12 Dec 2020
It’s Saturday evening of a day where I’ve more or less done sweet fuck-all. I figured I may as well punctuate my superfluousness, with a bit of what no one but me would call “work.” My kid and I are presently getting on each other’s nerves, for various reasons. Meanwhile, I am at a stage where I hate eating, and dread hunger, as it means I will be required to eat. And yet, somehow, I am still portly to the point that I dread seeing myself in the raw, as much as I dread eating the food that got me to this miserable state. I could blame covid for all of this, but you and I both know that would be absolute bollocks. Meanwhile, I have been enjoying this Gerry Mulligan & Chet Baker at Carnegie Hall Concert Volume 1. It’s a solid performance, and the recording sounds amazing. So, in what will undoubtably manifest itself as a futile effort to turn my foul world view around, I’ve decided to open and review one of our most recent arrivals. The House White Sauvignon Blanc 2018 Cфtes de Gascogne. This is the 2.0 of a project started by Adam Friedberg at AP Wines in NY for the Soho Club. Last effort was a Cфtes du Rhфne and it was earthy and balanced as easy to pound as a drunk hipster. This savvy was aged 5 months on the lees and “The wine making process is meant to preserve freshness and aromas. Grapes are harvested early in the morning, when temperatures are low. They undergo a six-hour cold maceration to extract varietals aromas. Pressing occurs in pneumatic press to preserve the crop quality. The deposit from the must is filtered and added to the pressed juice in order to enhance the great expression of primary aromas – this specific technique is mainly used in the Gascony wine region. Slow alcoholic fermentation at a low temperature.” Interesting. I picture about a bucket or two of this being sloshed over the top of the fermenting wine, because on certain subjects I’m not a romantic. The brightish yellow colour tricks you into missing how very green the fruit on this wine is, which is significant on the nose, along with honeydew, canned peaches, cotton candy, and lanolin. Again, we are at that place I get to where I know this is Sauvignon, but I don’t know why, as it is so different from Loire, New Zealand, South Africa, even just up the road in Bordeaux. The texture in my [insert insult] mouth is confusingly rich, creamy, silky, and yet very zesty, citrusy, and refreshing. There are loads of pairings for this kind of wine, obviously, and even more than expected as it is fairly weighty. I’m going to have this with a game of backgammon, and hopefully a video that me and this grumpy 11-year-old can agree on.