Intervention at altitude

Mark Walford and Wendy Paillé from Le Soula

A mind-changing orange wine from Le Soula

Last month I had the luxury of rushing round RAW to interview producers. Arriving at the predictably edgy location, the Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane, the warehouse-like space was suitably raw, a blank canvas against which these natural wine producers could pour and talk.

The place was unsurprisingly amok with skinny jeans, braces and an inappropriate amount of facial hair. A sommelier-heavy selection of young vinous types slurped there way from table to table, holding their Zaltos of skin contact up to the light. Refreshingly those I spoke to seemed almost vehemently anti the natural wine phenomenon, particularly Eric Texier (whom I'll write about at a later point).

The new winemaker at Le Soula, Wendy Paillé, was interesting on the topic too, suggesting that wine is inherently un-natural. My interview with her is up now on bbrblog.com (here). I've always loved their wines, especially the whites, but I had never tasted their orange wine. Naturally I was dubious, but it was utterly mesmerising – a heady herbal intensity with peach skin and a saline edge, gorgeously nutty on the palate with a sudden whoosh of tannins. It seemed like it would work with a host of foods. For those who might be more suspect when it comes to skin contact, I would urge you to seek out a bottle of their La Macération No 14, it was mind-changing for me.