Fonn girl

T

Thor

Thor Iverson
Trimbach 2000 Riesling Cuve Frdric mile Vendanges Tardives (Alsace) Impossibly tight and unyielding to any amount of air, swirling, or overnight oxidation. It just sits there, closed-in about itself, wondering why you were crazy enough to open it now. I wouldn't even think of touching this for another ten years, if this is the stage its currently in. (1/10)

Meyer-Fonn 1997 Pinot Gris Rserve Particulire (Alsace) Corked, and also oxidized. Mmmm. (1/10)

Deiss 1997 Pinot Gris Beblenheim (Alsace) For a 1997, this has a surprising amount of balancing acidity, though its still not enough to support the metallic pear soup weight of the wine. Still, crystalline minerality is also in play, as are mineral salts and a cured woodfruit finish, and this is not at all bad in a year from which I like very little of Deiss work. (1/10)

Mur 1997 Pinot Gris Vorbourg Clos St. Landelin (Alsace) Weedy, oxidized, and downright nasty. (1/10)

Michel Fonn Crmant dAlsace (Alsace) Surprisingly complete, with chalky yeastiness and the beginnings of identifiable autolysis, a very rindy citrus palate, and a crisp and expansive froth. Salty. The intense finish sharpens to a point. This is already better than most Alsatian crmant, though a little more aromatic generosity would not hurt. (1/10)

Boxler 2004 Riesling Rserve (Alsace) A Chadderdon bottling, and thus (as is the case with some of them) without a label code indicating specific origin or vine age details. As Boxler rieslings go, this is one of the weaker oneswhich means its still quite tasty, but that it lacks the rich complexity of the domaine's more interesting terroirs. Ripe apple, ripe lime, transparent aluminum, hints of sweetness, and fair acidity. Thats about it. (1/10)

Blanck 2002 Gewurztraminer Altenbourg (Alsace) After a few tightly-closed explorations, my last bottle of this (I have a fair quantity) was blossoming, so hopes were high. Apparently, the debutante ball was premature, because this is a self-absorbed teenager wrapped up in a hormonal stew of semi-imaginary problems at the moment. Theres some strappy pork jerky, perhaps, and some sticky lacings of something in the tropical family of fruits that services gewurztraminer, but otherwise this is still closed for any sort of adult business. (1/10)

Trimbach 2000 Riesling (Alsace) Age hasnt hurt this, but it has certainly transformed it from puppy-fat youth to skeletal oldster in just a few years. Not that the ngociant wines of Trimbach are really meant to age, but the rieslings can be surprising; the 98 did particularly well up to about its tenth birthday or so. Anyway, here weve got stalky steel flaking away into a brisk fall breeze, a hazy memory of apple, andwell, thats pretty much it. Drink up, for sure, but with a certain austere pleasure. (12/09)

Gresser 2007 Pinot Blanc Kritt (France) Fine-grained. Kritt wines tend to sort of suggest rather than define minerality, and while this is easy to discern in riesling from the site, its less immediately apparent in other grapes. Here, its a blended element, along with chilly, fresh-from-the-refrigerator apricot and nectarine, some grapefruit, and a surprisingly firm texture. This has been a house on the rise for a while, and the quality at this level is quite high for the price. (1/10)

Trimbach 2006 Pinot Blanc (Alsace) These wines, fairly basic in their normal state, are best in years when either their minerality or their spice are allowed to shine, which I presume corresponds fairly directly to the length and heat of the season, respectively. This is one of the latter: stone fruit, as much crisp as ripe, with pretty baking spices. Theres a little bit of minerality, as well. One of the better examples amongst recent vintages. (1/10)

Sparr 2004 One (Alsace) This was too long to hold what is a fun, blended wine, because its getting watery at both the core and the fringes, but whats left is still an easy-drinking, anonymous-grape quaffer. (1/10)
 
It's true that you reacted more positively than I did. I wonder if you would have liked it as much in its fully-open stage.
 
I wonder if you would have liked it as much in its fully-open stage.
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I'm sure I would have liked it. These kinds of wines in general seem easy to like with so much flavor, body, and acidity. It's not like they're filled with flor or anything..

And even if the flavors had been meatier, for some reason that is more appealing in wine as opposed to on the plate.
 
My last bottle of '00 Trimbach Riesling had a bit more flesh than what you described. Like yours, it definitely was time to drink it up. It did work quite well as a Springtime picnic wine in Golden Gate Park.
 
I was a little surprised how lean it was, because my last bottle was definitely fleshier as well. It tasted more like a 1996.
 
originally posted by Thor:Trimbach 2006 Pinot Blanc (Alsace) These wines, fairly basic in their normal state, are best in years when either their minerality or their spice are allowed to shine, which I presume corresponds fairly directly to the length and heat of the season, respectively.
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I'm still gorging on this slew of eloquent notes, delivered like a fistful of thunderbolts. I so wish I could committ stuff like the above to my hard drive, but most of my memory has become hopelessly volatile.
 
originally posted by Thor:
Trimbach 2000 Riesling Cuve Frdric mile Vendanges Tardives (Alsace) Impossibly tight and unyielding to any amount of air, swirling, or overnight oxidation. It just sits there, closed-in about itself, wondering why you were crazy enough to open it now. I wouldn't even think of touching this for another ten years, if this is the stage its currently in. (1/10)
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now, why do you think this is ? I've seen this with a couple of their top recent wines. This never used to be the case, the stuff was more or less transparent, no matter how youthful at any stage
 
I'm still gorging on this slew of eloquent notes, delivered like a fistful of thunderbolts. I so wish I could committ stuff like the above to my hard drive, but most of my memory has become hopelessly volatile.
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You should submit your brain to reverse osmosis. It works for all the cool winemakers.

If you need archives, I've got 'em, though really I just look at that site and despair at the calories it represents.
 
now, why do you think this is ? I've seen this with a couple of their top recent wines. This never used to be the case, the stuff was more or less transparent, no matter how youthful at any stage
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I don't know if I can follow you all the way to "never," unless you're only talking about the VTs, in which case I would rarely have opened my own at this stage and thus wouldn't really have evidence either way.

But without knowing, the obvious conclusion based on other evidence is that Pierre's making the wines a little differently than did Bernard. I know that he thought (or at least he said) that, at release, this was the best riesling he'd ever made, which is a fairly dramatic thing to say. We weren't yet considering the 2001s at that point, though, and I suspect he'd answer differently now.

If I had to guess based on organoleptics -- I haven't asked, and should -- he's putting a higher percentage of pushed-ripeness grapes in these wines than used to be the case, which makes them showier when young (that, at least, I can verify), but is leading to a corollary shutdown stage. But I'm just guessing.
 
originally posted by Thor:
now, why do you think this is ? I've seen this with a couple of their top recent wines. This never used to be the case, the stuff was more or less transparent, no matter how youthful at any stage
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I don't know if I can follow you all the way to "never," unless you're only talking about the VTs, in which case I would rarely have opened my own at this stage and thus wouldn't really have evidence either way.

But without knowing, the obvious conclusion based on other evidence is that Pierre's making the wines a little differently than did Bernard. I know that he thought (or at least he said) that, at release, this was the best riesling he'd ever made, which is a fairly dramatic thing to say. We weren't yet considering the 2001s at that point, though, and I suspect he'd answer differently now.

If I had to guess based on organoleptics -- I haven't asked, and should -- he's putting a higher percentage of pushed-ripeness grapes in these wines than used to be the case, which makes them showier when young (that, at least, I can verify), but is leading to a corollary shutdown stage. But I'm just guessing.
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I really did mean "never", up to a certain point in time. I think my first evidence of a wine I simply could not read was 96 Fred on release. I got glimpses of that in 95 Hune, but not enough to write home about. But more recently, 01 Hune and 01 Anniversary Fred have traveled even further down that path, despite undeniable quality. Remember, I am not talking about how youthful or, as we call it, "backward" a wine is; rather, about identifying its building blocks. I've not tasted 00 VT, but sounds like more of the same.

Did Pierre take over much more recently than I have assumed? When I first visited in 1993 over a two day period, he seemed well in charge, but appearances can be deceiving.

Your theory sounds as good as any, although I would question the approach from a marketing standpoint, given that their release policy hasn't changed much.
 
That's about when I started having trouble seeing through the wines as well, which is why I objected to "never," but I didn't realize you were counting releases that far back as recent.

As far as when Pierre took over, I think it's not as clear as a firm changeover date, and I understand it to have been a slow process. My impression of his being 100% of the decision-making (as much as that's ever true at a family winery) dates to the mid/late nineties, not before. I think everything before then was more or less collaborative. But I could easily be wrong, and suppose I could just ask.

In terms of their release schedule, I'm not generally of the opinion that the wines are difficult to assess at release, though there have been occasional exceptions. But I think they shut down sooner, and harder, than they used to, and in a different way. I worked at the very well-aerated dregs of the above-noted wine for four days, and it absolutely did not budge; even the tightest Hunes never used to do that, and enough aeration could reveal the wine within. I don't mind it as a marketing strategy as long as they can get the wines tasted and sold before they shut down, but they seem to be pushing closer to the limits of late.
 
Well, finally, you've started to give wines a score, for those of us who just want to cut to the chase and find the best wine without wading through all this wordy bullshit. And, what do I find? Apparently you're such a hard marker that you're giving just about everything only 1/10. For God's SAKE. Are they all that bad? At least fall into line with everybody else and make it 10/100.
yours pointedly,
Graeme
 
I like to work up to October to give those sorts of scores. No sense in starting the year at the top. Of course, by November we're into Spinal Tap range.
 
It's a guy with a hunting cap and a double chin with his mouth open, ready to expel more oxidized '97 Alsatian pinot gris.
 
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