Sweet and Savory

I read an article that talked about a new way to describe wines or I should say, wine flavors, instead of using wine taste descriptors like; wild berries with a hint of tar or green apples with peach and mineral notes.  It divided wine flavors into two words…sweet or savory.  Wines that show dominant herbs, spice and mineral notes would go under savory, wines that are fruit dominant would go under sweet.  My first thought was maybe it would simplify things for the wine consumers when picking wines this way.  But in doing this, uniqueness and land expression is left out.  I see wine as a place, and each place has a signature style and taste that can’t be categorized into two words.  There are too many other nuances and intricacies at play with wine.  I think wines should be categorized by region, as painful as that may be, especially in the case of Burgundy, wine shops and restaurants should categorize wines by their region and their style descriptors as a sub-set of that.  Wine is all about “place” and you can’t put “place” in a two word category.   I feel myself ranting……I mean really, how would you pair your foods if you only had two descriptors to work with?  Ok, I’m done ranting…..on to something I tasted last week that was definitely sweet and savory.   It was a Vin de Liqueur produced within the Champagne region of France, NV Vilmart Champagne Ratafia.  It’s a blend of distilled and unfermented Pinot Noir grapes ~ creamy, semi-sweet with rich flavors of red berries and strawberries with a hint of earth and minerality as only Champagne can do….how’s that for a description?   A must have with a bowl of strawberries or you can have it with what I paired it with….Girl Scout cookies!

enjoy