Six of us gathered at my house about a week and a half ago for our monthly group tasting, this month featuring the wines of Alsace. We had several delicious pot luck dishes to sample throughout the evening as we drank through the line-up.
N.V. Willm Cremant d’Alsace Brut Blanc de Blancs. We started out the evening with this sparkler that is soft and simple on the nose, with gentle aromas of pear, peach, soft chalk and powdered minerals. In the mouth, there are some sweet caramel notes only partially offset by bitter grapefruit and smoke flavors through the middle. It finishes a bit scratchy and a bit out of focus. Really, it is just OK.
2004 Schoffit Chasselas Vieilles Vignes. This wine offers up soft aromas of orange blossom, musk melon, pickled ginger, steeped lemon peel and lots of intense exotic spices. Notably, after a few nights in the refrigerator, the nose becomes decidedly more mineral-driven and crisp—with graphite, river stones and cleaner citrus and melon aromas. In the mouth, the entry feels oddly thin, but the mid-palate manages a significant turn-around—with fine overall cohesion and density of fruit. Pineapple, grapefruit, lemon, rosewater, and dusty spice flavors and soft acidity are featured to fine effect there. But then the finish is not quite as lifted as one might hope. It is perhaps not a complete wine, but it does have pretty aromatics and a very fine mid-palate focus that makes it rather appealing.
1998 Zind-Humbrecht Gewurztraminer Turckheim. This is a big, brawny Gewurztraminer, with a nose featuring dark spices, lychee fruit, rosewater and musky melon done in a classic but sort of heavy-handed way. In the mouth, it is soft-textured and smooth-flowing, with toasty wood notes accompanying rose petal, tangerine and smoke notes all the way across the palate. On day 2, the nose is much the same, but the palate is now a bit more oily-textured and the sweetness is a bit more cloying, with just a hint more of the grainy wood and alcohol heat showing through.
2000 Trimbach Pinot Gris Hommage a Jeanne. For the first hour or so, the nose on this wine essentially smells like every kind of petroleum product imaginable—giving an unpleasant first impression. However, after an hour these aromas start to become more integrated--with notes of citrus peel, waxy lanolin, honey and apricot folding in nicely. On day 2, an even greater aromatic transformation seems to take place—with the wine displaying beautiful and complex notes of spiced apple, toasted honey, musk, vinyl, iced tea and orange marmalade. In the mouth, this has a great food-friendliness and is a great pairing to Alsatian onion tart. There is a fine sense of structure despite the soft rounded fruit. Also, it displays fresher acidity than either of the two previous wines. It also features the most balanced and definitely the longest finish. On day 2, the texture turns more opulent and fleshy, with a more pronounced bottom note really bringing everything to another level. It is a real delight when one gets to that point, so I suggest a decant or long slow ox on this if planning to drink it in the near term.
1989 Trimbach Riesling Cuvee Frederic Emile. The bouquet of this lovely wine just grows and grows throughout the whole evening, gently unfolding and gaining in complexity all the while. At various times, it offers up aromas of diesel gas rag, powdered graphite, white peach, citrus zest and sea shells that are bright and lively yet classy. It has luxuriant depth in the mouth and displays a good deal of viscosity. The texture on the entry is a bit mealy but it turns more rounded and airy the rest of the way. There are some aged, burnished edges at times, but overall it feels clean and dry, especially on the perfectly balanced and effortlessly long finish. Grapefruit, pineapple and peach flavors with a very restrained sweetness level are just part of what goes on flavor-wise, as this evolves throughout the evening until it is all gone. This is just a real nice wine and my personal and the group’s WOTN.
1997 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. Served from 375ml. The nose is pretty classy and interesting at first—showing off aromas of lemon peel, beeswax, quince, bergamot and powdered minerals. After a while, though, a pronounced sensation of caramelization comes in and makes it feel well advanced beyond what one would expect. In the mouth, it shows off flavors of kiwi fruit, lime pith and bergamot. Others cited minerality, but I have to say I actually found it oddly lacking in the kind of bracing minerality I was expecting to encounter. It is actually pretty soft and airy—not at all the steely, crisp and structured wine my mind was anticipating. There are some tangy citrus and tree fruit notes that are dry-edged and lighter-styled, but the wine is not showing much in the way of complexity or layering. I can’t say whether this was a poor bottle, drunk too young or what. I hope this was not a representative showing.
2001 Zind-Humbrecht Riesling Clos Hauserer. Listed as Indice 1. I like the nose a lot, as it displays open and dynamic aromas of crushed rocks, roses, kiwi, grapefruit, mica minerality, lemon zest, flower greens and a certain sense of salinity running below everything. On day 2, it folds in more petrol and musk notes to further add to the complexity. It is fresh, lively and tangy in the mouth, with solid drive and lift to it. It seems to coat the teeth a bit with its oily texture, but still feels bright and engaging. Flavors of pineapple, grapefruit, smoke and graphite flow easily through to the finish--where it turns a bit more angular and even a bit spritzy. This was my #3 WOTN.
2005 Weinbach Riesling Cuvee Ste. Catherine. This Riesling is really an entirely different beast. The nose presents a very nice profile of flowers, sweet honey, fine confectionary notes, fresh fig flesh and yellow raisin. In the mouth, it is languid, easy-flowing, gently-rounded and full of glycerin. There are some pretty spice notes to go with flavors of pineapple and honey. It is very long in the mouth, but also unabashedly shows off its youthful fun side. It is still young, but it seems to be drinking very well right now—with a good deal of personality to it already. My #2 WOTN.
2002 Zind-Humbrecht Riesling Brand. Listed as Indice 4. The aromatics on this wine are rather quiet at this stage, with just some soft minerality, white peach and citrus notes. Even after two nights in the refrigerator, the nose is only a touch more expressive, with essentially the same profile. In the mouth, it is rather sweet, with plenty of caramel sugar and not much acidic structure. Still, it manages to seem light on its feet for the most part. It pulls in some nice nectarine, apricot, lychee and peach fruit flavors through the mid-palate and delivers a ton of flavor on the finish. On day 3, it is a bit less overtly sweet, but still clearly off-dry, with some bitter grapefruit, quinine and smoke profile adding some complexity.
2000 Zind-Humbrecht Pinot Gris Herrenweg de Turckheim Vendages Tardives. There is a lovely nose here of toasted orange marmalade, very ripe mango, juicy nectarine and burnished copper. It is similarly nice in the mouth, where it shows off an exotic edge to its viscous mango, marmalade, brown sugar, caramel, yellow raisin and browning spiced apple flavors. It finishes long and just a bit sugary, with the yellow raisin and marmalade notes lasting a good long while. The wine holds up amazingly well for at least a week in the refrigerator, too. My #4 wine of the night.
After the tasting, Ed and Andy were eager for some red wines, so we hit the cellar and Andy and I came up with the following:
1998 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon Calistoga Cuvee. Right from the get-go, this bottle is badly corked. Still, we decided to try the Saran Wrap treatment on it, and once again (at least for me), it worked pretty darned well. Naturally, the bouquet is now a bit muted, but there are fresh mint leaf, dark cassis, bell pepper and leather notes clearly popping through. It continues to show a lot of mint leaf in the mouth, along with a jumble of blackberry, dark cherry, black beans, sweet creosote, chocolate powder and cedar. The texture suffers a bit—showing somewhat tough and leathery. The finish displays some volcanic rock and dark earth overtones and ends a bit dry and coarse. Ed never could get past the corked elements, but the rest of us were able to enjoy it at least somewhat.
2000 Chateau Gloria Saint-Julien. Still, we couldn’t end the night on that note. So, I bagged this one double-blind and popped and poured. It took a good long while and some solid hints from me for the group to circle the wagons around Bordeaux. I can understand, as the nose is moderately flamboyant—featuring a range of aromas like dark plum, plump blueberries, rawhide leather, cigar wrapper, green herbs, clay, roasted pepper skin, sweet creosote, cedar planking and dusty minerals. It has some oak still showing on the palate and the blue and black fruits are fairly jammy and fleshy-textured. Still, there is an austere structure and a cool streak of minerality running down along the spine that speaks to its origins. Overall, though, it is fruity and fleshy, but with a nice freshening tang on the finish. It has a pleasing drinkability for a 2000, especially given some air time.
-Michael
