Shnoodlepip by Wild Beer Co

Shnoodlepip by Wild Beer Co + Good George Brewing Co (NZ) + Burning Sky Brewery - 6.5% abv

Once upon a time, there was ale, and there was wine. And never the twain shall meet. Then a dining scene took the palates to hitherto unexplored reaches, and this shook the foundations of common or garden dining. And it shook the manner and authenticity of wine in its  fermenting, its ageing, the multiplicity of flavours having signatures as well as sense of place, and woe betide heavy handed manipulation. Brewcraft too explored recipes, Belgique and European heritage, and was prepared to diversify, to boldly take on flavour studding and arrive at complex, dining enhancing beers. These are, indeed, the best of times.

Shnoodlepip, sounds like a Dickensian miscreant. It isn't. It is funky, for sure, funky, sweaty fruit and feral on the nose, clean, linear palate, brettanomyces and subtle spice over a moderately carbonated Saison. Spelt grain is used to lend body, Pink Peppercorns an aromatic spice, Saison and Brettanomyces yeast strains bring a dry spicy character, and finishing with wood-ageing in French red wine barrels for 3 months before a chock load of Hibiscus Flowers complete the brew. Well-toned, this is a 1* Michelin Beer, correct, held in check, sour notes matched by full flavour and twisty windey spice notes, exotic fruit flavours of passion fruit, papaya and guava. I've heard it touted as the World's best beer. It isn't. But the brewers and their experimental edge may well ruffle feathers, garner plaudits and make for great dining beers. It's another meeting place where funky Natural Wines meet Brewcraft, where flavour spectrums inform each other. Which, I suppose, is a love-song of sorts!

Siren Bière de Gouttière, Belgian Saison

Poor man's Champagne, Siren Bière de Gouttière, Belgian Saison 4.4% abv - it's gout! I'd get oot more often if the beverages were as gout as this!

hazy, bone-dry, pin prick carbonation, delicate, refreshing, wood shavings, herbaceous (burdock root!), thyme, dryed grass, sous bois woodland. Easy brew!

Collab brew by Siren + Jon Laffler from Off Colour Brewing (formerly of Goose Island, Chicago).

F.e.S.T.i.V.a.L.

One goes to Festivals, one has been to Festivals, each one unique, each the epicentre of the extraordinary.

A mood-setting Festival Playlist is -

a very serious affair

meant to excite (oneself, if no one else)

to bamboozle

to be broader than the horizon

A mood-setting Festival Playlist -

should weird you out

and pump you up

make you wanna groove

embrace the un-familiar

A mood-setting Festival Playlist should -

mix the high-octane and the shit-hot

acknowledge one's musical heritage

know all too well that man lives not be bread alone

be a soupçon, a taster to galvanise the palate

A mood-setting Festival Playlist is -

a point in time, a pre-prandial

foreplay

a roll in the hay

an auditory buzz direct to the pleasure receptors, a kick start to the synapses

Saperavi, earthenware, and Ruby Wax

Saperavi Vita Vinea by Generation, Kakheti, Georgia 2011

Why be bothered about an ageing vessel? Buried pots, at that. When the juice is this good, this satisfying, one had better sit up straight. The spotlighted wine was aged and fermented in Qvevri (sunken clay amphorae lined with beeswax), the time-honoured tradition of winemaking from the country with the longest unbroken history of winemaking, Georgia. 

One gawps, noting a rich ruby core with a youthful garnet rim, starbright in appearance with stained tears and a medium+ viscosity. On the beak, there's compote black fruits, damsons, blackberries, some dried fig, pomegranate, tobacco leaf, herby sage leaf, Bertie Bassett candied liquorice; and quaffing, one notes an appealing sappiness, coupled with a most remarkable tannin structure. Where wood aged wines may show a long-chain tannin structure, this wine has a kind of reflex relay switch between astringent grip > juice > more grip > more juice. Cascading, and generous, there's oodles and cornucopias of primary fruit, not a hint of brett or funk, a most beguiling, satisfying glug.

Pegasus Bay, Waipara Valley - with age, the song stands the test of time.

With awareness, care, and delicacy, the Opera Singer fine tunes their instrument, their voice, ready for performance with nuance and power of expression. An aged wine also often calls for the care and aeration that decanting offers (sedimentation aside), allowing the wine to relax, spread its' wings, find its' voice.

It's high time for a rebuttal of the economically driven tendency to infanticide of wine releases fresh from the bottling run of the winery - the rush to market of wines just out of barrel, slurped to bottle and hoofed to bonded warehouses, ready to go, eager to be paraded, seldom to be cellared. Pinot Noir possesses about it that most graceful of ageing potentials that's anathema to the (all too New World) tendency to drink wine in its' infancy. Who pays for the cellaring is open to conjecture, but it's a given that that time and expression can be the most suitable of bedfellows, that the complete evolutionary arc may be realised, or at least glimpsed.

Visiting from New Zealand, Pegasus Bay and Ed Donaldson gifted a wonderful opportunity to showcase the ageing potential of wines from a top New Zealand producer spread over a different ranges of wines, different cultivars, and multiple vintages all the way back to 2001.

Estate Pinot Noir - showing earthy sous bois undertones, red fruits and raspberry pips, long-chain tannins are indicative of this quality range. A notch up from the Main Divide range which show great value, primary fruited but with good grip and structure.

let's get serious - served from Magnum estate Pinot Noir 2001 - still with a wonderful acidity, truffley and earthy sous bois, earl grey tea, sage and garden herbs, top medium+ length, serve alongside a village Gevrey Chambertin and take your pick.

made in only the best years, Prima Donna is the Reserve range of oldest vines selected from the best barrels in the best vintages. Bringing an extra meaty savoury dimension to fruits of the forest, there's real depth and layers, roasting meats, sage and thyme herbs, good tannic grip and retaining a marked acidity, these are masculine and flex muscle, able to stir like Pavorotti.

Auslese style Riesling with some botrytised fruit for added lusciousness and richness, honeyed citrus and a medium+ acidity make for toothsome wines with poached sweet orange and baked apple fruit, age begets wines of fine song. 

Encore, take a bow. Trockenbeerenaulese style, 200 grams/litre residual sugar juxta zippy acidity, the song never ends.

...and finally, Finale. Barrique matured Noble Semillon only produced in years nature permits, from old and new French barrels and aged for 2 years. Oxidative rancio fruit with candied fruits, barley sugar, burnt sugar and savoury nut brittle, it's a food match playground. 

'tis the season for les saisonniers

Potlatch by Omnipollo X Prairie brewed at De Proef Brouwerij, Stockholm 7% abv

A seasonally adjusted Saison, aka a Farmhouse Ale hopped exclusively with Mosaic and refermented with brettanomyces, the funky duck walk stuff.

Frothy foamy head with a cloudy body from bottle conditioning, full straw/pale amber in colour.

Earthy aromas of hay and composting grass, bready esters, bakery wafts.

Palate is dry, all fresh with a zingy moderate carbonation and forward flavours of lemon ginger punch, bergamot, creamed honey, with seasoning (saisoning) of white pepper and clove notes, medium minus bitterness, malty body carries the beer with delicacy. 

The workers will be happy and productive, loyal too.

Voodoo Chile - gazing through a glass, kaleidoscopically

De Martino Viejas Tinajas Muscat 2012 Valle del Itata

One begins, like all great adventures, noting the colour, the appearance of the wine before thee. Amber core to pale rim, translucent, cloudy. The wine in question comes from ungrafted vines aged Viejas Tinajas, in old terracotta amphorae with minimal intervention. The Romans would be most pleased to see that it's not just their roads that endure. 

From there the journey meanders, most unexpectedly, and one is reminded of that most spectacular SP68 Zibbibo from Arianna Occhipinti of Sicily, a former Top 3 of the Year circa 2012. Aromatic and fragrant with a medium+ intensity, this is a shapeshifter, a kaleidoscopic wine that reveals a panopoly of aromas. At first sweet orange blossom, jasmine, poached pear, herbs, anise, quirky notes of ready rub tobacco and cherry lips, a complex fruit basket of varying proportions.

The palate reveals texture, dry with a sweet core, there's ruffles of grip, explosions of flavour that mirror the aromas, a moderate acidity carries a wine that has a finish to infinity and beyond. One follows trails of flavour that tease and cajole, this is a wine that doesn't want to be understood, but appreciated, like a journey that doesn't end, but begins with another journey. 

One is exhilarated, and there's change in the pocket. This isn't a fine wine, this is an extraordinary wine. For that, we give thanks.