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+--- Thread: possibly the wrong forum (/thread-11735.html)
- Duane Meissner - 04-26-2008
in which to post about the excellent Bandol we had last night?? It's the one I mentioned recently from La Bastide Blanche. What a fantastic wine. I really enjoyed it much more this time around. Couldn't quite put my finger on what I was tasting, but then my wife tried a sip and nailed it: Band-Aids. I assume that's the mourvedre talking. Other than that, all I can say is it was very well balanced. Enjoyed it with NY Strips med-rare, horseraddish mashed potatoes, and green beans.
- Innkeeper - 04-26-2008
You're in the right place. Sounds great.
- Bucko - 04-26-2008
Band-Aids is also a term used to describe Brett. Keep in mind there are many strains of Brett. Some are really nasty, whereas others add classic flavors found in many top Rhone wines.
I got to attend a seminar where they took various strains of Brett and innoculated the same base wine, then let it age for varying periods of time. It was a real eye-opener for me. Some strains almost had a rose petal characteristic, whereas others had the nasty horse blanket smell.
- brappy - 04-27-2008
How about the type where it smells and tastes like someone took a big ol' crap in your bottle????? [img]http://wines.com/ubb/biggrin.gif[/img]
- winoweenie - 04-27-2008
Braps....My suggestion whenced that happens is to take that sucker immediately to the terlit. WW [img]http://wines.com/ubb/wink.gif[/img]
- Duane Meissner - 04-27-2008
Brett??
- VouvrayHead - 04-27-2008
Brett is short for Brettanomyces.
It's a strain of yeast that can totally ruin a wine, though I, and many others, find small amounts of it (in some forms-- the post by by Bucko up there is really interesting!) very good. I think it can add a very sensual quality to wine.
It can definitely give a manure-like quality to wine, particularly on the nose. In smaller amounts, it's "earthy" or slightly animal-y, but attractive. It's an umami-like aroma. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umami)
It's frequently found in rhone-wines and others in the south of France.
A funny story: When I was Wisconsin, one of my co-workers knew very little about wine, but through frequent tasting she was beginning to pick out flavors in wine. I opened a fairly inexpensive Cotes du Rhone that was new to the store to try. It was deifnitely rather "Bretty," but with the right food I kinda liked it! I asked her to smell it and taste it and tell me what it reminded her of... She wasn't very confident about picking out flavors, and she'd never had a wine that was bretty. She took one smell, screwed up her eyes oddly, looked at me, and said "horse sh*t!"
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