keffir limes. There is a strawberry patch outside the latter greenhouse, berries that were part of our salad at lunch.
Drinknowledge 