Some years back I'd bought a new French
oak quarter-barrel, and had filled it with water to be sure it didn't
leak. This only takes a few minutes to determine, but it was crush,
and I forgot about it for a week or so. When I finally remembered, I
drained the water into a large pail; the water was dark and ugly, but
smelled wonderful from all that new Vosges oak. At that very moment,
as I was contemplating this, one of best friends in the wine world,
Bill Mitchell, arrived from Philo for a visit; so I said to him,
"Bill, look at this stuff. It smells great, so I don't want to
just throw it out; but what could I possibly do with it?".
He replied without missing a beat,
"Well, you could just add some alcohol and some tartaric acid
and call it Chardonnay".
So quick, and so true of so many
Chardonnays then, and still now.
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