Originally published on September 18, 2010.
A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: Wine puns, they never get old.
OK, they’re not really shelf talkers (those actually attach to the shelf.) They’re more like neckers, which slide on the neck of the bottle. Except my neckers are actually price tags with just enough room to scribble a tiny little tasting note.
Or a warning.
Or a pairing suggestion.
Or sometimes just a piece of near total nonsense.
The latter would be the case for the tag we’re putting on the Les Clos De Tue-Boeuf “La Butte” Gamay 2009 tomorrow. Now this is very tasty wine. It’s made by Theirry Puzelat, generally considered to the man among the too-cool-for-school natural wine kids. Maybe because I get a little annoyed by the whole too-cool-for-school thing (perhaps because I haven’t been in school for a very, very long time), I haven’t spent much time with the Puzelat wines. And these are wines that you really do need to spend time with – to try them at a trade tasting really doesn’t do them justice. They’re not stand-and-spit types of wines. They need a little thought.
But a little while back, I was at Ten Bells, bastion of vin natural, and decided to order a bottle of La Butte. And it was so crazy good that I spent most of the night ignoring my husband and friends while trying to keep the bottle very close to my glass. It was just bright and good and fruity and slightly funky and everything that is best about natural wines.
So I went and ordered a bunch for the store. Because that’s what you do when you own a store and spend the evening with a wine that you really, really enjoy. Especially when you can sell if for less the $15.
But…I was talking about shelf talkers.
So here’s the shelf talker soon appearing on this wine….because potty humor never goes out of style:
La Butte…kicks ass.
La Butte…is the shit.
La Butte……we’ll stop now.
Much, MUCH more useful (and entertaining?) than a corporate shelf talker with a numerical rating!