'98 Domaine Clavel "Les Garrigues"

[mrdutton]

Brett is short for brettanomyces. It's a wild yeast that can get into the wine (or the wood) if the winery is not very careful about cleanliness. It gives a distinct mousy/horsey nose and a metallic aftertaste. It mutes the fruit and after time in the bottle all wines with brett taste the same. It is controversial in that everyone agrees too much is a flaw. Some can tolerate it in lower levels (and claim it adds complexity), others abhor it at all. The key point is the metallic aftertaste. Lots of things can smell bad but only Brett has that metallic tang at the end. Hope this helps.

Above from STRAT's PLACE. Sure helped me! Not sure if I've yet had the "pleasure" of tasting mousy/horsey with a metallic aftertaste in anything, let alone a wine.

The above saves me the embarressment of asking Drew what the heck BRETT means...... [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/smile.gif[/img]

[This message has been edited by mrdutton (edited 01-18-2002).]