Wine is infused with tradition. Some wine drinkers would feel set adrift without a cork screw, and some winemakers would feel as naked as a cockroach in the light without French oak barrels. But what tradition can we use to pigeonhole a fellow who talks about his wine using terms like simplicity, samurai, small, solitude, serenity, tranquility, and refinement, and then makes a 16.2% alcohol chardonnay and boasts of it's laser intensity? This is someone forging his own tradition.
Greg Brewer, a partner in Brewer-Clifton, and the wine-maker at Melville has launced a new project he is calling Diatom. Simplifying things perhaps a bit too much, this is a project to make Chardonnays that will go well with seafood... laser-focused seafood like raw oysters or sashimi. But Greg is a great writer and we don't have to simplify, we can let him speak for himself:
Vineyards selected for the diatom project are sought out for their ability to serve as voices for place. Through the small and specific sites chosen, there will be a journey through solitude, tranquility and the transitory nature of life. The challenge is to subtract all extraneous elements to arrive at the utmost level of simplicity, serenity and refinement. In order to maintain this desired purity, fermentation is carried out at a very cold temperature in neutral vessels to retain the most primary attributes of the fruit.Furthermore, malo-lactic is inhibited to avoid the distraction of that secondary level of evolution. The resultant wine is then aged on its non-disturbed lees for health and protection, and removed just before there is any risk of autolysis which could impart nondesirable yeast-like characteristics into the wine.
I visited Brewer-Clifton over the weekend and had a chance to listen to Greg explain these wines in person. Greg is a very precise and focused fellow. The winery at Brewer-Clifton is spotless, and completely lacking any clutter. There were ten of us at the visit, four more than expected. Greg went out and got another polished stainless steel table, and took five minutes to wash and expertly polish the four additional wine glasses. His presentation was focused and persuasive from the first word. The Diatom wines are just like Greg, focused, precise, intense and memorable.
Greg explained how the wines are made, including the long cold soak, and the use of "short hoses," and showed us the label, an elegant creation of grey and white on off-white. He originally wanted to use only white on off-white, but the Feds objected to the lack of contrast. If Greg could have figured out how to have a label on textured Japanese art paper, with the lettering raised but not otherwise colored (minimalist and refined), I'm sure he would have done so. The package is capped with a pure sparkling white wax capsule. There have been two releases so far, from the Clos Pepe and Huber vineyards.
The Clos Pepe was very light in color, almost white like water but with a hint of the palest straw. The nose showed citrus, and minerals, and though perhaps I only imagined it: steel. The wine has medium body, great intensity and a bracing and refreshing acidity. It was perfectly balanced and had a great and lingerling finish.
The Huber was a touch darker, more like pale straw and had a nose showing the same minerality but with a touch of tropical citrus in the background. The body was medium full, and showed more roundness in the mouth and more intense flavors. This was also balanced, but clearly was bigger and more intense than the Clos Pepe. The finish here was similarly long and impressive. It went on for a minute or more and coated my gums.
I can't tell if this is minimalist winemaking or maximalist, but it is tremendously fine and the results are impressive both for the wine and for the uniqueness of the vision and execution. These wines please both my palate and my intellect and are the most interesting wines I've tasted in months.
If these wines don't get your attention, you must be dead.
