What We Drank (May 17, 2010)

Something unique happened with this week's WWD...the whole team got in on the "riesling and rose" theme this month. It's almost as though I asked them to do so. Okay -- I did.

Tom Mansell: Sheldrake Point Vineyards 2007 Dry Rosé

For a month of rieslings and rosés, I decided to chill down a Finger Lakes pink with a little bit of age on it.

If I remember correctly, this is a rosé of mostly cabernet franc. The color on this is a nice salmon-heading-towards-copper.

Wild strawberry comes to mind after some thought but the fruit is very well-integrated with some citrus peel, perhaps shaped a bit by age.

The nose is promising, but the palate comes up a bit short. Short on acidity and finish, to be exact.  A touch more acid would make this rosé much more refreshing, but I'm not really one to talk about having a little flabbiness here and there. 

Despite its 13% ABV, it lacks in the mid-palate and the finish is somewhat fleeting.  An interesting Cinnamon Toast Crunch note comes up on the finish (diacetyl?).

I had laid this one down in hopes of doing a rosé vertical to check out how some Finger Lakes rosés age. I'm still interested in doing that, though I don't expect I'll be able to find another one of these easily unless there are a few in Bob Madill's basement.

What do you guys think about aging rosé? 

Evan Dawson: Muller-Catoir 2007 Riesling Kabinett Pfalz Mussbach

In New York state, there is a riesling designation known as "semi-sweet" that drives me semi-insane. To me, it comes off as a condescending wink to the customer:

"Can't handle dry wine? Don't worry, child, here is something sweet."

This Pfalzian Kabinett -- the sweetest Kabinett I've ever had, based on RS -- would undoubtedly be herded into that semi-sweet category. And yet it is entirely serious, thoughtful, and balanced. There must be 3% RS or more here (our host guessed 4%), and its oily viscosity is fascinating. 

We enjoyed this wine with food before dinner, and after dinner it became a contemplative stand-alone. A sweet -- nothing "semi" about it - way to begin and end the evening.

Bryan Calandrelli: Calandrelli Selections Riesling 2008

What better wine to write about during Riesling month than ones own homemade Calandrelli Selections 2008 Riesling?

Okay, I'm sure there are several more interesting wines out there but I thought I'd write about something no one else has tasted yet.

To be honest, I neglected my 2008 whites for too long. This wine should have been bottled a year ago instead of 3 weeks ago. With that procrastination and absence of enough sulphites there are some oxidative notes on the nose and a premature golden appearance.

That being said it's totally drinkable with aromas of pear, apricot, almond and a touch of petrol. With only .625% added sugar, it's still brisk with no perceivable sweetness. It's lean and mean on the palate as I opted to keep it refreshing with a good dose of acidity.

This wine had much potential as I had a long cool ferment with Wadenswil 27 yeast of grapes from Freedom Run Winery. Ultimately though I should have been on top of this wine earlier as I've gotten used to the long elevage of reds.

With 2 cases produced though I'm just happy to have some wine I can
open this summer without worrying about my wine budget.

Lenn Thompson: Fox Run Vineyards 2001 Dry Riesling

There wasn't any real drinking for me this past weekend -- exhausting work hours (including an all-nighter) made sure of that.

But a week ago today, hot off the heels of TasteCamp, I opened this bottle of riesling.

Yes. Riesling. Sure, my teeth and gums were still stinging a bit from all of the acidity from the weekend-long tastefest, but several opportunities to taste older wines throughout inspired me to open this one up.

True to what Peter Bell, Fox Run's winemaker, said as he poured several library wines for us, this dry riesling didn't hold up as well as the reserve and semi-dry wines.

It showed nice mature aromas and flavors -- petrol, orange marmalade, marzipan and a little herbal edge -- but there wasn't enough acidity here to frame it.

And yet, I still enjoyed drinking it -- quite a bit. It's a pleasure to explore older wines, even if they aren't peaking.

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Comments

[Tom Mansell]

Evan: For it to be that sweet, the alcohol must be like 7-8%. What's the ABV on that?

[Evan Dawson]

Tom - Don't recall, though my brain tells me single digits. Good point.

Regarding aging rose: I have no experience whatsoever, and find the idea interesting, even if rose is sort of the ultimate Drink Now kind of wine.

[Brad Bogdan]

In my limited experience (just 2 older roses, both 8-10 years from vintage) the color gets pretty dark (think dark copper or really light pinot), but the flavors don't develop into anything more interesting. Both had lost a lot of zip, lost a lot of fruit, and only one of the two picked up any positive aged character (a bit of nutty honey-ness). They were both dry, however, which might've made aging a bit harder on them. Perhaps a bit younger (5-7) years and a bit of RS and they could still hold some solid fruit and acid to jive with the potential aged flavors.

[Joeshico]

Glad to see Lenn posting a FLX Riesling on "What we Drank." Disappointed with Evan doing a German Riesling this month after giving him kudos on my blog as being passionate about FLX wines. OK, from now on Lenn will be my Finger Lakes wine info source. ;)

[Evan Dawson]

Joe -

Ouch! :) Enjoyed your review of the Zugibe '08 and am excited to see that you'll be hitting eastern Seneca / western Cayuga. Perhaps we can meet for a drink on this or a future visit.

And hey, we advocate drinking around the world if we're going to truly appreciate the potential that we have here. And the Pfalzian (is that a word?) wine offered a vehicle for me to attack the silly "semi-sweet" designation!

[Dan]

For those who are looking for an aged rose, Lopez De Heredia sells a 1998 rose right now. That is current vintage I believe. Quite an interesting wine.

[Evan Dawson]

Dan - We were fortunate enough to enjoy that exact wine on Saturday night at TasteCamp. Richard from Massachusetts brought a bottle (along with a bottle of Gravner's Ribolla Gialla). And I agree; LdH are always fascinating, contemplative wines.

[Lenn Thompson]

Dan: Not only did Richard bring some to TasteCamp (a 97) he and I did a little wine swap that resulted in me bringing home a bottle of the 98.

We actually had quite a bit of LdH wine over the weekend...I brought a bottle of 89 white and Sasha had one from the 90s with her. Such cool wines that are always well received by a room filled with wine geeks.

That Gravner though...wow. Such an interesting wine.