WTN: "Bring a blind bottle" tasting (+I start giving points)
Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 7:57 amI think I'll try a radical change to my TNs and start giving points. Points, no matter what scale is used, always seem a bit arbitrary so I thought I'd make my scale go from -∞ to +∞.
2010 Ostler Riesling Blue House Vines Waitaki Valley - New Zealand, South Island, Otago, Waitaki Valley
10,5% abv. Served blind: a huge amount of lime but still an obvious and strong Riesling profile to it. I don't have any info on sugar and acidity, but it seems dryish (if thinking in German terms, not quite as dry as a trocken but perhaps slightly dryer than feinherb) but concentrated, cool climate style though a little obvious in its charms. But I certainly won't turn down a glass or three of this. Good stuff! +35 points.
2010 Muhr-van der Niepoort Grüner Veltliner Prellenkirchen - Austria, Niederösterreich, Carnuntum
11,5% abv. Mostly GV with about 10% Riesling. Served blind. Right after opening it smelled like ozone/swimming pool. It became intensely mineral, and finally after a couple hours, intensely perfumed. Light but intense and delightfully citric acidity. Nice! +60 points.
2007 Pyramid Valley Sémillon Hille Vineyard - New Zealand, South Island, Marlborough, Brancott Valley
This wine continues to amaze me. It has strong capsicum/chilli pepper aromas but it also has a richness (13,5% abv) I haven't seen in Hunter Valley Semillons. Yet it seems to have a general sameness to HVs in being bright, crunchy, green in a delicious way and bracing in structure. A challenging wine for sure, but now on my third taste I feel somewhat sure enough of myself to say that I love this wine and that I wish I had several cases of it. And the strangest thing was how well it stood up to the stinkiest old Camembert I could find! No wine previously has survived a direct hit of properly old, superstinky Camembert. OMFlying Spaghetti Monster! My first +100 point wine!
2009 Pyramid Valley Pinot Noir Growers Collection Cowley Family Vineyard - New Zealand, South Island, Marlborough
Two bottles served blind and two completely different wines: one was an ugly stereotype of NZ PN as it was all chocolate covered cherries and oaky sweetness and harsh acidity. The other bottle smelled absolutely lovely: some oak, but not enough to worry me even though I am extremely oakaphobic, lovely bright Pinosity, fresh and lifted aromas; grippy and the high (14,5% abv) alcohol is not noticeable. How can wines from the same case and both screwcapped be so different without any signs of the closure having failed in either bottle? Hopefully the second bottle is the "typical" one because I really liked that one! It was one of the most interesting Pinots outside of Burgundy that I have tried. The first bottle was -856 points the second I'm not sure about. Maybe +72, maybe +73 but certainly closer to +72. Georg Cantor proved that there are several sizes of infinities and that the infinite set of real numbers is larger than the infinite set of natural numbers, so isn't this awesome! If I give the second +72.32points I can have a whole new, even bigger infinity that I can play with!
Clos Roche Blanche "Pif" 2010 -Loire, Toiraine
2^43,112,609 − 1 points. Because this is prime stuff.
2010 Ostler Riesling Blue House Vines Waitaki Valley - New Zealand, South Island, Otago, Waitaki Valley
10,5% abv. Served blind: a huge amount of lime but still an obvious and strong Riesling profile to it. I don't have any info on sugar and acidity, but it seems dryish (if thinking in German terms, not quite as dry as a trocken but perhaps slightly dryer than feinherb) but concentrated, cool climate style though a little obvious in its charms. But I certainly won't turn down a glass or three of this. Good stuff! +35 points.
2010 Muhr-van der Niepoort Grüner Veltliner Prellenkirchen - Austria, Niederösterreich, Carnuntum
11,5% abv. Mostly GV with about 10% Riesling. Served blind. Right after opening it smelled like ozone/swimming pool. It became intensely mineral, and finally after a couple hours, intensely perfumed. Light but intense and delightfully citric acidity. Nice! +60 points.
2007 Pyramid Valley Sémillon Hille Vineyard - New Zealand, South Island, Marlborough, Brancott Valley
This wine continues to amaze me. It has strong capsicum/chilli pepper aromas but it also has a richness (13,5% abv) I haven't seen in Hunter Valley Semillons. Yet it seems to have a general sameness to HVs in being bright, crunchy, green in a delicious way and bracing in structure. A challenging wine for sure, but now on my third taste I feel somewhat sure enough of myself to say that I love this wine and that I wish I had several cases of it. And the strangest thing was how well it stood up to the stinkiest old Camembert I could find! No wine previously has survived a direct hit of properly old, superstinky Camembert. OMFlying Spaghetti Monster! My first +100 point wine!
2009 Pyramid Valley Pinot Noir Growers Collection Cowley Family Vineyard - New Zealand, South Island, Marlborough
Two bottles served blind and two completely different wines: one was an ugly stereotype of NZ PN as it was all chocolate covered cherries and oaky sweetness and harsh acidity. The other bottle smelled absolutely lovely: some oak, but not enough to worry me even though I am extremely oakaphobic, lovely bright Pinosity, fresh and lifted aromas; grippy and the high (14,5% abv) alcohol is not noticeable. How can wines from the same case and both screwcapped be so different without any signs of the closure having failed in either bottle? Hopefully the second bottle is the "typical" one because I really liked that one! It was one of the most interesting Pinots outside of Burgundy that I have tried. The first bottle was -856 points the second I'm not sure about. Maybe +72, maybe +73 but certainly closer to +72. Georg Cantor proved that there are several sizes of infinities and that the infinite set of real numbers is larger than the infinite set of natural numbers, so isn't this awesome! If I give the second +72.32points I can have a whole new, even bigger infinity that I can play with!
Clos Roche Blanche "Pif" 2010 -Loire, Toiraine
2^43,112,609 − 1 points. Because this is prime stuff.
I have yet to see a Pyramid Valley wine despite living in Canterbury for 3 months last year (my one attempted visit ran afoul of harvest for them), yet you can get their wines in Finland! Bloody unfair, I say. Nice sounding wines, though.