WTN: Blind Tasting Lunch Notes

2021 Donnhoff Weisburgunder Trocken – light colour, very slight spritz on opening, clean wine that was hard to figure out as there were few hints – could have been from anywhere. Pleasant.

2019 Ramey Chardonnay Rochioli Vineyard – fairly light colour, obvious chardonnay, clean elegant wine with interesting fruit flavours, modest use of oak and excellent length. If all American chards could exhibit this sort of restraint….I am not a fan of chards that are like over-oaked bushels of tropical fruit. Very well made.

2009 Gunderloch Rothenburg Riesling Auslese – and now for something completely different! Classic nose, light amber colour and well balanced in the mouth, with excellent length.

2009 Zind-Humbrecht Gewurztraminer – very nice if not absolutely typical Gewurz nose – but nice Asian pear/apple notes. Tried it again the next day and it was still singing!

2008 Mastroberardino Radici Taurasi – colour showing some age now, and the nose featured leather and berry notes with some herbal things popping up as it aired. Very nice.

2010 Palari Faro – my wine. Faro is a small DOC on the straits of Messina between Sicily and the Italian boot. I opened one bottle on purchase and promptly stashed the rest away for a few years – it seems perfect now. A still dark mahogany colour, big nose, a tad funky and with obvious oak, smooth on palate and some spice and anise as it opened. Wish this was brought into this market more often.

2011 Cayuse God Only Knows – aside from the overly cutesy labelling, this grenache was dark, and showed a rather cabernet like nose, smooth on palate and with a clean finish. Not very Rhone-like and I thought it seemed a tad low on acid to be well balanced.

2018 Moric Blaufränkisch Reserve – dark wine with big nose of rubber black pepper and some dark fruit (currants?) No one was expecting a red Austrian wine so this was a nice surprise. Don’t think it is built for long ageing.

2021 Donnhoff Weisburgunder Trocken – light colour, very slight spritz on opening, clean wine that was hard to figure out as there were few hints – could have been from anywhere. Pleasant.

Yes, I could see that. The wines are pleasant but when tasting blind without any clues, I imagine they would be very difficult to identify. Which is in part why so many German weiss and grauburgunders don't thill me. But, they can still play a role...

2018 Moric Blaufränkisch Reserve – dark wine with big nose of rubber black pepper and some dark fruit (currants?) No one was expecting a red Austrian wine so this was a nice surprise. Don’t think it is built for long ageing.

Am tempted to say I could pick out this signature, but of course not sure it would work in practice. The Reserve hasn't felt like a long aging wine to me either. Although I know people debate the merits of aging the higher-end single vineyard wines. Plenty of good arguments on both sides...

[David M. Bueker]

I’ve traveled the German Weissburgunder road a few times, and while nice wines they don’t strike a chord.

Oregon is where I have found some distinctive Pinot Blanc.

I’ve traveled the German Weissburgunder road a few times, and while nice wines they don’t strike a chord.

Oregon is where I have found some distinctive Pinot Blanc.

Agree - and we have a few distinguished ones from BC now.

[Jenise]

Bill and David, I used to wonder aloud why anyone would grow pinot blanc as most (even Oregon) seemed like washed out versions of chardonnay, though lately some have impressed. However I really have come to love the grape in the Okanagan. More minerality and complexity in general.

[Jenise]

Some notes:

2021 Donnhoff Weisburgunder Trocken – Coop went straight to Albarino and so did I. Once that got negated, I didn't know where else to go. A very pleasant wine but perhaps the most unGerman German wine I've ever had.

2019 Ramey Chardonnay Rochioli Vineyard – Agreed. There are many chardonnays made in California that are not tropical butterballs--a reputation well-earned back in the day but quite frayed around the edges as wineries like Ramey, Aubert and Cerritas, just to name three, are setting the standard for excellence with wines like this.

2009 Gunderloch Rothenburg Riesling Auslese – pure nectar.

2009 Zind-Humbrecht Gewurztraminer – This is one of the most restrained gewurzes I've ever had. No RS, not oily or cloying. Quite liked it, and I'm not a G fan.

2008 Mastroberardino Radici Taurasi – What you said.

2010 Palari Faro – That time, that minute, where you open a wine at exactly THE perfect moment in its life? This wine. Just fantastic. 60% Nerello Mascalese plus about four or five other lesser known (or completely unknown!) grapes, as I recall?

2011 Cayuse God Only Knows – You're being too kind. I expected this to be exceptional but it suffered from the green meanies of underripeness. Decanted for an hour and a half before drinking, it did improve marginally over another hour in the glass but it never showed the spicy, joyous pomegranate fruit that good new world grenache should have and one deserves to expect from Cayuse (and $120 winery-direct). My trust has been broken!

2018 Moric Blaufränkisch Reserve – liked this a lot. Would actually aging to be beneficial on this one--it had body and structure, I thought. Probably not a 20 year wine but another five-10 years should bring about interesting secondary nuances. I recall having some aged blaufrankisches in BudaPest that drank like old Bordeaux.

For what it's worth, I thought the Donnhoff Weissburgunder was fine.
Yes, it was my wine and it was a bit young, but I quite liked the subtle elegance, the precision and the overall balance.
For sure, it was in tough against the Ramey (fabulous - thanks Jenise) and the Gunderloch Auslese (also pretty fab - thanks Alvin), but, under different circumstances, it might have fared better.

[Jenise]

Bob, no disagreement. It was just hard to guess.

[David M. Bueker]

Other than all the way down in Santa Barbara, 2011 is a red wine minefield on the West Coast. So many trusted producers made yucky wines that year, and I love vintage variation.

[Jenise]

Other than all the way down in Santa Barbara, 2011 is a red wine minefield on the West Coast. So many trusted producers made yucky wines that year, and I love vintage variation.

Oh I know. But, I've had many excellent 11's from WA. And as I pointed out to the guys, one of the best American syrahs any of us ever tasted was a 2011 Bionic Frog (also Cayuse) that I brought to lunch about two years ago. There was no reason to expect this wine to be such a dog.

Some notes:

2010 Palari Faro – That time, that minute, where you open a wine at exactly THE perfect moment in its life? This wine. Just fantastic. 60% Nerello Mascalese plus about four or five other lesser known (or completely unknown!) grapes, as I recall?
.

This wine was 60% Nerello Mascalese, 20% Nerello Capuccio and 10% Nerello Novera, with the extra 10% probably one or more of Cor'e Palumba, Jacche, and Acitana, and there are several others allowed as long as they don't make up more than 15%.

Wish I could recall what prompted me to buy this - I had 6, obviously tasted one to be able to predict where and when it was going and cellared the rest. Really glad I nailed it on timing - couldn't have expected it to get any better than that. I should probably drink the other 4 over what - the next couple of years?

[David M. Bueker]

Enjoying a bottle of that 2019 Ramey Rochioli Chardonnay tonight. So good. It’s Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru for under half the price.

Which BC Pinot Blancs should I be looking out for?

Bob, I'd look for Sperling (hard to find), Blue Mountain, Black Market, and possibly Nichol.

[Jenise]

Bob, I'd look for Sperling (hard to find), Blue Mountain, Black Market, and possibly Nichol.

Does La Frenz do a Pinot Blanc? When it comes to whites, La Frenz does EVERYTHING amazingly well.

I think Pinot Blanc is one of the few whites that La Frenz does not do!