Browse Tag

schoffit

Harth & home

Schoffit 1997 Gewurztraminer Harth “Cuvée Caroline” (Alsace) – Sweeeeeeet. Not a few “regular” gewürztraminers in this exceedingly hot vintage were unclassified vendanges tardives, even from otherwise restrained houses, and no one has ever accused Schoffit of restraint. What the actual potential alcohol of this wine is, or was, I don’t know and wouldn’t want to guess, but whatever it was they left an awful lot of sugar on the table…or, in this case, in the wine…and coupled with the vintage’s thoroughly absent acidity and the propensity of the grape and the fertile plain site to further abandon structural crispness, and you’re left with this: the most luxuriant dessert ever not offered as such. There are recognizably varietal elements here, mostly peach with a bit of lychee, but the syrup overwhelms all. And the age? Of course it has held – anything with this much sugar would – but there’s absolutely no hope of it developing into anything better. (10/11)

Harth & home

Schoffit 1997 Gewurztraminer Harth “Cuvée Caroline” (Alsace) – Lychee and orange syrup. Long and salty. Not my favorite vineyard, producer, or year, but this one has held better than most, and still has just enough structure to pass for wine. Just enough. (12/09)

Take this wine and Schoffit

Schoffit 1997 Riesling Rangen de Thann Clos Saint-Théobald (Alsace) – Brown, volcanic, and ancient. A fossil in amber. The cork seems fine – plump, moist, minor staining only on the bottom – but clearly something went massively wrong here. An eighty-year-old riesling unearthed from someone’s basement. (12/08)

Harth & home

Schoffit 1997 Riesling Harth “Cuvée Prestige” (Alsace) – Windblown sand and dust, but old dust. Intense, with surprisingly good acidity (neither the site nor the year are exactly known for crispness), with tart melon rind dominated. The finish is sharply attenuated, and dries out rather quickly. And so, the wine ends up a little disappointing. (12/08)

Working in a Colmar mine

Schoffit 2004 Pinot Gris Colmar “Tradition” (Alsace) – If this wine had any acidity, it would still be mediocre, but it would taste less silly. The fruit is more peach than pear, more candied than crystalline, and though there’s a shiny polish on the exterior, it’s the sort of thing you drink, forget, drink again, and still can’t remember. (2/08)

Take this wine and Schoffit

Schoffit 2004 Gewurztraminer Harth “Cuvée Caroline” (Alsace) – Quite sweet, and though there’s a dark black coal-like core of minerality, the sweetness overwhelms and overpowers this gewurztraminer, partially due to the lack of balancing acidity. The wine is full of flavor – Turkish delight, ripe peach, ginger – but, again, that flavor is subordinate to the wine’s sticky weight. Over the last ten years or so, Schoffit has shown a very disturbing but unquestionably increasing affection for this sort of product, and it has lessened the wines (though it has undoubtedly made them more popular among those who think wine’s best destiny is syrup). (12/07)