OMG Wines

The Wines of Frank Cornelissen

What happens when you combine the wine of one of the hottest regions around with natural wine making? You get super cool wines.

Frank Cornelissen is producing some of the most interesting if divisive natural wines around and he is doing it with fruit from ungrafted vines growing on the northern slopes of Mount Etna! It’s a fascinating story, but unfortunately that is sometimes the best thing that can be said about the wines. They are bottled without sulfur, which makes for some amazing experiences with pristine bottles, but plenty of funky things can also go wrong when the wines are not given the royal treatment in transit and storage, e.g. keeping the AC on!

Photo courtesy of shiokuma via Flickr/cc

I don’t get wowed often, but when I do I prefer Dos Equis. Well, not really, but I do love a palate cleansing beer now and again. So what wine has recently made me say OMG and costs not much more than that Dos Equis?

This is a question whose answer is sure to cause a disturbance in the force. Seems each time I rave about a value wine or three someone is there to put me back in my place, which is evidently trailing them respectfully at five paces. I’m going to start out with a little generalization here and suggest you check out the 2010 Beaujolais this summer. You want killer value, these wines have it. Wonderful fruit, fresh and easy to drink, and take a nice chill for summer perfectly. What more could you want? Oh yeah. OMG, these are great values.

2010 Louis Jadot Chateau Des Jacques Moulin-a-Vent $20
2010 Georges Duboeuf Julienas Chateau des Capitans $17
2010 Pierre-Marie Chermette le Vissoux Beaujolais $16
2010 Damien Coquelet Beaujolais Villages $16
2010 Potel-Aviron Beaujolais Villages $13

Photo courtesy of Sergey Melkonov via Flickr/cc

Yes, I may be beating a dead horse, but I’ve recently returned from Spain where I toured a bit of Rioja. As usual, the wines did not disappoint. There were so many wines that made me say, “OMG, this is delicious,” but one producer really stood out. Hermanos Pecina.

Traditional wines, organically farmed fruit. All the buzzwords, which are damn near useless if the wine sucks. OMG it sure as heck doesn’t suck here.

The 2001 Vendimia Seleccionada was qualitatively as fine as their 2001 Gran Reserva if in a richer, velvetier style and it hopefully might clock in a slightly gentler price if it ever arrives here. All of the wines were awfully pretty, pure and honest, from their Joven red (around $13) through their full range, right up to the 2001 Gran Reserva.

Now, if we could just convince their importer to bring in more of the age-worthy, sub $15 Blanco, it might be an OMG OMG day!

Photo courtesy of Alex Porta i Tallant via Flickr/cc

The Wines of Hospices de Beaune.

The world’s oldest charity auction, going strong after 152 years, is Burgundy’s famed Hospices de Beaune wine auction. While you buying wine from the Hospices de Beaune is not impossible, it would require a trip to the auction in France plus the purchase of a barrel of wine.

You can also just look for Hospices de Beaune wines from your trusty retailers, who generally buy the wines for resale. While you are not directly contributing to the Hospices’ charities of choice, you are keeping the chain moving. That ultimately helps everyone involved.

The wines for the auction come from vineyards that have been donated to the Hospices over the centuries. Their traditional source of income was the sale of these wines, vented and cared for by the region’s wineries, each donating their time and effort to this worthy cause. It is a truly beautiful thing to see a community come together like this.

Photo courtesy of Jonathan Caves via Flickr/cc

Old Vine Carignan from Chile

Talk about your off-beat wines. Carignan is not exactly the most obscure variety out there, but how many varietal versions do you see? A few from here and there. Then Chile appears out of nowhere wielding about three-dozen old vine versions, you have to say OMG. That is whacky!

I still haven’t pulled together my notes about these wines tasted about a month ago, but I am looking forward to reliving the experience when I do. Not only do these wines taste delicious, for the most part, but they also have a great story to tell.

The vines were originally planted by families to provide for their daily needs. Over the years, many of the vines were ill tended and some juice was sold to large bottlers for blending purposes. But then, BAM! Chile got on the wine geek radar and freaky winemakers started looking around to see what neat stuff they could find to entice the world’s wine geeks. Dry farmed, ancient vine Carignan? Yes, that might just do!

As an added bonus, the families that farm these grapes are now getting paid a boatload more money for the fruit of their labor! It’s a triple win. I’ll work on getting my notes up soon!

Photo courtesy of die.tine via Flickr/cc

Want to have some more fun with wine? See what wines go best with each character of the hit movie The Avengers!