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Pastimes : Wine You Can Enjoy @ Under $20 -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: caly who wrote (633)	2/14/2008 1:37:00 PM
From: Thomas Mercer-Hursh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1277

There are a number of sources of earthy or barnyardy odors and tastes in wine and different people respond to them in different ways. I have a friend who has generally quite similar taste reactions to me, enough so that we can generally predict the other's response to a given wine even though our preferences are different. We respond similarly to brett, but there is another component we have identified, but not named, where we differ dramatically. If present in moderation, I will typically enjoy the wine, but if detectable at all, he absolutely can't stand it. He has a similar reaction to any residual sulfur, so it is possible that the chemical we are responding to so differently is a sulfur compound of some kind. I don't like residual sulfur, but don't have nearly the violent reaction to it he does. To me, a little bit of brett adds complexity and interest to a wine. This can still be true in the taste when it has gotten pronounced enough in the nose to be offputting. But, like anything, it can be overdone. Some years ago a friend was visiting from the UK and he brought along a new purchase of a wine from the Languedoc for me to try. It was during this visit that I introduced him to the mystery of the influence of glass shape on one's perception of the wine. He was very skeptical, but left a firm believer and promptly went out and got several different types of glasses. Well, when we opened that Languedoc wine he had brought, it had by far the most brett of any wine that I have ever experienced. Put that in a Riedel Pinot glass and it was nearly fatal the aroma was so intense!