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Today we finally drop the episode covering the winner of our first Substack subscriber poll!
BREASTS AND EGGS is the first novel from award-winning Japanese author Mieko Kawakami to be translated into English (though her other novels have all been translated in the few years since!)
Kawakami is a failed J-Pop singer (she released 2 albums during a J-Pop decline) who discovered she loved writing the lyrics more than the music. She turned this into poetry and prose on a blog during the heyday of blogging and drew in 200,000+ reader PER DAY for her writing.
Fast forward a decade and she’s now an established author in Japan, and has found a dedicated fanbase in America as well. I picked up her novel BREASTS AND EGGS on a lark a few years back when it was shelved under a bookstore’s “Employee Picks” section. Thanks to y’all selecting it in our subscriber poll, I finally found the excuse to read it!
We talk at length about it in the episode, and here’s some of Mieko’s music to listen to, too (honestly, it’s pretty great.)
The Wines
Dallas’ Pick
Domaine Ciringa “Fosilni Breg” Sauvignon Blanc, Slovenia
Domaine Ciringa is a relatively young winery, beginning in 2009. The name comes from the Slovenian name for Zieregg, the incredibly steep and beautiful Grand Cru vineyard (20 hectares) in which the Tement family has farmed for three generations.
If you compare the soils in Ciringa to Champagne or to Chablis, it is the same type of soil but much younger. Above the limestone is a mixture of marl and clay, which gives the wines a very individual character.
“Sauvignon Blanc grown on these soils is not really tasting like Sauvignon Blanc. It has a big impact on the structure of the wines.”
The entry-level Fosilni Breg, which is in effect a village wine, spends one full year on the full lees in oak followed by about year on the fine lees in stainless steel. That’s a lot of lees!
Surprisingly deep and earthy, with that signature Sauv Blanc zest. Citrus and pineapple with plenty of mineral, salinity, and white flowers.
Dave’s Pairing
2022 Nonesuch Mencia, Silvaspoon Vineyard, Alta Mesa, California
Caitlin Quinn was raised in San Luis Obispo wine country, and has made wine for over a decade in California and abroad. She worked for Quinta Cruz where she got to work with Spanish and Portuguese varities and loved the range of styles. She currently works for Arnot-Roberts but started NoneSuch Wines in 2017 as a side project.
Named "NoneSuch" as a playful way of saying that she wanted to show distinctive vineyards that speak to her. There's nothing else like them. She only makes 5 barrels of each wine currently. She does a Mourvedre, Syrah, Gamay, and a Mencia.
Ron Silva of the Silvaspoons Vineyard has been championing Iberian varieties for decades, with 21 varieties planted, including the first known planting of Mencía in California. Just one acre was planted in 2014 with clones originating from Bierzo, Spain. The vineyard is located North of Lodi and South of Sacramento in the Alta Mesa AVA, which sports the name “high table” because its hills rise higher than the flat areas around Lodi. Soils here are alluvial clay and gravel deposits left by the Consumnes and American Rivers. It is one of the warmest appellations in Lodi making for more robust color and structure in the wine.
The Mencía was hand-harvested on September 2nd, the grapes were crushed by foot, and fermented 100% whole cluster with native yeast, then basket pressed and aged in five neutral oak barrels for nine months. 132 cases produced. 12.3% abv
Dave notes: fresh and floral, but dense and smooth, "soft" acidity, "silky" tannins. White pepper, red currant and plum. Also like a hard boiled egg sprinkled with pepper and salt. (Not stinky egg, fresh delicious egg. Those do exist.)
I wanted a wine by a woman-led winery, and one by a lone wolf / one woman show lady much like the protagonist of the novel.
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