 Wine as a time machine? No DeLorens, but we have a few bottles here we're going to be talking about Vindu Nectarelle. And wine as a time machine. That's all coming up. I'm going to be so excited when we can start to travel again. Hello, hello, hello. Welcome back to Exotic Wine Travel. I am your host Matthew Horkey. Welcome back to the show where we help you drink adventurously so you can expand your palate and expand your mind. And we're going to be expanding pellets today with fortified wines from France. And I think we're going to be expanding minds talking about time travel. Like most science geeks growing up, I was obsessed with back to the future. Wait a minute Doc, are you telling me that you built a time machine out of a DeLorean? As I got more into wine, I started to wonder, can wine be a time machine? Okay, okay, so probably the only real time machine that we actually know of is it's all in the mind. It's just memories. But just hear me out for one second. You know, there's evidence out there to suggest that the sense of smell is the most powerful sense when it comes to evoking emotion. What is wine all about? Wine is all about smell and taste. And actually taste is 90% olfaction. So if we put all everything together, what does wine do? It evokes memories. I think the easiest way to relate this, there's a certain type of fragrance that always reminds you of that special someone. Since I haven't been traveling for the last year and I probably can't for the next year or so, I thought about taking a trip down memory lane down to the south of France. Back in the spring of 2018, I went down to the south of France to the Roussillon, beautiful location. And I wanted to taste today two wines to help me bring back some of those memories since I can't really travel during this time. So we have a couple of Vindu Naturelles here. For those of you who don't know, Vindu Naturelles are fortified wines and they're most commonly associated with the Languedoc Roussillon, but they are made throughout the south of France as well. Think of them as basically French port. The wines are picked and the wines are picked and then they start fermentation. And when they get to about 6% of alcohol, neutral grape spirits, brandy, you know, brandy without wood influence, without flavor is added in. So what happens is fermentation stops. So there's still residual sugar left over. That's why the wines are sweet. And the wines are about 15 to 18% alcohol. Personally, I like Vindu Naturelles. I love port as well. But sometimes port coming in at 20% alcohol, I can really start to feel it on the palate in the head. Some notable appellations that in Roussillon that make Vindu Naturelles, you're going to look for places like Maurie, look places like River Sals, Muscater River Sals, and also Bagnuls. And I've got two today, two from producers I've actually visited. First, we have the River Sals. This is the D'Ambriel River Sals Ambré 2011. This is mostly Maccabello and then some Grenache Blanc aged in wood for two years. That's why you have this amber kind of golden color. It's been oxidized, but it's been aged oxidatively. D'Ambriel is one of the largest cooperatives in the Roussillon. They make some really nice wines at affordable prices. This River Sals Ambré, if you want to get in, if you like fortified wines, sweet wines, I think this is available around the world at under 20 bucks. So I think it's a steal. Look at that beautiful, beautiful color. Really nice. First, let me give this a smell here. I think butterscotch, caramel, a little bit maybe fresh squeezed tangerine peel, toffee, cedar, tobacco type. No, these wines can be very complex. But the cool thing about this is one of the side trips with a bunch of journalists, I went actually, we had a kind of a French picnic at D'Ambriel. It was so incredible. It was just this huge vineyard. There's a lot of people. And what all the producers did is they broke out a huge grill and put a bunch of snails, a bunch of fresh escargot. And all we ate was escargot, fresh French bread and aioli. And then we just sipped on a bunch of wines, including some River Sals. I thought it was a really magical experience. The song was out. Such an authentic experience. It wasn't super fine dining, but it was delicious. Great sweet wine should still have, for me, should still have acidity to kind of wipe the palate clean. And that's what this has right here. You feel a little heat on the back end. Not going to lie, but shouldn't scare you away. These are wines, River Sals. River Sals, all their vendor naturals can really go well with chocolate, actually. Just like port, some of the rare wines to do so. One of the most famous producers I've had is Domain cause. I think it's the largest biodynamic producer in the south of France, or maybe even France. I had a couple of their old River Sals and the wines were just stunning to die for. Really tawny port and style, if you like that. Using my trusty Coravin. Coravin is awesome for port and sweet wines, fortified wines, because you can't really, for me, at least I can't drink the whole bottle. So it's nice that just occasionally have a glass. So next we have banules. Bannules here. Bannules is an, the wines come from a village called Bannules, Bannules-sur-Mer. Terrorist steep slopes. This is the land of Grenache. So Bannules has to be made of red Grenache or Grenache Blanc or Grenache Green, Grenache. So there can be white, there can be ombre styles. Well, here's the red. This is the, this is the Domain Ville Manière. Bannules' grand crew, Cuvier, André, Manière. 2009. This was aged in the barrel for 10 years. Being in wine so long, I would still be better with pronunciations, but the French pronunciations still get me every single time. Get this almost molasses type color. Speaking of, when I look at sight, this reminds me of when I would have bumps on my tongue and my dad would have made me eat a bunch of spoonfuls of molasses, which I didn't like at all. This is very much for those that, like more of the ruby vintage port type of style. Chocolate, more red fruit, more fruit driven. There's a little bit of licorice here, mushroom, a little bit of meatiness. Super complex, actually really complex wine. I actually fell in love with Bannules. I didn't really have a lot until I went there for the first time. I think the wines are absolutely stellar. Even though it's 18% alcohol, can't really feel it. It's really complex. Bottle aged, you still have some fruit flavors, some tobacco, just all this crazy stuff. Maybe even a little bit of caramel coffee starts to come in. There's a little bit of tannin, which is also interesting as well. A cool story about this producer and just Bannules in general. I remember we went up to Bannules, so they're terraces, and then you just facing the Mediterranean Sea, just incredibly steep terraces, all crushed, looks like slate rocks. It was actually with this producer, he wouldn't speak English very well, but he was trying to communicate with me. And during that afternoon, it was really hot outside. The sun was coming down, reflecting off the rocks, but didn't matter. They had a Michelin star chef cook like a traditional, homely meal. And he basically dug out a hole and cooked it in the ground. Producers brought out all their dry wines, Koulir, Koulir Blanc, Koulir Rouge. And at the end, they broke out all the Bannules, red Bannules, white Bannules, ombre Bannules. And I remember we were with a bunch of people, a bunch of producers, a bunch of journalists. Usually in the mid afternoon, especially, you're just so professional, you're spitting everything, you're tasting everything. But the wines were so phenomenal that everybody just got drunk because the wines were so good. Yeah, I guess since I can't travel during this time, it was nice to, nice to revisit some wines from La Roussillon, and get me thinking forward into the days where hopefully I can travel again soon. So I'd like to know, do you think wine is a time machine or just a vehicle to evoke great memories? I'd love to hear in the comments below or for you to share your favorite memory around wine, and I will see you at the next episode. Hello, thanks for watching. Hey, you made it to the end. Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel, click the bell so you know when new videos are out. If you like content like this, check out our Patreon page where you get some behind the scenes exclusive content. Thanks for watching. Cheers!