On Sep 14, 2:21*pm, James Silverton > wrote:
> On 9/14/2012 10:41 AM, Bi!! wrote:> Greg Brewer of Brewer-Clifton wines released two wines recently from
> > his Diaton project. *The 2011 Hana Shinbu and 2011 Hamon Chardonnays.
> > These are tank fermented, see no wood at all and are very minamalist
> > in there handling. *Hard to describe these wines but they bear very
> > little resemblence to any chardonnay that I've ever had before. *Hana
> > Shinobu shows a saline character with lime, grapefruit and mineral
> > notes that reminds me more of Sake than Chardonnay. *Quite lean and
> > precise. *The Hamon was slightly heavier with pronounced citrus peel,
> > mandarin orange and slightly floral. *These wines were more like
> > Sauvingon Blanc than chardonnay.
>
> I was interested in the name (by the way, it is diato*m*.) Googling
> Brewer's pages, all I see is mysticism about how pure is diatomaceous
> earth and assignment of Kanji characters to land parcels. What's
> actually going on; are the vines grown in diatomaceous dirt or are the
> the wines filtered *with diatomaceous earth? The pages are irritatingly
> hard to read; typically gray letters on light gray, so I may have missed
> something.
>
> --
> Jim Silverton (Potomac, MD)
>
> Extraneous "not" in Reply To.

Sorry about the typo. I do much of this on an ipad now and frankly,
the touch-keypad stinks. I think Greg Brewer takes himself a bit too
seriously and all the mystical stuff is probably just marketing
bulls**t. It appears that there are some diatomaceous layers in the
vineyards but honestly, I think the wine is really about, cold
fermentation in stainless steel, no malo and very little interference
from the lees while aging. The wines are very linear and precise.
Interesting and fun to try but they bear little resemblence to
traditional Chardonnay or even Chablis. I'm not sure about
distribution but I suspect that wherever Melville and Brewer & Clifton
wines are distributed you can find Diatom.