Rolly Gassmann Riesling Pflaenzerreben 1988
Updated: 2012-10-31 22:07:29
Home Wine of the Week Rolly Gassmann Riesling Pflaenzerreben 1988 Rolly Gassmann Riesling Pflaenzerreben 1988 Although there is certainly a Loire and Bordeaux focus to my chosen wines of the week , I do think it is healthy to look beyond these two regions every once in a while . This week I'm doing just that , with a rather randomly chosen wine from Alsace A lone bottle bought many years ago , perhaps when I was exploring Alsace in the early days of writing on Winedoctor , this is a true cellar orphan I've never tasted the wine before pulling the cork here , and I have or rather , had no idea as to its character , style , residual sugar , or what propensity the wine might have had for aging . Despite that , I have allowed it to languish in the cellar for a decade or two . Well , it is
Home Wine of the Week Domaine d'Estoublon Blanc 2009 Domaine d'Estoublon Blanc 2009 Just a little more than a week ago I attended a really fascinating vertical tasting of Moulin Touchais the only wine of note to be produced by the Touchais family at their eponymous domaine , Vignobles Touchais which is located very close to Doué-la-Fontaine , south-west of Saumur , on the edge of the Anjou and Coteaux du Layon appellations . It was a remarkable tasting for many reasons , not least the amazing array of older vintages being poured , and naturally I have published my notes and a profile of Moulin Touchais this . week What , you might ask , has all this to do with Domaine d'Estoublon which as Languedoc savants will know is located in Fontvieille , near Arles , and not that far from France's
A brief update of this profile to reflect recent developments.
Following on from my renewed examination of the Bordeaux 1998 vintage a few weeks ago, and my expressed commitment to report on some more mature Bordeaux wines following all the news on 2011 and other very recent vintages, it is now time for another vintage to come under the spotlight. This is not, however, a comprehensive tasting. The handful of wines tasted here, all from the 1995 vintage in Bordeaux, were opened over dinner, during the course of a few evenings in August, not long after returning from my recent trip to from Bordeaux.
Home Producer Profiles Loire Profiles Domaine de Bel Air Page 1 of 2 previous 1 2 next Domaine de Bel Air As is the case with many estates that are dedicated to viticulture and this is just as true of the Loire today as it was of Bordeaux during the 17th century , Domaine del Bel-Air began life as a polycultural farm , handed down from one generation to the next . It was during the 1970s that viticulture began to dominate , although winemaking was yet to come at this point the fruit was sold to the co-operative at Oisly . Despite this , from the early days the viticultural methods were very simple , working the soils over the vines in winter to protect them , and avoiding the use of chemical herbicides and . insecticides It was in 1999 that Joël Courtault took the domaine in hand ,
Home Producer Profiles Bordeaux Profiles Château Filhot Page 1 of 3 previous 1 2 3 next Château Filhot Château Filhot was , for me , an early Sauternes discovery . A little less than two decades ago I recall the market was awash with 1990 Château Filhot and the bottles seemed to linger on the shelves for a very long time . For many years , every wine merchant , wine bar and even the occasional rough-and-ready corner-shop off-licence seemed to have its own stock of this vintage . It soon became what I referred to as the ubiquitous Sauternes In fact , Château Filhot is rather more ubiquitous than you might think . At 350 hectares this is the largest estate in the region , and even though only a small part of this is dedicated to viticulture the volumes produced here are still a lot greater
What? Me? Biased towards Muscadet? Perish the thought! I admit it though, I am biased towards the wines of this broadly unloved and misunderstood region. And why shouldn't I be? The wines offer everything great Chablis (which seems eternally popular) can provide - in a nutshell, wine from a non-aromatic grape variety that expresses terroir beautifully and ages just as well - and yet it remains a niche interest even among many wine professionals, partitioned off as something WSET Diploma candidates have to learn about, but which nobody actually drinks for pleasure.
**What I’m Drinking (and Eating) Tonight** Wow! Pardon the exclamation, but it’s been a great night. I tried my hand again at cooking Sous Vide. This time it was salmon, vacuum sealed and left to set at 140 F for 40 minutes in my water bath on stove. My set-up is the poor man’s way [...]
Join in for TXwine Twitter Tuesday to Taste & Tweet Texas Tempranillos Austin’s Denise Clarke (@DeniseClarkeTX), and Houston’s Jeff Cope (@TXwineLover) and I (@VintageTexas) invite you to join the next TXwine Twitter Tuesday at 7 p.m. Central Time on November 13th. This month we will celebrate Texas Tempranillo, the red grape of Texas, and if [...]
**Test Live Blog : Brennan Vineyards Viognier with Poster** This is the first time that I’ve tried to live blog from my phone about Texas wine. – — – — – I’ve now added Poster to my iPad and added this text and photo below:
Sunday at Sandstone Cellars: An Apple for a Drinker to Enjoy Fall is here and it’s time roll out on the highways and byways around Texas stopping in to see old friends and meet new ones at Texas wineries. I phoned up to see if Sandstone Cellars proprietors, Scott Haupert and Manny Salerio and winemaker, [...]
This is an analysis of the ranking of wine sites. (Here is the method.)
Apps and magazines
Having an off-line reputation clearly helps. This is easiest for the paper media — as illustrated by the presence in the Top 10 of the Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast, Decanter, Dr. Vino, Jancis Robinson and Robert Parker.
Conversely some pioneers are [...]
Messina Hof Pasta Making Party: Five things We Learned at this Food/Wine Experience My daughter and I are always looking for good ways to learn things about food and wine together. We have cross the threshold of cheese making and are now seriously considered making sausage. So, when I got the announcement for the recent [...]
California Winemaker, Greg Bruni, Planned his Escape to Texas Back in 1993, now Llano Estacado Winery Vice President & Executive Winemaker Greg Bruni planned an escape from California for him and his wife. Greg and his wife Sharendale realized that, even though they were living at the mountain-top Byington Winery in California’s Santa Cruz Mountains surrounded [...]
Texas Wines Being Served at Lucille’s Houston Alerted to an impending change in the wine list at Chef Chris Williams’ museum district Lucille’s Restaurant, my wife and I stopped by early last Saturday evening for dinner. Because Lucille’s culinary roots date back to Chef Williams great-grandmother, Lucille Bishop Smith, and her widely acclaimed Chili Biscuits, [...]