Wine Blogging Wednesday #45: Chehalem Tackles Some Old World Riesling

As promised, the Chehalem folks contributed some notes to the tasting. Anything worth doing is worth doing to excess when it comes to wine tasting (although not wine making), so rather than taste a bottle or two, we tasted a small army of them from Germany, Austria and the Alsace. With a number of people leaving notes, that makes for a lot of tasting notes. You can tell the sales folks (like me) from the technical folks (everybody else), because they wrote very specific descriptors and I wrote things like, “yum”…

Without futher ado, here are the notes…

2005 Domaine Marcel Deiss Riesling
Molly:
Nose: vanilla, apricot, pear.
Mouth: Full mouthfeel, creamy, peaches citrus, creamcicle, pear fruit.

Brian:
Tangerine, creamy vanilla, honey, melon, slightest hint of petrol on the nose, bright acidity lingers with ripe tropical fruits.

Mike:
Licorice, citrus rind, slate.

Jason:
Stone fruit, spicy quality on the nose. On the palate: lychee, almost gewurtz-like, tropical, bright acidity, slight bitterness (in a good way).

Harry:
Clean, mineral, sharp/pungent–still some residual SO2; hard, brassy flavors; peach-yellow; firm on palate; nice texture and length. Weight is nice. Impressions of sharp edge in your mouth, yellow-orange, clean, rich; slight Grand Marnier hit–orange liquer; tight & structured, maybe too much so–definitely Alsace version of Riesling.

Daniel:
Nose is sweet, honey, perhaps some botrytis? Tastes off-dry and minerally. Finishes with lemonade and mandarin orange. Definite yum!

2000 Alzinger Riesling Smaragd Loibner Steinertal

Mike:
Spice, apricot, wet stone, honey, vanilla; broad, oily, mineral, short, dry, nice balanced acid.

Brian:
Honey, tangerines, minerals, citrus zest finish.

Molly:
Spice, wet earth, wet rocks, somewhat briney nose. Briney, mineral and cement palate.

Kevin:
Petal, spice — good fruit / balance.

2006 Schmitges Grauschiefer Riesing Trocken
Brian:
Sulfur / Reduced nose - sweet tarts, bitter weird sweetness

Molly:
Sulfur, lemon, minerality, mousy

Priscilla:
Nose unappealing, bitter

John:
Star fruit, citrus zest, slightly alcoholic / acetone, wet river rock. Decent palate weight, lacks focus / intensity.

Harry:
Spritz and SO2. Slightly reductive brassy nose (plastic cork), some phenolic bitterness; good yellow fruit character, nice weight, ripe peach richeness and flavor, nice finish. Nice bigger wine from Mosel not refined, but hearty; RS in balance for a “Riesling dry” but definitely above threshold.

Daniel:
Almost grassy, like a NZ Sauv Blanc. Dry, decent minerality, grapefruit. A bit of spice and honey. Simple but nice at first, but fell apart very quickly after opening.

2004 Fritz Haag Brauneberger Juffer Riesling Spätlese
Brian:
Ripe citrus, apricots - bright sweetness, key lime pie, mouth-watering acids, slight hint of petrol

Priscilla:
Sweet, coconut, sweeter than I like, yet nice.

Molly:
Coconut, lychee, apple, apricot. Creamy mouth, key lime, coconut cream pie. Could use a touch more acid to balance sugar. Meyer lemon.

John:
Pale yellow. Mineral, ripe pear and white pach. Citrusy key lime notes. Nice acid and palate weight with decent length. Nice wine.

Daniel:
Petrol and spearmint(?) smell; Taste is off dry with nice acid, mineral–a tingle on the tongue, lemon rind. Finishes with honey and flours. Clean, with little or no botrytis qualities. Very tasty.

Harry:
Bright, fresh fruit with SO2 barely receding; rich; moderate RS; ripe stonefruit; lovely acid and balance; perfect Spätlese example.

We had a couple other wines as well but one was, sadly, a bad bottle and we just didn’t get many notes on the other so I will leave those two alone. We had fun participating this month and will try and do it again when time allows. If you are wondering who this folks are, check out our people page.

Thanks to Tim at Winecast for hosting this month.

Happy WBW 45 everybody!

Tasting the 2007 Whites

Brian, Chehalem’s Cribbage King and Cellarmaster was nice enough to take a couple of us in sales through our 2007 white wines. While the 2007 INOX Chardonnay and most of the 2007 Willamette Valley Pinot Gris were bottled a couple of weeks ago, the 2007 Reserve Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc and the Rieslings are still in tank and it was a treat to be able to see how those wines are coming along.

Yes, I am biased, but will nonetheless claim that these 2007 whites show why Chehalem is widely regarded as one of the best producers of white wine in Oregon, if not the country. Every white in the cellar has brilliant acidity that is perfectly balanced with beautiful fruit. The Rieslings are deeply layered and interesting. I think the 2007 Reserve Pinot Gris is the best we have made. I can’t wait until these are released.

Many Willamette Valley wineries have made their mark with Pinot Noir and we are no exception, but in many ways, the white wines are what set us apart from our peers. We are one of the few who make more white wine than red wine. And we like it that way.

“I just love making white wines and I love to drink white wines,” Brian said while taking us through the 2007s, “We make what we love.”

I think that is why we make them so well.

- Daniel

Wine Blogging Wednesday #45: Old World Riesling

A few days ago, I told you about WBW#44 with the theme of French Cab Franc. While I generally like to participate in this event, a nasty flu prevented that from happening. The theme next month is something near and dear to our hearts here at Chehalem: Riesling from the Old World.

As many of you know, Oregon is quite a good climate for Riesling and despite its public relations problem in the recent past, Riesling is making something of a come-back. As recently as February Michael Franz made a compelling case for Riesling as the world’s greatest white variety. The Northwest has led the charge, trying to create Rieslings as compelling as our counter-parts in the Old World.

And we are getting close. Our Riesling is definitely in the spirit of many of those from the Alsace: crisp and dry with brilliant acidity and minerality. It pairs well with a wide range of foods but also stands well on its own. Perhaps I will do a tasting, throw one of ours in and see how we fare.

So I encourage you all to buy a bottle of Riesling from Alsace, Germany or Austria and write about it. I will do the same and see how many Chehalemites I can convince to contribute.

- Daniel