Last week, we talked about boring wines. Today, the focus will be on exciting wines. For this topic, I have to turn to Dorothy J. Gaiter (Dottie) and John Brecher who wrote the Wall Street Journal’s wine column, “Tastings,” from 1998 to 2010. I hope you enjoy this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thank you to Grape Collective for their help with this article.
Introducing Dottie Gaiter and John Brecher
This wonderful married couple are journalists, authors and wine critics. They have been tasting and studying wine since 1973. Their “Tastings” column was very popular. In 2020, the University of California at Davis added their papers to the Warren Winiarski Wine Writers Collection in its library. They are well-known for their books and many television appearances, especially on Martha Stewart’s show.
They are also well known for inventing “Open That Bottle Night” (OTBN), where they encouraged their readers to open a symbolically significant bottle. The day was officially inaugurated in 2000 as the last Saturday in February. It’s one of my favorites.
What do Dottie and John say about OTBN? “We invented OTBN a quarter-century ago because all of us have wines that are so special to us and, in some cases, we can’t bear to open them because they are too precious. Our advice: Let those memories out. Any time is a great time to uncork those bottles, but we understand that sometimes we need support, and that’s what the OTBN community is all about.”
What Is Exciting Wine?
Last night, I had an exciting wine. It was a 2014 Picchetti Cabernet. What made it exciting? It was deep, complex, rich and mature. On the nose, we got plum and currant. On the taste, we got leather, licorice and, when we slurped, a hint of cherry. It was a wonderful wine.
When I tried to find articles about exciting wine, I could only find the one from Grape Collective. I found plenty of articles about great wine. One that I really liked by Wine Folly starts with a wonderful quote by Robert Mondavi: “Making good wine is a skill, making fine wine is an art.”
Wine Folly says there are four pillars that make up a great wine:
- Great grapes
- Great winemaking
- Longterm vision
- Art
Okay. I understand why these pillars are important for great wine. I would assume they’re important for exciting wine too.
What Do Dottie and John Say About Exciting Wine?
They say exciting wine is “a wine we talk about with each sip in a way that no one else could understand, not just because we have our own language of wine but we have our own history.”
Here is one exciting wine that they highlight: “It has been a very long time since ‘Sideways’ and it’s well past time to get over the Merlot thing. Still, how often is Merlot exciting? We fell in love with Cormorant Cellars 2021 Red Blend when we pulled the cork. The smell from the bottle immediately made us start taking notes. There was just so much fruit and earth and minerals. We finally poured and swooned over the first sip: rich, red fruit, a touch of blackberries and the kind of acidity and tannins that balance a wine and make it great with food. This is not Merlot, but it’s 72% Merlot, 24% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Petit Verdot – and 100% delicious, with all of the tastes and senses in harmony. It’s $47. Many years ago, we wrote about a Merlot from a then little-known winery called Pride Mountain, which went on to become very famous. It was not only our best in a broad blind tasting, but rocked our world in terms of what to expect from Merlot. This red took us all the way back to that beautiful wine.”
They talk about exciting wine confounding their expectations. A rosé from Provence did this for them.
Also, an unexpected wine can be an exciting wine. At an International Pinot Noir Celebration, “a man walked up to us and almost whispered, ‘Would you like to try a Syrah?’ That was so unexpected it seemed almost a little naughty. And then – whoa. We had only one sip and started flailing our arms, always a good sign of excitement.”
How do you define exciting wine? I would love to hear some of your favorites.
Cheers!
