Are You Ready for an Adventure?
photo 1.
2021 Čotar Bela
Pink Floyd “Echoes” from Meddle (1971)
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Upon opening the bottle, I detected notes of kombucha and a slight Sprite-like soda flavor, which disappeared quickly. The wine had a somewhat syrupy texture and a medium finish. The kombucha notes left behind a taste of yeast with hints of buckwheat and barley. As time passed, the wine developed more fruity notes, including grapefruit and kumquat, with a hint of chicory bitterness. The wine had a funky quality, and I could smell the damp forest. For a sparkling wine, it had a substantial body and a deep complexity. The color was almost orange, neither transparent nor translucent, and I noticed some sediment, a good indication of a natural or low-intervention wine.
I paired the wine with two meals. The first meal was a parsley frittata with smoked mozzarella, grilled white and regular oyster mushrooms, lion's mane mushrooms, two slices of ham, and sourdough toast with apricot jam. The wine paired nicely with the meal, with its syrupy texture complementing the food, almost like a funky mimosa.
The second meal was roasted veggies (collard greens, onion, green garlic, and diced white carrots), roasted lion's mane mushrooms, and bavette steak with an olive oil sauce made with crushed garlic, diced capers, Dijon mustard, crushed chili pepper, and chopped basil. The steak sauce worked fantastically with the wine, with the chili pepper's kick complementing the wine's funkiness. However, the sweetness of the roasted onions did not pair well with the wine's fruitiness.
photo 2. The second meal
photo 3. Pink Floyd’s Meddle (1971) “Echoes”
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As I delved deeper into the wine-making process in the past few weeks, I discovered the world of natural wines or low-intervention wines. Although I had tried natural wine a few years ago, I only drank it socially without paying much attention to its unique qualities. However, as I heard more about natural wine and the winemakers behind it, I became increasingly intrigued.
While I was out of town for a few concerts, my wife took the opportunity to visit Discovery Wines in Alphabet City. When she arrived, she called me and asked what I would like to try. I requested something unique and funky, and after speaking with a few people at the store, she brought home four bottles, one of which was the 2021 Čotar Bela. When the sales associate recommended this wine, she jokingly warned my wife, “Are you ready for an adventure?”
This wine is undoubtedly funky, unlike any other (conventional and/or natural) wines I have tasted before. Rather than layers gradually and subtly revealing themselves over time, the 2021 Čotar Bela keeps adding layers on top of themselves, becoming fuller and more complex. This reminded me of Pink Floyd's "Echoes" from their album Meddle (1971). Although it is not one of Pink Floyd's most popular albums, this particular song already established their signature sound and sonic atmosphere which later they solidified in The Dark Side of the Moon. The underlying harmonic progression is so stylish and funky that listeners are constantly captivated by the musical journey.
The experience of exploring complex and funky wines or intricate melodies both require an open-mindedness towards unknown worlds and a willingness to be pleased and intrigued by what we discover.