vt

Drinks from different European areas

~ Richard ~ Leave a comment

2008 Schloss Lieser Brauneberger Juffer Sonnenuhr Riesling Spatlese 7%
Mosel again, from winemaker Thomas Haag, with a short but serviceable cork. This wine was purchased from Eurocentric quite a while ago, and is in a great drinking phase.

2008 schloss lieser bjs spatlese

Bright gold in colour, it shows lime, icing sugar, and brown spice notes. The palate reveals more apple and mixed white and yellow stonefruit, with some green herb, plus the spices. It is sweeter than many in the spatlese category, but is poised for delight, being all too easy to drink and reach for more – the sign of a decent wine. Its racy, ready for enjoyment and shows no sign of fading.

To 2025, 92 points

2011 Georg Breuer Riesling Auslese 8.5%
From the Rheingau (Germany); another German area where most action is happening with the dry Rieslings – the Georg Breuer Berg Schlossberg is exceptional. But they have a range of sweeter styles too. Pale gold colour; fresh with dominant tropical fruits, particularly just-under-ripe pineapple. The wine still tastes fresh, honest and straightforward – enjoyable without providing dramatic highlights.

Drink soon, 87 points

1997 Trimbach Gewurtztraminer Vendanges Tardives 13%
Alsace (France). Buried in the cellar, and really should have been tackled earlier.

Pristine cork, and a bright deep gold colour. Vendanges Tardives (VT) is late-picked and my guess was around 40 g/l in this example. Tantalizing and unmistakable floral varietal scents – musk, apple, raisin and spices. Age and likely oxidation is showing with some furniture veneer and caramel aspects. Low acidity is a hallmark of the variety, and time has chipped away at this wine’s appeal. There is still rich mouthfeel, but it’s flatter than desirable, making drinking too much effort when othere wines are in reach.

Its peak drinking has gone by, so drink up – you may get a better bottle!

Advertisement

An Alsace VT, and a Portuguese Vp

~ Richard ~ Leave a comment

2001 Louis Sipp Kirchberg de Ribeauville  (grand Cru) Pinot Gris (vendanges tardive) 12.5%
Alsace provides disproportionate disappointments caused by cork- oxidation and TCA. The discard rate should make anyone extremely wary. When the wines behave as intended they can be magnificent (the 1990 Trimbach Clos st Hune Riesling garnered a perfect score from me once; a second bottle a few years later was almost as memorable, and I have tasted awesome bottles from Josmeyer and Zind-Humbrecht).

This Louis Sipp wine was a final gamble– a bottle tried a few months ago was oxidised to undrinkability. Pinot Gris is a low acid, “quiet”  variety (undistinguished in Australia), but if aiming at the “gris style” with sensitivity, ripeness and some residual sugar, it can be a surprisingly adept partner with fish. Obtaining texture without phenolics being too overt is the winemaking key; alcohol, residual sugar and winemaking finesses are important.

2001 louis sipp pg vt

Vendanges tardive indicates late harvest, but the residual sugar level – moderate but an easily discernible amount- is unknown. The wine is golden in colour, displaying tropical notes of pear, baked apple, mango, honey, spice, and glace fruits. The palate is drying out, but still exerts attractive grapey sultana character, mandarine, yellow peach and mixed spices to wrap it up.

Better a few years ago, but a decent, well-chilled bottle will provide considerable enjoyment

Drink now (or via time machine a few years ago), 89 points.

1980 Warre’s Vintage Port 20%
Served blind, and a translucent brick colour, this wine exhibits mocha, almond, vibrancy and is relatively dry for the style; then fig and rose-petal emerge. Uniformly identified as Portuguese by commentators at the table, Warres was the house deemed likely. Its age was assumed as a declared but “lesser” year. This wine is a further triumph for 1980, showing a winning combination of life and mellowness ,with a wholesome, lingering palate.

Drink to 2030, and 92 points.

2007 Dirler Gewurtztraminer Saering vendanges tardives 14%

~ Richard ~ Leave a comment

Alsace, Grand cru, and 54 g/l residual sugar. The VT description really just means late harvest. It seems I wrote about this wine about two years ago, and my notes and score are moderately consistent (but this time the camera refused to take even a passable photo).

The cork has lasted well and the wine is a bright deep gold colour,  Gewurztraminer is an aromatic variety, and there are attractive mixed scents including honey, rose-petal, orange blossom, marmalade and cooking spices (mainly cinnamon).

The palate is true and lush, with more stewed apricot, orange marmalade, and grapey ripe sultana displayed. It is rich, ripe and becoming a little hard, with its sweetness being slowly overtaken. But I doubt that many will have deliberately kept this wine for so long, and it improved for one day after opening before its charms receded. It was probably more exuberant a few years ago.

Drink up, but 90 points still.

 

 

 

 

2007 Dirler Gewurtztraminer Saering vendages Tardives 14%

~ Richard ~ Leave a comment

A late-picked wine from a Grand Cru Alsatian site.  It’s too easy to typecast Gewurtztraminer as a beginner’s wine, but it can interest more than neophytes, especially when  the wine is from Alsace.
IMAG0724
The cork was in immaculate condition, and the wine a bright clear medium  gold colour. The excitement begins- intoxicatingly floral- tropical fruits, ripe apricot, mandarine, ripe pear, musk-stick and cinnamon; the palate continues this interest- it’s extensive, with enough acidity to carry the 54 g/l of residual sugar. The wine is beginning to dry, and was likely to have been better a year or two ago (with cork vagaries, a bottle consumed a year ago was not as lively, showing some oxidation).

A faint touch of hardness probably reflects a combination of its age and alcohol level. Absolutely no complaints overall, as the bottle contents vanished rapidly.

Drink now, 91 points

 

2007 Domaine Stirn Gewurtztraminer vendanges tardives 12%

~ Richard ~ Leave a comment

Gewurtztraminer is destined to remain as a minor grape variety; the wines can often have a pinkish tinge, and provide, easy, usually obvious appeal to people beginning their wine education. But it has more merit than that, especially in its spiritual home of Alsace.

Australia has some Gewurtztraminer planted, but results overall have been disappointing, with only occasional outliers from careful cool-climate producers Pipers Brook (Tasmania), Delatite (Upper Goulbourn), Lillydale (Yarra Valley) and Seppelts Drumborg (Henty, Victoria) providing flashy, memorable excitement.

When I visited the winery, winemaker Fabien Stirn (freshly off the tractor) presented Gewurtztraminer wines from Brand, Mambourg and Sonnenglanz (with his ambition on further sites) and had dry wines from these sites (Riesling too) and (blended) sweeter wines on an extensive tasting list. Plus his English was noticeably superior to my schoolday French. Notably, I failed the “terroir test” at the conclusion of the tasting.

IMAG0653This wine is a lovely golden-coloured example of the late-picked style, displaying the typically charming, exotic grapey aromas of musk, Turkish delight and roses.  The palate is moderately sweet, but definitely is a rich juicy mandarine-flavoured style with the acidity preventing any sensation of cloying. Slightly oily, and faintly chalky, this wine has been caught in its prime, and it’s well suited as an unusual aperitif, or matched to a light dessert, or certain cheeses.

A neat surprise- drink to 2018, 90 points.

 

Alsace, again

~ Richard ~ Leave a comment

alsace may 20162001 Domaines Schlumberger Pinot Gris Vendanges Tardive 12.5%

This wine has seen better days. The colour is a dark gold, but legitimate for its variety and age. It displays red apple and brown pear aromatics, plus some hints of bruised apple oxidation.

Its quite sweet (around 100g/l), but there is enough acidity to avoid any cloying; the pear flavours flow on a viscous palate, and the message is – drink up. Ready, and enjoyable but it had the misfortune to be paired with the following wine.

87 points, drink to 2018

2007 Dirler Spiegel Gewurztraminer SGN 12%

I was terrified to open this- from the last 2 wines from this Alsace estate, one was badly oxidised, the other corked – and no response from the producer despite 2 emails. But this wine was pristine.

Light gold in colour, its resoundingly fresh, with aromas of ripe red baked apple, musk, talc, cinnamon.  The balanced palate shows more rose petal, apricot and white peach, some honey and citrus, and is richly textured, fine, clean, and there is no cloying despite the 150-odd g/l of residual sugar.

It’s an outstanding wine, combining varietal character with botrytis richness.

96 points, drink to 2023