France: Alsace - Eblin-Fuchs

Domaine Eblin-Fuchs lies on seductively rolling slopes around the village of Zellenberg (where the cellar is), between Ribeauvillé and Riquewihr and not far from Colmar, which is one of the region's driest and warmest spots apparently. Their different vineyard parcels add up to about 10 ha (25 acres), including some treasured vines in four of the area's steeper and very exposed Grand Cru sites; all of which have been farmed organically since 2001 with biodynamic certification smothered on top. The Eblin and Fuchs wine family histories go back several centuries, so I'm told, and were united by marriage in 1956. The estate's now run by brothers José Henri and Christian, who also make sparkling wine, eaux de vie from their own plums etc. and organic honey too.

I sampled the wines tasting-noted below and talked to these guys earlier this year at Millésime Bio wine show in Montpellier, south of France. Their wines are widely available in France and exported - click on web link beneath the photo for more info and contact details / opening hours.

Ever wondered what botrytised grapes look like? Yuk!
This is 'rot-shrivelled' Gewurztraminer, from www.eblin-fuchs.com.

2010 Riesling Zellenberg - nice developing colour, delicious ripe oily Riesling nose, concentrated palate with rich lime fruit and oily vs steely mouth-feel, long fine finish. Yum, lovely wine.

2010 Riesling Rosacker Grand Cru - fabulous oily vs citrus nose, rich and concentrated then crisp steely bite, nice ripe fruit with sweet lemon and lime flavours, oily maturing notes vs tight steely length. Yum again, should develop nicely.

2010 Pinot Gris vieilles vignes (old vines, 13% abv) - rich honeyed and spicy, has a touch of sweetness and fair weight with exotic ripe fruit vs a crisper side too, nice 'mineral' length vs quite lush. Good foodie white, try with Thai or Indian food.

2011 Gewurztraminer vieilles vignes (old vines, 13.5% abv) - complex exotic nose, floral lychee notes vs ripe lush mouth-feel and quite powerful vs a hint of freshness too, lingering flowery pineapple and lychee flavours. Try with fruit tart (especially e.g. peach).

Bags more on Alsace HERE (goes to archive page).

New Zealand: Riesling, Pinot Gris, Gewurztraminer

New Zealand winemakers are well known for their lively expressive Sauvignon Blanc wines and Chardonnays too made in different styles (fresh & fruity, rich and toasty, somewhere in between...). So it makes sense that other 'aromatic' white varieties are coming to the fore in cool climate New Zealand wine country including Riesling, Pinot Gris (Grigio) and Gewurztraminer. Let's not get too excited though: they're still small fry in the vineyard scheme of things, as these three grapes combined amount to about the same area of Chardonnay overall - a bit over 3000 hectares - and are dwarfed by 20,000 ha of ubiquitous Sauvignon blanc.

Alsace: Cave de Turckheim: big French co-ops part 2

Riesling 'Brand' from
www.cave-turckheim.com

Continuing this compelling mini-mini-series on large but good French co-op wineries and their wines, which I started on my other blog with this post: Rhône: Cave de Tain: big co-ops part 1... Cave de Turckheim was founded post-War and is a substantial vineyard owner in the must-tour region of Alsace nestling on France's eastern border with Germany, separated by the River Rhein yet sharing certain grape varieties and a long mutual history (not always a happy one, mind you) and aspects of culture (the hearty local food springs to mind). Anyway, you've probably tried a white wine from Turckheim, especially their always consistent Gewurztraminer available under many different guises and own-labels throughout the world. But the winery's 200+ co-op members also own plots in some stunning vineyard sites such as the Brand (meaning 'burnt' in the same sense as the northern Rhone's Cote Rotie, i.e. it gets a lot of sunshine) Grand Cru, as you'll see from my glowing notes on their superb Riesling and other varietals sourced from this steep slope of vines overlooking the twee town of Turckheim. And their 'old-vine' wines can be surprisingly good too, even from a scorned and usually rather characterless variety like Sylvaner. The man in charge of winemaking and vineyards here is Michel Lihrmann, by the way.

I tasted these wines with export director Emmanuelle Gallis on their UK importer's stand, Boutinot Wines, at the London International Wine Fair last year (yet more forgotten-about notes...). Prices quoted below are in euros per bottle for cases of three bought in France cellar door or on-line, to give you an idea. In the UK, their 'standard' Gewurz sells for about £7-£8; so the Pinot would be about £6, I'd guess, the Brands about £15-£17 and going up to £18-£20 for their sumptuous late harvest Gewurz.

2011 Pinot Blanc - nice crisp 'mineral' tones vs light honeyed flavours, has a bit of substance too and attractive fresh bite. €5.45

2009 Sylvaner vieilles vignes - nutty rounded and concentrated vs crisp tight mouth-feel, delicious maturing notes with long tasty finish. Surprising. €5.95

2008 Riesling vieilles vignes - turning oily and mineral edged, intense pure Riesling style with zesty crisp vs oily palate, very long and fine with stylish finish. Classic dry Riesling. €7.95

2007 Riesling Grand Cru Brand - maturing 'kerosene' (!) tones with floral mineral nuances, rich and concentrated, beautiful Riesling style, intense with 'cut' and huge length. Superb. €15.35

2008 Pinot Gris Grand Cru Brand - lush and honeyed, very ripe and full-bodied vs lovely bite and length, spicy rich finish. Delicious again. €15.35

2008 Gewurztraminer vieilles vignes - intense lychee and rose water aromas and flavours, full and rounded vs tight intense and long mouth-feel, crisp vs aromatic 'sweet' fruit. €10.20

2010 Gewurztraminer Grand Cru Brand - relatively closed up to start with, very lychee on the palate, big and fruity vs again has freshness and class, powerful too then closes up a little. Needs a few years to develop. €15.95

2008 Gewurztraminer vendanges tardives - oily honeyed aromas with exotic lychee and mango, rich and sweet vs lovely 'cut' and length, beautiful balance and class with fresh acidity vs exotic fruit. €17.50 50cl.

More Alsace producers and wines HERE: e.g. Martin Schaetzel and Eblin-Fuchs.

And previously on this blog: Juilen Frey, Eguisheim co-op, Beer of the moment: Fischer, André Kleinknecht, Domaine Josmeyer and several more in this 2007 piece: Organically focused on Alsace Riesling...

Germany: St. Urbans-Hof, Mosel & Saar

2011 vintage Riesling tasting with Nik Weis

Owner - winemaker Nik Weis (right with cellar manager Rudi Hoffmann left) was in London back in the summer with his UK importer The Wine Barn to preview their 2011 vintage Rieslings from most of their middle-Mosel estate vineyards. These prized plots - some dramatically sloping up from the Mosel in picture-postcard paint-strokes (see photo of Piesporter Goldtröpfchen below), others rising more gently and flattening out a little - are found in six disparate sites with three of them on or near the Saar river (a tributary of the big 'M') up to 40 km away...

Australia: Riesling

Petaluma Hanlin Hill
Vineyard Clare Valley

Riesling again, you might possibly be thinking - click on any of these links to read previous words on Aus Riesling and from elsewhere: Germany: Reichsrat von Buhl "Grand Cru" tasting, Blue Nun: retro chic & Indian food, Austria: Weingut Sepp Moser, Eastern Slovenia: "taking on New Zealand", Wolf in sheep's clothing (Alsace), San Antonio, Chile: Casa Marín & Matetic Vineyards, Mosel: some things age better than others, Belfast Wine Festival, the aftermath…, Winery snapshots: Australia, Chile: Leyda, Australia: Riesling (Clare Valley, Tasmania...), Germany: mega Riesling, Terrassen-Mosel, Austria (cont.)...

Austria: Weingut Sepp Moser

The Moser family

Weingut Moser is an old and well-known family estate (partly due to famous ancestor Lenz Moser who pioneered new viticulture techniques in the 1950s) originally acquired in the mid 19th Century, although the Mosers have been connected with vineyards and wine for much longer than that; and it saw a rebirth and name tweak (to Sepp) with a little restructuring in the 1980s. Today it's run by son Nikolaus, who introduced biodynamic wine-growing methods in 2006 (certain vineyards are now Demeter certified) among other 'back-to-basics' ideas. They own vines in Kremstal (70 km/45 miles west of Vienna where the cellar and home is), Neusiedlersee, Lower Austria and Burgenland. At the family base in Rohrendorf near Krems, specific vineyards include the highly-rated Gebling (two wines sampled and tasting-noted below), an 8.5 ha (21 acre) plot featuring steep south-facing terraces. Apart from signature varieties "Grooner" and Riesling, they also have some Chardonnay, Sauvignon blanc, Pinot blanc, Muscat, a few red varieties and make a rosé too (as you do nowadays). I talked to Nikolaus and tasted these at this year's Millésime Bio organic wine show in Montpellier:


2011 Grüner Veltliner von den Terrassen - steely green-fruited and crisp start, turning juicy gummy and spicy then oilier too, lively fresh finish although not too acidic. Good. €8.50 cellar door.

2010 Grüner Veltliner Gebling - creamier fuller style with tantalising white pepper edges, vibrant and concentrated with yeast-lees tones then long steely finish. Very good. €12 cellar door.

2010 Riesling Gebling - aromatic 'chalky' nose with hints of celery, concentrated crisp and lively with lime fruit flavours, developing oily touches on the finish. Delicious wine. €16 cellar door.

2009 Grüner Veltliner 'Minimal' - very buttery with toasty hazelnut and fino notes, rich and tasty vs dry 'mineral' palate, superb finish and style. Different too. €25 cellar door.

2009 Riesling Beerenauslese - oily nose with orange peel nuances, lush sweet mouth-feel vs lovely bite and length vs lots of lingering dried fruit flavours. Classy sweetie. €24 cellar door.

These wines have pretty good distribution across Europe (including the UK and Ireland), North America, Japan, China, Australia & NZ and Israel: see www.sepp-moser.at.

LOTS MORE AUSTRIA HERE (Pfaffl, Grüner Veltliner Galore, "I'll be back..." and other archive features).

San Antonio, Chile: Casa Marín & Matetic Vineyards

Felipe and Maria Luz Marin

Knowing how much it amuses me to create a nice little theme, which in this case cunningly revolves around a couple of great wineries found in Chile's San Antonio Valley: Casa Marín and Matetic Vineyards. This 'cool-climate' coastal region lies to the south of the perhaps better known (or longer established at least) Casablanca Valley and (south)west of the country's lively capital Santiago.

Darting Estate Riesling vs Rhone Villages "Terre des Garrigues"

They've nothing in common, actually, apart from both being 2009 vintage (good year in both regions, it seems) and both picked as a couple of my random "wines of the moment." Darting's Dürkheimer Michelsberg (luckily absolutely nothing to do with Piesporter Michelsberg "wines" of old - Darting is in Bad Dürkheim in the Pfalz, different region for a start) Riesling Kabinett trocken (13% alc.) is a lovely example of "new Germany" with plenty of charming zingy peachy citrus fruit and ripe lime / kiwi / melon edges, fairly rounded mouth-feel at first actually, for Riesling, with zesty mineral streak / subtle acidity lending class and off-dry finish. £8.49 at M&S. Nice with prawn risotto made with spicy, but not hot, Thai green curry paste.

Whereas this sumptuous Cotes du Rhone red is made from Grenache and Syrah (13.5% alc.) by the Compagnie de l'Hermitage (aka "SCA Les Coteaux") in Visan in the southern Rhone Valley. Still a bit young and definitely more attractive after being left open for a day, this combines food-friendly (lamb steak or lean mince in a garlic tomato sauce perhaps) solid dry yet nicely coated / coating tannins with a very light touch of underlying oak (?), chunky peppery black fruits and savoury hints too. €5.38 at Leclerc supermarket, Bayeux, France. Oh, it was "unfiltered" too in that fashionable word on the label way. Roll your own Rhone maybe?

Photo from darting.de

Riesling of the moment: Juilen Frey

The Freys are organic winegrowers in Dambach la Ville, Alsace: I came across this towards sublime bottle in my local supermarket recently and thought it worth sharing, so to speak (none left now though).

2008 Julien Frey Riesling "Prestige" (12%) - enticing "chalky"  lime aromas mingle with maturing linseed oil tones; subtle and quite soft palate with citrus vs celery profile, gets tighter and fresher on its elegant finish. €7.75

More Alsace Rieslings here:

winewriting.com/organicAlsace
And 2 dozen racy German Rieslings here.

Picture = the Frey family from vinsfreybio.com

Eastern Slovenia: "taking on New Zealand"

Yet another catchy-titled tutored tasting from the London Wine Fair (May 2010), this time by Caroline Gilby MW who's an authority on Eastern European wines (as well as being rather good at running marathons for charity). This one featured wines from eastern Slovenia, which threw up several lively and/or unusual aromatic white wines. Slovenia has perhaps grabbed a bit of attention for certain intense styles of "macerated" and "natural-winemaking" whites sourced from those elevated vineyards in the west, which border the Trieste area of northwest Italy and trendy wine regions such as Collio. The climate there is very different to the east, with milder sea-influenced weather; the east has a much more continental climate, influenced by the Austrian Alps to the west and north and the landmass of Hungary to the east bringing hot summers and very cold winters. However, I did try a couple of wines from western Slovenia afterwards along with a few more Rieslings - Renski or Rhine or "true" Riesling as opposed to Laški Rizling (although there are now some good wines being made from this variety too: I won't go on about Lutomer or whatever it was/is here!) - coming mostly from the east. Because: 1. it seems promising and 2. well, if you've read anything on this site before, you'll know I'm slightly Riesling addictive....

Colour code: Producer wine/place name grape variety

Bajnof Žametna Penina sparkling rosé NV (made from Cviček base wine, which is a blend of red and white grapes: Žametna črnina, Modra Frankinja (=Blaufränkisch), Kraljevina and Laški Rizling (=Welschriesling or Riesling Italico))
Cherry colour, quite perfumed with morello cherry, other red fruits and violets; lightly toasted almond and fruit cake notes, very lively acidity vs a touch of sweetness and roundness. Interesting and attractive fizz, not to everyone's taste though! Žametna means "velvety," by the way.
2007 Joannes Protner Riesling (12.5% alc.) - lightly peachy vs mineral, oily and "chalky" tones; quite pure fruit turning oily vs steely edges and crisp acidity, very dry appley finish; quite elegant and long too. 87
2008 Joannes Protner Riesling - a bit reductive and awkward on the nose; rounder palate (has about 6g/l residual sugar) vs again showing nice pure Riesling style with "chalky" texture vs lime fruit, very crisp yet off-dry finish. 87+
2006 Joannes Protner Riesling - attractive oily developing nose; dried raisin-y flavours vs very crisp and intense mineral profile, maturing "petrol-y" fruit finish. 88+
2009 Marof Bodonci Laški Rizling (13.5%) - gummy zingy and aromatic with gooseberry, floral and subtle lees notes; nice lively zesty palate in that modern winemaking style, crisp and juicy with "chalky" mineral vs more rounded and weighty finish.85+
2009 Marof Renski Rizling (11.5%, 21 g/l residual sugar) - floral, citrus and gummy aromas; medium-dry style showing sweeter side vs crisp and mineral finish. 80+
2008 Valcl Šipon (= Furmint) - complex nose with greengage / kiwi vs richer honeyed and oily notes; perfumed in the mouth vs creamy buttery and hazelnut, refreshing "cut" and quite concentrated too; very unusual with attractive fresh vs textured finish. 89+
2009 Vino Valdhuber Sauvignon Blanc (12.5%) - quite restrained citrus and gooseberry style showing juicy lees-y edges and fresh bite; more Loire than NZ perhaps with nice crisp pure finish. 85+
2008 Vino Kupljen Sirius Chardonnay Jeruzalem-Svetinje (12.5%) - enticing yet subtle peachy notes with light spicy oak vs underlying vibrant citrus fruit; well-balanced mix of all those flavours/textures carries through, well made with again that underlining crisp bite vs rounded buttery and coconut edges. 87
2009 Kupljen Renski Rizling (12.5%) - restrained tight style with attractive crisp limey fruit; juicy lees vs mineral texture with steely dry finish, good extract and purity with fair class too. 87+
2008 Kupljen Renski Rizling - oilier maturing nose with lightly "burnt" notes; quite lush texture actually with nice developing fruit vs citrus bite and steely mineral length. 88
2008 Kupljen Classic Renski Rizling (residual sugar and acidity are the same at about 6-7g/l and 12% alc.) - more exotic with pineapple notes vs limey and zingy; crisp and fresh mouth-feel vs rounded and off-dry, attractive style. 85+
2007 Kupljen "sweet Auslese" Renski Rizling (9.5%) - honeyed and exotic with lightly spicy notes; lush mouthful of rich raisin fruit vs racy acidity cutting through it, closes up on the finish. Needs 5-10 years to develop. 90
2008 Steyer Gewurztraminer (Alsace and Austrian clones apparently, 13%) - full-on lychee nose with pure clean and expressive floral / rose water tones; juicy and off-dry with a hint of sweetness vs refreshing acidity, very attractive style. 85+
2008 Steyer Renski Rizling - lightly peachy and floral fruit vs "phenolic/chalky" zesty texture; tight zingy and crisp length with lime flavours. Needs a couple of years to open up. 87
2007 Marjan Simčič Sauvignon Blanc - more golden in colour than any of the above dry wines, rich yeast-lees vs aromatic green fruit; quite fat and creamy with subtle toasted texture vs a bit of oomph and bite. Different for sure, not for all but good though. 87+Distributors for Simčič wines: H&H Bancroft Wines in London; US: Trilussa Wine Company CA and Dark Stars imports NYC.

Photos by (top) Joco Znidarsic copied from matkurja.com/projects/wine, where you'll find lots of fascinating generic info on Slovenian wine, and (bottom) vino-kupljen.com.

Mosel: some things age better than others

A new, although hardly contemporary "wine of the moment" was tasted a few weeks ago, thanks to Luc Charlier at Domaine Coume Majou in the Roussillon (he's a bit of a collector - for drinking, I mean, not hoarding - as well as winegrower/maker):

1995 Fritz Haag Riesling Auslese, Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr - impeccable balance of old petrol-y maturity, oily mineral characters, a touch of sweetness and steely tart finish. So much flavour and complexity yet only 7% alcohol! 95

Talking of the Mosel, not standing the test of time so well are the 40 year-old stalled plans to build a lovely motorway bridge across the top of some of the region's greatest vineyards: you can read the latest on that on Decanter.com. Good to see the campaign is finally attracting some high-profile support, in Germany and internationally. Down with roads, up with fine Riesling! Picture: Haag junior and senior from weingut-fritz-haag.de