Wine Sommelier Develops Tasting Notes for Starter: '72-Hour Ripeness,' 'Tangerine Funk,' 'Umami Undertones'

The 2023 iteration of Margaux — a 78% hydration levain maintained at 74.1°F in a Weck 743 jar — presented, according to its custodian's tasting notes, 'a lactic-forward profile with persistent acetic undertones, moderate complexity, medium-plus viscosity, and a 72-hour ripeness suggesting the culture is approaching but has not yet crossed its peak fermentation window.' Portland wine professional Renata Søe composed this assessment at 6:14am on a Wednesday, scoring Margaux 93 points on a 100-point scale — two points below the previous Thursday's evaluation, a regression she attributed to an 'unusually warm Willamette Valley October accelerating LAB activity beyond the target acidity band.' The 2019 vintage, she noted, showed more acidity. Søe, who holds the WSET Level 4 Diploma and spent fourteen years building a cellar program at a restaurant she won't name because they 'never understood the secondary fermentation work she was doing,' began applying organoleptic assessment methodology to her starter in early 2022 after a trip to a biodynamic bakery in Lyon. 'What I found there changed my thinking on microbial diversity,' she said during what she described as a 'vertical tasting' — six consecutive days of Margaux samples preserved in sealed wine glasses, evaluated in order, with palate-cleansing crackers between rounds. 'The 2021 iteration had a mineral salinity I've never recovered in any subsequent feeding cycle. I believe the 2021 flour harvest was exceptional.' The crackers, her husband confirmed, were the last food in the house. Standard starter evaluation involves monitoring pH (healthy range: 3.5–4.0 at peak), rise volume (a reliable doubling in four hours indicating active Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis), and the float test. Søe's evaluation protocol includes all of these and a 19-point sensory matrix covering color clarity, visual viscosity, aroma intensity, aroma complexity, retronasal finish, and what she classifies as 'structural tannins' — a term borrowed from formal wine assessment that does not, when applied to a lactic acid ferment, have a consensus scientific definition. She considers this a feature. 'The WSET framework exists to describe sensory experience, not to be constrained by the medium.' She has begun pairing her loaves with wine. The pairings are not casual. A recent 85% hydration miche — featuring an open, irregular alveolar crumb she describes as 'confident without being showy' — was matched to a 2017 Chablis Premier Cru on the grounds that 'the chalk terroir amplifies the lactic mid-palate without competing with the acetic finish.' An 80% whole-wheat pan loaf, denser in structure, was served alongside an aged Grüner Veltliner. 'The peppery retronasal note bridges the bran,' she explained, in a tone that indicated this was not the first time she had explained it to someone who had not asked. The loaves are excellent. Margaux, maintained on a twice-daily 1:5:5 feeding schedule using T65 flour and filtered water at 78°F, has held rise volume within a 12% tolerance band for eleven consecutive months. The crumb is open. The crust shatters correctly. None of this is the problem. Last month, Søe submitted her tasting-note archive — forty-two pages, including a retrospective vertical assessment and a color-coded vintage comparison chart — to the regional WSET chapter newsletter under the heading 'Non-Traditional Organoleptic Subjects: A Case for Expanded Methodology.' The newsletter declined to publish. She described this as 'the biodynamic wine situation all over again' and immediately began drafting a second submission with an expanded bibliography and a new section on terroir as it pertains to municipal water chlorination. Her husband has been feeding Margaux on the days she travels for work. He describes the experience as 'meditative.' He scored Tuesday's feeding 91 points, noting 'tangerine funk on the nose and a clean lactic finish.' He is considering a second jar.