Fruit Bomb?

[Botafogo]

GS, for MOST of the history of wine (up until maybe the advent of the 1982 Bordeaux) the POINT of wine was to transform mere fruit into something much more transcendent and interesting with aromas and flavors of leather, earth, meat, spices, minerals and, yes, "barnyard". Philosophers did not advise you to drink le Montrachet "on bended knee with hat in hand" because it was packed with "gobs and gobs of super concentrated pineapple, peach and melon fruits overlayed with slabs of toasted oak" but because a mere whiff of its bouquet was cause for meditation on nature, being and a small bit of hedonism in an otherwise cruel existence.

With the ascent of the US (where we are weaned on Coca-Cola and sugary fruit "juice" products) as the largest wine market in the world and with the cheerleading of a very well vocalized minority of critics, wines are now considered "great" if they taste like diluted Smuckers Raspberry Jam and are 16% alcohol.

Of course this is oversimplified but you get my point. We were overjoyed to hear from a customer yesterday who had just returned from four weeks in Italy that the sommelier of his favorite enoteca in Florence had put all the wines made by Riccardo Cotarella (the Fruitmeister General) and others such as Planeta Merlot and numerous Super Tuscans on the shelf where he sells Mostarda (a sort of fruit chutney spiked with mustard) and Jams and Jellies and labeled them "I vini Marmeladi" (Marmelade wines!!!)......

Many here (this is your cue Steve) will tell you "if that is what people want then why not give it to them?" but this ignores the fact that MOST people in most markets never get the chance to make a choice. We have found that, given a blind tasting of what we would call REAL Wine vs Fruit Bombus Erectus, most people immediately "get" the added interest and culinary versitality of wines that show more terroir and less Welch's Grape Juice and then vote with their wallets.

"We want the Funk, show us the Funk" (from a song by George Clinton and Funkadelic but the anthem of our wine buying trips to Europe). A good musical analogy to answer your question of how could it be bad to have to much fruit is that it makes the wine simplistic and one dimensional, much like "Bubblegum" music...

Roberto


[This message has been edited by Botafogo (edited 05-16-2003).]