Brett sucks and I don't mean Favre

I have been finding more and more wines that contain offensive levels of off flavors produced by the wine spoilage yeast brettanomyces. I recently tried to start a discussion over at Vinography on the subject. Alder had written about a bottle of Chateau Beaucastel that he recently drank and I knew that the southern Rhone wines, Beaucastel in particular, can be some of the biggest offenders in the brett sweepstakes, often trying to claim it is terroir. To use my favorite Blogger word...bullshit.

I found the following article at Wineanorak very interesting. It is well written in that it addresses the science (which appeals to my engineering brain) while being readable for those not so scientifically inclined.

In some ways it supports my feelings about brett but in other ways supports the assertion that some brett (or rather the right molecule) is an advantage. In truth, I think it will always be subjective but there is no doubt that picking riper grapes opens up the door to residual sugar which can allow brett to flourish. It also seems to indicate that heat would exacerbate brett, even using Beaucastel in the article.

http://www.wineanorak.com/brettanomyces.htm

2005 Bordeaux futures tanking

Sam's Wine and Spirits in Chicago just ran a special offering 15% discounts on about 3 dozen Bordeaux futures from 2005. As I have commented on in the past, the release price of these futures was not only ridiculous but nearly illegal, in my estimation. I think Sam's already discounting their futures is an indication of two things:

1. These futures were overpriced initially.
2. The market for these wines will tank on release.

It serves the greedy buggers right. I hope they all get stuck with tons of overpriced wine. We will see.