Ting-du-putter-i-hovedet-blogs: Mr. Mad About Wine

Thomas Iversen er vild med vin, det er man ikke et sekund i tvivl om, når man læser hans engelsksprogede blog, der bærer just den titel: Mad About Wine. Men Thomas Iversen er også en ret garvet amatørfotograf, æstet til fingerspidserne, og hans blog er i sig selv et bud på, hvor sobert og smukt sådan noget kan gøres.

Den sande mr. Champagne
Overskueligheden på bloggen gør, at man hurtigt kan orientere sig, og dermed hurtigt finder ud, at især Champagne, men også Toscana hører til de distrikter, hvorfra der hyppigst er røget flasker ned. Men det begrænser sig bestemt ikke til de to områder, langtfra. Thomas Iversen skriver om – vin, og også om mad og restaurantoplevelser. Men mest handler det om vin, og i al sin enkelhed er det sådan, at han skriver om de vine, han drikker, og det, han skriver kan vel betegnes som en slags smagenote. Men ikke en hel klassisk en af slagsen med pointsystem og tåbelige betragtninger ala “lugter af isbjørnetis og cigarkassetræ”. Thomas Iversen gør noget, som mange vinjournalister, eller bare vinsmagere i al almindelig, godt måtte efterligne: nemlig det at inddrage sig selv – og tildels også omstændighederne under hvilke, han har drukket vinen – for slet ikke at tale om glasset, han har drukket af; manden er glasfetichist om en hals, indleder fx alle smagenoter (kaldet TN for Tasting Notes) med en bemærkning om, hvilke(t) glas vinen er drukket af, men skriver også om glas i det hele taget, se fx her.

En vin er jo ikke bare en statisk størrelse, noget rødligt eller gulligt gæret most, der løber ud af en flaske, specielt ikke når det er vin på det niveau, som Thomas beskæftiger sig med. Han ser sig selv og sin evne til at smage som en del af oplevelsen med den pågældende vin, og han er besidder en utrolig ydmyghed ift. – det hele, eller dvs. først og fremmest egne evner som smager og hvad dertil hører af begrænsninger, og det forfinede landsbrugsprodukt, som en flaske vin jo er.

“Today, maybe wiser - or just older, less hair, fatter - I see Brunello as something true Italian – if in the hands of the right winemaker. There are so many styles of BdM, but I tend to favour the old school producers - such as Soldera, Poggio di Sotto, Cerbaiona and Salvioni. I adore the Sangiovese grape, which like Pinot Noir, can possess the shining red fruit, which is the gateway to gracefulness and the beauty of red wines.”
Læs hele indlægget om Salvioni Brunello her.

How wonderfully poetic! Man kan sige, at det æstetiske ikke kun er i formen, men også i indholdet på bloggen. Og det er sobert skrevet. Informativt. Brugbart. Ingen kasten om sig med svulstige superlativer, ingen vigtigperattitude.

Heller ikke, når det handler om det ypperste inden for champagne:

"Blend: 100% Chardonnay
Ages of vines: 51 years (Planted in 1959)
Dosage: 0 g/l
Vineyard: “La Fosse” – soil: Mainly chalk
Production: Around 1.500 bottles
Bonus: Vénus was the name of the horse that worked in the vineyard. Vénus sadly passed away a few years back.
Glass: Spiegelau Adina “Red wine”

True, I have tasted 2004 Vénus about 4 times already, but this is the first real Tango @ Casa Mad Aboout Wine.
I presumed an extremely young Champagne would await me – and true this was the case, but it’s one of those Champagnes you simply have to take for a test drive in it’s youth in order to get that mineral sensation.

Already from glass one I encountered a vinous Champagne of incredible seamless personality and crystallized clarity. The nose is unbelievable complex and the first thing which came to my mind was a fresh breeze of the sea with seashells and seawater. It’s defiantly the result of an out of scale driver of chalk, which gives the wine this raw, pure feeling and the chalk note infects the wine from all corners. The other notes of the nose and small dozes of; straw, yellow cherries (in Denmark we call them; Moreller), toasted bread, butter, flowers, anise, and hay. The taste is one hell of a rush for those who adore soil expression and all the notes from the nose is almost transported to the finish line and crushed in a mineral and stony expression. The mousse breaks so gentle and releases the very last perfumes of minerality.

My God, what a Champagne. You almost have to pinch yourself in the arm, to be sure your not dreaming. It’s that good my friends – majestic, masterpiece…I almost lost for words here.

WOW!!!!!"

Lost for words.. well, vi synes nu, du klarer det meget godt, Mr. Mad About Wine. Også hvad angår personlig begesjtring, ydmyghed og underholdningsværdi – og en evne til at fremstille sig selv som alt andet end skråsikker, hvilket må siges at være et utrolig sympatisk træk. Se bare her:

“When summer hits, I always stock up some wines, which I can taste with my feet up and hopefully enjoy some nice Danish weather. This was certainly the case this year. So I was looking for some nice offerings at my favourite wine shop and the owner pointed at this wine. “What about Syrah – Rhone? What about that one:"

2009 Dard et Ribo Crozes-Hermitage Rouge, 'C'est le Printemps'

No way, dude, I thought. Finally did I get rid of all my Rhone wines and I am not touching that area anymore, my friend. I felt all the prejudices working inside me and a wave of alcoholic, dense, over extracted, horse stinking wines (brett / brettanomyces) with absolutely no drinking pleasure whatsoever coming towards me. No chance in hell that I would go back to that Parkerized crap again. But I did – for 4 reasons. 1) I trust my wine pushers taste. 2) The wine was 17,-€ 3) the label said 12.2% Alc (...) 4) it’s of course idiotic to discard Rhone completely and generalize so rudely. (...) So how was it? The wine was beautiful and it’s once again one of those wines which bring you back to your roots. I have said this over and over again – the drinking pleasure (how odd it may sound) is one of the most underrated values we have in modern wine judgment. This wine has tons of drinking pleasure. (...) Less is more – I wish all Rhone wines would be like this. Well done.”

Vi siger det samme til dig, Thomas Iversen: Well done!