Here we are for the second week in a row talking about a tasting featuring all wines from the fabulous 2010 vintage. As I think back I can’t remember another vintage in the last 20 years where every important wine region in the world enjoyed such an across the board great vintage……especially for whites! The last one was 1990. You’d be hard pressed to find anything but awesome from 1990 and the same can be said for 2010. As far as drinking lip smacking, darn delicious, bursting with flavor white wines, Northern Italy and Austria are among my two personal favorites and this lineup is hard to beat. People often ask me what I drink most, white or red? I must say, it’s white. It hasn’t always been that way but over the years my eating habits have changed and I don’t eat the heavy foods that I used to. Less meat, more fish and salads. I’m sorry but a big red just doesn’t match well with a salad or a piece of fish. Also, the older I get the better I feel in the morning after consuming the night before when it’s been substantial and white.
Anyway, we’ve got some fantastic tasting here. The wines are VERY fairly priced for the quality and I strongly encourage you to come and taste. These are wines that I drink all the time and I find them exciting wines that leave you bummed when the bottle’s empty. You may have noticed that I’m pouring two wines from the Abbazia Di Novacella. Why? First, because they’re an amazing winery and I can pretty much guarantee you’ve never had a Muller Thurgau like this one. Most from the NW are sweet and insipid. This one is dry and……….I can’t describe it. You’ll have to taste it to believe it. And the Sylvaner “Praepositus” is from the oldest vines and the concentration and length are superb. I had to show you all the heights that Muller Thurgau can achieve and once I tasted the old vine Sylvaner I was hooked! I could go on and on but every wine is killer, the Gruner, the Soave, WOW the Pinot Blanc from Austria and you won’t believe what the Chardonnay, grown in the terroir of the Valle D’Aosta in the mountains of NW Italy, can achieve. It reminds me of a flinty, mineral premier Cru Chablis! What a great tasting. I am one very excited boy.
The Lineup
2010 Gini, Soave Classico/ Veneto, Italy $17
2010 Schloss Gobelsburg, Gruner Veltliner “Gobelsburger”/ Kamptal, Austria $18
2010 Peter Schandl, Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc)/ Rust Im Burgenland, Austria
$20
2010 Abbazia Di Novacella, Muller Thurgau (Dry)/ Alto Adige-Valle Isarco, Italy
$22
2010 Abbazia Di Novacella, Sylvaner “Praepositus”/ Alto Adige-Valle Isarco. Italy
$28
Premium Pour ($4)
2010 Les Cretes, Chardonnay “Frissonniere”/ Valle D’Aosta, Italy $37
Sandy
