possibly the wrong forum

[VouvrayHead]

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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