The existential oenophile
By Mark Criden
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Illustration by J.P. Thimot.
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Dear Existential Oenophile:
I stare into the bleakness of existence, and wonder, does life have any point at all? With global warming, George W. Bush, endless jihad, the breaking of the levees, Dick Cheney, tsunamis, hurricanes, landslides, Virginia Tech, pestilence, war, locusts, and the death of Boris Yeltsin, I wonder in abject, sodden hopelessness, whether there’s any reason to go on?
Ron
N. Tonawanda
Gentle Reader,
This summer, I’ll be drinking plenty of Muscadet, the crunchy, vibrant white from France’s Loire Valley, perhaps the most beautiful wine region in the world.
Open the dictionary to stunning and there’s a picture of the Loire Valley, where natural landscape and picturesque chateaux, churches, and monasteries form a gorgeous tableau. The great architectural heritage and lovely historic towns and villages are evidence of millennia of harmony between humans and their environment. Happily, since Roman times, much of this harmony has been in the vineyards.
Today’s Loire is an exciting wine region producing delicious red and white wines in a multitude of styles. This tremendous variety owes much to the region’s soils, peppered with limestone, quartz, schist, and other minerals. Here, numerous varietals thrive, including Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, and Cabernet Franc. The famed regions of Sancerre, Pouilly Fume, Chinon, and Vouvray all have their adherents, but you’d need a heart of stone not to love Muscadet most of all.
The Muscadet grape—also known locally as Melon de Bourgogne or simply Melon—finds its home in the sandy, rocky, westernmost stretch of the region’s vineyards, where the Rive Loire spills into the Atlantic. The grape makes wine that once held a reputation of being at best an early-drinking, neutral foil for oysters, and at worst, bland, metallic, coarse, and watery mouthwash. But dedicated vignerons, whose passions for the vine match those found in any other of France’s many wine regions, have ignited a quality revolution over the past two decades. They cultivate their vines with great care, use biodynamic methods, and turn out a selection of vins blancs which are complex, refreshing, zippy, and bracing with a sort of sea-salty freshness, making Muscadet the perfect accompaniment to shellfish. Some of the best examples will last—and improve—for years in your cellar. The best wines even share some of the aromatic, textural and flavor qualities of Chablis—at a fraction of the price.
Muscadet has been blessed with several very good to great recent vintages, including the lovely 2002s, the classic 2004s and the 2005s, which many believe is the best Muscadet vintage in recent memory. Whether 2004 or 2005 produced wines that were finer or more vibrant, with better clarity, depth and minerality is what’s known as a high-class problem.
It’s rare to pay more than $16 for the best examples and many superb wines retail for $10 and even less, making top Muscadets among the greatest white wine values in the market. Fans of steely, truly dry, mineral-driven wines will find much to love in these wines.
Dear Existential Oenophile:
I understand a planet has been discovered orbiting a dwarf red star light years from here that may have the elements necessary to sustain life. I have long despaired that we are the pinnacle of creation and the only so-called life in the universe. I cannot shake this nihilistic gloom no matter how much I read Kafka. Could this new planet be where God lives?
Howard
East Amherst
Gentle Reader,
Hard though it may be to believe, there may be times this summer when Muscadet isn’t quite right, when only something reddish will do. Many reds, though, are too weighty for hot-weather fare, which is why July and August are when real men all drink pink.
This column has often recommended rosés, and we have a beaut for you this year: the 2006 Rosé known as the Folie de Brun. Made by the brilliant Jean-Paul Brun of the Domaine des Terres Dorées in Southern Beaujolais, this joyous wine is a smile in a bottle, and everything you’d want in a bright, crisp. and gentle summer sipper. The wine’s packaged for summer fun, with its gorgeous cranberry color shining inside a way cool frosted glass bottle. It’s perfect for a barbecue on the beach, and value-priced at about $12.
P.S. Presuming you’re not looking to be swept out to sea, Kafka is not recommended for beach reading.
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Dear Existential Oenophile,
Bill Cosby once asked “Why is there Air,” and this question has plagued me for more than thirty years. Why is there life, why is there death? What happened to the dinosaurs? Are we all stumbling on happiness?
Eliz.
Buffalo
Gentle Reader,
I offer you a haiku:
New York Riesling sings
Uncork another bottle
Guess where stress has gone?
Mark Criden (mcriden@yahoo.com) is a non-profit executive and the former chair of the Buffalo Branch of the International Wine & Food Society.
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