Wine Uncorked
WHAT IS INSIDE
My blog posts in English
- to my foreign readers :-)
My wish is to reach not only Danish readers but also wine lovers from elsewhere. Writing in English should make this a bit easier ;-)
Over the coming time, I shall try to translate - if not all - a number of my previous posts and from this day onwards, my posts will be found here in English as well. Hope, you will enjoy this new feature :-)
One thing, that is out of my hands, is the showing of pictures in my English posts. Please, look to my Danish posts to see the pictures. Sorry for the inconvenience.
1st International Furmint Day
- Celebrating Hungarys great white variety!
February 4, 2017
Peder
Interesting things are going on in Hugarian winemaking!
The sweet Tokaji's are getting the recognition, they deserve and more and more attention is paid to the countrys reds. Be it the historic Egri Bikavér, Soproni Kékfrankos or Villanyi Cabernet Franc.
Really interesting is the development of the dry Furmints, which were only taken seriously from the 1990's. Only now, it is established and realised, that Furmint is able of being much more than the backbone of the amazing Tokaji Aszú's.
Actually, one gets the lack of attention given to the dry wines, the noble sweets having served Tokaj and Hungary so well.
I think, that the "International Furmint Day" has to do with the "invention" of the dry Furmints and this is my two ways split celebration of Furmint :-)
Szamorodni - "as it came" - is all to neglected in my native Denmark. Fans of the paler Sherry-types, not least Amontillado, ought to look in this direction as well :-)
Dereszla has been around in Tokaj since forever. Many years ago, I was fortunate enough to lay hand of a case of the formidable 1999 vintage and the wine still holds loads of spark. Bruised apples and nutty notes. To me it This i seriosly good stuff!
If anyone has done good to the dry Furmint, it is Zoltán Demeter!
I enjoyed "Birtokbor" years ago at the now sadly extinct Bock Bistro in Copenhagen and I have saved myself a few bottles.
Very much the way, I remember it. A rather elegant, almost fragile Furmint. Definitely a mature wine and I should not store it for much longer.
Amazing, how different expressions, Furmint can get. From Demeters elegant ones to the way more fiery and immensly intense ones from eg. Pannon-Tokajs.
Add to this, that great Furmint is not only coming out of Tokaj. Tornai amongst others delivers excellentFurmints from Somló.
Egészségedre! Cheers! Skål!
Her
The mysterious ways of Mother Nature
July 15, 2015
Peder
Back in June, I was literally freezing in what was supposed to be "Danish Summer" and at the same time, my memories ran back to 2014 and the long, warm and sunny summer, we experienced back then. What a contrast to this year... My thoughts were less on the summer as such, and more on the Danish wine makers such as Tom at Dyrhøj Vingaard on Røsnæs (Western Zealand). How many wonderful hours did I spend on Røsnæs over the years... I was really worrying about 2015 on their behalf and THUS I got to think about 2014 as the huge contrast.
My thoughts were on the huge vintage variation, that wine makers in very cool zones such as Denmark have to live with and work through. Have to battle and ovecome! But it also made me think about vintage variation as such.
Classic vs. modern wine in, say, Bordeaux. What is a classic vintage? In Bordeaux, would it be 1961, 1982 or maybe 2010? Or maybe the numerous more or less mediocre vintages like 1991-93 or 2011-13. And this refers to the left bank, as 2012 was a very good vintage in Saint-Emilion and not least Pomerol.
Have we come to a point, where "Classic" equal "Old-fashioned"? I most certainly do not hope so, as I can easily enjoy Bordeaux's like 2004 and 2008, which the critics lined up to NOT like, but which have been given much more justice by time than critics, while I await the maturation of more popular vintages such as 2010.
But talking about the ways of Mother Nature, we have to deal with vintage variation. Even when addressing Chile or Puglia, we experience variation - and I assume only exceedingly so, as if we are not discussing varying numbers of hours of sun or tempratures, we have to face, that extreme amounts of precepitation (or extreme drought) will define more and more vintages. It makes me think, if we have gone too far in our appraisal of vintage variation as a term. Like it is the new black.
What more could vintages vary than 2002 and 2003? 2002 being so rainy and 2003 like the warmest year ever. Most diverse wines and with some 2003´s being super charming in their youth, neither vintage is worthy of much fuzz. Thus far my thought back then, because did the weather change all of sudden over the next weekend! All of a sudden the Danish climate became almost Mediterrenean! And just a few days ago, I was sitting in my car on my way to work, hearing that 2015 is about to be the warmest year ever - worldwide! Shall return to that shortly. An meanwhile hearing, that in Billund (Jylland) they experienced 2 degrees celsius on 23rd of June(!!) El Niño in a nut shell.
Everything becomes more unpredictable and more extreme. I hear you! In general I am - what many of you will know very well - all for vintage variation. For letting Mother Nature expressing herself through the elements of nature. She expresses herself through the wines and for me the wines have to tell stories. About where they come from. And when they were crafted. About the soil underneath, about the shortage of water to be experienced one year and the shortage of sun the following year. Because, it is the world, that surrounds us.
The job of the "Les Vignerons" is not to make identical wine year in and year out, nore to to bottle "marmelade" wines one year and green, fruitless wines the next. Their task is to make wines, that tell the stories of that particular vintage - and brings the rest of us joy whilst sipping the wine. From here onwards, I am very excited to see, how this cold, cold, Danish spring and early summer followed by the actually heat wave expresses itself in the actual vintage, once bottled. Looking around, Bordeaux, Champagne and England all have experienced temperatures way about average - in England, tempartures were almost historically high - and there has been speculations, should 2015 become the next 2003... (He we go!!)
Let us wait and see! In the meantime, I think about this awfully cold spring and the potential damage to the harvest it might have caused, or could a warm, dry (maybe even windy...) "Indian Summer" somehow create a "Magical Vintage" in what I presume would be limited amounts. Awaiting the verdict of Mother Nature, I shall sweeten the time the sufficient amounts of chilled rosé and crisp whites so suitable for Summer and the magic of the Summer
cuisine.
Weingut Dopler - Thermenregion is nothing like Burgenland!
- it rather has an identity all of its own
April 19, 2015
Peder
Some times you just find yourself striking...
Not necessarily in the bowling alley ;-) Sometimes it is more like - as this was the case for me - that a certain topic forms a common idenity of a string of good things happening to you. And this time aroung it happens to be Austria! Those of you who may not be the biggest fans of Austrian wine: You are missing out on a lot ;-)
Vesterbro Vinstue was the cosy but some what accusticly challenged venue for a splendid night with Günter Dopler from Weingut Dopler and Dopler is bang for the buck!
Thermenregion, located approx. 50 km from the vicinities of Vienna southwards most certainly is not known by the general public in Danmark and it is a pity, because as Dopler showed us the other night, they make lovely wines.
To most wine drinkers red Austrians equal Blaufränkisch, but not at Dopler. He produces the variety but only in very small amounts. 1.000-1.500 bottles a year. "Apotheker Mengen", as he says with a big smile.
On the other hand he produces Pinot Noir and St. Laurent - and he does that very well!
We tasted 2012 Pinot Noir against 2011 St. Laurent and experienced two quite differing wines, even though St. Laurent not seldomly is told to be quite a bit like Pinot Noir.
Even my somewhat dubious picture makes the visual difference of the wines visibile... I don't completely agree with the idea of the familiarity of the varities.
I was particularily fond with Doplers Pinot Noir. Pure, bright fruit with great intensity - actually not very Old World. Cherries, coffee, a gentle touch of licorice and herbal notes. Given the price, the intensity was fantastic. I am fan!
St. Laurent is differenct. The fruit is much darker. Cherries have become black and sweet and I find darker berries such as blackberries together with licorice notes (Could that be a terroir-aspect of Thermen?). In Danmark almost no one is familiar with St. Laurent - and that is a pity! I know, that also those of Juris from Gols are available, so: Come on! Go out there and taste them, because it is good!
2011 St. Laurent Reserve is very different from the Klassik version. The use of new barrels radically changes the character of the wine all by itself. The wine becomes softer, almost chocolate-coated. But on the nose, it is black cherries with notes of iron and blood. On the palate you find the chocolate, the coffee and the tobacco. All from the barrel ageing. The tannins in this wine most certainly primarily come from the barrel ageing, as the first St. Laurent was not at all marked by tannins.
A suprise to me was 2011 Daniel (60% Cab. Sauv. and 40% Merlot, with different blends each vintage). I though the Austrians had more or less given up on Cabernet outside of Burgenland... Black currants and plums. Coffee and chocolate. Loads of fruits yet nicely balanced. Absorbes the 16 months in new oak really well.
Thermenregion is so easy to miss, as you pass Austria, because the immense beauty of Wiener Wald steals your attention so easily - please, do remember to stop at Heiligenkreuz!
But you owe it to yourself to explore this part of vinous Austria closer. Do you find yourself around Gumboldskirchen and Traiskirschen (You do, if you are passing Wiener Wald), you find lovely whites such as Zierfandler og Rotgipfler to delve into and further down south at Bad Vöslau and Tattendorf, beautiful reds like the ones from Doplers offer themselves.
The thought of a road trip along the Austrian A1/A2 with visits to, say, Wachau, Kremstal og Thermenregion is not getting any less tempting, as you learn more :-)