Riesling and Pinot Noir

Thanks to my relative poverty at the moment I will not be visiting too many restaurants over the next month so to compensate expect more things about drink including bottles drunk at home or at my wine clubs. So first off Riesling and Pinot.

Champagne Charles Orban, Blanc de Noirs O'Briens €23.99
White Wines - RieslingPeter Lehmann, Australia 2005 Corks €9.50
Grosset, Australia – Polish Hill, Clare Valley 2006 Gift from PRoycroft Approx €28.00
Hugel, Alsace 2005 Vintry Rathgar €15.95

Red Wines - Pinot Noir
Cono Sur, Chili 2006 O'Briens €8.99
Bourgogne, France – Louis Jadot 2005 O'Briens €13.99
Delta, New Zealand –Marlborough Donnybrook Fair €16.99
Gevrey Chambertin, Burgundy, Domain Thierry Mortet 2003 Donnybrook Fair €46.00

Jackie opened the evening with a lovely champagne blanc de noirs (somade only from the black grapes of champagne (pinot noir and pinotmeunier, thus excluding chardonnay). This had earthy aromas and aprominent yeast overlay with touches of hazelnuts. a very goodchampagne - especially for the money. For the rieslings we got theusual aromas but in unexpected places - the dirt cheap Peter Lehmanhad apple and petrol (what you expect) while the Grosset Polish Hillfrom the clare valley was riper with pear and fruit flavours and goodsearing acidity. Grosset are one of the great riesling makers and abenchmark wine so it was interesting to taste with the Hugel which wasdistinctly floral in character and significantly lighter in texture.to be fair this was their basic blend and you would get moreinteresting (and representative) flavours from their premium Rieslings(or from say Trimbach Cuvee Frederic Emile).

Reds started with simple but very drinkable cherry fruit from Cono Sur and had an unlikely star in the Louis Jadot bog standard bourgogne which had loads of classic pinot character - cherries mixed withearthy tones and subtle fruit. The Gevrey Chambertin (from one of thebetter producers in the region - though his brother Denis Mortet isconsidered more important) was interesting and you could tell it hadmore going on but then it would want to given that it was three timesthe price (3.2857 times the price according to my calculator). TheNew Zealander was much riper (pinot always ripens easier in newzealand thanks to the light) but I confess I didnt write much aboutit. the bottle had been open a day or two and given the importance offragrance to pinot (the first thing to go as a wine gets exposed tothe air) i think it had probably suffered a little.

All in all if you were to test riesling and pinot noir you would goexactly to the places Jackie went so a very useful and representativetasting. you could also go to Germany for riesling (if you could findanyone selling the stuff) or maybe to oregon or washington state (ifyou wanted to throw a load of money at the issue). Carneros inCalifornia is one other place worth considering but again be prepared to pay for anything decent.