WTN: More Pinots and Bordeaux

Second half of the Pinot tasting for the International Wine and Food Society was at Alliance Francais for lunch today. Really short notes as I had to get back to the office. There were also a couple of Bordeauxs that Bernie picked up for us to try.

Meyer-Nakel Spatburgunder Ahr 2009 - The only German wine in consideration. Smoky, meaty, dry. Nice fruit. Strawberry and raspberry. A bit of dried herb. A little metallic note on the finish. Good, but the others weren't sure if it should be included. I think it will be in the lineup anyway otherwise it will be all New World and French. Fruit got a little sweeter and the metallic note disappeared with about an hour in the glass.

Domaine Drouhin "Laurene" 2008 - Oregon. Ripe fruit on the nose but thin and underripe, green flavors. A disappointment. Too bad. I've enjoyed other vintages of this wine before.

Domaine Serene Evenstad Vineyard 2008 - Deep, rich. Earthy, smoky. A powerful wine. Very good.

Dierberg Pinot Noir 2007 - Santa Maria Valley, California. Sweet, rich, very dark. Very New World and big. But great flavor. Dark fruits like plum and black cherry. Very impressive.

Chateau d'Agassac 2009 - Very dark. Firm, dry. Fleshy. Good.

Chateau Bernadotte 2009 - Sweet fruit. Plum, blackberry, blackcurrants. Soft, very charming and easy to drink. Nice.

Chateau Potensac 2007 - A touch hollow. Soft. Not bad but not too interesting.

[David M. Bueker]

Potensac seems to need the extra oomph of a "pointy" vintage to be anything particularly interesting. I've had good luck with '90, '00 and '05. '02 not so much.

Dierberg Pinot Noir 2007 - Santa Maria Valley, California. Sweet, rich, very dark. Very New World and big. But great flavor. Dark fruits like plum and black cherry. Very impressive.

I tried this at the winery about 2 years ago. I really liked it then but thought it would probably be better in a few years. As much as I liked the Pinot, I found the Syrah even better and that was the bottle I brough back since I was limited on space. You don't read much about Dierberg on the wine boards and I am not sure why.