A real time report of my tasting group's Riesling tasting

[A few days ago, my tasting group met up to taste some German Riesling. Each of the wines were covered with a brown bag. The line-up was, as you will see, quite focused. Thank you to my fellow tasters for putting up with my laptop and keyboard strokes during the proceedings. And a special thank you to Nadia for putting together a very solid line-up]

So here we go, flight one of our group's Riesling tasting. Group is discussing the vagaries of auto correct on smart phones. Wines A, B, C and D are now in the glass. Lots of swirling, sniffing, slurping, spitting. Time to catch up myself.

A - Cool toned, slight medicinal edged aromas, combined with SO2. Initially, not a lot of depth aromatically. Improves with air. Yellow fruits. Lemon-lime Elegant and understated, slightly herbal/bitter edge. Ruwer kabinett?

B - spicy, slightly sweet smelling apples. Red slate, here? Most expressive nose. Very good intensity and presence, and juicy acidity.

C - Talcum powder and appley nose. Creamy, slightly leesy wine here. Mellow acids. Young Kabinett?

D - Whoa. Clearly a more mature wine here. A sweeter pradikat, hitting some petrol notes now on the nose. More lemon-lime soda. An easy drinker for those who like RS, but it's simple.

We are deciding whether or not to rank the wines. Always a subject of debate with this group. Someone jokingly references the oft stated "it [blind tasting] is a parlor game." Arjun wants everyone to know that 'B' is his least favorite. We are unanimously united against 'D.' Lots of 'C' fans. 'A' and 'B' bring the sulphur.

OK, 'new shit is coming to light' as the Dude once said. 'A' and 'B,' and 'C' and 'D' are from the same vineyard.

Next flight:

'E' - Noticeably darker color than other two. A light gold color. Deep, orchard fresh fruit smells. Honeyed, a bit of botrytis? A bold, rich style. Nice length. Rheingau Spatlese (?)

'F' - Sulphur. Medicinal cherry aromas. Peach pit. Purity is increasing on nose, a bit. Same producer as 'A.' Back to the Ruwer.

'G' - Sulphurous, but less. Ripe pink grapefruits aromas - nice. Juicy citrus, especially pink grapefruit, and good acidity. Wehlener Sonnenuhr? Restrained kabinett.

Someone offers, "I think 'F' is the stinkiest of the two, by far." I agree. More minerality in this flight, Mark offers.

'H' - Too bad this is corked. There is good material here. Great balance, power and acidity. And length.

'I' - Deepest color yet, almost 18K gold. Creamy. Smells mature. Rich, mature spat (auslese?)

Back to that German butter. It came from the Pasta Shop's dairy section at Market Hall in Rockridge.

The wines are revealed:

A - 2009 Prum Graacher Himmelreich Kabinett

B - 2008 Prum Graacher Himmelreich Kabinett

C - 2008 Willi Schaefer Graacher Himmelreich Kabinett

D - 2003 Willi Schaefer Graacher Himmelreich Spatlese

E - 2009 Kerpen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Kabinett

F - 2009 Prum Wehelener Sonnenuhr Kabinett

G - 2008 Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Kabinett

H - 2002 Hauth Kerpen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Kabinett

I - 2001 Kerpen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese

Twitter's influence here

Heading to a German Riesling tasting. Wish me luck.

Four Rieslings in Five Days

Apropos to last week’s post on focused drinking, I decided that Riesling would be a logical place to experiment given that, over the past year I have, I’m embarrassed to say, dialed back the Riesling consumption. So, 2009 is supposed to be a terrific vintage for Riesling. Plenty ripe, I’m sure, as it was all over Europe, but likely producing many delicious wines to drink and age. I’m starting with the trocken (dry) styles, given that these are the wines I know the least, and that trocken wines in ripe vintages tend to be a pretty good combination.

There are four wines, tasted over the course of five days, which I will try to shed some light on here in three stages.

Day 1 – Introduction to the Trockens

I selected four wines priced from $14-$20:

2009 Josef Rosch Riesling Trocken

Very simple, ripe, stone fruit without a whole lot of interest texturally. One for uncritical drinking to sip without much thought or expecting much pleasure. Meh.

2009 Von Schubert Maximiner Herrenberg Riesling Trocken

Whoa – sulphuric funkiness on the nose. Slatey as well, that double Ruwer combo of slate and sulphur, I believe, is painfully bad in trocken form. Not a big fan. Also, some weird bitter cherry cough drop type aromas as well. Maybe will improve with some fridge time.

2009 Keller Estate Riesling Trocken

Soft, pure, poached pear and ripe orange citric deliciousness. The wine managed to be the ripest of the bunch, but still refreshing, balanced and mineral as well. At the time, I was thinking this to be texturally closer to demi-sec to sec tendre Loire chenin than to riesling.

2009 Okonomierat Rebholz Riesling Trocken.

Very compressed, tight, mineral, tangy and DRY. Sort of a greenish quality to it, with subtle citric and vege notes that brought lighter gruner veltliner to mind more than riesling. A tough one to initially guage.

Day 2 – Sunday lunch

A glass or 2 of wine with lunch is one of life’s simple pleasures which unfortunately so many of us stressed out, overworked Americans miss out on – regular wine drinkers included. Anyway, I continued to check the development of these wines, this time in a more leisurely format while enjoying my Sunday away from work.

2009 Josef Rosch Riesling Trocken

Improving. Firming up, brighter fruit and acidity, more focus. Let’s upgrade this one from “meh” to not bad.

2009 Von Schubert Maximiner Herrenberg Riesling Trocken

Still more ‘nast than Conde.

2009 Keller Estate Riesling Trocken

This was one of my two lunch glasses. Delicious but maybe starting to taste a little too ripe? Getting spicier and the texture, which I formerly though of as soft, is getting a little bit heavy and viscous. A glass was just the right amount.

2009 Okonomierat Rebholz Riesling Trocken

Markedly better. Fleshing out a bit, still showing wonderful minerality and bright, snappy citric fruits, but spreading throughout the palate more. At this point I am beginning to favor this one to the Keller.

Day 5 – Final Impressions

2009 Josef Rosch Riesling Trocken

Starting to lose some intensity and impact. Still, its not a bad drier Riesling for the masses.

2009 Von Schubert Maximiner Herrenberg Riesling Trocken

Nope. Never again.

2009 Keller Estate Riesling Trocken

Alright, there is likely some botrytis in this wine. The texture is too viscous, the flavors too ripe and spicy, for this not to be the case. Without a doubt, this wine was at its best for me on day one.

2009 Okonomierat Rebholz Riesling Trocken

My favorite. Compared with a few days ago, it opened up slightly, though not remarkably. Mineral, fresh, invigorating, decidedly dry, but balanced trocken Riesling.

Delicious Mosel Kabinett, re-visited

In the past, I've very much enjoyed the wines of Eduard Hauth-Kerpen. The one vineyard bottling that I seem to find at my store, the Wehlener Sonnenuhr, has made a best of list on this blog in years past. I've had both 1994 Spatlesen and 1996 Kabinetts, and now a 2002 Kabinett. This bottling, like the aforementioned wines from Eduard Hauth-Kerpen, strike me as very classic in style: light, spritely acid, delicate sweetness, and overall a very easy going, mellow, and understated palate presence. I'm sure that the higher acid, less noticeably ripe quality of vintages such as 1996 and 2002 have something to do with the style of this winery as I recognize it; though I am very interested to try something either younger, or perhaps from a warmer vintage to see how the wines fare. Something tells me that these delicate, classic wines would still be somewhat similar even in more robust vintages.

Oh, and a quick shout out to Thor Iverson for either snapping or sourcing the beautiful photo above, which came up on a cursory google image search for 'wehlener sonnenuhr.'

Old Riesling and Chinese at Jai Yun

For a while, now, a few members of my tasting group have each been meaning to dine at what many consider San Francisco's most serious Chinese restaurant, Jai Yun, a non-descript address in the Financial district with a simple prix fixe menu; the amount one agrees to pay correlates to the quantity and variety of dishes. The menu starts at $55 for dinner, and goes up to $65 (our selected option); $85 (I think) and on up if you really want to sample some extravagant Chinese banquet type dishes. That having been said, for $65 five of us tasted what amounted to at least 30 different dishes. The dishes represented quite the array of colors, textures and flavors, and varied from impeccably prepared familiar favorites to more unusual dishes, many of which showed such a high level of attention to detail and harmony in flavors that I felt as though I had never before really experienced Chinese food as it's meant to be eaten.

Almost immediately after everyone and was seated, our server brought us fourteen cold dishes, each a tiny pyramid shaped mound of food. Bright, tangy cucumber salad; tender, garlicky enoki mushrooms; a few pieces of simply roasted duck; radish salad; smoked fish; marinated tofu skins; barbecued pork; braised meat; sauteed chinese broccoli...plus five more I cannot recall.

At this point, let's discuss the first wine of the evening, a bottle of 1983 Weingut Graf Wiltinger Scharzhoffberger Riesling Kabinett. Delicate, wispy and in this case just a bit past its prime Saar Riesling. After 10 minutes in the glass Mark observed the structure firming up and gaining more intensity, only to peter out again shortly thereafter.

Next up a 1983 Reichsgraf von Kesselstat Josefshofer Riesling Spatlese. The Josefshofer vineyard lies outside of the village of Graach, in between the top sites Graacher Himmelreich and Graacher Domprobst in the middle Mosel. It was as beautiful and profound an older riesling as I've had since tasting a bunch of Prum two years ago. A deeper golder color than the Kabinett, there were intense aromas of apricots and mandarins, and a definite mark of botrytis on the palate. A golden elixir, this, whose sugar was completely resolved, leaving a delicious ripe mature Riesling, with a lot of detail and length. It's worth noting that Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt is serious about only using indigenous yeasts for fermentations, employing extended lees contact, and in their own words from the website, "we categorically reject the so-called new oenological procedures."

Another Spatlese would follow, this time from the terrific 1985 vintage, a Weingut Benedict Loosen Urben Urziger Wurzgarten Riesling Spatlese ***. If you thought that I would not be tasting at least one German wine with stars involved, do not not worry, this is the starred wine. More youthful in appearance and flavor than the von Kesselstat, this wine was lighter in weight but more agile, arguably less profound now but still pretty darn good. It was very heavily sulphured, from what I understand, to help encourage long-term aging.

OK, back to the food. There were five spiced morsels of rib accompanied by deep fried taro paste balls; orange beef totally unlike any other I've had, with very gamey and wild tasting (aged?) beef fried to a crisp and redolent of orange peel; spicy kung pao chicken; a wonderfully earthy dish of snails (chewy, but still tasty) with fermented black bean; abalone and egg whites. Butter soft, rich braised pork; fried whole grouper; Sauteed soy beans; and several other vegetable dishes to balance out the fact that we were being served such a wide variety of animal protein, probably more at a single sitting than I had ever eaten. Unlike with other shared dining experiences, each diner always had at least a couple bites of whichever dish was being served. It was quite the culinary display from Chef Chia Ji Nei, living up to all the high praise I had heard prior to dining at Jai Yun.

Rounding out the wines, we had a dull, disappointingly simple bottle of 1997 Schlossgut Diel Burgberger Riesling Kabinett, and a 2004 Albert Mann Pinot Gris Grand Cru which was so out of context that it showed like Rombauer Chardonnay. Well, that is a stretch; there was great depth of flavor, minerals, and rich, succulent pinot gris fruit, just that next to the more delicate, significantly lower in alcohol Riesling we had a tough time drinking it.

Jai Yun is a treasure. Go there with a group of folks and you'll go away not only sated, but with a sense of having been schooled as well.

And yet again, the tasting group convenes: '07 German Riesling meets Brandenburg Concertos and Die Mensch Maschine

Hope you enjoyed the Kraftwerk video.

As you may have surmised from the above title, it was something of a celebration of all things glorious and of teutonic origin for my tasting group's most recent meeting tonight. I selected the highly regarded '07 German vintage as a theme, cooked up some brats, made some cabbage to accompany, and played JS Bach to thematically tie things together. Kraftwerk's Man Machine was requested (and shortly thereafter un-requested) by a few fellow group members. As for the wines, we all agreed that it was a very solid showing. I divided the seven wines into two flights: one trocken (dry) flight of 4 and a flight of three kabinetts.

FLIGHT ONE: Dry Riesling

There was a fairly strong divide between people's two least favorite wines, and their two favorites.

2007 Johannes Leitz Riesling Eins Zwei Dry

By a single point, this was the least favorite wine. Personally, I found the wine to be aromatically closed at first. With air, some tart, red autumn apples as well as yellow stone fruits emerged. The palate was very tangy, reminding me of tart yellow plums skins. Crisp and thirst quenching, but also, I feel, deemed a bit lean and one note by this tough crowd of folks mainly in the wine trade.

2007 Von Schubert Maximin Grunhauser Riesling QbA Trocken

This Ruwer riesling had a strong mineral stamp on the nose. It smelled funky and very slatey. The palate was earthy, soft, very textural, and a whole lot more mature tasting than its youth might suggest. Interestingly enough, the estate is one of the few non-interventionist ones in the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer. Native yeast fermentation, and judging by the style perhaps a relatively minimal dose of sulphur as well. Ultimately, while this was interesting, the austere dryness, pungent minerality and lack of fruit did not do much for me or many others in the group.

2007 Becker Landgraf Riesling Trocken

This up-and-coming Rheinhessen estate impressed many folks, with three first place votes and two seconds out of nine participants. Johannes and Julia, a husband and wife team, source grapes from particulalry chalky soils in the Rheinhess. They ferment using a 50-50 mix of indigenous and cultured yeast. I found a certain savor and harmonious quality to this wine's aromas. A definite mineral stamp, but not as overbearing or defining as on the Von Schubert. I was particularly taken with the effortless balance and purity of flavors.

2007 Weingut Ott Riesling Vom Rottem Schotter

Scandalous... the top finishing wine of this German focused Riesling tasting was actually an imposter, a ringer, an Austrian wine! I'd be crying foul, except for the fact that Ott's wines are so delicious and in this particular case show so incredibly well out the gate. Some comments from my colleagues: 'Great depth,' 'Good weight and richness,' 'characteristic petrol notes.' We all agreed that this wine was the most expressive on this particular evening. This is made from biodynamically farmed grapes grown in a vineyard in the Wagram region of Austria (due west of Vienna, just before you reach the Kamptal, Kremstal, and Wachau).

FLIGHT 2: The Kabinetts

Given budgetary restraints, as well as the fact that 2007 is such a classic vintage, perfect for Kabinett production, I decided to select a few Kabinetts for the off-dry portion of this evening's tasting.

2007 Von Schubert Maximin Grunhauser Estate Riesling

As with the trocken, this wine had a decidedly slatey mineral stamp. It's a dry kabinett, smelling of browning apples left out on the counter. It has a creamy mid palate, with broad, funky, lighter flavors relative to many German Kabinetts. This wine showed completely, utterly apart from the other Kabinetts. More oxidative winemaking, combined with the unique Ruwer terroir, perhaps?

2007 JJ Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett

Though this had an equal amount of points as the Schubert, it garnered more first place votes, and as a result placed higher. While some folks thought that this was textbook Riesling, complete and offering up everything a classic young Kabinett should, others took issue with the noticeably reductive state (it is a JJ Prum wine, after all). Nevertheless, I would fall into the fans of Prum camp. Yes, they are pricey wines, doused with sulphur along every single step of the winemaking process, etc. But they also have a certain power, depth of flavor, and typicity that scream Mosel Riesling, and more specifically that perfectly recall their respective vineyard sites.

2007 Selbach Oster Zeltingger Riesling Kabinett

Fans of this wine claimed that it had all the elements I found in the Prum. While I enjoyed this, it was simply on the level of a solid, quaffable, off-dry riesling. Nothing too evocative, complex, or thought provoking. A solid wine for salads, seafood, or various Asian cuisines (with apologies for the cliched suggested off-dry riesling pairings, if you're reading, Lyle).

So there you have it. Another PMW group tasting in the books. Hopefully we can settle on a date for the next one and get back in the swing of monthly tastings. Thanks to all those who came out and participated on a rainy Sunday night in the city. Special shout out to guests Catherine and Josh (who showed on short notice and with an early morning inventory to deal with tomorrow) as well as Susan, my co-worker from Birmingham (England, not Alabama) who lent her considerable nosing and tasting talents to the group.

Leeks sauteed in butter, salt, pepper and grated nutmeg over toasted bread, with defaced bottle of one-time Rheinhessen riesling, Austria-tized.

Welcome to The Holidays

You may have noticed that the weekly posting rate has declined of late, as has the average posting length and overall quality here. Sorry. It's the busy season, which means that I am eating too much junk food, not enough vegetables and drinking a bit more than usual. At work, we are fortunate to be very busy, people are in a hurry, orders are mispicked, everyone's patience is running a bit thin. All of which feeds the unhealthy eating habits above; it's a vicious cycle. So excuse me if things are slipping a little here. After Christmas things should be back to normal.

To relax from the overall craziness that is retail during the holidays, I went to Terroir last night. Rolled in dolo (I think that's mid 90's QB slang for solo). I very much enjoyed an '07 Pinon Vouvray, the 'silex noir' bottling. So juicy and balanced. Terrific stuff. Then moved on to a '98 Wittman riesling spatlese from the Rheinhessen. Definitely into tertiary land now, some citrus and that brown sugared note I get in Rheinhessen and Pfalz rieslings. After that, a '94 Hauth Kerpen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Spatlese I brought in from work, which showed bigger, broader flavors with a deeper swath of acidity. Developed, but still developing. Finally a bottle of '95 Reinhold Hart Piesporter Goldtrofchen Riesling Spatlese, generously brought in by another guest. It was more primary than I expected. Golden colored and flavored. Appley, deep and just very vibrant and delicious. Apparently low sulphur too. Good bring, Michael.

OK, off to the bike to the Caltrain to the Camino to the shop, and then back again this evening. Have a good day.

Illadelph Blogger meet-up with the great David McDuff

Wine blogging. It may seem easy. You know, drink, form an impression, get up on your soap box and post something. Repeat. Well, blogging regularly - say 3 times a week as a minimum - actually is a real commitment. I read various wine blogs, but few of them ever keep me coming back as regularly as Mcduff's Food and Wine Trail. The combination of McDuff's crisp, professional writing, his thorough profiles of producers, region's and wines, and display of authority without coming across as arrogant or snobbish makes for what might be my favorite wine blog out there, or at least top 3. As David mentioned in his re-cap of our lunch together last week, we also have a good bit in common: we have spent significant time living in the Washington, DC area, we are both University of Maryland alums, we enjoy listening to an eclectic mix of music, particularly anything in a post-punk vein.

On my way home from New York City last week, I stopped in Philly and was picked up by Mr. McDuff at the train station. We then headed to one of the city's many BYO's for some lunch and wine which David brought with him. As some of you may know, the distribution and sale of wine in Pennsylvania is controlled by the state, which leads to a generally poor selection of wines which often times cost a lot more than they should. So a few upshots are that BYO restaurants are popular, and serious wine drinkers in Pennsylvania shop in New Jersey or Delaware - David, though he lives in the Philly metro area, actually works at a store in Wilmington, Delaware named Moore Brothers.

OK, on to the lunch and wine. We went to a Thai restaurant named Nan, which had a typical menu including pad thai, salmon with red curry (which I had and quite enjoyed), smoked duck (which David ordered, also very tasty) and one seriously out of place lunch entree of spaghetti with ricotta and broccoli. Hmmm...we started with a 2002 Ratzenberger Riesling Steeger St Jost Spatlese Trocken from the Mittelrhein. At first it showed the intense apricot kernel flavor and broad fruit which I generally associate with the Rheingau, but then the smoky blue slate minerality kicked in and grew increasingly present in the wine. Apparently the steeply sloping vineyard has provides some of the fruit for a Grosses Gewaches wine which Ratzinger also makes. It was a bit on the dry and strict side for a great pairing with most Thai dishes (especiall the curries), though it did go really well with some grilled squid salad. The second bottle David opened was a delicious 2004 Aldo Vajra 'Costa e Fossati' Dolcetto d'alba. It showed the cut and fine balance of '04 in Piedmont, with a real traditional structure. Very dry blackberry fruits, with some earthiness, cut white flowers and a real elegant, lighter weight (for Dolcetto) palate. The finishing tannins were really fine, like a cat's tongue - that sort of sensation on the palate. None of those coarse, puckery, wood tannins which marr many other Piedmontese wines these days - no surprise as this is a traditional winery (longer fermentation in large slavonian oak) and I do tend to prefer traditional wines. It was the best Dolcetto I have ever tasted, and just out of curiosity a few days later I saw an '05 Giuseppe Mascarello Dolcetto d'Alba in a new Baltimore shop named Swirl, cracked it open, and found that it was not nearly as refined and elegant. Granted, it's not as good a vintage and the Vajra has a year of bottle age on it, but I still don't think the Giuseppe Mascarello Dolcetto will be as good.

Sorry for the dolcetto tangent there. Anyway, back to the story at hand. McDuff knows his stuff, is a terrific guy, and it was a pleasure to finally meet him in person. Thanks for lunch, David, next time is on me.

George Breuer, Lil' Wayne and much, much more at Terroir

If the title alone did not entice you to read more, all I've got to say is - wow...tonight (or more precisely, last night) was supposed to be a mellow evening to share a bottle and meet with a fellow SF wine blogger and Wine & Spirits magazine correspondent, Wolfgang Weber, at the nation's #1 wine bar, Terroir in San Francisco. As has happened on several other occasions at Terroir, the evening went by lightning fast. We drank a few bottles of Breuer rieslings (dry and delicious) and listened several times to the popular Lil' Wayne banger and '08 single of the year candidate, 'A Milli' as well as lots of reggae. Several bottles were cracked open, a few tastes were poured from bottles previously opened for other customers, and before I realized what had happened it was 1:45am and I was closing up the establishment with Guillaume and his friend Pierre. Where does the time go at cool wine bars?

It was an enlightening evening. My first wine blogger meet-up, tonight was interesting in that I met someone who both blogs about wine and writes about it professionally. I encourage you to check both Wolfgang Weber's personal and professional writing as he writes well and knows his stuff. His recent SF Chronicle article on sulphur in the winemaking process was particularly insightful and potentially of interest to readers of this blog. On a more personal note, we had the opportunity to discuss with one of Terroir's owners, Luc, the matter of taste, honesty and passion as it relates to the wines selected for his bar's list. We spoke about how French and sulphur-free does not necessarily equal good wine; ditto for biodynamic and low carbon footprint. No surprises here, but I feel that this bears repeating in what can be an absolutist, dogmatic hobby/obsession. You know what I mean...check yourself the next time you make a sweeping generalization, positive or critical, of any single wine growing country or region, vintage or producer. Wine suprises. It will underwhelm, surprise, impress, and satisfy. Repeatedly.

To that end, there were several wines we had tonight, none of which disappointed, one of which fully delivered on my high expectations, and one southern Rhone wine which surprised me for its sheer likeability and liveliness, especially given my general dislike for wines from this particular part of France.

2006 Kiralyudvar Tokaji Furmint Demi-Sec

The first vintage to be exported to the States, this winery has the benefit of some consultation from Huet's Noel Pinguet. A nose of dripping ripe melon, cantaloupe in particular, leads to a palate of intensely pure, melon like flavors, with a bit of the typical furmint orange blossom qualities as well. Pure, intense, gorgeously soft and textured. What more could you want from Hungary (or anywhere, for that matter?)

1996 Giuseppe Rinaldi Barolo Brunate Le Coste

A youngin'. Shamefully, I did not give these 1.5 ounces their proper due. What I tasted was a dark fruited, traditional Barolo, young, and just beginning to offer up some secondary, meaty flavors. Rinaldi is about as natural as they come in Barolo: fermented with indigenous yeasts and minimal sulphur throughout the winemaking process, aging in old oak. I was reading on Italian Wine Merchant's site that Rinaldi's barolos are fermented Ripasso style, over Barbera skins, which used to be more usual practice in the Piedmont.

2007 Gramenon Cotes du Rhone

A (new?) Kermit Lynch Cotes du Rhone, this is grenache-based, surprisingly lively and appealing. As I mentioned earlier, be careful when you generalize. I had told Guillaume earlier this summer that I generally dislike grenache, except for a few Gigondas and the very occasional Chateauneuf du Pape. A few visits ago he poured me a grenache I couldn't stand, and this time he got me. Apparently these wines are all the rage in Paris right now.

2004 George Breuer Riesling Berg Schlossberg

13% alcohol, duly noted. Young, compact, not too expressive, and a bit heavy. Not bad, but compared to the first Breuer we drank, a merely pretty good effort (sorry, Luc)

2002 George Breuer Riesling Nonnenburg

Produced from a terrific German Riesling vintage (better for many in the Rheingau than '01), from Bruer's highest sloped vineyards, this wine is a KILLER. Complex on the nose, with quince, apricots, and what I imagine as peach marmelade fermented dry (of course this does not exist, it just brings to mind the intensity of the aromas). After some air, the intense minerality reveals itself on the nose as well. The flavors on the palate are tense and intense. Vibrant, chiseled stone fruit with a real saltiness on the mid-palate and finish of the wine. Very persistent as well. Yes! My WOTN, no question, no contest.

There was a Tavel Rose which was surprisingly natural, nuanced and non-Tavel like. Forget the producer name. Also an '07 Saumur-Champigny from Germain which was tasty and well-made.

On many levels, this was a most enjoyable, educational and rewarding visit to Terroir. Just what the doctor ordered.

The dinner party: Braised short ribs, côt, and a lot more wines

Sunday night Nattles and I had a lovely dinner with one of my co-workers, her husband, and another couple. There was much food and drink, especially for a school night, but the heartiness of the food and extended time period of the evening made for easy metabolization of the wine. I woke up Monday morning and felt pretty good. Decent enough energy at work, especially after lunch and a few ounces of kombucha. Anyway, a good time was had and without further adieu let's get to the wines.

Clairette de Die Raspail 'Grande Tradition' NV

This 100% muscat sparkler from Languedoc was 100% appley deliciousness. At 7.5% alcohol it is also very easy to drink. It tasted of orchard fresh apples, almost in a simpler Mosel spatlese kind of way. Yeah, if you were to take a fruity Mosel spatlese, put it in a sealed tank and make a charmat method sparkler, it would taste similar to this. Interestingly enough I had the wine today as well, and while it was very tasty the character was decidedly less appley, and more of the typical Muscat grapeyness with sweet, exotic citrus notes. Either side of this wine, the apples from Sunday night or the more typical Muscat flavors of today, works for me. The wine went well with the chicken and apple sausages, as well as the crocodile (yes, crocodile) sausages we were eating.

Schloss Schonborn Johannisberger Klaus Riesling Kabinett 1994

At first whiff, I thought that this Kabinett had headed too far down the road of ash and decay for my tastes. But it quickly revived itself and turned out to be a tangy, quince and citrus filled riesling, with characteristically sharp '94 acidity. A bit simple at first, but it improved and showed nicely after some time in the glass.

Hughes Beaulieu Picpoul de Pinet 2007

This simple quaffer was not as pleasurable as I remember from past vintages. A bit metallic and astringent on the finish. A bit more simple as well. Bottle shock, maybe?

Xavier Frissant Touraine Ambois 'Cuvee Renaissance' 2005

My hunch was that this, one of the two wines I brought, would work great with the short ribs. And did it ever. 50% Cot, 30% cab franc, 20% cab sauv from this talented grower in Touraine makes for a very fine food wine. Cot contributes the full, dark fruit flavors, cab franc the herbal savor and acidity, and cabernet some more of the herbs as well as conveying a bit of added tension to the structure. Once the wine had a chance to flesh out it really shined with the short ribs, which were tender and expertly prepared by aspiring Top Chef Derek Hena. If you like the Domaine de la Pepiere Cuvee Granit, I would try this Frissant, I prefer it.

Vincent Paris St Joseph 2006

Pure syrah, simple as that. Violet, white pepper, and mixed berry fruits on the nose, with juicy blue and red fruits on the palate. It's definitely softer, less tense and less spicy than his Cornas wines, but of course that is to be expected. Vincent Paris makes honest, tasty syrah, which comes as no surprise given that the famous Robert Michel (see Neal Rosenthal's new book) is his uncle and probably taught him some things. This wine reminds me that I really need to explore more northern Rhone syrah - the real stuff - not the ocean of Crozes Hermitage and assorted negoc wines aged in new oak.

City Slicker Syrah Santa Barbara 2006

Speaking of new oak flavors...this is a wine that my co-worker bottled with her dad, through crushpad here in San Francisco. It is juicy Santa Barbara syrah that is not my style but definitely well-made and easy to like if it's what you're into.

Domaine de Fondreche 'Nadal' Cotes de Ventoux 2005

These wines are always awarded high scores and it's easy to see why - they are extracted, anonymous tasting southern Rhone wines. That having been said, the O'sud, which is the cheapest of this series, is usually lighter on its feet and more lively tasting.

Domaine de la Pigeade Muscat Beaumes de Venise 2006

I don't like Beaumes de Venise and I didn't really care for this either. It reminds me of orange marmelade, spiked with alcohol. Bitter and hot. Not really refreshing. Then again, I'm not much of a dessert wine person.

Thanks to Chiara and Derek for the hospitality - next dinner's at chez moi.

Theise '07 German/Austrian Tasting - West Coast Edition

This is far from thorough. I still would like to put down a few thoughts on the wines and the vintage, with many gaping holes since I came far from tasting everything. For instance, I didn't taste any reds because I didn't feel like it. The fact that I tasted as many of these in the middle of a day off while, still trying to catch up from being away for a few weeks, re-confirmed both my choice of profession and my tolerance for tooth enamel punishment. It's a Terry Theise tasting though; so of course I wouldn't think of missing it. Terry's work is the reason why I have had the chance to taste such a variety of wines from Germany and Austria without travelling to either country. It could have just as easily been Rudi Wiest, but I sold Terry's wine back in the day, and besides Rudi's wines are tougher to find around Baltimore and DC where my formative drinking years took place.

Germany first. I really like the acidity of 2007. In many cases it is in terrific balance with fruit and sugar, and in my favorite wines there is a real crackle to the acidity, more so than in '06 or '05, which I would describe as juicier and maybe a touch less malic? That being said, there were some wines which were missing the power and richness of '06 and '05, or the prettiness and detailed minerality of '02. Overall it seemed like a better than average vintage - enjoyable wines where the peaks, from what I tasted anyway, were Rheingau trocken wines and Donnhoff. Favorites included Leitz's Eins Zwei 3 Dry Riesling (a dry fruit cocktail nose with intense mouthfilling fruits), the Rudeshmeimer Berg Kaisensteinfel Alte Reben (more austere, mineral, detailed, lime, tough to pin-point fruits) and a Toni Jost Bacharacher Hahn Kabinett (does Burt know that he has a village named after him?) that for some reason really impressed. It was a bright, lively combo of tropicality, some leesiness and tasty acidity to cut through it all. Of course the Willi Schaefer wines were great - I prefer Graacher Himmelreich to the Domprobst for its brighter, lighter, less smoky character. Christoffel...I wanted to like these wines more. Part of the problem is that they are so candied and sweet when young, which is usually fine because there is this amazing intensity of flavor. And I probably am missing something here, but I just did not care for them as much as I have the past two vintages.

Now Austria. Only tasted some gruner veltliner and a few assorted others, no riesling. '07 was meh, at least for gruner veltliner, especially following '06. Gobelsburg and Schrock still terrrific, my favorites being the Gobe Gruner Veltliner Steinsetz (bright, citric, clean, mineral for days) and Heidi Schrock's Furmint (explosive tart orange, almost like a bright racy tocai friulano). Nigl - surprisingly disappointing. Salomon Undhof - consistently good and solid value. My wine of the tasting (German or Austrian) was the '93 Gruner Veltliner Vinothek from Nikolaihof (Austria's first biodynamic winery, since '89 I believe). It had ripe citrus and plenty of creamy lees on the nose, with a soft, caressing, intense palate. I was so excited by the wine that I told Nikolas Saahs that it would probably prove to be, in my opinion, the wine of the day - yes I was one of 'those' people I'm embarrassed to say, but such was my level of excitement with the wine.

That's it, for now, there's dinner to prep.