Crossdressers

[MarkS]

Sometimes a wine acts differently than the bottle it's placed in. Looking through recent notes, I found two such examples wherein I wrote the wine reminded me of another, in this case riesling/Chablis.

Schloss Gobelsburg, Riesling, Heiligenstein, 2006
Bright yellow gold. Petrol notes beginning to appear on the nose. There's a limestone-like minerality here, fizzling like liquid acid dropped on stones from a vial. Rounded body with good (but not biting) acidity, greengage plum, sunflower nut meat, and granny smith appleskin. A little heady on the finish. Finishes almost like a Chablis. 13.5%

Patrick Piuze, Chablis, 'Vaucoupin', 2008
Feels like a (very) dry German riesling of old. Sharp and thin, lacking charm or balance or complexity. Despite the overly strong acidity, there is a slight hint of oxidative flavor as well. If this is the Piuze style, count me out as they are not cheap. 12.5%

 

[Christian Miller (CMM)]

Not Chablis, but a number of times I have found old vine Gruner Veltliner, with some bottle age, channeling some serious Cote d'Or mojo.

 

[Brad Widelock]

originally posted by Christian Miller (CMM):
Burgundy-Austrian crossdressingNot Chablis, but a number of times I have found old vine Gruner Veltliner, with some bottle age, channeling some serious Cote d'Or mojo.

Yes! I love opening older bottles of Ott or Pollerhof's Frau Mayer. I think these are tremendous values.

Brad

 

[Eden Mylunsch]

Been there, done that. Not that you do it just to save $$, but it's interesting that Grüner Veltliner winds up tasting like Chardonnay as it ages. Maybe that's why I tend to prefer Austrian Riesling to GV, but that's just me, because I like the way that older Austrian Riesling tastes more like older Austrian Riesling than it does say, Morillon or Sylvaner or Aligoté (which reminds me of Pinot Blanc or Gouges' Pinot Blanc when it gets older).

As a matter of fact, I like Austrian Riesling more than just about any other Riesling, except when I don't have any Austrian Riesling, in which case I'm okay drinking whatever's there. I find I learn a lot more when I don't drink wines I already know I like, particularly when those wines aren't there. Sometimes they're from places like France and Germany and California and Spain. I've been known to drink Slovenian wines even, or sometimes Riesling from other places that don't taste like anything BUT Riesling that's not Austrian or German. Like from the Clare Valley. I had a Chilean Riesling recently that was a gawpy-awful mess of a wine but it was made by someone known for their Carmenere, so I gave it a try, figuring that the Carmenere was so good, how could they screw up Riesling. Well, they did. At least I helped restore the balance of trade between Chile and the USA. Just doing my part, y'know?

-Eden (Zocker Grüner Veltliner from the Edna [not Eden] Valley is pretty good for the New World, but I don't think it'll taste like Chardonnay after a decade in the cellar)