Tuesday winebits 78: South African wine aroma, wine score silliness, Cornish wine
by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On
• That burnt rubber smell: South African red wine, and especially pinotage, has a distinctive aroma, similar to burning rubber or road blacktop. This has been the subject of many jokes in the wine world, but it’s actually a serious problem for the South Africans. Who wants to buy wine that smells like burnt rubber? What’s worse, they aren’t sure why that happens, reports Decanter.
• Wine scores don’t work, one more time: This, from very important French wine critic Michel Bettane, when asked to score a a couple of South African sauvignon blancs at a wine competition (and as reported by Neil Pendock, who was on the panel): “Michel, what do you score the first 60 and 80 (points of out of 100)?” How does that work — 80 if you like this grassy style of sauvignon, 60 if you do not?” Too bad the Wine Magazines don ?t try this approach.
• Cornish wine: As in Cornwall in southwestern England, because this is even a bit much for a regional wine devotee like the Wine Curmudgeon. A white wine from Camel Valley in Cornwall, where it seems to be always cold and rainy, won a gold medal at the very prestigious International Challenge in London. The wine is made with the bacchus grape, a hybird that makes riesling-style wines.
Re South African wine – as the Decanter report notes and despite your assertion, burning rubber is not associated with any one variety. The tasting and subsequent complaints that triggered the research being initiated did notinvolve a single Pinotage.
Seems like you come to Cornwall at the wrong time of year if its always cold and rainy for you 🙂
Bachus isn’t a hybrid, its a vinifera cross. I don’t know which English Bacchus wines you’ve tasted but I’ve never come across one that reminds me of Riesling, it’s usually made very dry and is much more like Sauvignon Blanc.