Our November 20 wine class took a trip to Alsace to taste four quite different white wines from the region – a Riesling, a pinot gris, a gewurztraminer and a muscat. All were from the same producer, so we were confident we could distinguish the four in our blind taste test. Once again we were baffled, or perhaps the producer got his labels mixed up.
Our first wine had a clean aroma with scents of apple and petroleum. The gas station flavor followed through in the taste. The wine was not very fruity and was quite dry. This one we correctly identified as the 2004 Frederic Mallo Riesling Reserve Speciale (12.5% alcohol).
Wine #2 was both dry and fruity, having the richest smell, both spicy and musky with lots of lychee aroma coming through. The taste closely echoed the smell – lychee nuts, minerals and pepper. It felt quite fat in the mouth. Natually, because of the spiciness and dryness, we thought this was the gewürztraminer, but No-o-o, it was the Frederic Mallo 2006 Muscat (12% alcohol).
Our third wine was sure to be the Muscat having a sweet smell of nectarine and floral tones. It too tasted just the way it smelled, very floral and not too dry. It really struck us as a desert wine that would be great with biscotti. But we were wrong again; this was the Frederic Mallo 2005 Gewurztraminer Cuvee Saint Jacques (13% alcohol).
Our final wine was so clean in smell and taste that we actually found it a bit boring. In fact the smell reminded us of linen sheets drying outside, although we did pick up a scent of candied apple. In the taste we noticed a bit of marmalade, but in all it was not very sweet or fruity. This we correctly identified as Special Delivery 2006 Pinot Gris (which means dingy in French, so why so clean?) by Frederic Mallo.
Oh well, having decided unanimously that we favored the Riesling over all, we packed our bags and hit the road for Burgundy, probably the most famous wine-producing region of France. At our next class, on December 18, we’ll taste two white wines, a French Chablis and a Cote de Beaune, and two reds, a village ranked wine and a premier cru- or grand cru-ranked wine. To learn about these, please read pages 170 through 190 of Andrea Immer Robinson’s Great Wine Made Simple.
See you all on December 18!
Suzy Marquard