Browse Tag

pinot blanc

Supermodels on MTV

St. Innocent 2009 Pinot Blanc Freedom Hill (Willamette Valley) – Wow, is this good. The nervy, angular side of pinot blanc, ripe to just the ideal point of apple, pear, and albino cherry, with firm acidity, a fleshy underbelly of minerality, and a very long finish. Impressive stuff. (8/11)

Hooked on a feeling

Lageder 2004 Pinot Bianco Haberlehof (Alto Adige) – This was so firm and mineral-driven in its youth that I decided to age it a while to see what happened. Answer: not much. It got creamier, of course, but otherwise, it’s the same wine it was. Just older. Would more age help? Maybe, but I’m not confident. (8/11)

Seven stages of K

Kubler 2008 Pinot Blanc “K” (Alsace) – Fairly firm, with a good deal of acidity countrapuntal to the stark off-white fruit. This is a guess, but as a rule this sort of profile indicates a preference towards actual pinot blanc rather than the traditional blending partner auxerrois, which fattens and en-fruits. This is pretty bare, and washes as much as it fills. There’s minerality, and I’d hazard a guess that there will be more in a few years, but it’s an ungenerous walk on the tart side at the moment. (9/10)

Garfunkel

Boxler 2007 Pinot Blanc (Alsace) – Spiky and disjointed, the acid/fruit/sugar combo completely skewed towards chaos. Not much spice, a lot of eroded minerality, and a powerfully imbalancing alcoholic heat that eventually overwhelms the wine. Here’s something I didn’t think was possible: a Boxler wine by which I’m actively repelled. This could come from Carneros, or somewhere hotter. (5/10)

Piyes

Trimbach 2006 Pinot Blanc (Alsace) – From a bottle opened 24 hours earlier and mostly consumed. Apricot and dry, vaguely citrusy stuff. Some minerality showing, perhaps a little more than usual. Fair enough. (5/10)

McNally

Albrecht 2006 Pinot Blanc “Cuvée Balthazar” (Alsace) – Completely oxidized, a victim of its Nomacorc. (5/10)

CPE

Trimbach 2006 Pinot Blanc (Alsace) – Fuzzy and maturing, which is a good thing here; the primary apricot zing has coppered and rounded. Matters fall off on the finish, though. It’s still a light, small wine, but it’s more interesting than it was. Drink up. (5/10)

Haberle a merry little Christmas

Lageder 2006 Pinot Bianco Haberlehof (Alto Adige) – I don’t know if this is mature, because this is as long as I’ve ever let a bottle of it age, but this is certainly rounding into something more interesting than its fallow infancy. Fruits have yellowed (but the pinks and greens remain), minerality has helixed with texture to provide something sinuous in the background, and there’s a slowly-enveloping sense of roundness. Quite impressive. (5/10)

Mack truck

Sipp Mack 2005 Pinot Blanc (Alsace) – Bigger than expected, and comes galloping out of the gate with an insistent simplicity: pear, apple, paper. Doesn’t really go anywhere, though. Party wine. (2/10)