Mostly on wine. Also: IRM/InfoSec/I-Advisory and -Audit services. Positive contrarian, inspirator, loosen-upper.
Hey why are so many using PICNIC instead of the age-old PEBKAC ..? No, I’m not complaining ‘because’ old, nor on the ‘ …, got the T-shirt’ route. Just would want to know. Is it that the latter is too difficult to remember the meaning of ..? If so: Sad for its Shallows calibre. If otherwise: Please advise.
Well then…:
[Trismegistus’ view on things. Obvious where.]
Of course Cerf is right. But also … is the opposite side; human error would be harmless (save the Almost part) when vulnerabilities wouldn’t be attacked. As long as they exist, they will. And human error will exist; that’s just the way our genes, and memes, and all of Nature, play it out. The instability of Nature (here and here!) means evolution happens, works. On the Changing-environment- and on the trial-through-error sides.
Hence, you’re still where you started. Still pursuing max fault-freedom but sure to not achieve it. I.e., in danger — the Condition Humaine since the dawn of Time (on that in a PhD thesis, some other time) and dismissing Hegelian progress fantasies, forever.
Well then, to leave in a positive tone:
[No time ?? for R&R; outside Siena]
The rage seems to be with chat bots, lately. Haven’t met any, but that may only be me — not being interesting enough to be overwhelmed by their calls.
Which will happen, in particular to those in society that have less than perfect resistance against the various modes of telesales and other forms of social engineering (for phishing and other nefarious purposes) already. Including all sorts of otherwise-possibly-bright-and-genius-intelligent-but (??)-having-washed-up-in-InfoSec-for-lack-of-genuine-societal-intelligence types like us. But these being the ones of all stripes that ‘we’ need to protect, rather than the ones apparently already so heavily loaded that they can spare the dime for development of such hyper-scaling ultra-travelling foot-in-the-door salesmen. Is this the end stage, where none have a clue as to which precious little interaction is still actually human-to-human, and the rest may be discarded ..?
As for the latter … It raises the question of Why, in communications as a human endeavor… Quite a thought.
But for the time being, you’re hosed, anti-phishing-through-social-engineeringwise.
Just sayin’. Plus:
[Retreat, a.k.a. Run to the hills / Run for your life; but meant positively! Monte Olivieto Maggiore near Siena]
Just a repost, as due to some obvious glitch, the below didn’t get the chart storming air play it deserves (hence, it must’ve been a glitch).
[To the music of Indeep — somewhat outdated lyrics but what style …]
Last night an information risk / security management professional saved my desktop PC life
Last night an information risk / security management professional saved my desktop PC life
Cause I was sittin’ there screen of death’d bored to death
And in just one breath he chatted said
You gotta reboot get up
You gotta reload get on
You gotta restore get down girl
You know you drive me #DIV/0! crazy baby
You’ve got me turning to another OS man
Called you on the VOIP phone
No one’s pinging back home
Baby why ya leave me all >dev/null alone
And if it wasn’t for the endless GitHub surfing music
I don’t know what I’d do
Last night an information risk / security management professional saved my desktop PC life
Last night an information risk / security management professional saved my desktop PC life from a broken pipe heart
Last night an information risk / security management professional saved my desktop PC life
Last night an information risk / security management professional saved my desktop PC life with a patch song
You know I hopped into my notepad car
Didn’t need to leave the coffee shop get very far no
Because I had you on my stash of data-breached X-rated pics mind
Why only give you a ticket and secretly close it immediately be so unkind?
You’ve got your hapless users women all around
All around this AD town, boy
But I was trapped in the SLA from hell love with you
And I didn’t know what to do
But when I turned on my RTFManual radio
I found out all I needed to key in know
Run the diagnostics kit Check it out
Last night an information risk / security management professional saved my desktop PC life
Last night an information risk / security management professional saved my desktop PC life from a broken pipe heart
Last night an information risk / security management professional saved my desktop PC life
Last night an information risk / security management professional saved my desktop PC life with a patch song
Last night an information risk / security management professional saved my desktop PC life
Last night an information risk / security management professional saved my desktop PC life from a broken pipe heart
Last night an information risk / security management professional saved my desktop PC life
Last night an information risk / security management professional saved my desktop PC life with a patch song
Hey listen up to your local information risk / security management professional
You better hear what he’s got to type so fast you can’t keep track say
There’s not a problem that I can’t fix
Cause I can do it in the rogue exploit suite mix
And if your crappy ol’ XP machine man gives you trouble
Just you step away from the keyboard move out on the double
And you don’t let it trouble your ‘brain’ brain
Cause away goes PEBKAC troubles
Down the drain
I said away goes PEBKAC troubles
Down the drain
Last night an information risk / security management professional saved my desktop PC life
There’s not a problem that I can’t fix
Cause I can do it in the rogue exploit suite mix
There’s not a problem that I can’t fix
Cause I can do it in the rogue exploit suite mix
Last night an information risk / security management professional saved my desktop PC life
There’s not a problem that I can’t fix
Cause I can do it in the rogue exploit suite mix
There’s not a problem that I can’t fix
Cause I can do it in the rogue exploit suite mix
Quite an improvement indeedp … And leaving you with, of course a new pic:
[Old and new in one pic … Haut K again]
This episode, by reference to the excellent Future Crimes (Marc Goodman, as here), one originally by G.K. Chersterton (The Blue Cross):
The criminal is the creative artist; the detective only the critic
To which we would want to add: And the auditor, only the disgruntled desk-bound traffic cop.
Since, the checker (and penaliser) of the trivial petty little rules, should remain in the third line, right ..?
Where by the way, the creativity of the artist is required to make the art work that sells — and hence all make their living off straightforward crime or would perish. The more you bureaucratise into totalitarianism, the more you see life wither, till death. Even if the crime keeps on being perpetrated — by laxity of the second and particularly third lines, in cahoots with the profiteers. … Maybe that’s a bit deep-but-overly-lapidary …
Hence, just:
[Panopticon Central, Strassbourg]
The @Starbucks logo once again, in an unsuspected place. Like, this:
[Haut Koenigsbourg castle indeed, in the Alsace]
Begging for some explanation. Why here, in/on a 190x rebuild of a medieval (origin) castle in the middle of (Western) Europe, no Norse sailor in sight? As previously mentioned, there’s more to it than some simple explanation. Hopefully.
E.g., any History grad student interested to write a thesis on this? Said coffee house might be found willing to provide a stipend …? ;-|
For this one’s exact location:
[I.e., in the very inner courtyard, where no Norseman ever arrived (back in the day)]
After last (mentioned, linked) post, the answer was inconclusive unless 50-50 is a conclusion… Let’s hope for better, this time…
Not just any sin, the Original one. Eating from the ultimate source of Knowledge that Big, Totalitarian, All-Thinkable Data is, in the ideal (quod non).
We WEIRDS (White, Educated, Industrialised, Rich Democratic people), a.k.a. Westeners, know what that leads to. Forever we will toil on spurious correlations…
Kan de gezamenlijke restaurantwereld in NL nou eens ophouden met die nonsens van “Hoog Op Smaak” en gewoon toegeven dat er door iedere gang een AKZO-jaaromzet zout gaat omdat de ingrediënten zó goedkoop moesten dat er geen enkele smaak aan zat ..?
[Edited to add: Nog erger als koks gaan beweren niet zo veel zout toe te voegen maar de smaak ‘umami’ maken. Een emmer MSG erbij gooien bedoelen ze dan. De betekenis en vertaling van ‘umami’ was tot voor kort ‘van alles veel’. Toch vreemd, dat we sinds de Romeinen vissaus kennen, vol van ‘umami’-glutamaten en afgeleiden, maar dat we nooit een woord ervoor hadden, of het als smaak bestempelden. Maar ja, het tikt vele receptoren aan hè? Dus het kan geen variant zijn van een van de vier basissmaken ..? Net als marsepein een aparte smaak is tenslotte, want naast heel veel zoet zit er ook een klein beetje andere smaak bij dus zoet op zich is marsepein niet ..?? Iemand een uitleg waar ‘basis’ voor staat in basissmaken ..?
En dat zout en ‘umami’ zo’n beetje hetzelfde effect hebben … Inderdaad, ze hebben beide het effect van smaakkoppoetsing door papillenactivering. Nou en?
Door met wat er al stond; lees aldaar dus MSG als :]
Heel triest om te zien dat ook vele ‘sterren’koks et al., zich er zo consequent aan bezondigen. Goede ingrediënten hebben geen volle Dode Zee / chemiefabriek (!) nodig om smaakvol te zijn. Die sterren zijn ze echt niet waard. Tot nu toe slechts zegge 1 (schrijve: één) (ja ik weet het, zucht) Michelin-ster tegengekomen (i.e., geproefd) die de ster ook echt waard was. De rest (t/m 3*!): Nee hoor; effectbejag met een over de hele dichtgepletterde poging tot ‘umami’ door alle eigenheid aan smaak van de ingrediënten weg te poetsen met 3651 vrachtwagenladingen natriumchloride. Waar waren die sterren ook alweer voor? Toch niet alleen om ze als zodanig te voelen, waar de zon nooit schijnt, na beschikbaarstelling aan de keurmeesters van die bandenleverancier? Want het keukenproduct … oh zo vaak middelmatig, zeer middelmatig.
Dit soort proletarische vervoosde degeneratie-decadentie staat natuurlijk naast natuurlijk een flink aantal niet-sterrententen die het begrepen hebben ‘maar daardoor geen ster halen’. Die gewoon weten hoe je de kwaliteit van ingrediënten kan halen zonder die te vernietigen, door te beginnen met goede ingrediënten en die geen geweld aan te doen. Als de (on)geachte cliëntèle dat niet proeft: Pech. Move over. Ga maar naar de Schotse keten, daar pep je de boel maar op met ketchup en mayo. Dá’s pas smaak, toch …!?
Zout kan je er niet uit halen, wel erin als je aan tafel zo nodig moet laten blijken te grof te zijn voor finesse.
Enfin, zo kan ik nog wel doorgaan. Rest, voor nu:
[Sombertjes; hoog daarboven, op de schouders/berg, een ruïne, beneden rest een zoete kledder (gemiddeld); Ribeauvillé]
As @swiftonsecurity (and of course @meneer of #ditchcyber fame) and others may improve since the rhythm is only almost perfect, already this:
[To the music but outdated lyrics of Indeep — but what style …
(Hey @ESCIA is that you with the mic ..?)]
Last night an information risk / security management professional saved my desktop PC life
Last night an information risk / security management professional saved my desktop PC life
Cause I was sittin’ there screen of death’d bored to death
And in just one breath he chatted said
You gotta reboot get up
You gotta reload get on
You gotta restore get down girl
You know you drive me #DIV/0! crazy baby
You’ve got me turning to another OS man
Called you on the VOIP phone
No one’s pinging back home
Baby why ya leave me all >dev/null alone
And if it wasn’t for the endless GitHub surfing music
I don’t know what I’d do
Last night an information risk / security management professional saved my desktop PC life
Last night an information risk / security management professional saved my desktop PC life from a broken pipe heart
Last night an information risk / security management professional saved my desktop PC life
Last night an information risk / security management professional saved my desktop PC life with a patch song
You know I hopped into my notepad car
Didn’t need to leave the coffee shop get very far no
Because I had you on my stash of data-breached X-rated pics mind
Why only give you a ticket and secretly close it immediately be so unkind?
You’ve got your hapless users women all around
All around this AD town, boy
But I was trapped in the SLA from hell love with you
And I didn’t know what to do
But when I turned on my RTFManual radio
I found out all I needed to key in know
Run the diagnostics kit Check it out
Last night an information risk / security management professional saved my desktop PC life
Last night an information risk / security management professional saved my desktop PC life from a broken pipe heart
Last night an information risk / security management professional saved my desktop PC life
Last night an information risk / security management professional saved my desktop PC life with a patch song
Last night an information risk / security management professional saved my desktop PC life
Last night an information risk / security management professional saved my desktop PC life from a broken pipe heart
Last night an information risk / security management professional saved my desktop PC life
Last night an information risk / security management professional saved my desktop PC life with a patch song
Hey listen up to your local information risk / security management professional
You better hear what he’s got to type so fast you can’t keep track say
There’s not a problem that I can’t fix
Cause I can do it in the rogue exploit suite mix
And if your crappy ol’ XP machine man gives you trouble
Just you step away from the keyboard move out on the double
And you don’t let it trouble your ‘brain’ brain
Cause away goes PEBKAC troubles
Down the drain
I said away goes PEBKAC troubles
Down the drain
Last night an information risk / security management professional saved my desktop PC life
There’s not a problem that I can’t fix
Cause I can do it in the rogue exploit suite mix
There’s not a problem that I can’t fix
Cause I can do it in the rogue exploit suite mix
Last night an information risk / security management professional saved my desktop PC life
There’s not a problem that I can’t fix
Cause I can do it in the rogue exploit suite mix
There’s not a problem that I can’t fix
Cause I can do it in the rogue exploit suite mix
Quite an improvement indeedp … And leaving you with, of course:
Strange. The last couple of weeks, months, have seen a resurgence of “Anything that is not explicitly forbidden, is allowed.”
Which was, well, true in only the most devolved, twisted (pejorative sense) means/ends ethics and morals discussions. And still is. But suddenly, there’s a new angle: All that aren’t involved in the spoils of such tactics (not being rich enough to have used Panama Paper style constructions, even when not aware as such vulgar ‘money’ things had been handled by sycophant minions (of mind, certainly)), want the overthrow of the said sad sentence, by including that all that is permitted, should not be done when (not if) the moral higher ground would forbid it, still.
I can agree. Being in the category of … well mostly having first-world problems and not (much) more. But then again, it strikes me as odd that somehow, we don’t have good handles to straighten out the wicked ones — bar revolution. Because our legal system doesn’t seem to be as strict as it once was; forbidding all that was not allowed for a proper functioning of society. There have been changes to society… Where theft is still impermissible if of physical stuff, but in many ways is perfectly good to go when by failure to act, like many 1%ers. Though Aristoteles (Ethica Nicomachea; read the damn thing!) rightly would frown upon such dimwittedness but there.
So, actually, law would have to change but hasn’t. The very ones to be controlled by it, of course, are the first through the escape vents. And, Pikettyan or Elysium style, might prevent catching up categorically.
We could discuss on and on. But prevalent is: Now what ..? So, for the time being:
[‘Coloured in, otherwise too bleak your future is’; The Hague]
Voor sigaren bepalen we het profiel aan de hand van de criteria Smaak, Balans, Body, Sterkte, Aroma en Finish.
Voor Smaak pakken we het aromawiel erbij. Let wel I; wat u proeft of verwacht, kan gedurende de diverse fasen van het roken nog variëren... En let wel II; er zijn ook aspecten die nog niet zozeer als aroma staan aangegeven in het wiel, we denken aan termen als (ja de sigarenwereld is langzamerhand, helaashelaas US-, Engels geworden) zesty, tangy, floral, en earthy, of soms zelfs metallic. Lijkende termen die een combi zouden kunnen zijn van diverse aromas en papillaire en olfactorische/nasale sensaties en -tactiele invloeden. Hierbij komen termen als 'complex' uiteraard ook bijgepakt, om in dit geval te beschrijven dat er vele aromas herkenbaar zijn. Rustig roken, dat is niet alleen beschaafder en allerlei sigarenrokeneffecten-versterkend maar biedt ook meer kans om aromas te onderscheiden.
Balans is voor de hand liggend; of de zoete, zure, zoute en bittere tonen (OK, en 'umami'...) in balans zijn. Ja, ook bij een sigaar – al zal het meestal gaan over de balans tussen 'creamy' en 'spicy' en gaat het meestal mis door te veel bitter of te veel spiciness.
Body gaat over de volheid, in dit geval vooral te bepalen aan de volheid, dikte, dichtheid van de rook. Die ook een gevoel geeft; 'light' is als een licht bier, 'full-bodied' is als een rechttoe-rechtaan whisky of cognac.
Overigens hoort bij Body ook textuur, 'leathery', 'meaty', 'silky', 'creamy', 'soft', 'succulent', 'woody', 'chalky', 'dry', 'oily' en 'spicy'. Die dus net niet hetzelfde zijn als de aroma-indicatoren uit het wiel; soms overlappend. Niet handig maar zo is het nu eenmaal.
Sterkte is een wat eenvoudiger maat voor het nicotinegehalte van de sigaar. De topbladeren van een tabaksplant heeft meer nicotine dan de lagere bladeren – me(n) dunkt dat de topbladeren zijn waar de plant verder wil groeien en dus betere bescherming nodig heeft van de nico; lager is het wat ouder en 'expendible' dus ga je daar als plant niet je nico op concentreren ..? Waar de sigaar van gemaakt is, heeft dus invloed. Kan je meestal niet kiezen, maar wel proeven. Rustig roken is ook hier handig; om een nico-klap/duizel te voorkomen bij het opstaan.
Aroma dan, vervolgens. Ook hier kan het aromawiel worden ingezet. Vreemd genoeg is het moeilijk de aromas te bepalen als we zelf roken; iemand anders' rook kunnen we beter analyseren. Of we blazen de rook door de neus uit ('retrohaleren'), dan hebben we wel de volle verfijning (ga ik vanuit, lezer!) van onze neus ter beschikking. Bedenk bij het 'benoemen' overigens dat we veel meer uit ons geheugen putten, qua eten en drinken!, dan we wellicht zelf(s) denken. Dus rare smaken herkennen is niet raar.
De Finish ten slotte is kort of lang, naargelang de aromas lang op de tong (sic) blijven hangen. Milde sigaren zijn nogal eens kort – hetgeen niks zegt over de complexiteit, overigens. Hierin zit ook de reden om een zwaar (sterkte)kanon na een milde te nemen, niet andersom.
Als het gaat over de champagnes en hun profielen, pakken we er de (echte en semi-)klassieke wijn-analyses bij die we allemaal wel kennen; onderscheidend in [Hier verder. In ieder geval https://www.wijnwinewein.nl/hoe-proef-je-wijn/ en aromawiel + zuurgraad/tannines/body(viscositeit/alcohol/tannines/smaakintensiteit/mondgevoel)/afdronk + Aanzet/Zuren/Zachtheid/Tannine/Body en alcohol/Afdronk/Smaken dus de aromas bijna-los van structurele criteria. Dan de smaken matchen met die van sigaren, of niet; Klosse's overlap/contrasten erbij halen en dan verder. En toespitsen op champagnes... pak het smaak-plaatje van het CIVC erbij!]
Dear reader; bij deze dus de waarschuwing dat u vanaf hier (?, inderdaad, echt niet alleen hier) serieus te lange zinnen tegenkomt.
Ach, daar ben ik me prima van bewust, mijn hele blog is immers ook een poging tot schrijfoefening in alle facetten. Sommige posts daar blinken uit door korte zinnen en ellipsis; ook deze pagina is opgesteld als tegenwicht. En ik vertrouw erop dat u dat gewoon doorlezend aankunt.
Als voorbeeld: Oplettende lezers zullen opmerken dat onderstaande waar het uitweidingen achter links naar andere pagina's betreft wellicht beter met behulp van OnMouseOver's, alt-tekstblokken of andere tags per pop-uppable item zou kunnen zijn geïmplementeerd maar ik heb het zo gekozen en ik kan best komma's toevoegen in deze zin maar ook dat heb ik achterwege gelaten zonder de leesbaarheid of de begrijpbaarheid in het gedrang te brengen.
Inderdaad, het ontwikkelde, ik schreef, een en ander vanuit een voortdurende, voortgaande research. Na zoeken in het wilde weg algemeen, navraag bij het Comité (iv) Champagne, een aanvullend zelfzoeken met Google Satellite én Street View zowel rond de officiële als in het algemeen, kwam ik tot de Lijst Van (uiteindelijk) 84. De en passant gevonden kaarten leidden tot enige aanvulling. Toen kwam ik Weinlagen.de tegen en tsja dan ben ik niet meer te houden qua sys-te-matisch alle streken én plaatsjes af! Hoewel, ... in onderstaande tabel heb ik maar niet meer voor ieder stuks de Street View erop losgelaten of onderstaand ingevuld. Terwijl ik er vanuit ga dat dit alles nog aanvulling kan krijgen ... Les Clos Inconnus zijn uiteraard zichzelf.
De gangen kwamen al zeer onregelmatig door, en met andere tafels die uitliepen en/of (weer) bijtrokken, tot zeer ver inhalen zelfs, tot gang 6 van de 7 tachtig (schrijve: 80) minuten op zich liet wachten, ondanks diverse malen navraag. Waarna het nauwelijks-opgewarmde pompoen met koude polenta bleek te zijn; "dat hoort zo" ammehoela. Nee, het niet-koude nagerecht erna hebben we niet gehaald; we zijn opgestaan en weggegaan. Die zien ons nooit meer, zeker omdat de bediening ook Zwak was (gangen aan verkeerde tafeltjes serveren want die waren al twee gangen verder), etc. En balsimaco-saus dus, 'et al.'...
Huh, da's écht voor de Insiders..? Inmiddels wel toegestaan als aanplant, maar nog zo'n drie tot tien jaar onderweg voor er de eerste re-de-lijke wijnen van kunnen worden gemaakt en dan is het nog maar afwachten. Je weet het niet van tevoren hè, met zo'n <em>non-Vinifera</em> druivensoort..! En dan had je Floreal, Artaban en Vidoc nog niet gezien. Die mogen (in de toekomst) ook... En dan is het Comité Champagne ook nog bezig met kruisingen van de Top 3, Arbane, Meslier, en Gouais. #feest
Laherte Petit Meslier in the tasting round
Yes @laherteaurelien makes a monocépage of this one. Great Meslier it is:
The golden colour would suggest something dosée, but look closer and you notice a hue which points to slight bitter influences. And indeed, on the nose we get a whiff of smoke, certainly straight after the pour; quite an opportunity to use the word ‘empyreumatic’... Did I mention Meslier already? One to one it is. But nothing referring to your cooking qualities; it’s more like a distant secondhand puff of Belinda – I’d not suggest you buy that for comparison; trust me as smoker it’s trash but as Meslier aroma it’s excellent full stop. Crispy dry cigar smoke fits better.
Certainly, since this all is followed up, much more persistently, with quite some mature lemon and a whole slew of herbs and spices notes. It smells like a merry-go-round of eucalyptus, dill, thyme, spearmint, soft mint, basil, anison, verveine... wormwood even; those that know génépi, find it here, too.
The first sip jumps in with a most delicate mousse, a sensible but not too fatty mouthfeel, nicely balanced with lemon dominant in combo, and ginger/pineapple/mirabelle and dry lemon rind flipping back and forth. In the remarkably long finish, the rind does a gentle cleanse.
But I couldn’t find any cardamom that some mention, nor cocoa or coffee. All in all, in cocktail terms it would fit in the range of the French 75 and a Fleurette.
I’ve tried a little bite of camembert, but you shouldn’t. The bitter of the wine is lost but notches up in the cheese, which tastes odd. The fit with lightly aged Comté or same-Gouda is perfect, however. Sushi should work, too, if with a suitably subtle pinch of wasabi, no more – harsh coriander, algae, chervil, wasabi as such weren’t in the nose.
In summary: All of you should have a taste of this one, or one couldn’t be trusted on champagne connoisseurship.
[Degorge 12-2021, hence the progressed maturity]
Links:
https://maverisk.nl/de-forgotten-four/ for Petit Meslier
https://maverisk.nl/champ-sigaar/ on the cigar smoke angle
https://maverisk.nl/geneprima-spul-hoor/ on génépi
https://maverisk.nl/mirabelle-wil-iedereen-welle/ on mirabelle
@champagnepascalmazet make quite an interesting range of wines, fully certified bio since 1980. We tasted the Cuvée Originel bottling of 2014, for its 35% Pinot Blanc of course; interested to learn how such a Forgotten Four lead, with the three Usual Suspects trailing, would work out.
‘Splendidly’ is the answer.
The gold is striking, the nose is suitably complex. One gets mint, cucumber, cornichon tartness (I mean, the true kind of https://www.kesbeke.nl/) and some olive.
On the palate, it switches to agrumes-allsorts. Yuzu, lightly pre-ripened apricot (yes there’s acidity in there), sparkling grape (ah.) and a hint of almond already. This slowly develops into lemon-grapefruit on the one hand, and yellow curry / pineapple on the other, with a tangerine almost orange'y element integrating both sides. I’d say, there’s a marbling of mirabelle (in Dutch: https://maverisk.nl/mirabelle-wil-iedereen-welle/) running through it as well.
‘But’ overall it certainly is far from flubby (the 3g dosage having turned into the above, no sirup) or acidic. The quality of it all, and the light oak touch, twist all the richness back towards the freshness of citrus zest. And did I mention the mousse is still there, slowly releasing?
Towards the lingering finish, this all persists in a extremely well-balanced acidity and a hint of minerality and sophisticated bitterness.
Am I happy to have another one of these standing ready
Marie Courtin Présence
I bought the @ch_mariecourtin for the 1/3 Pinot Blanc (of course: https://tinyurl.com/ForgotFour !). High expectations, exceeded.
First off, the yellow-golden almost amber colour would promise some sweet almost creamy elements. But with a delightfully tingle from a fresh mousse, and a light bitter-tartness in the nose, the picture turns around completely. There’s Mirabelle ..! [As per: https://tinyurl.com/Mirabellepg]
The palate is perfect; not too much mousse so the real ‘wine’ taste is clear, and the Mirabelle keeps on coming. The mouth feel overall is well-balanced, and includes a soft minty/dill side with the lemon (plus some bittersweet orange even), moving into the grapefruit area and then the mirabelle’s back again. The very long finish has the mint/dill combo again, and an inkling of sugar. But with zero dosage, that’ll be the Chard and almost certainly the Pinot Blanc waving goodbye. Throughout, there’s a slight undertow of pickled cornichon (Amsterdam style; what else?)
All in all, it’s a wonderful demo of what Pinot Blanc can bring; lifting the Chard from its average whilst pulling itself up into high performance. Merging the best of both into Something Else of a great wine. This being a zero dosage, zero sulphur added, zero intervention wine, it also proves that ‘natural’ wines need not be f(l)unky. But on the contrary, one would hardly be able to tell.
The Présence is course material in so many ways. Am I happy? Well, not with six other dwarfs but yes, very much so.
The @champagne_gruet Cuvée Arbane …
𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘌𝘭𝘴𝘦 entirely!
100% Arbane yes. Which brings a freshness too long lost. Reminds me of the bone dry styles of yesteryear, in a good, rather great way. Chalky without dust, minerality without flint. A wonderful conversation starter, on the good things of life.
With a fresh and quite light, lemon-white colour through which a very fine and persistent mousse promises delight. Then, on the nose, one gets a first whiff of floral notes; jasmine, elderberry, rose – followed by zingy but ripe lemon. When allowed to mellow in the glass (or a day in the bottle), the lemon slowly brings along some grapefruit, pineapple and (dry white) melon. All within measure, refined, nowhere too in-your-face’y.
The mouthfeel is brilliant with the mousse playing its role to keep the very well balanced aspects all quite light. The dosage is hardly noticeable – from the taste of it, one would estimate 2g. max, and notes of soft white peach, light albedo, with a very long finish on the thyme/mint/dill spectrum with the albedo bitters lingering on.
Would work miraculously with e.g., flounder with serious sauce and herbs, swordfish with almond crusting, maybe tuna or mackerel, or white meat.
Saw a score somewhere of 91/100, but that's too low.
Buxeuil doesn’t have any Arbane of its own (in production), but with this Gruet wine, it has a flagship.
Arbane being at only 0,018% (yes, percent) of Champagne’s acreage, this cuvée highlights the 'need' (want!) for quite an extension of that.
Tasting the Pinot Blanc champagne of Gruet of Buxeuil (@champagne_gruet). That’s right, a pure-bred PB champagne. (Be sure to pick the right one, at https://www.champagne-gruet.com/)
And it is a treat, indeed.
In the glass, we have a very fine mousse, well-integrated - it continues very, very long and doesn’t just give a one-off foam layer – through a pale gold, slightly varietal-typical PB wine.
On the nose, the typical character come through immediately, including a slightly fluffy air of white flowers around light tangerine / (white) peach / mirabelle, and a core of lime – keeping nicely short of being bitter.
The mouthfeel is light, but not fleeting. One gets beautiful straight near-ripe lemon, a waft of mint with white blossom, and some white pepper towards the back. Add to that lemon white skin with edges of red grapefruit.
Mind you; I had kept some for a second tasting, and four days (suitably cool storage) after opening, all this was still as fresh. No ‘dosage plays up after too much air’ or so; great.
A top recommendation, this one. If only to keep the Forgotten Four Cépages alive, as they deserve, but also for sheer tasting pleasure. Or ‘the trick one’ at a tasting experiment. Or for an apéritif or with whitish seafood (if not to lime’y or salty).
The Réminiscence 100% pinot blanc brut nature by @champagneericlegrand via @jeromeschampagne. Supposedly off 65+yr old vines, but one would be hard-pressed to tell that by the wine. What delicious freshness!
For a start: What would one expect from a pure PB champagne? Subtlety indeed.
It starts with a new capsule (for me, to further fill my https://www.deknudtframes.fr/en/catalog/product/s65sz2-/frame-in-black-for-champagne-caps which only applies to *different* capsules I tasted *at home*) – under a muselet to duly impress. After a good whiff, one can immediately pick up the something-different of this one. The first 80% is most clearly artichoke with some mint; not very strange since we just made such a dip for (neutral) crackers five minutes before.
After which, with careful nosing/tasting, we get a white-floral element with traces of almonds and yes even a hint of vanilla and the slightest of dried yellow fruit. This continues in the long developing taste, clearly adding ‘a point’+ ripe lemon (citron), with the etheric element slowly (very slowly) fizzling out. Can I say ‘retronasally’ there? As it tactilely *feels* that way for sure. Add some vanilla points in the long after.
All in all, a thing to be savoured. And, let’s promote these ‘forgotten four’ champagnes! Away with the factory work! (One suspects the 24x range by some famous grand marque points in the right away direction, too, qua hyper-mass production orientation.) The more sure we have of being able to choose to never have to taste a same champagne ever again in one’s lifetime. *If* one would want to – wines like the Réminiscence make one still would want to return often. Extend the plantation!
Another round for Gruet of Buxeuil (@champagne_gruet) – The Cuvée des 3 Blancs (as here)
With its matte gold, almost amber appearance and very fine mousse (hardly foamy but lingering in the mouth for a long, long time), we'd expect the Pinot Blanc to dominate over the Arbane and even Chard. It does. A little. But, as assemblages go, only a little; I'd rather say one can identify the PB by its gently soft but full agrumes/mirabelle character but there's a lot of exquisite light flowers – hawthorn – and herb'iness – in the sage, rosemary corner – already in the aromas. Would that be the continuum of the Arbane and Chard?
If one would want to take it analytically.
Savouring, one would enjoy the all-round calm structure, with a medium to full mouthfeel (nothing sticky). And just the image (?) of a surprisingly light white wine with lots of mature grapefruit, lemon and a slice of lime. From which the little bitter note lingers on in the back, most pleasantly refreshing, nothing astringent or harsh. Overall, certainly not chalky bone dry but a hint of mango.
Would I pair this all with food ..? That would be a. hard; a very careful cheese selection might do, b. interesting, to see where the flavours go (see below), c. not necessary, it's a wonderful treat on its own.
This, in a series of Forgotten Four tastings, as per this 'research'.
And the (aubépine and) mirabelle note, Gruet themselves also list. Nice, yet another example of that great aroma.
Plus, one of course has e.g., this and this book, or quite a few others, already..?
Of boek. Hoewel er een beperkt aantal boeken is dat ik hoog heb, zit er niet een[1] bij die nou net op het onderdeel dat mij respectievelijk interesseert, het α tot en met ω heeft. Waar-om en waardoor ik juist de verdere research wil/ 'moet' doen...
[1] Nou ja, deze komt in de buurt...