The story of Microstylis Wineconner begins not in a vineyard, but in a forgotten archive. Dust motes danced in the single ray of sunlight illuminating a leather-bound journal – the meticulously handwritten records of Silas Blackwood, a cartographer obsessed with mapping not just lands, but also the subtle shifts in flavor associated with specific vintages. Blackwood believed that wine, like a place, possessed a resonance, a lingering echo of its origin.
Silas Blackwood’s notes detailed a single wine - the ‘Conner’ – produced only in the years following a peculiar celestial alignment. This alignment, he theorized, imbued the grapes with a heightened sensitivity, a ‘chromatic resonance’ as he termed it. The wine, he claimed, tasted of the very landscape it was born from – the granite slopes, the ancient forests, the distant murmur of the sea. His records were incomplete, fragmented, filled with cryptic symbols and obsessive sketches. The last entry, dated 1888, simply read: “The echo fades. The color shifts.”
For over a century, the Wineconner was lost, a whisper in the labyrinth of Blackwood’s estate. It was only in 2008, during a routine estate appraisal, that a cellarman stumbled upon a hidden chamber, revealing a single, perfectly preserved bottle. The label, crafted from aged parchment, bore only the name: ‘Microstylis Wineconner’ and a faded symbol resembling a stylized wave. The wine, predictably, tasted…different.
Microstylis Wineconner
1888
The wine possesses a complex aroma – notes of wild berries, damp stone, and a subtle hint of sea salt. The initial taste is surprisingly vibrant, followed by a lingering warmth that seems to shift and change on the palate. It’s a wine of contradictions, both familiar and utterly alien.
Fruit
Intense
Earth
Moderate
Spice
Subtle
Sea
Delicate
Many have described the wine as “hearing the landscape” – a sensation of disorientation followed by a profound sense of connection.
Only a handful of bottles remain, fiercely sought after by collectors and connoisseurs alike. Each bottle is said to possess a unique ‘chromatic signature,’ reflecting the specific conditions under which it was produced. The Blackwood Estate now meticulously monitors the vineyard, attempting to recreate the conditions of 1888, hoping to unlock the full potential of the Wineconner. Some whisper that the alignment is returning…