WineLovers Discussion Group

Well if we do Alpine wines then I'm drinking Rhys Alpine Vineyard Pinot Noir!

That sounds delicious. So Switzerland, Südtirol, Val D'aosta, Savoie, and Jura?

Rahsaan wrote:As a nitpicker I tend not to think of the Jura and the Savoie together because they don't share any grapes and the grapes do not seem to have much in common (Mondeuse is not to Poulsard what Gamay is to Pinot Noir, in my experience).

BUT, they are both Alpine regions and if it's all about extended participating, that could be a good idea. And what about embracing the broader region and doing an Alpine Wine Focus. That might not matter to the extent that Switzerland comes into play because no one even has the wines (except for a very few Euro contributors) but then again Trentino might drift too far.

So Jura and Savoie could be a good middle ground.

Jura and Savoie tend to get lumped together because they are both outside the mainstream in the east of France, although their grape varieties, terroirs and climate are quite different. However taking up the nitpicking challenge, I don't think that geologists would agree that the Jura are Alpine and even to the untutored eye the mountains there are much more rounded as well as lower. The range extends geologically into Southern Germany.

If we extend into Switzerland, Valle d'Aosta, etc. we get into yet another range of grape varieties though Jura's Savagnin does reappear in Swiss Valais/Wallis under the name Païen or Heida according to linguistic taste.

Luckily I have two or three bottles of Valaisan Cornalin in my cellar but nothing from Valle d'Aosta or indeed Savoie.

Nevertheless I am quite excited about doing this and will look for sources of the rarer Jura wines as well as Savoie. I don't expect much luck though with Switzerland, Val d'Aoste and Alto Adige.

So are we going with "European Mountain Wines"? "French, Swiss and Italian Mountain Wines"? (Somehow Alto Adige seems to deserve its own place somewhere down the road, as much as I am not a fan.)

Alto Adige will work for me but only have access to Rolet (one white and two sparklers) as far as Jura is concerned. I am game however if only from a learning experience.

Should we have a metres/feet above sea level clause in the equation to define Alpine?

David Lole wrote:Should we have a metres/feet above sea level clause in the equation to define Alpine?

Where's Oswaldo when you need him.

Simple really, end of the tree line

I wasn't aware of Cave Taureau in Durham which you said only opened last fall. Will have to check it out. Thanks, Dave Erickson for the offer to ship an Arbois but I will explore possiblities in the Triangle area. Maybe one of the wineshops can place a special order for something from Savoie.

David M. Bueker wrote:I don't recall an "all things Pinot" wine focus, but it indeed does seem rather diverse instead of focused.

Pinot Noir
Pinot Blanc
Pinot Gris
Pinot Meunier
etc.
etc.
etc.

If we could squeeze in Pineau d'Aunis and Pineau des Charentes, we'd really have a carnival!

I'm with the consensus on Pinot Gris/grigio. If anyone wants to start an Open Mike, great, but I think it would be a tough sell as a Wine Focus to last a whole month. A very few intriguing wines amid an ocean of cheap commercial least-common-denominator crap.

I think an Open Mike is a go, there are some great wines on the shelf in my town...Alsace, Canada, NZ. I have seen a couple of Italians that would merit tasting too.