Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Pinot-rama

It's time again to report on a pitchfork wine blind tasting. This time, we tackled pinot noir from around the globe. It seems these days, with the post-Sideways surge in popularity, everyone wants to grow pinot. So much so that we had to whittle down the regions to explore in this jaunt through seven bottles of one of the world's most enchanting and misunderstood wines. Burgandy, California, Oregon, Germany, New Zealand, New Mexico, and Northern Michigan were all represented with amusing results. Whereas Reisling a Go-Go yielded divisive opinions based on wines that were all over the place geographically and characteristically, there was more of a common thread evident during Pinot-rama. Cherry, dark berries, chocolate, smoke, and peppers of all sorts were a few of the common discriptors of the wines selected. Favorites, however, were yet again, a point of contention for our panel: Lauren, Justin, Jay, Kyo, Andrew, and Steve.

First Place: Gruet, "Cuvee Gilbert Gruet" 2003 New Mexico

A surprise winner from an unlikely locale, Gruet was a top three pick for everyone except Andrew, who likened it to a sponge. While descriptors ranging from dried meat to wet dog to barnyard were bandied about, important varietal commonalities such as chocolate, acid, and oak came through. Gruet was also complimented for its great balance and lushess, which Kyo (who personally ranked it first) compared to a fortified wine. Perhaps it should not come as such a surprise that Gruet is made by a French family who relocated to New Mexico after finding the optimal conditions for growing chardonnay and pinot noir grapes.

$21-25

Second Place: Belle Glos, "Clark & Telephone Vineyard" Santa Maria Valley-Santa Barbara County 2005

This single-vineyard pinot was a favorite of Justin, who remarked, "it doesn't impose complexity, rather straightforward" and Jay who called "evolving/dissolving down to the root, the grape." Its sweet, fruit-forward, smoky qualities were remarked upon, as well as its bitter zestiness, best expressed by Andrew: "Scotch. Tastes like burning. I'd imbibe to this in dark alleys writing apocalyptic wino verse. Good flow: fruit, sting, afterglow. Wild grape. Velvety scrotum." Belle Glos in a nutshell.

$38-43

Third Place: Spiny Back, Nelson New Zealand 2005

Another unlikely high-rank, this time from an emerging pinot-growing locale. Spiny Back refers to the critter on the label, a cute little lizard who serves as the mascot for the most divisive wine of the night. Overall, its softness, fruit (strawberry, cherry, pineapple), vegetal, and onion qualities were noted. While Justin lamented its inability to open up, it ranked first with Steve and Andrew who praised its character and Charles Mingus-like sensation respectively.

$17-22

Fourth Place: Joseph Drouhin, Laforet Bourgogne 2005

A low-priced offering from the famed Joseph Drouhin that landed right in the middle. This wine possesed an alcohol nose, a deep red hue, and lots of dark berries. Most prevalent were comments about its astringent, acidic qualities, enough so that I could have sworn that this was from Oregon (where Drouhin, incidently, also owns land).

$11-15

Fifth Place: Adelsheim, Willamette Valley Oregon 2005

Here comes the Oregon pinot, to little fanfare. While commentary included mustiness, sweat, smoke, olives, cherries and garlic, there was a recurrent theme of flatness, exemplified by Andrew, who compared it to a kid who gets average grades. Though inevitably regarded as a bit overpriced, it was not without charm. Justin praised it for being "not intense, but fun," and I personally ranked it number one for its gamy nose, cherry/chocolate qualities, balance, and acidic finish.

$28-32

Sixth Place: Fitz-Ritter, Spatburgunder Rotwein Trocken, Pfalz 2001

It's not easy finding a German pinot noir, as they don't export much of it. It maybe unfair to say this wine is an example of why, as it was the oldest in the lineup. Its mellow lightness did not make it a crowd pleaser, but it found fans in Steve and Kyo, who called it "brandy-like," a "lean mean machine" and compared it to Campari. Incidently, I once did hear someone remark that Germans don't export much "rotwein" because its so good they don't want to share.

$12-16

Seventh Place: Chateau Grand Traverse, Reserve Pinot Noir, Old Mission Peninsula 2002

"My grandpa's bathroom," "weird sickly root beer color," "tastes and smells cooked," and "corked?" These could be answers on Family Feud to the question, "How doesn't a vintner want people to describe their wine. This Michigan wine was generally loathed, but I kinda dug it. Mostly I tasted oak, which is no wonder- it aged for 30 months in French barrels.

$14-18


Pinot-rama, like our previous blind tastings, was a great time and indeed a time of self-discovery. It can be the damndest thing, how being in a room with opinionated friends and some bagged bottles can do this. Pinot noir, being the nuanced grape that it is and being so heavily influenced by terrior, can sometimes serve as a wine-drinker's litmus test. For the qualities one perceives and enjoys in pinot can say a lot about what they like in wines in general. Perhaps this is akin to which albums one picks to listen to during a long car ride. We shall return again to navigate those treacherous oceans of wine, but until then, take time to get to know a good Pinot. We have a few suggestions. But don't take my word for it...

-Lauren






Thursday, January 25, 2007

Riesling-A-Go-Go

It's been awhile, but yet, we've only just begun.

The holidays are a bitch. There's always family drama and the chaos of the everyday life to keep one from doing something entirely fun.

And so with that in mind, we met again a few days back to drink some good stuff. The rules were the same.

1. Brown bag it, so we can't see what we're drinking.

2. Try and pick some favorites.

The night started off clumsily, quite literally, as I could not slice up the cheese very well. See, the day before, I kind of let the inner regions of my right thumb relax a bit, and catch some fresh air. You know. See the world. And it did so at the nudging of a broken B.B. Burgerbrau glass. I'm never washing dishes again.

Thankfully, the tendon wasn't torn, and all I really have to deal with is an awesome $625 hospital bill (thanks full time job for the lack of insurance!).

There were 8 of us: PW folk Lauren, Jay and I, as well as Steve, Dave, Kyo, Kedar, and Masha.

The goal was simple: Taste some good Riesling, from different parts of Germany and the world.

The results:

First place: St. Urbans-Hof, 2005, Mosel Saar Ruwer.

Lauren, Steve and I all picked this as the favorite. Everyone picked out some citrus and floral stuff in it: Grapefruit, pineapple, honeydew, peach. Considerable balance here.

This is from Germany's most prolific wine-producing region of Mosel Saar Ruwer.

$13-17.

Second place: Leitz Dragonstone, 2005, Rheingau

This was Jay's favorite, and was narrowly defeated. It came across as more clean than the others, evoking more feminimity and easy touches of fruit, ranging from lemon to honey to apricot.

The Rheingau is one of Germany's three most well-known wine regions.

$16-20.

Third place: Hexamer Quarzit, 2002, Nahe

No one named this a favorite, but it received the silver from Steve, Lauren, and Dave.

There was a bit more noticeable lime, mineral, and floral tendencies in this, certainly more forward then the rest of them.

Nahe is a relatively tiny region in Germany, not well-known, just east of the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer.

$16-20.

Fourth place: Bonny Doon The Heart Has its Rieslings, 2005, Washington State

A mass-producing California wine house grows some grapes up North, and all of a sudden they take a cheesy label and produce the value of the night.

This was Dave's favorite, and Jay put this at second.

Universally considered sweeter than the rest, there was a lot of peach & apricot notes to it. Kyo noted that it was "Austria gone bad," while Steve said there was "honey all over the place."

$10-13.

Fifth place: Babich, 2004, Marlborough

Middle-of-the-pack wine, with unexpected gasoline/earth mouthfeel and bouquet. Some found it dominating, others found some decent melon to it.

New Zealand is not really known for wines to have these characteristics, whatever the grape is. Definitely a left turn.

$14-17.

Sixth place: Pierre Sparr, 2005, Alsace

Absolutely not a fan-favorite, but Lauren, Jay, and Masha all gave it a third-place vote. Lauren found some strong, zingly lemon while Jay's schnoz detected some cherry. Quite odd.

And to be honest, this was kinda of a disappointment. It felt wierdly fat to me. Such a bummer, as I've dug many Alsacean wines (Alsace is in northeastern France, just west of Germany).

$11-15.

Seventh place: Gunderloch Dry, 2003, Rheinhessen

Kyo championed this one, finding reminders of petrol, sandy soil, and green herbs.

Quote of the night: "Riesling is made of people!" -Lauren

$14-17.

Fart-stain of the night: Dr. Bürklin-Wolf, 2003, Pfalz

Kyo gave this a second-place, but it kind-of reminded most of us something akin to the unpleasantries of Pete Sampras' washing the salt off of his balls.

$20-25.

Riesling-A-Go-Go was surprising beyond the usual "wow, I never thought, I'd like that one so much."

I've heard so many people say, "I'm not really a fan of that 'Riesling' taste." Well...at this point, I really wonder what that taste is. Because these were diverse. Very diverse. Words like lemon, honeydew, roses, earth, felt, wasabi, candy, gasoline, pear, flat sprite were used with sincerity.

I'll hop off of this whole self-discovery line of bullshit in a second. But I have to say it's a blast experiencing this stuff.

Now...I really don't know what crooner or rock god will be the perfect match for 8 different Rieslings from across the world.

So, let's think about this.

8 local bands (Detroit/Ann Arbor) you should go see, not because we think they're great, but because there's a lot of people who think they're great, and you might miss out on something awesome, maybe, if you don't get off of your lazy ass.

1. The Hard Lessons - it's all been said.

2. Great Lakes Myth Society

3. Jawbone

4. Johnny Headband

5. Starling Electric

6. The Universal Temple of Divine Power

7. Chapstik

8. New Grenada

If you see these artists, you'll get a great idea of what the hell it's about around here. Godspeed.

-Justin