Empty Glasses

Last April, my girlfriend went to a conference in Germany for her job. Held in Wiesbaden, they granted the participants with a nice welcome gift: a half bottle of Rheingau Riesling “Von Unserm” 2001, from Balthasar Ress. Not imported in Quebec, that little bottle piqued my curiosity and patiently waited in the cellar for a couple of months. I was not in a hurry, as it is well-known that rieslings, especially German ones, can gain a lot from ageing. A vertical tasting at the Fox Run winery in the Finger Lakes last year also proved that point in a very eloquent manner.

Located in Hattenheim im Rheingau, the Balthasar Ress winery is in business since 1870 and has been passed from generation to generation since then. It now cultivates 46 hectares of vines, 90% of which are planted with Riesling, a bit above the Rheingau average (80% of the production being riesling). The rest of the production is divided between Spätburgunder (Pinot noir) as well as some Weissburgunder (Pinot blanc).

We finally opened it last week and it proved to be very impressive. Nobody would have guessed that this wine was 10 years old. The tropical fruit notes that we often see in young riesling were still there, underlined by a suprisingly lively acidity and a bright pale yellow riesling. It seemed like a wine fresh out of the winery. As the night went on, I (somehow!) managed to restrain myself from drinking it all in one gulp in order to see how it evolved. The result was lovely: the petrol notes started to come up and pushed the wine to another level of complexity, as it did not take over the fruit. Everything was really well balanced and formed a cohesive whole. It’s too bad that we only had a half-bottle though, as I would have liked to see it evolve even more.

I wish that this winery was available in Québec, as I was impressed by the quality of what we tasted. It will prompt me to find a way to discover a bit more about German wines, which I don’t know well. Ninety wines from Germany, ranging from 10$ to 211$, are available at the SAQ, which gives us a rather small playing field. Of these, would you have any suggestions for a novice-but-willing-to-learn-about-german-wine drinker?

I anticipated TasteCamp 2010 quite a lot. Then came the weekend and it delivered quite well. We’ve had lots of fun, tasted through around 150 wines (to be honest, I have lost count at the end…), met plenty of really nice people, both wine-writers and wine-makers. To sum it up, it was a great weekend.

However, the harder thing to do is to come back home after such a nice weekend. So while I sort through my notes to make sense out of it, while my palate is recovering of all that riesling and while I get a couple of days to reflect on everything that happened through the weekend, let’s enjoy a visual wrap-up of the weekend.

With Day One of TasteCamp EAST 2010 drawing to a close, we can draw a quick conclusion: the Finger Lakes is really a land made for riesling, but it’s not then good thing coming out of this region.

During the course of the day, we’ve been lucky enough to have been treated with great care by the fine folks at Heron Hill Winery (who hosted the lunch and noon tasting which regroped many producers around Keuka Lake), at Ravines Wine Cellars (with an afternoon tasting of a large part of their lineup) and at Red Newt Bistro (who hosted the dinner and organized a tasting along with Fox Run and Anthony Road). I’ll come back with more details once I’ve decanted my experience, as there is a lot to say.

As one would expect, not all wines were excellent, but some have pulled ahead of the pack. I’m quickly thinking of Heron Hill’s Ingle Vineyard Riesling 2007, which after tasting the 2002 will make you wonder how long it will last. The dry rieslings from Ravines are straight, focused and have a clear plan in mind, which holds up remarkably well over the three vintages which were presented to us. I was also surprised by the general quality of the red wines presented by Red Newt, Anthony Road and Fox Run, not only the collaboration Tierce 2007 in red (and from 2004 to 2006 in riesling), but the Merlot, the Syrah (!) and the Cabernet Franc/Lemberger.

I am sure that Day Two will bring as much pleasure, discoveries and enjoyment. It will take me a while to sort through everything, but I can take one thing for granted: there will be lots to talk about.