Tag Archives: English wine

60 Second Wine Review — Digby Fine English Brut

It’s English Wine Week, so I’m sharing a few quick thoughts on the non-vintage Digby Fine English Brut sparkling wine.

Digby Fine English Brut

The Geekery

American Trevor Clough and Englishman Jason Humphries founded Digby Fine English in 2013 as a negociant house in the style of many Champagne firms. Purchasing wine (and later fruit) from several sources, they released a 2009 vintage brut and rosé that year.

Clough and Humphries named their venture in honor of the 17th-century philosopher and scientist Sir Kenelm Digby.  Also an inventor, Digby pioneered several new techniques in glassmaking–essentially inventing the modern wine bottle.

The wines are made at Wiston Estate Winery by Irish winemaker Dermot Sugrue. Vineyards for the NV Brut were sourced from the North and South Downs region of Kent as well as Sussex and Hampshire.

The non-vintage Brut is 40% Pinot noir, 35% Chardonnay and 25% Pinot Meunier with the Chardonnay seeing an additional 18 months of lees contact before being used in the blend. The finished wine was aged 24 months in the bottle and then disgorged with a 12 g/l dosage. Around 25,000 bottles were produced.

The Wine

Photo By Gaetan Lee - originally posted to Flickr as French tart, CC BY 2.0

Some apple tart pastry flavors but not much more.

Medium intensity nose. Appley with some toasted tart pastry.

On the palate, the apple pastry notes carry through with a little subtle earthiness as well. Lively mousse and acidity complement the weighty feel of the wine. However, the flavors and the finish quickly fade.

The Verdict

In general, I’m a huge fan of English sparklers and have had several that go toe-to-toe with quality Champagne. Chapel Down is probably my favorite. But they haven’t been the easiest to find in the US and I will admit that this one (which I got at a Seattle wine shop for $50 USD) was rather underwhelming.

In the UK, this is direct from the producer at £30.99 (about $40 USD) with some merchants selling it closer to $30 USD. That is a much better price point for this quality level. Without a doubt, US consumers are paying a premium for the novelty.

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Foie Gras Guilt and Climate Change

I love seared foie gras. But, damn, is it a conflicting love.

Seared foie gras

Even though there’s science to support that it isn’t as bad as detractors say, I still feel guilty every time I order it.

It’s such a seductress. The sultry whispers of earthy sweetness tickling the nose. Then that first buttery morsel melts in your mouth. You can’t help but close your eyes and let the rest of the world drift away.

But eventually, the affair is over. Then you’re sneaking back to reality, wondering where your wedding ring is and if you smell like pepper, nutmeg and shame.

Yes, few things so bewitch and bedevil me as my love of foie gras.

However, I’m starting to realize that the wine industry has its own foie gras guilt-trip coming. And it’s going to leave more than the goose livers seared.

So exciting! Yet so, so soooooooooo bad.

You would think that all things related to climate change are muy mal. But that is not quite the case. Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of bad—just ask anyone still trying to thaw out from the recent polar vortex.

However, you know what else is an effect of climate change?

Chapel Down Three Graces

This Chapel Down Three Graces was seriously better than many $100+ Champagnes out on the market.

The booming English sparkling wine scene.

An influx of talent from California and elsewhere into Oregon.

The steep learning curve and jump in quality of Canada’s wine industry.

More study and advancement in our knowledge of grape clones.

The string of successful vintages in Switzerland and Champagne–which apparently means more Dom Perignon and gummy bears.

Riper Rieslings coming out of Germany–as well as more German red wine.

Growing acceptance and excitement over hybrid and non-vinifera grapes.

The rediscovery of “long lost” vinifera varieties that are better adapted to longer growing seasons.

Oh, and now there is a thriving wine industry emerging in Scandinavia as well.

Yes! Scandinavia!

My heart fluttered reading the recent report in Harpers about the pioneering work of producers in Sweden and Denmark.

Alongside longer and warmer summers that have extended the Nordic growing season into September, winters have been milder by almost 2°C, according to Sweden’s Rossby Centre for climate research. Even at 56 degrees latitude, these areas are actually receiving more hours of average sunshine during the growing season than some European neighbours to the south, with colder air tempered by proximity to the sea.

… Think of the Danish and Swedish wine scene like England’s 15 years ago, and you’ll appreciate their burgeoning promise. — Norman Miller, Harpers, 1/30/2019

Not only are the Swedes and Danes bringing more prominence to unique grape varieties (Solaris! Leon Millot! Rondo!) but several are exploring cool-climate expressions of traditional vinifera like Merlot, Cabernet France and Chardonnay.

How cool is that!?

But…

I hate that I find this so exciting!

Photo by W.carter. Uploaded to Wikimedia Commons under CC-Zero

I’ve yet to try a wine made from Solaris but it is high on my list to seek out. These grapes are from Chateaux Luna in Lysekil, Sweden.

I wrote a few days ago about how boring wine is becoming to Millennials. My cohorts crave new experiences and want to try things that are different than what our parents and grandparents drank. The industry needs to respond to these changing tastes and stop trying to market the same ole, same ole to us.

How much more different, unique and exciting can you get than an English sparkling wine, a Gascon Tardif or a Swedish Solaris?

So yay! No, wait! Bad! But yay?

All these new and exhilarating changes are the “foie gras” of the wine industry. It’s hard not to be seduced by their potential and appeal. But you don’t really want to think about how it got to your plate.

Adverse effects on the wine industry

Make no mistake, the same shifting wine map that brings all the interest and excitement to new and emerging regions is doing that at the expense of already established areas. And at the expense of, well, glaciers.

The most obvious is the rising sugars and high alcohol levels that have been a long time battle. Winemakers have become almost circus performers in a balancing act, trying to keep sugar levels in check and pick before acids fall too much.

Photo by Mick Stephenson mixpix. Uploaded to Wikimedia Commons under CC-BY-SA-3.0

Tempranillo already gives me issues in blind tasting–especially between young examples like this and older examples with more bricking.
Climate change not only upends the classic profiles of aroma and structure but also potentially that of color as well.
Image: mickstephenson.photoshelter.com

This adds to the harvest complications of the numbers (brix, TA and pH) being ready to pick before the aromatics and flavors are fully developed. Additionally, rising temperatures have an impact on the anthocyanins that give wine color–leading to less intensely pigmented wines. For students of blind tasting, this changes how much weight and certainty we can give color in identifying wines.

It’s especially tricky for producers who want to avoid overly manipulating their wines. But the use of alcohol-tolerant yeast and ML cultures and processes like acidification, reverse osmosis, ultrafiltration and more are increasingly becoming the norm.

Not only do you sacrifice more natural and authentic winemaking, for many regions, there will also be a point where they can no longer “adapt” to a changing climate. Numerous wineries, vineyards, jobs and livelihoods will be lost.

Oh and, yeah, don’t forget about more hurricanes, tornados, polar vortexes, rising sea levels and everything else that is happening to the planet.

Our inconvenient truth

It’s easy for us to talk about all the bad things involved with climate change. It’s also easy for us to get excited and celebrate all the new developments that are bringing new wines to our attention.

But it’s not so easy to connect the two and reconcile them.

Yeah, there are some areas that are making the best wines that they’ve ever made with strings of successful vintages. This has made good wine more consistent, affordable and available than it has ever been.

Yeah, there is a lot of potential in cool-climate wines, new regions and new grape varieties. In many ways, this is the shot-in-the-arm antidote that the wine industry needs for some of its most vexing ills.

Yet, what good is an antidote if it ends up wiping out the entire hospital?

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Geek Notes — Five Essential Books On Champagne

Champagne is the benchmark for all sparkling wine. Any wine student studying for advance certifications needs to be able to explain what makes Champagne unique. They also should be familiar with important producers–both big houses and influential growers.

Important Champagne books

While there are certainly online resources available, few things top a great reference book that can be highlighted and annotated to your heart’s content.

One of the best tips for wine students (especially on a budget) is to check out the Used Book offerings on Amazon. Often you can find great deals on wine books that are just gently used. This lets you save your extra spending money for more wine to taste.

Since the prices of used books change depending on availability, I’m listing the current best price at time of writing. However, it is often a good idea to bookmark the page of a book that you’re interested in and check periodically to see if a better price becomes available.

Here are the five most essential books on Champagne that every wine student should have.

Christie’s World Encyclopedia of Champagne & Sparkling Wine by Tom Stevenson & Master of Wine Essi Avellan (Used starting at $29.97)

The Christie’s encyclopedia is ground zero for understanding the basics about Champagne (production methods, styles, grape varieties, etc). But, even better, it is a launching pad for understanding the world of sparkling wine at large and seeing how Champagne fits in that framework.

While Champagne will always be a big focus of most wine exams, as my friend Noelle Harman of Outwines discovered in her prep work for Unit 5 of the WSET Diploma, you do need to have a breadth of knowledge of other sparklers.

In her recent exam, not only was she blind tasted on a Prosecco and sparkling Shiraz from Barossa but she also had to answer theory questions on Crémant de Limoux and the transfer method that was developed for German Sekt but became hugely popular in Australia & New Zealand. While there are tons of books on Champagne, I’ve yet to find another book that extensively covers these other sparkling wines as well as the Christie’s encyclopedia.

Changes in the new edition
Chapel Down wine

Global warming has made England an exciting region for sparkling wine. The revised edition of Christie’s Encyclopedia has 17 page devoted to the sparklers of the British Isles.

Tom Stevenson wrote the first Christie’s Encyclopedia of Champagne & Sparkling Wine back in the late 1990s. That edition tallied 335 pages while the newest edition (2013) has 528 pages with more than half of those pages covering other notable sparkling wine regions like England, Franciacorta, Tasmania and more. The new edition also has a fresh perspective and feel with the addition of Champagne specialist Essi Avellan as a significant contributor.

In addition to covering the terroir and characteristics of more than 50 different regions, the Christie’s encyclopedia also includes over 1,600 producer profiles. The profiles are particularly helpful with the major Champagne houses as they go into detail about the “house style” and typical blend composition of many of their wines.

Champagne [Boxed Book & Map Set]: The Essential Guide to the Wines, Producers, and Terroirs of the Iconic Region by Peter Liem. (Used starting $36.57)

The long time scribe of the outstanding site ChampagneGuide.net, Peter Liem is the first author I’ve came across that has taken a Burgundian approach towards examining the terroirs of Champagne.

For a region that is so dominated by big Champagne houses who blend fruit from dozens (if not hundreds) of sites, it’s easy to consider terroir an afterthought. After all, isn’t Champagne all about the blend?

But Champagne does have terroir and as grower Champagnes become more available, wine lovers across the globe are now able to taste the difference in a wine made from Cramant versus a wine made from Mailly.

In-depth Terroir
Pierre Gerbais Champagne

Several of the most delicious Champagnes I’ve had this year have came from the Côte des Bar–like this 100% Pinot blanc from Pierre Gerbais.
Yet, historically, this region has always been considered the “backwoods” of Champagne and is given very little attention in wine books.

Liem’s work goes far beyond just the the terroir of the 17 Grand Cru villages but deep into the difference among the different areas of the Côte des Blancs, Montagne de Reims, the Grande Vallée, the Vallée de la Marne, Côteaux Sud d’Épernay, Côteaux du Morin, Côte de Sézanne, Vitryat, Montgueux and the Côte des Bar.

Most books on Champagne don’t even acknowledge 6 of those 10 sub-regions of Champagne!

Not only does Liem discuss these differences but he highlights the producers and vineyards that are notable in each. No other book on Champagne goes to this level of detail or shines a light quite as brightly on the various terroirs and vineyards of Champagne.

The best comparisons to Liem’s Champagne are some of the great, in-depth works on the vineyards of Burgundy like Marie-Hélène Landrieu-Lussigny and Sylvain Pitiot’s The Climats and Lieux-dits of the Great Vineyards of Burgundy, Jasper Morris’ Inside Burgundy and Remington Norman’s Grand Cru: The Great Wines of Burgundy Through the Perspective of Its Finest Vineyards.

Liem’s book also comes with prints of Louis Larmat’s vineyard maps from the 1940s. While I’m a big advocate of buying used books, these maps are worth paying a little more to get a new edition. This way you are guaranteed getting the prints in good condition. I’m not kidding when I say that these maps are like a wine geek’s wet dream.

Bursting Bubbles: A Secret History of Champagne and the Rise of the Great Growers by Robert Walters (New available for $18.14)

I did a full review of Bursting Bubbles earlier this year and it remains one of the most thought-provoking books that I’ve read about wine.

Photo by victorgrigas. Uploaded to Wikimedia Commons under CC-BY-SA-3.0

If you think I get snarky about Dom Perignon, wait till you read Walters take on the myths surrounding him and the marketing of his namesake wine.

Walters believes that over the years that Champagne has lost its soul under the dominance of the big Champagne houses. While he claims that the intent of his book is not to be “an exercise in Grandes Marques bashing”, he definitely heaps a fair amount of scorn on the winemaking, viticulture and marketing practices that have elevated the Grandes Marques to their great successes.

Throughout the book he “debunks” various myths about Champagne (some of which I personally disagree with him on) as well as interviews many of influential figures of the Grower Champagne movement.

While there is value in Bursting Bubbles from a critical thinking perspective, it is in those interviews where this book becomes essential for wine students. There is no denying the importance of the Grower Champagne movement in not only changing the market but also changing the way people think about Champagne. Growers have been key drivers in getting people to think of Champagne as a wine and not just a party bottle.

Serious students of wine need to be familiar with people like Pascal Agrapart, Anselme Selosse, Francis Egly, Jérôme Prévost and Emmanuel Lassaigne. Walters not only brings you into their world but puts their work into context. While other Champagne books (like Christie’s, Peter Liem’s and David White’s) will often have profile blurbs on these producers, they don’t highlight why you need to pay attention to what these producers are doing like Bursting Bubbles does.

Champagne: How the World’s Most Glamorous Wine Triumphed Over War and Hard Times by Don and Petie Kladstrup. (Used starting at $1.90)

In wine studies, it’s so easy to get caught up in the technical details of terroir, grape varieties and winemaking that you lose sight of a fundamental truth. Wine is made by people.

Of course, the land and the climate play a role but the only way that the grape makes its way to the glass is through the hands of men and women. Their efforts, their story, marks every bottle like fingerprints. To truly understand a wine–any wine–you need to understand the people behind it.

Photo scan from a postcard with unknown author. Uploaded to Wikimedia Commons under Anonymous-EU

During the height of World War I, when the vineyards and streets of Champagne were literal battlefields, the Champenois descended underground and lived in the caves that were used to aged Champagne.
This photo shows a makeshift school that was set up in the caves of the Champagne house Mumm.

While there are great history books about Champagne (one of which I’ll mention next), no one has yet brought to life the people of Champagne quite as well as the Kladstrups do in Champagne.

Set against the backdrops of the many wars that have scarred the region–particularly in the 19th & 20th century–the Kladstrups share the Champenois’ perseverance over these troubles. Even when things were at their bleakest, the people of Champagne kept soldiering on, producing the wine that shares their name and heritage.

If you wonder why wine folks have a tough time taking sparkling wines like Korbel, Cook’s and Andre’s (so called California “champagnes”) seriously, read this book. I guarantee that you will never use the word Champagne “semi-generically” again.

It’s not about snobbery or marketing. It’s about respect.

But First, Champagne: A Modern Guide to the World’s Favorite Wine by David White (Used starting at $6.00)

David White is known for founding the blog Terroirist. He gives a great interview with Levi Dalton on the I’ll Drink To That! podcast about his motivations for writing this book. While he acknowledges that there are lots of books about Champagne out on the market, he noticed that there wasn’t one that was deep on content but still accessible like a pocket guide.

While the producer profiles in the “pocket guide” section of the book overlaps with the Christie and Liem’s books (though, yes, much more accessible) where White’s book becomes essential is with his in-depth coverage on the history of the Champagne region.

A Tour of History
Photo from Département des Arts graphiques ; Sully II, Epi 5, Fonds des dessins et miniatures. References Joconde database: entry 50350213446. Uploaded to Wikimedia Commons under PD-Art (PD-old-100)

A watershed moment for sparkling Champagne was in 1728 when Louis XV struck down the laws that prohibited shipping wine in bottles. Prior to this, all French wines had to be shipped in casks.
Soon after, as White’s book notes, the first dedicated Champagne houses were founded with Ruinart (1729) and Chanoine Frères (1730).

The first section of the book (Champagne Through The Ages) has six chapters covering the history of the Champagne region beginning with Roman times and then the Franks to Champagne’s heritage as a still red wine. It continues on to the step-by-step evolution of Champagne as a sparkling wine. These extensively detailed chapters highlights the truth that sparkling Champagne was never truly invented. It was crafted–by many hands sculpting it piece by piece, innovation by innovation.

There are certainly other books that touch on these history details like Hugh Johnson’s Vintage: The Story of Wine (no longer in print), Kolleen M. Guy’s When Champagne Became French, Tilar J. Mazzeo’s The Widow Clicquot as well as previous books mentioned here. But they all approach Champagne’s history from different piecemeal perspectives while White’s work is a focused and chronological narrative.

I also love in his introduction how White aptly summarizes why Champagne is worth studying and worth enjoying.

“From dinner with friends to a child’s laughter or a lover’s embrace, every day has moments worth the warmth of reflection—and worthy of a toast.

Life is worth celebrating. And that’s why Champagne matters.” — David White, But First, Champagne

It is indeed and, yes, it does.

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Getting Geeky with Whidbey Island Siegerrebe

Going to need more than 60 Seconds to geek out about the 2015 Whidbey Island Winery Siegerrebe from the Puget Sound AVA.

Full Disclosure: This wine was received as a sample.

The Background


I gave some of the backstory of Whidbey Island Winery in my 60 Second Review of their Pinot noir from Cultus Bay Vineyard. A pioneer on the Puget Sound island, today Whidbey Island Winery is known as the “grande dame” of Whidbey Island vineyards.

In addition to sourcing fruit from Whidbey Island, the winery also works with several vineyards in Eastern Washington including Crawford Vineyards in the Yakima Valley, Upland Vineyard on Snipes Mountain, Coyote Canyon Vineyard in the Horse Heaven Hills and Elephant Mountain Vineyard in the Rattlesnake Hills AVA.

The Whidbey Island Siegerrebe comes from the Osenbach’s estate vineyard. First planted in 1986, the Osenbachs experimented with the grape along with Madeleine Angevine and Madeleine Sylvaner. The first vintage release of Siegerrebe was in 1991.

The Grape

Heinz Scheu, son of the famous German grape breeder Georg Scheu, claimed that his father discovered Siegerrebe in 1929 from a spontaneous self-pollination of Madeleine Angevine. However, Jancis Robinson notes in Wine Grapes that DNA analysis has definitively shown that the grape is a crossing of Madeleine Angevine and Savagnin rose.

Siegerrebe (whose name roughly translates to “champion vine”) is one of several new grape varieties–along with with Scheurebe, Huxelrebe and Chancellor–that Scheu bred in his nearly 40 year career at the State Institute of Vine Breeding in Alzey, Rheinhessen.

Photo by self. Uploaded to Wikimedia Commons as User:Agne27 and released under CC-BY-SA-3.0

Siegerrebe grapes.

In 1948, German breeder Hans Breider used Siegerrebe to cross with Müller-Thurgau to create Ortega–named after the Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset. Another German breeder, Johannes Zimmermann, crossed Siegerrebe with Villard blanc to create the table grape Rosetta in 1960.

Today there is only around 255 acres of Siegerrebe in its homeland of Germany–mostly in the Rheinhessen and Palatinate (Pfalz). Other countries with Siegerrebe include Denmark, Switzerland and in the Gloucestershire region of England.

Siegrrebe in the US

Siegerrebe was brought to the US in the 1980s when Gerard Bentryn of Bainbridge Island Winery became the first American winegrower to plant the variety. It was from these Bainbridge Island cuttings that the Osenbachs of Whidbey Island Winery planted their estate Siegerrebe.

Another Whidbey winery, Comforts of Whidbey, also produce Siegerrebe from cuttings they procured from Whidbey Island Winery. Other islands in the Puget Sound AVA are home to Siegerrebe plantings–most notably Lopez Island Vineyards and San Juan Vineyards.

The Wine

Medium-plus intensity nose. A mix of orange blossoms and pear drop candy.

Photo by Kate Hopkins. Uploaded to Wikimedia Commons under CC-BY-2.0

Just a little too much pear drop candy note in this wine for my taste.

On the palate that pear drop candy note comes through and brings noticeable sweetness. The orange blossoms also carry over but, surprisingly, the flavors get even more floral in the mouth with rose petals and undefined white flowers joining in. This wine feels like you are drinking a glassful of petals.

Medium acidity gives some lift but I find myself wishing that it had just a bit more to help balance the sweetness. Moderate length finish ends with the pear candied note.

The Verdict

While I absolutely adored Whidbey Island’s Pinot noir, this Siegerrebe is a bit too sweet for my personal style. However, it is very character-driven with lovely floral elements that I can see fans of Moscato enjoying as an opportunity to trade out some of their same ole, same ole.

But at around $17-20, I do think wine drinkers are paying a little bit for the novelty of the grape. There are certainly more compelling values for off-dry whites such as Riesling and Gewürztraminer.

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Getting Geeky with Adelsheim Auxerrois

Going to need more than 60 seconds to geek out with the 2011 Adelsheim Auxerrois.

The Background

Adelsheim Vineyards started in 1971 when David & Ginny Adelsheim purchased land in what is now the Chehalem Mountains AVA. The next year they established their Quarter Mile Lane vineyard, becoming the first to plant in this northern part of the Willamette Valley.

In 1994, Jack and Lynn Loacker joined the Adelsheims as co-owners and began planting their Ribbon Springs Vineyards in the Ribbon Ridge sub-AVA of the Chehalem Mountains. Among the varieties planted in this vineyard are Pinot noir, Pinot gris and a little over 2 acres of the obscure French variety Auxerrois.

Ribbon Springs Vineyard highlighted.
Map courtesy of the Chehalem Mountains Winegrowers

On all the estate vineyards, Adelsheim practices sustainable viticulture and are certified Salmon Safe and LIVE.

It was announced in December 2017 that Adelsheim’s winemaker David Paige was stepping down with associate winemaker Gina Hennen being promoted to replace him. This makes Hennen only the third head winemaker in Adelsheim’s 40+ year history with Paige following founder David Adelsheim in the position in 2001. She joins vineyard manager Kelli Gregory as one of the few all female winemaker/vineyard manager combos at a major winery.

The Grape

By Rosenzweig - Self-photographed, CC BY-SA 3.0

Auxerrois grapes in Weinsberg


According to Jancis Robinson’s Wine Grapes , Auxerrois is the second most widely planted white grape variety in Alsace after Riesling.

While it is not permitted in Alsatian Grand Cru or the dessert wine styles of Vendange Tardive or Sélection de Grains Nobles, it is often used in the production of Crémant d’Alsace and Edelzwicker as well as wines labeled as Klevener and Pinot blanc. In fact, it is a quirk of Alsatian wine laws that a wine can be 100% Auxerrois but labeled as Pinot blanc.

The close association with Auxerrois and Pinot blanc is due to the similarities in wine styles produce by both. Typically low in acid but with a rich mouthfeel that has weight and texture. DNA analysis has shown that Auxerrois is a progeny of Pinot and Gouais blanc–making it a sibling of Chardonnay, Aligote, Melon de Bourgogne and Gamay. It is also a half-sibling of Blaufränkisch and Colombard.

Outside of Alsace, Auxerrois can be found in the French Moselle, Côtes de Toul, Luxembourg, England and the Netherlands. The grape can also be found in Germany in the Baden, Nahe, Palatinate and Rheinhessen.

Outside of Europe, Canada has a few plantings of Auxerrois in Ontario as well as the Okanagan Valley and Vancouver Island wine producing regions of British Columbia. The grape was unexpectedly discovered in South Africa in the 1980s when vines that were thought to be Chardonnay turned out to actually be Auxerrois.

This “Chardonnay Scandal” in South African wine history began in the 1970s when growers responding to the rush to plant more Chardonnay tried to get around quarantines and bureaucratic paperwork by turning to smugglers for their vine materials. In addition to getting Auxerrois vines instead of Chardonnay, the smugglers also inadvertently brought in Chenel (a crossing of Chenin blanc and Ugni blanc).

In the United States, beyond the Willamette Valley, there are small plantings of Auxerrois in the Lake Erie region of Ohio and the Leelanau Peninsula AVA of Michigan which Appellation America proclaims is the “best home” for the grape. Here the Bel Lago Vineyards & Winery stakes claim to producing the first American Auxerrois in 1998 with Adelsheim’s first bottling coming in 2004.

Auxerrois photo from Bauer Karl released on Wikimedia Commons under   CC-BY-3.0-AT; Chardonnay photo  from Viala und Vermorel 1901-1910 (Ampélographie. Traité général de viticulture) released under the Public Domain; Pinot blanc photo By Bauer Karl - Own work, CC BY 3.0

Auxerrois grapes comparison to Chardonnay and Pinot blanc


The Wine

The 2011 Adelsheim Auxerrois has medium plus intensity on the nose which is very surprising for a 6 year old white wine. The aromas are a mix of spiced tree fruit (mostly pear) with some floral herbal elements like bay laurel and tarragon.

By Zeynel Cebeci - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

This wine has the floral fragrance of a fresh herb like bay laurel.


The palate has lively medium plus acidity which is, again, surprising for its age and with Auxerrois typically being considered a “low acid” variety.

This fresh acidity brings out citrus notes but for the most part the spiced pear and herbal notes carry through. The medium body has the texture of an unoaked Pinot blanc and Chardonnay which would give me some trouble in a blind tasting. Ultimately it is the floral herbal notes that distinguishes this as a different grape variety. The wine’s age finally catches up to it with the finish that is very short and quickly fades.

Still this is an impressive wine that has held up much better than how many domestic white wines (outside of Riesling) usually do. For the most part I try to open up my domestic whites within 3 years of vintage date and start getting really nervous when they get close to 5 years. But this Adelsheim Auxerrois still has a good story to tell and I would be quite interested in trying a newer release.

At around $20-25, it does command a premium for an obscure white variety but I think that premium is worth it for a very character driven wine that clearly has aging potential.

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Running Out of Stones (and Glaciers) in the Age of Climate Change

By the year 2100, some of the most exciting wines being made could be Scottish Pinot grigio and Suffolk Syrah. Such is the (potential) reality of climate change predicted by professors from the University College of London in a study commissioned by wine merchant Laithwaite’s. While the English sparkling wine industry has already seen some benefits from changing climates, an expected increase in global temperatures of 2° Celsius (3.6° F) and more rain could mean a dramatically new landscape for both wine lovers and producers.

Image Credit: Laithwaites

Image Credit: Laithwaites

But at a cost.

For every climate change “winner”, there are also losers as traditional and well established wine regions have to grapple not only with changing vintage patterns but also the changing dynamics of consumer tastes and fashion. It’s no secret that consumers’ tastes have been trending towards riper, more fruit-forward wines that are either sweeter in sugar or “bolder” in flavor and alcohol for some time now.

While there are still fans of lower alcohol, less fruit-driven wines, it’s hard for those kind of wine drinkers to not feel like their taste and preferences are being relegated to the Stone Age of the wine industry. As we start seeing strings of highly acclaimed “blockbuster vintages” being bolstered by warmer climates, it may be more than just the wine map that has to change in this new age of wine drinking.

Would you like a little acid for your Riesling?

http://www.winesandvines.com/template.cfm?section=news&content=177266

Dr. Monika Christmann. Credit: Jim Gordon, Wines and Vines

In Germany, producers are enjoying a “boon” of riper vintages. But they are finding themselves in the unique position of being a country known for bracingly acidic and vibrant Rieslings, needing to now acidify their wines. A recent Wines and Vines article on the 62nd German Winegrowers Congress in Stuttgart, included comments from the keynote address of Dr. Monika Christmann of Geisenheim University .

Dr. Christmann noted that producers are finding themselves at a crossroads. On one hand, they can let the impact of climate change steer the style of wines in their region towards a different direction.  Or they can adapt new methods afforded by modern technology to help maintain the “traditional styles”. But that comes with the trade off of potentially using very non-traditional means like reverse osmosis, crossflow filtration and additives.

While the issue of climate change and the trend towards fruit-forward, high alcohol wines certainly vexes the hoi polloi of wine writers and “taste makers”, you can complete that trifecta of ire with the battle of modern winemaking that embraces the use of technology versus natural wine which eschews it use.

Moving On or Moving Away?

Does the thought of German winemakers needing to add acid to their Rieslings horrify you? Then you may have some sympathies with natural wine enthusiasts. They would argue that if you have to “manipulate” your German Riesling to taste like what a German Riesling is expected to taste like, is it still really a German Riesling?

But are “natural” German Rieslings that are indistinguishable from tropical, lush, high alcohol New World Viogniers any better? This is something that winemakers will need to ponder.  One lesson worth listening to is this quote from Dr. Christmann.

“The Stone Age did not end because there were no stones left,” she said, but because early humans moved on when they discovered how to work with a better technology: metal.

What is the Greenlandic translation of Vinho Verde?

We may not run out of stones in the world of wine. However, an unquestionable consequence of climate change is that something is going to get left behind. Eventually the industry and consumers will need to adapt to the changing reality of the world around us. We may have to give up “tradition” and expectations of what certain wines from certain regions should taste like.  And we may have to open our minds to the possibility of new styles and new fashions.

In the long run, we may gain new knowledge and introduction to fantastic terroirs.  We may also see the birth of new classics. However, this could come at the cost of mourning the loss of old favorites and classics. There will be conflict and there will be battles over the soul of wine. There will be change and there will be costs that the wine industry will have to bear.

By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37582061

Seriously, if you haven’t seen this film yet, go watch it now.

But in the bigger picture, beyond the scope of wine, will be the tremendous costs that the whole of humanity will bear. As we ponder the changing wine map, we also shouldn’t forget that the world is losing things like glaciers at a frightening clip. Reading the warning of scientists about climate change and watching brilliant, but sobering, documentaries like Chasing Ice is enough to drive anyone to drink.

Though maybe we could pass on the Scottish Pinot grigio.

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