Browse Tag

white

Pinet nut

Bonfils “La Chapelle de la Bastide” 2006 Coteaux du Languedoc Picpoul de Pinet (Languedoc) – Sharp, crisp lime and green apple, with touches of ultra-ripe gooseberry and a sweet-tart edge. Clean and absolutely lip-smackingly bright. Given the quality and the low cost, I can’t understand why these wines aren’t more popular. (12/07)

Johnnycakes

[label]Hugel 1997 Gewurztraminer “Hommage à Jean Hugel” (Alsace) – 375 ml. Very, very sweet, with a dark, quartz-like cylinder of metal surrounding…well, not a whole lot. The interior of the wine is wan and diffuse. Where’s the beef? Or, since it’s gewürztraminer, the pork? This wine promises a lot, but it just doesn’t deliver like it should. (12/07)

On the QM

Quintas de Melgaço “QM” 2006 Vinho Verde Alvarinho (Monção) – Just stunning. Green and yellow citrus hisses and sizzles like a live wire, bristling with electricity and piercing, needled acidity. Light yet vividly intense. It’s not a genteel sipping wine – it needs food – but in its way, it’s very nearly perfect. (12/07)

Friends, Romanus, countrymen

[barrel]Albrecht 2005 Pinot Gris “Cuvée Romanus” (Alsace) – Dense and heavily mineral-influenced, which turns the thick pear fruit smoky, perhaps even a bit musky. The balance isn’t bad for a pinot gris (that is to say: the acidity’s low, but not unforgivably so), but the wine makes up for it with strength of character. A little more complexity would improve things, but it’s hard to complain too much; this isn’t an overly aspirational wine, just a solid expression of the variety and the general terroir at a reasonable price. (12/07)

Huggy bear

[vineyard]Hugg 2006 Pinot Blanc (Alsace) – Pear and thin apricot, which are fine as far as they go. But why is this so sweet? Someone like Boxler gets away with this sort of residual sugar because their wines are so intense and laden with flavor. This, on the other hand, is a traditionally light-bodied pinot blanc, and the sugar just makes it taste insipid. (12/07)

Vapor Barrère

Barrère “Clos de la Vierge” 2005 Jurançon Sec (Southwest France) – Very crisp, but the acidity has a refinement and place to it, and the rest of the wine exists in service to it…yet the wine is not dominated by its acidity. It’s hard to describe, I guess. There’s a beautiful, washed-granite starkness to this, and yet the palate is full of rocky generosity, with little alpine flowers clinging to the rock face. Long, exquisitely poised, and rather breathtaking. (12/07)

Chemistry or Alkoomi?

[bottle]Alkoomi 2007 Riesling (Frankland River) – Good solid riesling, on the fruity side, with big acidity. That’s the template for Aussie riesling, for better or worse, and that’s what’s offered here. There’s some makrut lime and the faintest hint of a mineral underpinning, but young Australian riesling is more about its acidity than almost any another version of this variety, anywhere. It’s baffling, really, in the context of everything else export markets see from this country. With the right food, this is a lot of fun. (12/07)

Gresser drawer

Gresser 2002 Pinot Gris Brandhof “Vieilles Vignes” (Alsace) – Showing red-fruited (which pinot gris can often do), with strawberry and a blend of red, Rainier, and maraschino cherries, plus peach and tangerine. The fruit is fresh and vivid, and the wine is supported by a solid foundation of granite and marble. A medium-length, almost feathery finish brings out hints of fennel frond. This is a nice wine with good aging potential, but I suspect more could be wrested from these grapes. (3/06)

Another Sipp

[vines]Sipp Mack 2004 Gewurztraminer “Vendanges Tardives” “Lucie Marie” (Alsace) – Lighter-styled, showing rose oil, cashew juice, and ripe peach. Moderately sweet, elegant, and smooth, this is the perfect style of VT to have (as the Alsatians do) pre-dinner, with foie gras, rather than afterwards as a decadent dessert. (3/06)

Transformation

[vines]Lorentz 2000 Riesling Kanzlerberg (Alsace) – From 375 ml. Assertive at first, but then strangely reticent as it airs, as if it’s shutting down hard (which is likely). Moderately mineral-driven, soft and floral, with a thin layer of fat. It’s long enough, and given the producer and the site I’m inclined toward the benefit of the doubt here; certainly, there’s little point in opening a bottle if it’s like this. (3/06)