I Break For Greatness

Something wonderful happened just after my last post, I had a truly great wine. After my dinner party and I emptied the bottle, writing in this blog about greatness seemed quite natural. FORTUNATELY (no un) there is no standardized test for balance and beauty in wine. But how then can one claim with any certainty that a particular bottle is or isn't great? What does great mean? What does a perfect bottle taste like and where can we all get more? I needed to take a break and consider these questions.

Without a doubt, the single best way to learn to identify a great wine is to taste a lot of wine in general. In doing so, you will be forced to endure many bad wines at all price levels. Many that you taste will be quite fine and drinkable, and again, at all price levels. It will take time to recognize genuine balance as most wine today is made to WOW and DAZZLE the consumer rather than enrich ones connection to earth and fruit. What I can promise is that by the time you critically taste your first hundred bottles, you likely will have had about 5 really great ones that will stay in your blissful memory for quite a time. It's unfortunate, maybe even sad, but nonetheless true.

To me, a great wine is a balanced wine. It makes nearly any food you combine it with taste better. Great wine is courageous enough to stand alone and flexible enough to blend with its surroundings. The aroma fills you chest, throat, and mouth with excitement. The juice itself practically melting on the palate, but continually re-energizing itself with fresh acid, perfectly ripe fruit, and a structure that doesn't show any cracks or seams. Each flavor and texture becomes another, blending and actually making one another better. Once down the hatch, the lingering flavors and aroma continue to enchant, perhaps even giving the illusion of the liquid still resting on the tongue. Most importantly to me is that it feels a little like falling in love. The wine gives all its wonder and beauty, and in return, leaning into it feels completely natural. You are seduced and you must have MORE! (in some cases, this condition is known as alcoholism)

Where can you get your great bottle? Beats the hell outta me. Nearly every great bottle I've been privileged to taste has caught me by surprise, and I can recall almost all of them in detail. The same cannot be said about all the many bad and mediocre sips that have pierced my lips. If you'd like a start, the great bottle I had just a few weeks ago is listed below. The importer descibes it as "the kind of wine where you don’t need anything else ever, or so it seems."

Vintage: 2006
Producer: Hirsch
Grape: Gruner Veltliner
Country: Austria
Region: Kamptal
Bottling: "Heiligenstein"
Cost: $22

By the way, we ended up having this bottle with cheeseburgers and potato chips. Gruner Veltliner is a white wine known for its pairing with asparugus and all things spring and summer green. It's dry, even austere, and not at all a wine that most would consider for beef. We had cheeseburgers.......and the wine was perfect!


Salud!
Evan.