How a wine changes once exposed to air is a favorite conversational topic in the world of ConsciousWine.

There’s a white wine called Savennieres from France’s Loire Valley, that is made from 100% Chenin Blanc. I was trying the 2004 Domaine du Closel “Clos Papillon” Savennieres. The bottle sat around, opened for a couple of days without my returning to it since the initial opening. I was shocked to see what happened. A fairly one-dimensional, straightforward wine had become one of diversity, layers, long lingering and intrigue. Over the next several days, it continued to be delish, creating great storytelling opportunites.

This led me to do a video with multiple bottles of the same ConsciousWine. The goal was to show how a “natural,” well-made wine would change over five days of being open.

Bill & Barbara Steele, owners of Cowhorn Vineyards, offered their 2007 Syrah for the task. The crazy part was that the vines for this wine were planted in June 2005, meaning they were a little over 2 years old. It often takes twice that long for vines to create interesting wine. We’ll give kudos to their farming Biodynamically® for helping to make this possible.

This video is long at 18 minutes and 26 seconds. It’s a great example of something really magical with wine.

Here’s a play by play so you can scoot ahead to the parts that grab you most, or just get a glass of wine and go for the whole thing! When wine meets air, it makes all the difference in real, honest, natural and ConsciousWine.

The Play by Play

00:01   Very enthusiastic intro

00:43   What is natural wine?

01:48   Meet winemaker Bill Steele

2:10     Overview of what we’re doing

3:55     Tasting the 1^st wine: A freshly opened bottle

…What’s with the slurping & spitting? Check out The Pleasure in the Glass video!

5:49     Tasting the 2^nd wine: Opened 1 day before

…There’s some eye opening changes compared to the freshly opened bottle

8:40     Tasting the 3^rd wine: Opened 2 days before

…Tip: Smell the empty glass to get a sneak peek into what a wine will smell like after it’s been open for an extra day or so.

12:05   Tasting the 4^th wine: Opened 3 days before

…Bill smiles on the first sniff

15:20   Tasting the 5^th wine: Opened 4 days before

…Riding the waves of flavor…

17:00   Natural wine loves to unfold, like we do

Wine & Time is part of what makes ConsciousWine a consciousness raising experience. A well-made wine, made naturally will offer a journey. Like a good book, the cover seduced you in, but the story unfolded along the way. Enjoy the ride!

Jeff

In Demystifying Natural Wine, Digging Deeper, Jeff's Blog, Tasting Wine, Wineries | Tagged with biodynamic, education, natural wine, oregon, tasting notes