After the first two wines (see previous entry) we moved to another Alsace wine, Bott-Geyl Les Elements Gewurztraminer 2006. It was bright yellow, an unusual color in my experience. the nose was floral - everyone said rose petals as the first thing they found. It also had typical fruit, sweet notes, maybe some honey, and overall was a very pleasant nose. The first taste was entirely pleasant - sweet, fruit, great acidity. But then when the wine hit my mid-palate I noticed a distinct bitterness, like grapefruit. Some of the friends who were drinking it with us agreed that it had grapefruit notes, but they liked them, whereas I won't go near grapefruit without a tablespoon of sugar to throw on top of one! About $30, and it's a nice example of a wine in between sweet and dry from Alsace, France. Tasted February 27, 2009.
The next "fringe wine" of the night was Jermann Red Angel on the Moonlight IGT 2006 from Venezia Giula in northeast Italy. It's 90% Pinot Noir and 10% Merlot. The wine was a deep garnet color, it's nose immediately identified it as old world, and it was earthy, bright red fruit, and something else that I normally get from Sangiovese, a tobacco scent. The taste was cherry, rather one dimensional, and it was smooth and tart with a good finish. I prefer my Pinot Noir in Champagne to be honest. But, it was definitely an interesting wine, and fulfilled the mission of educating our class about the variety of things that Pinot Noir can be. Wine Advocate gave the wine 90 points. About $35. Tasted February 27, 2009.
The last of the fringe wines for the night was a Sattler Zweigelt from Burgenland, Austria.I felt badly for this wine as it wasn't decanted. There was some disagreement among the people giving the class on whether or not it needed to be decanted, and in fact the discussion in part was about whether to even pour it or not - one wanted to pour it as an example of another fringe wine while the other wanted to skip it and poor a great wine. Obviously we know which of them won. But that produced "Angry Wine Man" who decided "I'm not going to decant this wine. We'll pour it, but we're not going to give it a chance." Anyway, when it was poured it was a bright ruby color, and that's where the good things ended. The nose was horrific, musty, old, wet feathers, or something like that. None of us could get past the nose, though the taste was reasonably fine if you held your nose! But I felt badly about pouring it out so I set it to the side and proceeded with a new glass. About 30 minutes later my wife arrived and picked it up, tasted it and said it was nice, and asked what it was. All of us in the room looked at her like she was crazy, but we picked it up again, and sure enough the awful nose had blown off. Lesson of the day - angry wine is bad! We decided the flavors were cooked prunes in a sauce, plums, and other similar, but didn't really give it enough of a chance to really get this wine. Tasted February 27, 2009.
The next "fringe wine" of the night was Jermann Red Angel on the Moonlight IGT 2006 from Venezia Giula in northeast Italy. It's 90% Pinot Noir and 10% Merlot. The wine was a deep garnet color, it's nose immediately identified it as old world, and it was earthy, bright red fruit, and something else that I normally get from Sangiovese, a tobacco scent. The taste was cherry, rather one dimensional, and it was smooth and tart with a good finish. I prefer my Pinot Noir in Champagne to be honest. But, it was definitely an interesting wine, and fulfilled the mission of educating our class about the variety of things that Pinot Noir can be. Wine Advocate gave the wine 90 points. About $35. Tasted February 27, 2009.
The last of the fringe wines for the night was a Sattler Zweigelt from Burgenland, Austria.I felt badly for this wine as it wasn't decanted. There was some disagreement among the people giving the class on whether or not it needed to be decanted, and in fact the discussion in part was about whether to even pour it or not - one wanted to pour it as an example of another fringe wine while the other wanted to skip it and poor a great wine. Obviously we know which of them won. But that produced "Angry Wine Man" who decided "I'm not going to decant this wine. We'll pour it, but we're not going to give it a chance." Anyway, when it was poured it was a bright ruby color, and that's where the good things ended. The nose was horrific, musty, old, wet feathers, or something like that. None of us could get past the nose, though the taste was reasonably fine if you held your nose! But I felt badly about pouring it out so I set it to the side and proceeded with a new glass. About 30 minutes later my wife arrived and picked it up, tasted it and said it was nice, and asked what it was. All of us in the room looked at her like she was crazy, but we picked it up again, and sure enough the awful nose had blown off. Lesson of the day - angry wine is bad! We decided the flavors were cooked prunes in a sauce, plums, and other similar, but didn't really give it enough of a chance to really get this wine. Tasted February 27, 2009.
