Take just a sip or two of Clemens Lageder’s most recent delicious whites from Alois Lageder Winery, and there’s no mistaking the young winegrower’s commitment to offering distinctive, naturally fresh wines with dazzling purity. Yet as global temperatures rise each year, Lageder takes nothing for granted. Mounting challenges hinder the winery’s quest for freshness, and Clemens recognizes the need for continual experimentation and change going forward both in the vineyards and the cellar.
When choosing a “white Burgundy” to drink with friends, Bourgogne-Aligoté may not come readily to mind. Not surprising. Since Chardonnay’s rise in popularity, most American importers and retailers give scant attention to Aligoté as Burgundy’s “other” white wine grape. But Bourgogne-Aligoté’s fortunes are changing.
When choosing a “white Burgundy” to drink with friends, Bourgogne-Aligoté may not come readily to mind. Not surprising. Since Chardonnay’s rise in popularity, most American importers and retailers give scant attention to Aligoté as Burgundy’s “other” white wine grape. But Bourgogne-Aligoté’s fortunes are changing.
It’s fashionable to stereotype Burgundy wines as overly complicated and too expensive. Becky Wasserman-Hone simply doesn’t buy it. She has heard it all before over her forty year career as an expatriate-American working as an export-wine broker in Burgundy, but she refuses to let it derail her dedicated promotion of the wines and growers of her adopted home.
An anonymous brick warehouse somewhere on the outer reaches of Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, New York might seem an unlikely place to discover distinctive Alsace Pinot Noir wines. But when Isabelle Legeron, M.W.’s “2017 RAW WINE” Fair took place in the warehouse, talented Alsace grower Christian Binner’s reds provided a highlight as one hundred fifty producers from around the world poured samples of wines “grown naturally, made naturally.”
Discovering delicious surprises always provides a large part of the fun in drinking and sharing wines. Surprises keep you honest as a wine drinker while refreshing the senses and expanding the palate. Such is the case with the N.V. South Shore Wine Company, Sparkling Pinot Noir, Pennsylvania ($19.95; available online and at the winery). from veteran Pennsylvania winegrower Robert Mazza (pictured above).
Alsace white wine fans take note. Just in time for holiday celebrations and dinners, father and son winegrowers Bernard and Alexandre Schoffit of Colmar offer three terrific wines with contrasting styles. All are ready for immediate enjoyment and available through Weygandt Wines in Washington, D.C. Pennsylvania’s PLCB Premium Collection stores also offer two of the wines.
Each year with France’s Northern Rhône red wines, critics and consumers alike heap accolades on the marvelous selections from Côte-Rôtie and Hermitage. Reds from the nearby appellation of Crozes-Hermitage which also rely on Syrah grapes go largely unheralded. So the wines often languish on retail shelves even with prices a third or less of their prestigious Côte-Rôtie and Hermitage cousins.
At a recent “blind” tasting of six wines from Vosne-Romanée and Flagey-Échezeaux, a marvelous moment occurred for everybody in our little luncheon group. All of us were stopped in our tracks with emotion over the profound beauty and sheer pleasure of one of the wines, the 1996 Domaine Dujac Échezeaux.
Eighteenth century French philosopher Voltaire suggested “Il faut cultiver notre jardin”—“We must cultivate our garden”—even in the face of life’s complications and chaos. Burgundy winegrower Jean-Claude Rateau takes Voltaire’s advice to heart. Since graduating from Beaune’s Lycée Viticole in the late 1970’s, he has carefully cultivated his vineyards very much like a garden using organic and biodynamic methods requiring dedicated manual labor.
Burgundy may be Pinot Noir’s spiritual home, but Alsace winegrowers’ palpable passion for Pinot Noir cannot be ignored. Leading winegrowers such as André Ostertag, Christian Beyer, Jean-Paul and Marie Zusslin, Maxime Barmès and Rémy Gresser embody the renewed dedication to producing high quality, delicious Pinot Noir wines worthy of international attention. Each grower offers an ambitious vision for Alsace red wines.