With summertime fast approaching, friends and family decided it would be smart to have a white wine tasting to give everyone some new wine ideas to enjoy in their summer leisure time.
I was asked to put a list of wines together, available locally, priced in the $15.00 to $25.00 range (CDN) for 15 people. I also wanted to cover several different grape types, and yet give our guests good information on different expressions of the same grape from different wine regions. Not an easy task given that you would also be heavily restricted simply by what was available at the local wine shop.
There was no dinner planned with the tasting, but there were plenty of munchies and entrées, some of which were deliberately put together to compliment a specific wine. See below the wines in the order in which they were tasted along with my tasting notes and comments:
- McWilliam’s Hanwood Riesling – 2014 / $16.10 / product number 10754607 / Australian Riesling / medium fruit, not dry, light, tart and short on the aftertaste, an honest uncomplicated new world Riesling at a reasonable price, liked by most tasters / my rating 7.5 on 10.
- Trimbach Riesling – 2012 / $22.80 / product number 11305547 / dry Alsace Riesling from a highly regarded producer / steely dry and mouth puckering Riesling, a very good example of classic dry Alsatian Riesling from a great year, this wine goes great with most seafood, balanced and pleasant aftertaste / my rating 8 on 10.
- Umberto Cesari Liano Rubicone – 2012 / $23.75 / product number 1161761 / Italian Chardonnay and Sauvignon blend / lovely full glycerine legs down the inside of the glass advertised the rich full bodied nature of the wine, a great mix and balance of the power of the Chardonnay grape with the softer more acidic Sauvignon Blanc, showed good balance, finesse, and elegance, would be delicious with chicken in a mushroom sauce / my rating 8.5 on 10.
- Conundrum California – 2013 / $25.05 / product number 10921073 / California blend of 25% each of Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Muscat and Voignier / this wine works very well with each grape contributing to the finished product in a noticeable way, the wine is full fruit and nicely balanced with the Chardonnay delivering the fruit, the Muscat and Voignier delivering the smoke, spice and body, with the Sauvignon Blanc delivering the crispness and acidity needed to balance the fruit, overall a very pleasant blend, perfect for summertime tasting by the lake or pool / my rating 8 on 10.
- Chateau St. Jean Chardonnay Sonoma – 2014 / $20.05 / product number 897215 / medium Chardonnay fruit, refined, no overkill, shows finesse and balance, not a fruit bomb or an over achiever, an established producer making a predictable, agreeable lighter and stylist Chardonnay / my rating 8.25 on 10.
- Coppola Diamond Chardonnay – 2014 / $23.25 / product number 10312382 / great legs indicating high viscosity and glycerine content, good medium Chardonnay nose, not over oaked, a little off balance on the aftertaste, I was expecting more fruit than we got / my rating 8 on 10.
- Pinot Gris Waimea Nelson – 2015 / $19.75 / product number 11662018 / New Zealand Pinot Gris / the wine is very young and only recently bottled and it showed, but there is very good fruit on the palate, good smoky spice flavours, nicely balanced, worked very well with a shrimp cocktail sauce, lots of potential but needs more time in the bottle / my rating 8.5 on 10.
- Bolla Retro Pinot Grigio – 2015 / $16.95 / product number 12494714 / this wine was loose and watery and that cannot be blamed on the very young vintage, we also tasted this in the wrong order as we should have tasted it before the New Zealand Pinot Gris above, there was not much nose, disappointing on the palate and sharp on the aftertaste, my rating 6.5 on 10.
- Preiss-Zimmer Pinot Gris Reserve – 2013 / $23.50 / product number 967414 / Alsace Pinot Gris / this was softer and fruitier than expected, very good smoke and spice on the nose that is lost and not present on the palate as there is too much sweetness on the palate, if this had been vinified a little drier it would have been more of a success, my rating 8 on 10.
- Hugel Gewurztraminer – 2013 / $21.00 / product number 00329235 / great legs in the glass indicating high glycerine content, very pure expressive fruit showing lychees and rose petals on the nose and palate, crisp and lasting aftertaste, by far the most expressive wine of the evening, goes great with any spicy or curry dish / my rating 9 on 10.
- Langlois Vieilles Vignes – 2009 / $27.55 / product number 856674 / Loire Valley Chenin Blanc / a dry chenin blanc, good pure fruit expression, very fragrant nose, thick viscous legs indicating a high glycerine content, beguiling, old vine quality shines through, wished it was sweeter / my rating 8.75 on 10.
As you can see from the list and my notes I wanted to get several different grapes in front of our tasters, so we got Riesling (in 2 wines), Chardonnay (in 2 wines), Pinot Gris or Grigio (in 3 wines), Gewurztraminer (in 1 wine), Chenin Blanc (in 1 wine), and two blends that also gave us exposure to Sauvignon Blanc, Muscat, and Viognier. I also wanted to show different styles from different regions, allowing the tasters to compare Australian Riesling with Alsatian Riesling, New Zealand Pinot Gris to Alsace and Italian, etc.
Overall the Hugel Gewurztraminer was the best wine of the evening as everyone agreed, rated 9 on 10, followed by the Langlois Chenin Blanc, rated at 8.75 on 10, then two wines at 8.5 on 10 each, the Umberto Cesari Liano Rubicone and the Pinot Gris Waimea Nelson.
The overall quality of the wines tasted was very good, the blends were great, very pleasant crowd pleasers. Everyone remarked that they enjoyed almost every wine in the lineup. There were some obvious food matches, such as the Gewurztraminer with curry and spicy dishes, or the Pinot Gris Waimea Nelson with shrimps and cocktail sauce. The blends (the Conundrum and the Liano) were also very smooth, well balanced, showing great versatility with several different food types.
A very successful summer tasting of mid priced white wines, capped off by the birthday of one of our tasters, allowing us to throw a chocolate cake into the mix for good measure.
Good wine, good friends and family, equals a great time and lots of good memories.
Cheers,
Reg.
