This is a very important yeast in sour beer production. For regular beer it’s a contaminant/flaw and an infection can crash an entire batch.
But in sours, mixed fermented farmhouse or wild fermented beers where it’s use is intentional, controlled and paired with other yeasts it brings a mild, less agressive tartness and a lot of funky savory flavor. It can be mushroomy or earthy. If you’ve ever had a Saison that’s a little be tart, that’s usually a bit of brett doing it’s thing.
Imported European wines are typically a lot cheaper at a given quality than my Local wines. And that holds for most US wines outside of bulk produced California wines. Land is expensive here and not much of the wine business has the economies of scale and regulatory support that exists elsewhere in the world.
I can get a damn good, affordable French or Italian wine here for less than $10. A locally produced wine in similar style and at the same quality will usually run over $30.
And what does Gallo make? Predominantly cheap bulk wine and brandy!
A little more pertinent is that most of the regulation on this front is handled at the State level.
So for example until 2005 or there abouts NY wineries were not allowed to export out of NY to other states or outside the US. And were heavily restricted in terms of what level they could distribute through 3rd parties.
The intent was to block large producers of low quality bulk wine (Like Gallo) from capturing the industry and foster Tourism. That worked but in the offing in created an industry that favored very expensive land in already desirable areas. That almost exclusively focused on high overhead tasting room business models that compete in the mercurial bar and restaurant scene.
It robbed critical economies of scale, ensured the reputation of the wines didn’t spread, ensured most jobs created were low paid, seasonal service jobs. And generally kept retail prices very high.
Yeah. It’s usually referenced as a sign that oenophiles don’t know what they’re talking about. But the paper itself seems to be more about how color changes how a taster describes a particular taste.
White lightning is a filthy remoaner elite’s drink. Good, honest British yeomanry will celebrate their freedom with Pulse or Omega, made from the very finest British onions and be glad about it.
Was going to say that I’ve had absolutely stunning US wines but they are absolutely special occasion. I can’t afford to drink American wines in general. With say, Spain, if there’s a style that needs aging you really do get incredible value. Whereas with a French wine you frequently struggle to get something sufficiently aged. Obviously I don’t think that this reflects the realities of the modern consumer.
That said I bought a couple of really properly old Loire chenin Blanc’s on sale a while back and that was the absolute shit.
I know my cousin in Dublin regularly takes road trips to Spain and France and fills the boot of his car with wine on the way back. You guys apparently have crazy high Alcohol taxes, and then there’s VAT on top of it.
That said the less than 10 bucks price point takes some looking. But your everyday, good imports are usually in the $15 range and you can find some crazy balls $15-20 if you know what to look for. There just aren’t many American wines other than bulk producers in that price point.
I think the most affordable locals that are worth drinking are sitting around $25 if you buy them right at the winery. So I can’t imagine what they run for once you layer tax, export costs and distribution on top.
Honestly the good US wines I’ve had have been in the €50-60 range which is way out of my league. For comparison a 10yr old Savenierres on sale (a nicely darkening robe with a bouquet of honey and flowers but dry as a bone with chocolatey mouth feel when properly decanted and not chilled) would be €20 on sale.
I can buy a nice rioja reserva with more than five years on it for my Saturday dinner for around a tenner. I used to buy a rasteau but that was before they had got AOC and were technically still a Rhone Villages. I don’t see them quite that cheap any more.
We used to have an import firm for a while. We got an offer of several containers of Italian wine at 2 euros a bottle. By the time we got it into the UK it would have cost us approximately 6-7 pounds (this was 20 years ago as well). Judging by flavour, I’d have paid maybe six for it in a supermarket. No room for profit at all unless you’ve got a serious budget.
Onions are French and forbidden. Brexiters will drink the finest turnip wiskie*.
* They were going to call it turnip whisky, but the Scots started putting woad on their faces and shouting about freedom, so they backed down while moaning about political correctness gone mad.
OTOH the last part you quoted suggests the subjects knew their red wines.
