With the Wines of Montsant, It’s All in the Drinking

來源: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/28/dining/wine-school-montsant.html

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[1] Tasting a wine for evaluation is something wine professionals are compelled/k?m'p?l/ to do. But it’s not the best way to assess a wine. It’s a compromise./‘kɑmpr?ma?z/

compelled/k?m'p?l/

* v. 迫使（compel的過去式及過去分詞形式）；強迫

compromise./'kɑmpr?ma?z/

* n. 妥協，和解；折衷

[2] Critics for consumer wine magazines, judges in wine competitions, and sommeliers/?s?m?l'je/ in restaurants must evaluate dozens of bottles in a sitting, and to actually drink that much wine poses obvious challenges. The solution is to take a sip of wine, taste and swirl, take its measure, then spit it out.

[3] It’s not a perfect system, for many reasons. But tastings are the only way to get a sense of many wines in a sitting without keeling over from alcohol poisoning. It’s the method we use at our wine panel tastings.

[4] Nonetheless, the tasting often fails to give a complete picture of a wine. It eliminates/?'l?m?net/ the context that allows a wine to show its best, truest self, often revealed with food and company, and in the spirit of a gathering.

eliminates/?'l?m?net/

* vt. 消除；排除

[5] Taking that away places wine in an often unnatural role, as the center of attention. Professionals generally try to make up for that by imagining how a wine would fare/f?r/ in more appropriate /?'propr??t/ circumstances. But that is not always easy, especially when tasting a series of possibly very disparate /'d?sp?r?t/ wines.

fare/f?r/

* n. 票價；費用；旅客；食物

* vi. 經營；進展；遭遇；過活

* fare in 表現

* disparate /'d?sp?r?t/

* adj. 不同的；不相干的；全異的

[6] In such tastings, the more boisterous/'b??st?r?s/, assertive /?'s?t?v/ wines often dominate quieter bottles.

boisterous/'b??st?r?s/

* adj. 喧鬧的；狂暴的；猛烈的

* assertive /?'s?t?v/

* adj. 肯定的；獨斷的；堅定而自信的

[7] I was thinking about this as I tasted the wines we have been focusing on in Wine School over the last few weeks. Yes, I know. One of our precepts /'pri:sept/ is that we drink wine, we don’t taste it. And I do drink it, every time.

precepts /'pri:sept/n. 戒律；格言；訓令（precept的復數形式

[8] But I habitually/h??b?t???l?/ taste the wines, too, before serving them with a meal. The idea is to see how they change over time and as new elements are added.

habitually/h??b?t???l?/

* adv. 習慣地；日常地

[9] As usual in Wine School, I recommended three bottles in a particular genre and invited readers to drink them and to share their thoughts in the comments.

[10] The subject over the last month has been the red wines of Montsant, from the Catalonian region of northeastern Spain. It’s an often underrated/??nd?'ret/ wine, which tends to be overshadowed /'ov?'??do/ by those of Priorat, a neighboring region with wines that are generally bigger and more majestic /m?'d??st?k/.

underrated/??nd?'ret/

* vt. 低估；看輕

* overshadowed /'ov?'??do/

* vt. 使失色；使陰暗；遮陰；奪去…的光彩

* majestic /m?'d??st?k/.

* adj. 莊嚴的；宏偉的

[11] Montsant and Priorat are like Gigondasand Chateauneuf-du-Pape in the southern Rh?ne valley of France, in that Gigondas is often thought to be a diminutived?'m?nj?t?v/ and cheaper version of the grander Chateauneuf. But though Gigondas and Chateauneuf have much in common, and are made of a similar set of grapes, the grapes are grown in different soils in different places, and so make different wines, each with its role at the table.

diminutived?'m?nj?t?v/

* adj. 小的，小型的，微小的

[12] Similarly, Montsant and Priorat are Catalonian neighbors. Both are made historically with the garnacha and cari?ena grapes, better known in English as grenache and carignan, though nowadays they are often supplemented with international varieties like cabernet sauvignon, merlot, syrah and tempranillo.

[13] But as the soils and microclimates of Montsant vary from their neighbor, the wines of Montsant are better understood without the reflex comparison. They are very much their own wines and can be excellent.

[14] The three bottles I recommended were Orto Vins 2013 Pedra Roja, Celler de Cap?anes 2014 Peraj Petita and Venus La Universal’s 2014 Dido.

[15] As I tasted the three wines, one of them, the Peraj Petita, seemed diminishedd?'m?n??/ compared with the other two. At first, it seemed a bit tight, with a slightly funky aroma /?'rom?/. But with exposure to air, the funkiness disappeared, leaving a meaty, herbal /'?bl/ aroma. On the palate, it was earthy with notes of red fruits and flowers, but it still seemed a bit subdued/s?b'dud/ and reticent/'r?t?snt/.

diminishedd?'m?n??/

* adj. 減弱的；減退了的

* v. 減少；削弱（diminish的過去分詞）

* aroma /?'rom?/

* n. 芳香

* herbal /'?bl/

* adj. 草藥的；草本的

* subdued/s?b'dud/

* 柔和的

* reticent/'r?t?snt/

* adj. 沉默的；有保留的；謹慎的

[16] The Dido offered some of the same earthy, herbal, floral qualities, but it was more exuberant, with flavors that seemed exotic and juicy. The Pedra Roja, too, was more vibrant, with a stony earthiness, floral notes and ripe, enticing flavors of red fruits.

[17] I liked them all. But had I stopped there, I would have judged the Peraj Petita to be the least of the three wines. With a simple meal, though, of salt-and-pepper sausages with sautéed onions and peppers and a big green salad, the wine came to life.

[18] No longer was it reticent. It was now deliciously complementary. A bite of the sausage, peppers and onions followed by a sip of the wine synthesized into a whole greater than the sum of the parts.

[19] By contrast, the other two wines did not integrate as well with the meal. They were each individually delicious — the Pedra Roja a bit more complete than the Dido — but the Peraj Petita was the better character actor.

[20] Which wine was the best? It’s hard to answer that question in a simple way. The best with this meal? Or the best in some sort of abstract sense?

[21] If these wines were part of a larger mass tasting, and if these were scored, say, on the popular 100-point scale used by so many wine publications, it would be easy to see that the Peraj Petita would not have been the highest rated. Yet with my meal, it gave me the most pleasure.

[22] You can see the paradox/'p?r?dɑks/. The best-rated wine of a group can turn out to be the worst choice.

paradox/'p?r?dɑks/

* n. 悖論，反論；似非而是的論點；自相矛盾的人或事

[23] This is one of the most fascinating/'f?s?net??/ things about wine: It cannot be defined by ratings. There is no such thing as a single “best.” With a bottle that has the potential to age for decades, for example, people often agonize/'?ɡ?na?z/ over when to open it, not wanting to miss that moment when it is at its best.

agonize over

* vi. 感到極度痛苦；掙扎

* vt. 使極度痛苦；折磨

* agonize over a problem: 苦苦思索一個問題

fascinating/'f?s?net??/

* adj. 迷人的；吸引人的；使人神魂顛倒的

* v. 使…著迷；使…陶醉（fascinate的ing形式）

[24] Yet no point in a wine’s arc of evolution can be singled out as the best. It will have many great moments, which will show a particular side of the wine and will appeal to differing tastes, though admittedly /?d'm?t?dli/ some occasions will be better than others.

In the arc of history 在歷史的長河中

singled out 單獨拎出來

admittedly /?d'm?t?dli/

* adv. 公認地；無可否認地；明白地

[25] Similarly/'s?m?l?li/, there is no best wine with leg of lamb, pizza, oysters/'??st?/ or Peking duck. Many wines will be great.

[26] The point is that while it is important to learn about the characteristics of many wines, how they evolve and pair with various foods, it’s just as important to understand your own tastes, and how they, too, will change and evolve and differ in certain situations.

[27] I find it reassuring/?ri?'??r??/ that in a world increasingly drawn to simple solutions, so long as they are emphatically /?m?f?t?kl?/ stated, wine remains intractable /?n'tr?kt?bl/ and beautiful in its complexity /k?m'pl?ks?ti/.

reassuring/?ri?'??r??/

* adj. 安心的；可靠的；鼓氣的

* emphatically /?m?f?t?kl?/

* adv. 著重地；強調地；斷然地

* intractable /?n'tr?kt?bl/

* adj. 棘手的；難治的；倔強的；不聽話的

[28] Most readers found these wines to be unpretentious /??npr?'t?n??s/ and enjoyable. Boris of Seattle called them “playful and happy,” while Dan Barron of New York found them “easygoing and accessible,” and Joseph in France said they were “just plain fun to drink.”

unpretentious /??npr?'t?n??s/

* adj. 謙遜的；含蓄的；不炫耀的；不鋪張的,

* 樸素的

[29] Like me, George Erdle of Charlotte, N.C., noted how a wine behaved differently on its own and with food, though he had an opposite experience. He found the Peraj Petita delicious on its own but lacking when paired with a dish of cannellini beans and ham. And he loved the Pedra Roja with duck confit ?k?nfi? / .

duck confit ?k?nfi? /https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_confit

[30] One reader, Miquel Hudin in Priorat, took me to task for choosing entry-level wines, which he believes were simple and did little to indicate the great strides/straid/ in the region over the last decade. I took his criticism/'kr?t?'s?z?m/ seriously, as Mr. Hudin, formerly a sommelier in California, wrote the book “Vinologue Montsant: A Regional Guide to Enotourism in Catalonia.”

strides/straid/

* n. 大步；步幅（stride的復數形式）

* v. 跨過；邁步（stride的第三人稱單數形式）

[31] He was correct: I could have sought/s?t/ out more profound/pr?'fa?nd/ examples from Montsant. But those bottles would have been even harder to find than the three I selected, which were not easy, and they would have been much more expensive.

profound/pr?'fa?nd/

* adj. 深厚的；意義深遠的；淵博的

[32] Price is not the final consideration for Wine School, though it is a factor. More important is that these bottles inspire/?n'spa??/ curiosity/?kj?r?'ɑs?ti/. If you liked these wines, perhaps you will seek out even better examples from Montsant.

[33] That is the ultimate goal of Wine School. Dry facts about a wine or a region are widely available, but the spirit of exploration is too often in short supply. If any of the wines we’ve tasted encourage you to dig deeper on your own, you won’t need me to give you extra credit. The satisfaction will be right there in the bottles.

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Sentence

Yet no point in a wine’s arc of evolution can be singled out as the best

The point is that while it is important to learn about the characteristics of many wines, how they evolve and pair with various foods, it’s just as important to understand your own tastes, and how they, too, will change and evolve and differ in certain situations.

Wine remains intractable /?n'tr?kt?bl/ and beautiful in its complexity /k?m'pl?ks?ti/.

I took his criticism/'kr?t?'s?z?m/ seriously

More important is that these bottles inspire/?n'spa??/ curiosity/?kj?r?'ɑs?ti/.

That is the ultimate goal of Wine School.