11 Comments

How would you define “ difficult for the uninitiated” Henry?

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I suppose there are degrees of initiation but if you only drink mainstream wines like Argentine malbec from the supermarket they you're not going to enjoy an English pet nat with an inch of sludge in the bottom.

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Aha. OK. I'm still not sure where I stand on 'natural' + Pet Nat wines. I've really tried to get into them (from Italy to Sussex) but am still not really feeling it. Maybe my palate is too atavistic and not responding to modern flavours...

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Andrew Barr’s great book on wine - Wine Snobbery - is basically an extended riff on the war between fruit/sugar versus bitterness/alcohol when it comes to appreciating wine given our evolutionary attraction to the former and repulsion at the latter.

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Great book! Also his book Drink: a Social History has taken me down so many fascinating rabbit holes. I often wonder what he's doing now.

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I have also. Someone told me an anecdote that he used to have a business card that just said “Intellectual”.

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I heard that too - from Patrick Matthews.

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Speaking of burgundy. Can you do something on Aligote and Pataille?

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Never tried that one that always enjoyed reds from Pataille. Will investigate.

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June 23, 2023Edited
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Sancerre rouge is a good example as it takes a bit of getting used to though today it's probably quite a bit riper than in the past.

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