WTN: Gruner Veltliner and OR Pinot Noir

Couple of nice al fresco meals, I love the spring:

Sunday was lemon-garlic pork chops, barley "risotto", and a spinach salad, Betsy needed white wine for the barley. An inexpensive GruVe seemed to fit the bill, and decided to continue with it for dinner. The 2004 Geyerhof "Rosensteig" Grüner Veltliner (Kremstal) was definitely on the tart (bordering on underripe) end of the GV spectrum, the palate is of green apples and lemon. High acidity and the slightest hint of petillance. Actually the lemony tartness lent itself well to the lemon of the chops, and there's a nice Riesling-meets-Muscadet minerality. Not a great GV, but a fine value at its $5 closeout price- just don't expect a broad-shouldered wine. B

With a Japanese themed meal (chicken yakitori, grilled asparagus & eggplant,  and umeboshi rice), the 2003 St Innocent Seven Springs Pinot Noir from 375. A bit bigger than most 7 Springs I've tried, a tad tannic and heavy. The deep red berry fruit is nice however, and there's a pleasant edge of spice. Maybe not my favorite St. I. 7 Springs, but nice, and probably drunk too young. B+/B

(I drank a lot of seltzer as palate cleanser with this, the PN went well with the yakitori, but asparagus pales beside the sour plum in the "wine-killer" category).

Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency

Dale, if you happe to see Geyerhof 2005s (organically grown, btw, for at least a decade), jump on them. Ilse Maier, owner and winemaker (and cousin of Josef Mantler from Mantlerhof and sister of Christine Saahs from Nikolaihof in Mautern) has improved enormously recently.

[Jenise]

Felt like you did about the 03 Seven Springs. Just remember that was a freaky-hot year and not at all a year to judge any Oregon pinot by.

Michael, wil keep an eye open, but unsure if I'll see. This is first time I've seen producer, and they were being closed out- apparently because importer died! Of course, maybe just a rumor.

Jenise, I drank it young because I felt it wasn't a great year. But in this case, I think waiting for the tannins would have helped, though it would never be my favorite 7S.

Dale, I just called Ilse Maier (http://www.geyerhof.at/). Happily, the importer didn't die, he simply closed business (and now works for a larger importer that doesn't deal with small producers such as Geyerhof). She has a new importer, Martin Scott, based in New York: http://www.martinscottwines.com/.