Ja! 
I love white wine. I usually stay away from German wines, because I still can't navigate the label correctly. Last week, I found myself in Winestone http://www.winestone.net/, a fantastic and smart wine store in Chesnut Hill neighborhood near Boston. Patrick, the owner nudged me towards this slim bottle. I was drawn to the Burgunder part of the name. I know Weissburgunder is Pinot Blanc and trocken means dry, but that's about all the German I know besides Weingut (winery) and maybe Sacher Torte. Okay, so I know quite a bit! At any rate, I thought I had discovered a new varietal. I was thinking it would be some kind of exotic Traminer or Veltliner variation in the Pinot family. Patrick patiently endured my jibber jabber and said, "That's Pinot Gris, and it's very good".
I love white wine. I usually stay away from German wines, because I still can't navigate the label correctly. Last week, I found myself in Winestone http://www.winestone.net/, a fantastic and smart wine store in Chesnut Hill neighborhood near Boston. Patrick, the owner nudged me towards this slim bottle. I was drawn to the Burgunder part of the name. I know Weissburgunder is Pinot Blanc and trocken means dry, but that's about all the German I know besides Weingut (winery) and maybe Sacher Torte. Okay, so I know quite a bit! At any rate, I thought I had discovered a new varietal. I was thinking it would be some kind of exotic Traminer or Veltliner variation in the Pinot family. Patrick patiently endured my jibber jabber and said, "That's Pinot Gris, and it's very good".Pinot Gris eh, the doppelganger (ooh another German word) of Pinot Grigio. I'm no huge fan of that bulk lemon water (as a colleague of mine calls it) but this was a $20 bottle, it looked serious and the owner of the store looked seriously trustworthy!
First of all, let me tell you about this bottle, it's minimalistic and has manageable German words on it. The winery is Weinhof Scheu, the region is Pfalz. It's a Kabinett - that means it's of a certian quality and it's Troken (dry). Pfalz is the second largest wine growing region in Germany and it's really close to the border of France where Alsace is. It's no wonder then why Riesling is not the overlord here in Pflaz. There is a lot of Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc, Traminer, Scheurebe, and Muller Thurgau and of course, Pinot Gris. There are a lot of small growers and sassy wine makers. This bottle also come with a cool glass enclosure (see photo -- btw - not actual bottle I drank)I cracked this bottle open this week on St. Patrick's Day (it IS a green bottle) while my mutter is in town visiting. This Pinot Gris ahem.. Grauer Burgunder was delicious. Perfect everyday wine, aromatic, weighty enough, a gorgeous copper color, with a palate and nose full of spiced poached pears and yellow apples. The acidity was balanced and at 12.5% alcohol - it goes down effortlessly!
If you're in NYC you can get this at Astor.
www.astorwines.com/SearchResultsSingle.aspx?p=1&search=22338&searchtype=Contains
color: copper, bronzy
nose: spicy pears, lychee, and yellow apple
palate: lychee, roasted pear and sweet baking spices
1 comment:
The spatburgunder is dynamite as well...
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