MIPTC #3 - Meinklang Burgenlandred 2020

It's Friday again, folks! This means that you not only get an impending weekend, but also another issue of your favorite and friendly legal-gets-oenological newsletter! Let's therefore put that redline-heavy contract to the side for a second and focus on the grapy stuff for a few minutes, shall we?

Since we are only on week 3 of this May It Please The Cork thing, I chose to focus on everyday stuff you can normally find at my house. Though we may get fancy and/or rare stuff from time to time (I mean I don't want you to get bored or anything...), I think we need to take care of our bases first. I'll therefore stick to versatile styles that go with nearly anything at a relatively low price point of $20-30. Let me know if you think that's a stupid decision and I just might reconsider (or send you to hell - it depends how far through the bottle I am by that point).

Now, let's look at this cellar staple of mine as far as light lip-smacking natural reds are concerned: the Meinklang Burgenlandred 2020.

Now, I could tell you about this beautiful wine region of Austria and how the great folks at Meinklang are doing such great things with it, but I think I'll choose to focus on something else instead, i.e. what makes this a "natural" wine and what the heck this means. If you wish to know more about Meinklang and what they're up to, I suggest you take a look at their informative (and very pretty) website.

If you're at all into wine reviews and/or wine writing in general, odds are you've heard of natural wines. Now, I don't have the time and/or energy to get very deep on this topic (and trust me, I do have some strong opinions), so I guess I'll keep it very factual: natural wine is the unfiltered, no makeup, hair-tied-in-a-messy-bun version of what we know as wine. It's a farming and transformation philosophy/ethos in which you intervene as little as possible to alter the finished product.

Practically, this means growing grapes without any funny stuff, allowing it to ferment without any additives or added chemicals, and then bottling it. That's it.

At best, this means a pure expression of the land that allows you to travel with every sip. At worst, it means a flawed and/or hopelessly bad wine which some natty geeks will try to convince you is what REAL wine should taste like. Indeed, some of the added stuff (like the infamous sUlFiTeS - cue dramatic music) can help stabilize the wine and make sure it tastes as it should once it reaches your table. Doing without these therefore means a higher risk of getting a flawed bottle. PSA: Regardless of your philosophy, flawed wines are not fun to drink. Period.

Luckily for me, I haven't had a bad bottle of this Meinklang as of yet (and I've purchased like 20), so odds are pretty good you'll get the good stuff as well.

All right, without much further ado, here's the skinny on this fine bottle:

The Skinny

• From: Neusiedlersee (please don't ask me to pronounce that) in Eastern Austria.

• Varietals: Zweigelt 50 %, Blaufränkisch 40 %, Saint-Laurent 10 %

• Price: $18,90 CAD

• Feature: Natural wine

Tasting Notes

On the nose, you get some very generous and ripe strawberry and blackberry fruit. When you dig a bit deeper, you find some warm spices like cinnamon and nutmeg as well as faint remnants of forest floor and autumn leaves. The whole is very loose and friendly, seeming purposefully uncomplicated.

This red wine is youthful, flattering, and uncomplicated. A sprinkling of red berry fruit harmonizes with unobtrusive spice and forest floor. Tannins and acid balance each other nicely to create a juicy red wine. Organic. Biodynamic

On the palate, this is fleshy but supple, with a lot of driven generousness which begs to get back to it. Once again uncomplicated by design, this feels a lot like a well-made cru Beaujolais. Tannins are perhaps lacking a little to handle all that fruit, but the unapologetic acidity keeps this from being too top-heavy. The finish is short as this remains a simple wine, but you do want to get back to it almost immediately.

This would be an absolute killer choice paired with something like a tuna steak or a heavily seasoned carpaccio, but would also fit pretty much wherever you need it. Very versatile stuff.

Cutting To The Chase: Does It Please The Cork?

Yeah, I really like this. Year after year, this wine keeps making me feel like I got a great deal on it since it feels so similar to cru Beaujolais for about half price. Uses for this type of friendly quaffer are endless and while it is by no means an unforgettable wine, it gets the job done very well every single time, and that's already a lot.

Cork Score: 3.5/5* (with an extra .5 for the excellent value at less than $20)

***

*Here's the lowdown on the scores, by the way. Essentially, I don't believe in 100-point scales for things as subjective as wine. Simply put, I just don't think one can credibly justify a 1% or even a 10% increment between two wines. I therefore choose to go a bit more basic. Here's how I break it down:

• 1/5: Seriously faulty, terrible, undrinkable;

• 2/5: Flawed and/or of bad quality. This is the type of stuff you should probably cook with and not drink;

• 3/5: Decent. This is where most entries will end up. These wines are clean and well-balanced, but not particularly memorable and/or exceptional. They are recommendable, but not an experience per se;

• 4/5: Exceptional. I sadly drink few wines that get this rating, but my purpose is to drink more. This denotes a memorable bottle that brought up some kind of emotion in me. This left a mark, and odds are I am now busy recommending it to everybody I know;

• 5/5: Perfect. I think I have probably tasted less than 5 bottles that would have qualified for a 5/5 in my entire life. This denotes an absolutely incredible wine that will imprint a definite memory for years to come - a true experience in itself.