One of the Rieslings we had in GINI 11 is Domaine Weinbach Riesling Schlossberg Cuvee Sainte Catherine Riesling from Alsace.  First, I want to decode the words here.  Domaine Weinbach is the producer. Schlossberg is castle hill in German. Cuvée is same as the English word Reserve.  In Rhone Valley, producers produce special, deluxe lots of wine or a lot of wine from a specific grape variety that they bottle separately.  These lots are often referred to as cuvées. ((Wein-Bauer, Inc.)) So I guess Sainte Catherine is the name of the reserve lots.  According to the producer's website, it situated half way on the Schlossberg slope. ((Domaine Weinbach))

I have always thought Alsace is a region in Germany, because Riesling is well-known in Germany.  Alsace is part of France, but it was part of Germany before.  In fact it changed hands a few times.  Riesling is probably best of Alsace's varieties.  It is clean, apple and lemon scents, and it can smell like petrol (in a good way they say)

The other Riesling we tried was Joh Jos Prum Riesling Spätlese Graacher Himmelreich Riesling.  Another decoding is needed.  The producer is Johann Josef Prüm (Joh Jos Prüm).  Spätlese is Late Harvest in German.  Himmelreich is the name of the vineyard, which is in a town called Gracch.  So the word Graacher on the label is to Graach as New Yorker is to New York.  Finally, the region is called Mosel-Saar-Ruwer (MOE-zul Zahr ROO-ver).  The Saar and Ruwer rivers are both tributaries (streams) of the Mosel, which is the main river in this region. ((Immer, Andrea. Great Wine Made Simple, New York, 2000. Pg 246-247))  Riesling from Mosel is often described as floral, racy, elegant and finesse; very much like perfume.

MSN Sync from http://www.lightrelay.com/?p=76

One thing I failed to mentioned in my previous post was that our 2nd bottle, Domaine Etienne Sauzet Puligny Montrachet Champ Gain, is a Chardonnay.  There is two way to know this, the hard way is to do a bit of research (internet, library books), the easy way is to ask Vincent W.  

Well, I did both, not that I doubt Vincent's wine knowledge, but doing research is kinda fun.  Looking at the wine label, Domaine Etienne Sauzet Puligny Montrachet Champ Gain, I know one word only....  

It turns out, Domaine Etienne Sauzet is the name of the producer (I have no clue if it is well-known).  It was called "benchmark Burgundian Domaine" ((http://www.justerinis.com/Etienne_Sauzet/4/4/P/258/null/1/ListWines.aspx))

As for Puligny Montrachet, it's a town "where many feel the finest dry white wines in the world are produced" ((http://www.burgundywinecompany.com/wines/display.php?subregion=Puligny-Montrachet)) Wow... now I know Vincent only get the good stuff.  And I've read similar comment about Puligny Montrachet in different sources (internet, books)  So where is this place... in Burgundy of course, being a Burgundian wine.

Burgundy wine can be divided into two groups, classics and the rest.  Under the classics (and the best), there are the Cote d'Or and Chablis.  Chablis is almost all Chardonnay, but that's not where Puligny Montrachet is; it's under Cote d'Or (means "golden slope", refering the slope where the vineyards are found) (( Immer, Andrea. Great Wine Made Simple, New York, 2000. Pg 169-172 ))  Cote d'Or can be divided further into two area, both name after a major town, Cote de Nuits (Coat duh NWEE) and Cote de Beaune (Coat duh BONE).  So... Puligny Montrachet belongs to Cote de Beaune. (Big deal...) Finally, Champ Gain is the name of the vineyard...

So here it is, Domaine Etienne Sauzet Puligny Montrachet Champ Gain, I know what it means now.  (Pronouncing it is another matter)

MSN Sync from http://www.lightrelay.com/?p=75

www.flickr.com More of Kwong Yee Cheng's photos tagged with gini11

Since the last time I wrote, which is more than 4 months ago, we had 4 more wine tastings.  So we have been consistently drinking, but I have not been consistently writing.  So I have quite a bit of catching up to do here…

We had GINI 11 back in May 11, at Vincent W’s place.  Since we were having white wine this time around, we figured we would like some seafood to go with it, so we ended up getting sashimi/sushi.  Originally we were going to have some Italian red wine, but since Vincent M, a big fan of Italian Red, couldn’t make it, we postponed those red wines until GINI 12.  Anyway, here are the white wines:

1. Le Clos Jordanne Village Reserve Chardonnay 2004 (Niagara)
2. Domaine Etienne Sauzet Puligny Montrachet Champ Gain 2004 (Burgundy)
3. Domaine Weinbach Riesling Schlossberg Cuvee Sainte Catherine Riesling 2005 (Alsace)
4. Joh Jos Prum Riesling Spatlese Graacher Himmelreich Riesling 2003 (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, Germany)

During the 4 months that I was not writing, Andrew actually set up another blog to make notes for each wine we tried in GINI tastings.  <http://www.seatourist.com/gini-wine-tasting/> Since he is doing a great job with the taste notes, I’ll get lazy and not writing taste notes.  But I would post the results of voting for our favorite wine of each tasting.

The GINI Chardonnay/Riesling Index

We ranked the bottles 1 to 4, add up the numbers, whichever one has the lowest score is the best.  Here is the list of participants: Aaron, Alex, Andrew, Kwong C, Kwong T, Naomi, Rita, Stephanie, Vincent W.  Looking at the results, there was no clear winner; in fact 3 bottles got the same score, and the 4th one was just 2 points off.

MSN Sync from http://www.lightrelay.com/?p=74