Mythopia, recalibrated
Ten Mythopia bottles back to back at Lo, organised by Serhii Braha and Sabotage Wines - the inconsistency on display, the recent wins doing the convincing. Plus a bonus Champagne to close.
By Boris · Hosted by Boris Buliga
I've never been a fan of Mythopia. Over the years I've tasted enough bottles to know the producer's pattern - some genuinely good, some genuinely awful - and at these prices the inconsistency wasn't easy to forgive. Natural farming doesn't excuse uneven results; the wines have to earn it the same way anyone else's do.
Recent releases changed that. They speak with their own voice - veggy, soup-leaning, sometimes wet-earth and a little dumpy in the best sense - and that voice is rare. Did I buy any? Yes, mostly thanks to the discount on the Sabotage site. But the better way in is what Serhii Braha and Sabotage Wines put together for this evening: ten Mythopia bottles back to back, the producer's whole personality on the table at once. The inconsistency on display, the recent wins doing the convincing. The right room in which to form your own opinion.
(Plus a bonus to close: Vincent Laval's Cumières Premier Cru 2023, slipped in at the end on a register so different it reset the palate.)
Mythopia Moravagine 2019
Moravagine is one of Mythopia's two skin-contact Chasselas cuvées, named for Blaise Cendrars's 1926 novel - Cendrars was Swiss-born, which makes the literary nod a local one. Whole-bunch skin maceration in airtight steel followed by multi-year aging in used oak, the house template. The orange-Chasselas register at its more chaotic end.
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Disobedience is Mythopia's other Chasselas-led orange wine, named for Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" - the cuvée was renamed from the original "Sélection" label in 2009. Chasselas 100%, extended whole-bunch skin maceration in airtight steel followed by years in used 225-litre oak. Schmidt's line on the name: "Disobedience does not always lead to new insights, but new insights are always the result of disobedience."
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The 2018 release of Disobedience, bottled in August 2019 - notably short by the cuvée's standards, where later vintages spend years longer in oak before bottling. Chasselas 100%, whole-bunch skin maceration in airtight steel. Same template, different patience.
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The 2017 release of Disobedience, bottled in April 2023 - about five and a half years in cellar before it reached glass. Chasselas 100%, whole-bunch skin maceration in airtight steel, followed by years in used 225-litre oak. The oldest of the three Disobedience vintages on the table.
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Finito is Mythopia's orange Sylvaner, made only from the last day of harvest each year - old vines, tiny volume, sometimes only one barrel produced. Six months whole-bunch skin maceration in airtight steel, then four to five years in old, neutral oak. By Schmidt's own framing, probably the best white he makes. The 2019 lands with the kind of layered miso-and-tea depth that earns the boast.
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Illusion is Mythopia's everyday Pinot Noir, from the forty-five-year-old vines on the high Arbaz parcel - the same fruit source as PI-NO, the two are barrel selections from the same harvest. Partial destemming, indigenous yeast, around twelve weeks in steel with pigeage, then roughly two years in 400-litre used oak. The most conventionally Pinot-shaped wine of the evening, even if not yet ready in the glass.
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Blue Velvet is Mythopia's whole-bunch carbonic-style Pinot Noir, drawn from the Arbaz parcel below Ayent castle. Six months whole-bunch maceration in airtight steel, then three years in old oak with no topping up. The cuvée name likely points to David Lynch's 1986 film - Mythopia's other Lynch nod is the Lost Highway cuvée.
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Vagabond is Mythopia's Pinot Noir from the schist side of the river that runs through the estate. Six-month whole-bunch maceration in airtight steel, then 222-litre used oak. This 2019 was bottled in August 2020, only a year from harvest - unusually short by the cuvée's standards, where later vintages spend years longer in oak before bottling. The name likely nods to Agnès Varda's 1985 film, though Schmidt hasn't confirmed it.
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The 2016 release of Vagabond, this one given the full house treatment - six months whole-bunch in steel, then thirty-eight months in 222-litre used oak with no topping up before bottling in April 2020. The cuvée's identity, in other words, properly executed. Where the 2019 lands as a young Pinot, this 2016 holds the structure the cellar was supposed to put on it.
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The 2009 release of Shining, Mythopia's long-elevage orange Pinot Noir. Three-month maceration on skins, then close to a decade in 400-litre old oak with no topping up - that combination quietly breaks down the red pigments and pushes the wine somewhere between Pinot Noir and oxidative-style sherry. Bottled in 2019, with the Kubrick-borrowed name matching the colour. The transformation cuvée, in every sense.
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And the closer: Georges Laval's Cumières Premier Cru 2023, slipped in to end the evening on something completely different. Single-vintage from the family's village plots in Cumières - the Lavals have grown vines there since 1694, and have farmed organically since 1971. Three grapes (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier), vinified in oak barrels, dosed at zero. Stylish, perfumed, and unmistakably its own - where most Champagne blurs into the same broad-shouldered story, this one has a voice.
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