Despite selling Pinot Blanc for years, I learned recently that I have no idea as to what it is that I am either selling or drinking. Naively, I thought Pinot Blanc from Alsace was, well, Pinot Blanc. As Christophe Ehrhart from Josmeyer explains here, his Pinot Blanc, like many, contains a fair amount of Auxerrois. Christophe talks about the profile or Auxerrois and its relation to Chardonnay - think rounder and fuller bodied - and how it is used to soften the harder, more acidic edges of pure Pinot Blanc. A bit of searching on google turned up this very useful page on what else might be in Pinot Blanc from Alsace. http://www.alsace-wine.net/d/pinotblanc.shtml Note that in some cases, there is not even a drop of Pinot Blanc in a bottle of Pinot Blanc.
On a related note, my search for an explanation of the wine laws in Alsace turned up the history of Pinot Blanc in California. http://www.sallybernstein.com/beverages/wine/vintnerschoice/pinot_identity.htm Turns out that for a long time, Pinot Blanc in California was not actually Pinot Blanc either, but Melon de Bourgogne, which of course is the cousin of Chardonnay that makes the world's greatest value, most age worthy white wine that no one seems to know about, Muscadet.
Along with the videos with Olivier Humbrecht, this was filmed at the Return to Terroir tasting in NY in February of 2009.
0 comments:
Post a Comment