Here are some producers that sent me home thinking and craving their wines:
Domaine Saurigny (Anjou, Loire Valley) – Jérôme Saurigny makes a Sauvignon Blanc that I have to say really left me impressed. I first met Jérôme and tasted his wines at his place in Anjou about 3 years ago, but I swear I can’t remember how really good his Sauvignon Blanc was. It is my favorite Sauvignon Blanc to date, so refreshing and showing none of the characteristics that often come associated with the grape and which I dislike. His reds were also outstanding and his “accidental” sweet chenin blanc is also worth tasting!
- Domaine Saurigny – Loire Valley
Roxanich (Croatia) – I have tasted these wines before, in Poland and only recently, but I have to say that they are producing one of my favorite Chardonnay’s. I tasted their Chardonnay Milva once (ok, twice in a row!) but it was so ripe, but not overripe, and juicy. No nuttiness, no butter, just juice with a little skin contact. My favorite Chardonnay from these two events (of course I did not taste all of the Chardonnay’s) Worth seeking out for sure.
- Roxanich Milva Chardonnay
Laurent Bannwart (Alsace, France) – let start with the negatives. I usually don’t appreciate the wines of Alsace (i used to, but not as of late), I also stopped appreciating Rieslings a few years ago (I personally often find them under ripe and over sulfured). Next the positives, no sulfur added to the wines and most grapes were also vinified in amphora (quevri to be exact).
So why did we wander over to taste the wines? One, they were recommended to me by a fellow taster who’s taste align very closely with mine. Two, they were recommended by a wine maker who i admire like crazy and love, and whose wines I might even fly to another country just to find a bottle (which is not easy to do).
So what can i say? I am a born again riesling lover, but not any riesling, Bannwarth’s Riesling. I tasted both versions, the one in steel and the one in quevri and i got goose bumps. All his wines were great, but his riesling really stood out. Ripe and juicy and refreshing. NO harsh acidity and no added sulfur so my eyes and nose didn’t sting.. He also produces a fantastic Pinot Noir and the best Crémant d’Alsace I have ever tasted (IMO).
One thing to note is that although his wines often had alcohol levels of 14%, it was hardly noticeable. No easy feat. This just goes to show that a well balanced wine can be well balanced at 10% or 15%.
- Laurent Bannwarth’s life altering Riesling
Alaverdi Monastery Cellar (Georgia) – of course you might expect that my review would include a producer from Georgia because they were in the spotlight at the RAW Fair, but I have included this producer because this was my favorite producer from these two fairs. We must have tasted around 10 wines, each better than the previous. From light orange in color, to deep orange to a red that just blew my socks off! Each was vinified in quevri. Each was fresh, juicy and had tannins to make your teeth rattle. Each was so well balanced and structured, that I was just amazed. With all the structure and all the concentration and tannin’s, the wines all managed to remain extremely fresh and drinkable. Of course I would have killed for some cheese or some goat!
- Alaverdi Monastery Cellar
Bobar (Australia) – yes, Australia. I can safely say that I never drink the wines from Australia. Why? Because I just don’t like them – usually. For my tastes, they are too big and powerful often with too much oak. Then along comes Tom Belford to show what he can do. What?! Fresh, light yet structured wines that are completely drinkable! And he seems to understand what he is doing, like adding just a little sulfur during the wine making so that it gets absorbed and integrated into the wine before bottling. Blind, I would never have guessed his fresh, un-oaky wines to be from Australia! Great job Tom and I hope to see some bottles in Norway or Poland very soon!
- Tom Belford of Bobar
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Date tasted: May 19th, 2009 23:40 (11:40pm)
Dr. Bürklin-Wolf is the largest family owned estate in Germany with just over 110HA of vineyards all located in the heart of the Pfalz. The vineyards are located in Wachenheim, Forst, Deidesheim and Ruppertsberg including the monopol sites “Wachenheimer Rechbächel” and “Gaisböhl” in Ruppertsberg. They were the first non-French member of the well-known French organization “Syndicat International des Vignerons en Culture Bio-Dynamique” with the label BIODYVIN. In the beginning of 2005 all 83 hectares of Bürklin-Wolf’s vineyards were converted to bio-dynamic methods. Dr. Bürklin-Wolf has passed with success all necessary controls by the EU control agencies and is certified as a bio-dynamic winery.
Gaisböhl 2007 BA harvest
This wine has a special place in my heart. On September 12, 2007 a friend and I arrived in the Pfalz where I would remain for the following 10 days to take part in the harvest. The very next day we had our very first harvesting experience. We were to (hand) harvest grapes (Riesling) in the Gaisböl vineyard, and those grapes were to be at the Beerenauslese level! Beerenauslese (BA) directly translated means “selected grapes”, which simply meant that we were hand selecting grapes that were going to be used in this wine. The grapes in a BA wine are normally effected by Botrytis (the basis for the worlds greatest sweet wines like Sauternes and Tokaji). The minimum required Oechsle value (of the grapes) in the Pfalz to qualify as a BA is 120 (the Oechsle scale is a hydrometer scale measuring the density of grape must, which is an indication of grape ripeness and sugar content. The higher the value, the higher sugar content, the higher the potential alcohol). This wine also had a small percentage of “fresh” grapes; grapes not effected by this “noble rot”. At analysis, the grapes that went into this wine had an Oechsle reading of 145! This Oechsle reading puts this wine at just a few degrees under the Trockenbeerenauslese level of 150!
It is quite unusual to be picking grapes of this level so early in the harvest season. Many of the other Bürklin vineyards weren’t even going to be harvested for fresh grapes for another couple of weeks. I have to say that it was a challenging first day of harvesting! There are many types of rot and you have to be very selective to assure that the good rot is the one you are harvesting, the rest goes right on the ground!
The Gaisböhl vineyard is solely owned by the Bürklin estate. This vineyard is considered a “Grand Cru” (according to the Bürklin-Wolf’s own strict vineyard classification system dating back to 1995). The vineyard covers 5,7ha and was planted in 1977.
As many of you may know, 2007 is heralded as an excellent vintage in Germany. A vintage which has the potential to age for decades. This wine was no exception. It was immediately approachable but had the potential to age, well probably longer than you or I.
Wine analysis/details:
Grape: 100% Riesling
Oechsle measurement before fermentation: 145° Oe
Price: € 70,00 per 0,375l, double for 0,75l (this bottle was a 0,375 l)
Production: about 500 liters
Residual Sugar: 188g/liter
Residual Acidity: 16g/liter!!
Alcohol content: 7%
Appearance: Poured like liquid syrup! Golden orange with amber hints.
Nose: Orange marmalade, apricot nectar, honey, lemon with mineral undertones. “cool” chalky smell with hints of eucalyptus. Lots of apricots! I could smell this wine all night!
Palate: Pure, apricot syrup with extreme, mature acidity! The finish has hints of dried apricots and sour fruit. The wine really coats the mouth and the texture is mind-blowing. The finish is extremely long, at least a minute or more..
This has got to be one of the finest sweet wines I have ever tasted, because it had extreme focus of both fresh and dried fruits with amazing acidity giving this wine lift and freshness!
For those of you that don’t enjoy sweet wines, this one is worth a try. The secret with sweet wines is the acidity. Sweet wines need acidity to balance out the sugar. When the acidity is in balance, the wine will seem fresh no matter how sweet it is. In other words, the higher the residual sugar, the higher the acidity needs to be. If there is a lack of acidity, which unfortunately is too often the case, the wine will seem cloying and will sting at the back of the throat. This is why cool climate countries have the advantage in the sweet wine world. The cooler climate produces grapes with higher acidity and typically the sweet wines made from these grapes are fresher.
Suggested music pairing: Blank & Jones “Butterfisch” from the album Relax Edition 4
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Date tasted: April 14th, 2009
Azienda Agricola Unterortl was established in 1992 in Alto Adige, Val Venosta, in the Northern tip of Italy close to the boarder of Austria. Located about 750m up on Juval Hill, they make only 30,000 bottles per year from around 4ha. According to the May 2009 issue of Decanter magazine, Martin Aurich of Unterortl is one of Italy’s stars of tomorrow, and is producing one of Italy’s finest Rieslings. Aurich was born and raised in Germany and studied oenology in the 1980’s. Aurich says “Unterortl’s proximity to the glaciers gives the wines their high acidity and freshness. The well-draining granite and sand is similar to Wachau in Austria”. Aurich vinifies as naturally as possible.
Appearance: A light golden yellow with high intensity indicating high acidity. A bit darker than I expected. Looked like a warmer climate Riesling, which would indicate that 2005 was a warm vintage in the area.
Nose: At first, the aromas reminded me a lot of wines from the Pfalz in Germany, in particular, Bürklin-Wolf. Ripe lemons, very light petrol and minerality. Some fruity notes, seemed to have lactic aromas suggesting that perhaps this wine went through malo-lactic fermentation. I could not find any information validating this, but it’s just a hunch of mine.
Palate: Dry but fruity, with high acidity. Medium alcohol which was slightly apparent on the palate. Ripe lemons, but slightly lacking fruit in my opinion. Quite rounded with good acidity, but not terribly focused and lacking some freshness. A slightly fat Riesling.
In my opinion, this was a pretty good Riesling, but not great. I believe I paid around 14 euro and I feel that it was a decent value at that level. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it either. If I had another bottle, I think it would be interesting to taste it again in about 5 years. I believe this will age well and actually improve.
Wow!
I surprised my small group of friends (and myself!) on one of our “gourmet pizza” evenings by pulling this wine out of my cellar. I didn’t tell the small group of 5 what it was I was surprising them with to see if they could identify the country of origin, variety and “guesstimate” the vintage… I was not surprised when they had difficulties with this blind tasting as I was a bit surprised by the vitality of the wine considering the age. Also unexpected was the bouquet which emerged from the glass.
The first thing that I have to reiterate is that I not only pulled the wine from my cellar, but I also opened and served the wine at cellar temperature. A perfect 13 degrees Celsius (55.5 degrees Fahrenheit). After pulling the cork, which was in excellent shape, and some wine was poured into the glasses, what emerged from the glass was a massive herbal bouquet!
Anyway, back to the color for a moment. Yellow, but quite light in color actually. Surprised all of us that the wine was 20 years old. Looked more like a 10-year old wine in the glass. (Flash was used for this photo – which doesn’t really reflect the true hue of the wine, sorry!)
Ok, now back to the bouquet! Slight petrol/sulfur hints which burnt off after some time in the glass, but always present were these amazing aromas of spearmint and Thai basil with hints of “minerality”!! We all agreed that the Thai basil was dominant along with other herbs. Very interesting.
ON the palate, this Auslese wine with an 8.5% alcohol content, was almost completely dry after 20 years as you might 
imagine, but there was a mild sweetness at the front end when the wine first hit the tongue, but it quickly gave way to a very elegant but high level of acidity. Much more elegant in fact that many of the Karthaüser’s I have tasted in the past. Oh, of course, on the palate there were plenty of ripe lemons and a splash of kumkwat.. The wine was very concentrated and the finish very long.
A very nice wine for drinking today. If you own this wine, I would enjoy it now even though I feel it still had some cellar life left.. But why wait, drink it! This wine is exactly the reason that I am in love with the Riesling!!
Weingut Wittman Grüner Silvaner – Rheinhessen
Robert Weil Kiedricher Gräfenberg Riesling Kabinett Trocken – Rheingau
Battenfeld-Spanier Riesling “S” – Rheinhessen
Dr. Bürklin-Wolf Wachenheimer Böhlig PC Magnum – Pfalz
Weiser-Künstler Einkircher Ellergrub Riesling Kabinett – Mosel (about 70 grams residual sugar per liter; alcohol 7.5%)
Fritz Haag Brauneberger Juffer Sunnenuhr Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel – Mosel (about 145 grams of residual sugar per liter; alcohol 7.5%)
– vinosseur
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