All The Pinots Tasting @ Mezzo 25/08/12

Some of All The Pinots.

Given there has been some glimpses of Spring Silvio and I thought we'd celebrate with a tasting of All The Pinots. Well, we got most of them. Blanc, Gris, Noir, Meunier in various wine guises including sparkling, white, red and sweet.

With somewhat Spring like weather, Mezzo's wonderful canapes and a room full of eager Pinot lovers we commenced the tasting. You can see my notes on the Pinot family and order form here.

Pinot Blanc from North Eastern Italy.

Overall it was a great tasting with some lovely wines. The general theme that linked all the wines together was the textural complexity that all the wines had and the elegance - everything in moderation and harmony. This made these wines almost too drinkable especially when paired with the food. Lucky the tasting only went for 1.5 hours!

First Pinot of the bunch was Chanter's Ridge Sparkling Pinot Noir from Macedon. A beautiful expression of Pinot's cherry, rose petal and red berry fruits. Plenty of depth and nice structure and quite dry. A great fizzy and refreshing way to kick off the tasting. A great wine for starting a meal.

The next Pinot we picked was Cantina Valle Isarco Pinot Bianco DOC 2011. Flying the flag for Pinot Blanc or Weissburgunder as it is labelled. The most shy and reserved of all the wines, it showed floral notes, pears and a hint of spice and mineral. It did have a wonderful mouthfeel and really sang when I could flag down some of Mezzo's canapes. A brilliant wine for matching with shellfish, white meats and creamier pasta and risotto dishes.



Trimbach was amazing!

To complete the whites we had two Pinot Gris/Grigio wines. Both being the same grape variety but showing the stylistic differences it can achieve. Celestial Avenue 2010 was light, fresh and simple with pears, and a hint of stonefruit, citrus and a doughy note. Celestial is perfect for chilling down and drinking in the warm weather with or without food. Trimbach Reserve 2007 was another story altogether. A lot of depth, concentration and complexity. Trimbach showed a lot more fruit complexity, perfume and minerality at the core. The mouthfeel was divine and despite its concentration it was very clean and savoury on the finish. Yum! Suited to many styles of food I do have fond memories of a fun night eating chilli crab and Trimbach Pinot Gris.


Star of the show?

The reds started with the wonderful Pegeric Pinot Noir 2008. A celebration of Pinot's lovely savoury side, plenty of wet earth and undergrowth to balance the primary red fruits and floral characters. It has great texture and silk on the palate, it was by far my favourite of the wines. Not sure if it will get better in the bottle but there is no need to find out when it drinks so well now. This would match well with gamey dishes like Mezzo's wild boar ravioli, lighter red and white meat dishes or nothing at all. Clearly I wasn't the only fan as it sold well and Paul from Pinot Post couldn't wait to feature it on his blog.

The second red was an Australian classic, Best's Pinot Meunier 2011. This wine was from their young vines and was lovely for its simple, red fruits, floral notes and crisp, crunchy palate. I am not an expert on varietal still red wines made from Meunier but this is guaranteed to charm any Pinot lover! Easy drinking on its own or with light meals, could even be served a bit chilled in the warmer months.
The final wine of the tasting was Pegeric's Late Picked Pinot Noir 2008. It was interesting watching people reaction when the wine wasn't golden in colour or cloying in taste. It was late picked in the   proper sense meaning that it was before botrytis set in so the wine is still delicate, perfumed and refreshing with only a hint of sweetness that is well balanced by the other characters in the wine. This was delicious drink that would pair well with fresh fruits and lighter style deserts.

Next month there will be no tasting as there is some sort of pagan celebration on the last Saturday of September. However October will see us showing the very best of Sparkling wines from around the world to celebrate Spring. Email me to be kept up-to-date.

Also keep an eye out for Mezzo's Northern Italy Dinner. Silvio and his team will take you on a journey through the food and wines of this beautiful part of the world.With four courses and 10 wines you guaranteed to have a good time. Email Silvio for more information.

Riesling To The Occasion

Imagine coming back from holiday and a supplier asking if you'd like to attend a large Riesling tasting featuring some of the best German producers (with a few ring ins). Well that is what happened, and of course I said "Oh God yes!". It is after all the best way to ease back into the working cycle (don't believe me? Try it for yourself).

This is what the grape in question may look like.

In my mind Riesling is the ultimate terroirist - it transmits the flavours of the soil it is grown so faithfully. Couple this with the fact that Riesling tends to reject outright any wine maker influences that could cover these natural characters (think new oak or malo) and you've got the a pretty unstoppable force.

Might I also add to this that Riesling is delicious!

So many highlights... So much lovely Riesling.

JL Wolf -Dr Loosen's sister estate in Pfalz. Brilliant wines. Wachenheimer Riesling 2009 was so amazing. Pure, clean, mineral, great perfume and great balance. Just so drinkable, but the balance points to a long and healthy life ahead of it.

Donnhoff Nahe based, they make trocken (dry) styles and also QMP wines (ask what this is). Their mango and tropical, off dry, fleshy and intense Norheimer Kirschheck Spaltese 07 was excellent and certainly lingered in my mouth after I had spat. Equally good was their dry Niederhauser Hermannshole Grosse Gewaches 08, spices and herbal, tight young, citric and texturally appealling.

Heymann-Lowenstein Making dry wines from the Northern part of the Mosel known as the Terrassenmosel (not surpringly the vineyards are terraced in this area). These guys make some truly amazing Riesling!. The entry level Schieferterrassen had it all. Very expressive wet stones (in a good way), pepper & spices, stonefruits. It is long, dry, intense, silky and just a hint of bitterness.  The Von Blauem Schiefer was the next step up in intensity and presence. The Rottgen was dense, grapey and appley, floral. The perfume dances over your palate. Superb wine! Their Kirchberg was similar to the Rottgen but had more of everything and great length. The best was last for sure. Uhlen Rothlay showed floral, apples, grapes, spice. So young and pure. It's youthful simplicity coupled with an amazing mouthfeel made this wine a pleasure to taste.

This is what they mean by Terrassenmosel.

A. Christmann Another of the Pfalz brigade (it is a really great and underappreciated region!). The whole line up of trocken wines were perfumed, and full of finesse and class. The Grosse Gewaches in particular are worth mentioning. However we were treated to a very small (but still, extremely generous) taste of his Idig #1 Eiswein. A wine made from grapes left to freeze on the vine. Sauternes like concentration and intensity. Really complex, really satiny mouthfeel. A little taste is often enough because the flavours lingers for so long. Beautiful!

Wittman calls Rheinhessen home. their wines are pure and direct. Some good perfume lift with some more 'funky' sort of notes too. They had an interesting Silvaner on tasting too. Nice to try some of these quirky varieties.

Brundlmayer So these guys are Austrian, not German. But the wines are really, really good. A couple of pretty Gruner Veltliners (Yum!) and some mineral laden, clean and fruitful Rieslings.

Georg Breuer Those who are paying attention may remember we've sold some of these wines before. I do love the wines from Breuer. This time there was only the Berg Roseneck to taste, but it showed all the hallmark pretty florals and fruits with the underlying structure and power.

Berg Roseneck in all its glory

Ring ins

Huber Germans making Pinot Noir? And Pinot Blanc? Yep, that is what we have here. They were brilliant too. The Noir was like a light and minerally Mercurey and the Blanc was spicy, white fruited and citric with and oaky/creamy finish.

Pittnauer Austrian Reds Zweigelt and St Laurent. Hard to compare to other varieties. They are both dense, savoury, meaty with a savoury undergrowth character. The St Laurent is more silky and dense. The Zwiegelt leaner and more savoury.

Sadly I did not get to taste everything, but I was easing myself back in after all...