Boy, it's party time this week. Another one going on right now. I should be working, but instead am sipping a so-so Chardonnay and looking up details of malolactic fermentation.
Unless there's no other choice, I avoid Chardonnay. I like, but can't/don't drink red wines because it aggrevates rosacea, and who wants to end up with a W.C.-Fields-nose in 30 more years (e.g., v. advanced rosacea)? I gave a wide variety of Pinot Gris' a trial run earlier this year and have nixed them, too. I don't bother with Sauvignon Blancs any more either. All of them are subject to malolactic fermentation and I just don't like the end-taste of malo. There's an end taste that I used to identify as a complex oaky tang that takes place in the center of the tongue, but no more. The oak is nice, but the unpleasant tang? It's MLF. The fake buttery flavor? MLF. Blech.
I like wines that are, well, cleaner; a more basic fermentation and less tinkering with chemicals (well, the chemical by-products of bacterial action). It ends up that those are the sweeter wines, Rieslings, Gewürztraminers and Muscats. Now, I can't see drinking muscat for anything other than dessert or perhaps pre-sex play as I remember it back in the day, but a good Riesling or Gewurtz is just dandy for a drinking wine.
Some people are condescending about sweeter wines, dismissing them entirely. I think they confuse them with blush wines or white zinfandel, two varietals I used to drink in my 20's and enjoy and now can't understand why. ::shudder:: I suspect that they haven't tried better Rieslings or Gewurtz's. Lucky for me, I'm close to the wine country, we can get almost everything in our grocery stores or Trader Joe's, and both varietals are excellent with seafood and vegetarian fare, which is mostly what I eat. I had a marvelous German Reisling with lunch today that I'm not likely to have again, so that was a special treat.
Hmm, the speeches are about to begin. I guess I'll go back and have another glass of Chardonnay anyway, just because it's the only white they have.
Info about malo and wines in case you're interested:
http://winemakermag.com/departments/112.htmlhttp://members.tripod.com/~BRotter/MLF.htmhttp://www.aromadictionary.com/articles/mlf_article.htmlhttp://www.supermarketguru.com/page.cfm/191![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}