Recently, on the social mediaz of Spain a video was released on El Comidista that basically showed a cheap, one Euro bulk wine tricking the professionals in to thinking it was some grand, yet small production wine. For those who don’t feel like trying to muddle through the Spanish, the point of the bit was to show how stupid descriptors are in the wine trade. On this point I would agree and this stunt was probably inspired by Mikel López Iturriaga seeing English language articles talking about this. It’s an ongoing issue that seems to see no relieve in sight.
Language aside, the video would seem to make fun of all but one of the professionals who tasted the wine. Most were talking about how good, approachable, and well-made the wine was which was of course, one Euro a bottle. It would seem that they were easily fooled but there are a number of things take in to account with this bit. First off, this wasn’t just any bulk wine but one from Priorat and I’ll freely admit that a great many of the bulk wines produced in this region are quite serviceable. You can’t really knock them for thinking it to be good.
The other thing to take in to account and I don’t think it was mentioned was that this place they were doing this at was a biodynamic wine exposition in Barcelona called, “La Renaissance des Appellations”. This isn’t really the best place to do it as a number of the wines at fairs such as this can run towards anomaly as opposed to mainstream and it could easily be the point that after tasting wines where many have serious defects, this bulk wine tasted pretty damned good with balanced, not rampant acidity, no residual sugar, and a full body.
Anyone who watched the video will of course note that there was one guy who didn’t think much of it but again, it needs to be noted that in the wine trade, it’s much easier for people to dismiss a wine rather than extol it. The latter is sticking your neck out for a potential chopping so most people will easily dismiss the wine if it’s an unknown maker. Of course it could also be the case that this wine just didn’t do anything for him as it was 180 degrees different from what was at this tasting event, essentially having the reverse effect of the others in attendance.
The better test for this should have been to have one of the wines from the fair along with this wine but both with unknown labels on them or some other method wherein there was a control wine or wines for this bulk wine to taste against. Although honestly, this wine most likely would have done well as in Europe, there’s really no shame in drinking bulk wines. There should be shame in drinking them if they’ve been in an open jug for two weeks in kitchen as that is oxidized crap and one of the big reasons we started bothering with that whole bottle and cork thing.
