Adventures on the Wine Route: A Wine Buyer's Tour of France (25th Anniversary Edition)

by Kermit Lynch

Domaine Tempier’s red has a tendency to sparkle or pétiller a bit. This bit of sparkle is carbon dioxide (CO2), which has nothing to do with sulfur dioxide. Carbon dioxide is a natural by-product of fermentation, while SO2 is an additive. All wines have CO2, but it is usually removed before a wine is bottled, or quelled by dosing the wine with SO2. Some people like that CO2 sparkle. Richard Olney finds it charming, the sign of a natural wine, and so do I. Other tasters are shocked and consider it a flaw. Restaurants form an important part of Domaine Tempier’s trade, and this pétillance that appears in their wine from time to time (for example, when the weather warms up or storage conditions are not cool enough, or at the season of the grapevine’s flowering and at harvesttime) drives restaurateurs crazy. Monsieur Big strides in with a cute young thing on his arm. The sommelier pours a glass of Tempier. Mr. Big puts down his cigar, swirls the glass in a grand circle that practically covers the circumference of the table, sniffs it approvingly, takes a sip, then he grunts, wrinkles up his nose, and announces that the wine is fermenting in the bottle! “Take it back,” he commands while his date rubs knees with him under the table. It is a great night for him, but the restaurateur is looking at a ninety-franc bottle of wine that must go into the sauce. Instead, his solution is to recork it and send it and all the rest back to Domaine Tempier. While certain connoisseurs are clapp...