A
year ago I really didn’t care for Italian wines... a year ago I was also a
complete idiot. I’m still an idiot, but at least now I’m an idiot who’s learned
to appreciate and (mostly) love the wines of Italy. That was mainly thanks to
an amazing friend who made it next to impossible to drink with him without
being able to appreciate Italy. Kye opened my eyes to a world of possibilities
that I’d never considered and without him I would have never gotten to try some
of the most unique wines I’ve ever had the good fortune to come across. Some of
the best wines I had in the last year were with him and most of those were
Italian, Sicilian more often than not. One Sicilian wine in particular I feel
like I’ve been waiting forever to try was Frank Cornelissen’s Contadino 10, a bottle he
picked up in Austin ($30) a while back.
The
main reason I love Kye is he is one of the only people I’ve
ever met who finds wine to be as cool as I do (“Did he say ‘Cool’?”... chances are only my dad will laugh at that reference). Wine is awesome, in so many ridiculous ways
and cool really is the best way I can describe it sometimes, it’s got liquor
and beer beat as far as I’m concerned. I’d just assumed I was a crazy person,
ridiculously obsessed with wine in a way that no one else understood, but he
made me realize that it wasn’t just me, there were others, just as utterly
insane as I was.
Anyways!
Frank Cornelissen’s wines go a long way in embodying that “coolness” that I
love about wine. If I poured the Contadino 10 for my parents or friends they’d
probably make polite noises and then find a reason to open something else and
there is nothing wrong with that. His
wines are not for everyone, they are for people who are looking to experience
every dusty, dirty nook and cranny of winemaking.
From
the website: “Our farming philosophy is based on our
acceptance of the fact that man will never be able to understand nature's full
complexity and interactions. We therefore choose to concentrate on observing
and learning the movements of Mother Earth in her various energetic and cosmic
passages and prefer to follow her indications as to what to do, instead of
deciding ourselves. Consequently this has taken us to avoiding all possible
interventions on the land we cultivate, including any treatments, whether
chemical, organic, or biodynamic, as these are all a mere reflection of the
inability of man to accept nature as she is and will be. “
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The
wine was cloudy to put it mildy, cloudier than anything else I’d ever had. It
was beautiful though, tasted of red fruit, rocks and earth. Such earth! This is
what I imagined the ancient Greeks drank, wines imbued with the very essence of
the world they inhabited. This was a living wine, that is the BEST way I can
describe it and I’m sorry I can do no better than that but that is what it was.
I was blown away, it was in no way pretty, I would not suggest it for the faint
of heart or amateur wine-lovers, it was made to be appreciated by those who
really, truly love wine and I was beyond happy to get to try it. Truly
wonderful.
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