Liner notes and wine details for Tasting Notes Vol. 1: “Changing Colors”, an in-person event held at Hi-Note, a radio listening bar in New York’s East Village, on Wednesday, October 4th 2023.
Vo1. 1: ‘Changing Colors’
Chaotic weather, early sunsets, decorative gourds: it’s the perfect season to put some wine in your glass that doesn’t fit into the ‘red or white?’ color binary.
Whether bronze or blush or mauve or rose gold, how do wines get the colors they are, anyway? And how much, or how little, does the color in the glass tell us about what we can do with it?
What We Drank
RENNERSISTAS blaufränkisch, roburger aka zweigelt “Waiting for Tom” BURGENLAND 2019
what color were the grapes? blue and purple
what color was the wine? shimmery pink (“rosé”)
how did it get that way? a third of the grapes were stomped whole-cluster and left to macerate overnight; the rest were pressed off together as soon as they came in. all of this happened almost exactly 4 years ago!
who made it? Stefanie Renner, in a town called Gols at the top of the second-largest lake in Europe, a huge shallow puddle full of reeds and storks called ‘Neusidl’, where Austria and Hungary meet. The bottle is named for the two natural-wine Toms (Lubbe, in the Roussillon; Shobbrook, in Barossa). Stefanie worked harvest and was mentored by both of them. They were…never on time.
BORACHIO pinot noir, pinot gris, chardonnay ADELAIDE HILLS
what color were the grapes? blue and purple and ruby and gold
what color was the wine? hazy blush (“co-ferment”)
how did it get that way? it’s a bit of a patchwork: most of it is foot-stomped pinot noir, pressed off after a few days while it’s still fermenting. before bottling, that’s blended with a) direct-press chardonnay, and b) pinot gris juice that was pressed over whole clusters of pinot noir, infusion-style
who made it? Alicia Basa and Mark Warner, who work with sourced fruit in the Adelaide Hills, a nexus point for Australia’s new generation of wild-child natural winemakers (see also: James Erskine of Jauma, Alex Schulkin and Galit Schachaf of The Other Right, Sophie and Jasper Button of Commune of Buttons, Tim Webber and Monique Millton of Manon, Gareth Belton of Gentle Folk…)
MARGINS chenin “Wilson Vineyard — Skin-Fermented” SACRAMENTO DELTA
what color were the grapes? green and gold
what color was the wine? dark gold (“skin contact”, “orange”)
how did it get that way? fermented on the skins for 23 days (until dry), then pressed.
who made it? Megan Bell, a young (first vintage 2016) winemaker based in Santa Cruz, who works with off-the-beaten-path varieties and regions across California. This is from a 20-acre vineyard block in Clarksburg, in the breezy, deep sands of the delta south of Sacramento. Of the farming, she writes: “When I began to work with this vineyard in 2016, I nudged vineyard manager David toward the idea of organically farming this 20-acre block. Agricultural change doesn’t happen overnight, and David has been working for years toward the achievement of organic conversion in this block. Part of the Margins mission over the years was to work with growers while they transitioned their vineyards to organic farming by providing guidance as well as assurance that the grapes would have a home.”
FRISACH vernatxa gris “Les Alifares” TERRA ALTA skin contact
what color were the grapes? ruby and lavender and tomatillo
what color was the wine? bronzey-pink (“skin contact”, “orange”)
how did it get that way? foot-stomped, fermented on the skins for 30 days (until dry)
who made it? Francesc Ferré is a grower in Corbera d’Ebre, Terra Alta, inland Catalunya southwest of Barcelona. He started in 2009, with his brother Joan; the winery is named for their great-grandfather, who was a winegrower, and their family home is named ‘Ca Frisach’. This is a region where almost all of the farmers sell their grapes to the local co-op or to bulk bottlers rather than making their own wine. Francesc is one of the few folks bottling the wine he grows himself, and maybe the only one doing so without addition or subtraction.
This is how he describes drinking this wine: “Vernatxes grisa fermentada amb pells. I res més: així em sonen els sentiments després del primer glop. Venim d’una nit molt fosca i profunda i tota llum ens és insuficient. Duem la memòria del temps marcada a les pells i la de les estacions de l’any tenyida al most.”
(I don’t like the google translation on his website; this is my attempt from the Spanish.)
“Fermented with skins. And nothing else: this is the feeling, too, that echoes in me after the first sip. As though coming from a night so deep in darkness that no light can illuminate us. All we can carry is the memory. Time, marked in the skin. The year’s seasons, dyeing the juice.”
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