Brett: fault update

Well, nobody who's read this blog would expect me to have Brett listed as anything else but a fault, right?
That's not to say that I don't understand there are people who actually like their wines to smell like manure (or sweaty saddles, phenolic medicines, etc), and that this topic will always be somewhat controversial...

After reading a post on Beau's Basic Juice about whether Brett is seen as a fault in other countries than the EU (no, it's not universal - much to my chagrin) I thought I'd post my thoughts & some recent links:

The short answer is "yes" and "no"...

While it remains as controversial as ever, there is a slow tide turning against it in my opinion.

Most people who 'enjoy' (sorry Beau, I feel using that word to describe it needs some qualifiers) Brett probably...

1. have an association of those aromas with some positive experiences in their life [grew up on a farm, had a horse, etc], or...
2. aren't very sensitive to those compounds, and therefore don't detect it at the same levels as others, or...
3. a combination of the above, and were perhaps exposed to Brett as part of their initial introduction to wine as a normal component of fine wines...

Anyway, I've digressed a bit, so here is some links to other sites with some good perspectives from the UK, US, and Australia:

But, I think the first point to make would be that even the French (Pascal Chatonnet, et al, various papers from 1992~2005) have declared 4-ethyl-phenol to be a fault above 425 ppb (Chatonnet, Jamie Goode). Pascal, as I'm sure you all remember, was the researcher who tested over 100 EU wines and pronounced that half were infected with Brett, and 1/3 were above the "fault" level back in '95. Then just this last year revisited EU wines to find that 2/3~3/4 were infected, and half were now above the fault level.

In England, Brett is many sites have it listed as a fault, as is 'bell pepper' (good example @ Spittoon.biz).

In Australia, the once imagined 'terroir' sweaty-saddle trademark of the Hunter Valley was disavowed as a fault of Brett infections (Tom Stevenson)(Richard Gower).

Certainly we in the States don't like Brett as a group, and studies have shown that most other New Worlder's don't either.

See this site as well...Moody's Weekly Wine Review (2003 Hope Shiraz)

I'm sure the debate will continue to rage, with the rather large variation in people's ability to detect it driving the discussion.