Tasted over the past week:
Rings, Spatburgunder, Pfalz, Saumagen, Germany, 2014
In his offering note last year, Panzer said this wine was recently voted the best pinot in Germany in Martin Zwick’s Spatburgunder Cup. To me that’s like saying a restaurant serves the best Mexican food in Manhattan – it can be very good, but it will never be great. So, I was a little skeptical before opening the bottle. But I was extremely curious, given that I had gone completely ga-ga over a GG Riesling from the same producer, vineyard and year.
Here’s my quick take on the wine: It’s certainly more akin to a very good cru Beaujolais than a 1er cru Burgundy. (I know a wine should stand on its own merits and not be relentlessly compared to another region, but that’s how this wine has been hyped.) It has an electric purple color and very upfront nose of flowers and dark fruits. On the palate, it’s compact and minerally but very fresh, with that musky plummy quality I associate with the more concentrated wines of Vissoux or Lapierre. It has a drying, chalky quality at the end that is not unpleasing. I had three glasses last night, and the wine never shifted gears over the course of the evening.
I’m not a Spatburgunder expert by any means, so I have no idea where this is going and whether years would give it more complexity and nuance. At $70, the QPR is not there for me based on this initial showing. I’d love to try an aged quality Spatburgunder for further perspective, though.
Rouget, Vosne Romanee, 2014
These village wines are getting prohibitively pricey, but damn what’s in the bottle is really fine. Rouget’s village wine consistently performs like a 1er cru and is super reliable. This particular edition showcases the village and the vintage in such an elegant, tranquil way. It’s like a classically cut suit from Saville Row – structured, non-flashy and built to last. But this wine gives immediate pleasure – it’s bright and polished, but has weight and a core of dark cherry fruit. Easy tannins provide backbone, while telltale Vosne spices provide lift. I really like these early peeks at 2014s.
Cathiard, Chambolle Musigny , Clos de l’Orme, 2006
I saved the worst for last. Meh. This was an auction wine, so it might have been mishandled at some point. But this is a disappointing and muddled wine. Tasted blind, I would have never said Chambolle. It has a generic profile of stewed plums with caramel notes. It’s heavy and plodding. It reminds me of a tired bottling of a Girardin or D. Laurent village wine.