Weird Wine of the Week
There are about as many ways to make wine as there are to skin a cat. In our new Weird Wine of the Week (WWOW) feature we’ll explore some wines that are a bit off of the beaten path and made in a not-so-traditional fashion. We’ll also get to know some of the passionate, mad scientists making these wines. If you think this is all in an effort just to indulge our quirky, eclectic palates while daring everyone to try something new…well, you’d be right! With so many people utilizing alternative wine making methods these days we thought it would be fun to learn a little something while tasting some new and different wines…Take a sip, we dare you!
Our inaugural wine for Weird Wine of the Week is…(drum roll please.) The Scholium Project’s Riquewihr, Lost Slough Vineyard Gewurztraminer, 2009! The Scholium Project is the brainchild of Abe Schoener, a former philosophy student who caught the wine bug while in college. The rest, as they say, is history! Abe and his crew prefer a ‘non-interventionist’ style of winemaking. The wine is ready to be bottled when it tastes right to them. They don’t even introduce or inoculate the wine with foreign yeast. This all happens naturally, eventually, and they are happy to patiently wait for their wine to be done.
The 2009 vintage marks the first time that they had experimented with the winemaking for the gewürztraminer. The grapes were crushed to press and they also played around with barrel fermentations and even skin fermentations. This is an intense Gewurztraminer filled with minerality. The vineyard can be tasted in the wine! This is a perfect match for Chef’s seafood and all dishes with a bit of spice.
Don’t miss a chance to try this supremely different and wonderful wine…Get weird.
Robert Wailes is the manager and head Adult Beverage Consultant for Café Adelaide and the Swizzle Stick bar in New Orleans. He has been interested in wine and adult beverages for as long as he can remember (seriously!).