Wine Of The Day!

Parfumistas like us have trained themselves to put into words what they smell. I am sure many of you are open not only for perfume but for other pleasures as well. Let's start a Wine of the Day thread! Please explain what you taste as if it was a perfume!


I'll start this thread with a very perfume-y white wine: the 2011 semi-dry Bacchus by Winzergemeinschaft Franken eG. Using our terms from perfumery, I'd say this wine is definitely mass market, not niche, and I bought it at my preferred supermarket.

It is from the region Franken in northern Bavaria, Germany. You may notice the strangely shaped bottle which is used exclusively for Frankenwein. This special shape has a name: Bocksbeutel – Buck's Bag!

Bachus is actually a sort of grape, like Riesling, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and so on. It is a crossbreed of Müller-Thurgau and Silvaner, and some Riesling may have also played a role in this hybrid. If you have two fragrance notes in a perfume you suppose that you will smell something in between. This is not the case with wine crossbreeds: the taste – like in case of Bacchus – can be something very different from its „parents“.

This Bacchus, like many other German white wines has a good portion of fruit or acerbity, and it is a very opulent wine. The main character is nutty, muscatel or nutmeg-like, with lots of floral notes in it – that's why Bacchus is being described as “perfumed wine”. It would be a perfect dessert wine if it was sweet, but this one is semi-dry, and so it is rather difficult to put it on the menu. I prefer drinking it on its own, it is too opulent, and it has too many notes worth exploring to drink it aside some food.

I chose this wine because at the moment I am wearing a perfume that is just as opulent as this wine, and the two characters match perfectly together: "XPEC Original".

XPEC Original by the English perfumer Shirley Brodey is one of my favorite fragrances for a hot summer night like today – with air warm enough to contain the scents of flowers, grass and herbs. Its opulence comes from a warm chypre base, and the way it is dwelling into florals is well-nigh remarkable for a gents' cologne. A herbal accord based on thyme is balancing the floral aspects just as the fruitiness is balancing them in my Bacchus wine.

Funny, it seems I found a link between wine and perfume!

Ice wines are made from grapes that have been left on the vine to freeze. Apparently, this concentrates the sweetness of the grape. They make nice dessert wines, and I've had a couple that were quite good, but this particular wine was a miss for me. Right away I tasted kiwi, which seemed odd and out of place in the context of wine, IMHO. If I had to compare it to a perfume, it would have to be the super sweet Fantasy, complete with kiwi note. Not for me, but perhaps one of you might enjoy it.

Cryp,
I am not down with the Britney smells, but I just might give your frosty grapes a try. I'm such a pleb when it comes to wine (well, when it comes to lots of other stuff too), that I actually prefer sweet white wines (often in a wine cooler -gasp!) And the colder the better. I've tried my whole life to develop a taste for the sophisticated dry wines at room temperature to no avail.

Go for it, Dulce.

Making ice wine must be a hellish work. In Germany the wine farmers hope for a certain weather situation. When there is suddenly fog and strong frosty tempratures in a late November night, they get up in the middle of the night and pick the grapes in the wee small hours. They need to get them into their machinery before they start to thaw.

They don't have ice wine every year.

I did not know that, Apicius. How interesting. I'm sure it's not pleasant to get up in the middle of the night to pick frozen grapes, but I find it heartening that it's done by hand, at least in Germany. I figured they just shovelled the grapes into a freezer or something.

I hope not. If it was that easy you could get ice wine for small money everwhere.

My yesterday's WOTD was the Altenahrer Klosterberg Portugieser by Winzergenossenschaft Mayschoss.



The valley of the Ahr is a little gem, and it is only a short trip by car from where I live. Have a look at Mayschoß:



The Ahr valley is perfect for a Sunday afternoon trip. There are hiking trails through the vineyards, and especially the clear air on a sunny August or September day can put your mind at ease. This is actually what I call the Habit Rouge mood. For me, this 'red' perfume has an appeal of peaceful Sunday afternoon walks in beautiful scenery – like a park or a valley with vineyards. Some wines from the Ahr valley can perfectly reflect this mood.

The Ahr is a small wine-growing district, and so it is not as well-known as Mosel or Rhine wines. It is something special. Actually, it is a bit far up north to grow red wine but nevertheless this is what they mainly do there. It may have historic reasons. (Red wine was needed for the catholic mass). In Germany the wine districts are divided into numerous little terroirs, sometimes really small patches of land, and even wine experts will not know all. I will not bother you with the wine laws, but if a wine from the Ahr district has the denomination 'Klosterberg' in its name, then it is probably a cuvée of grapes from different Ahr terroirs.

The soil is not the same everywhere, and roughly speaking, the terroirs at the bottom of the valley and next to the river contain mainly gravel loam whereas the hillsides are more mineral, with slate and sandstone. I think the winegrowers tend to grow their simpler wines in the bottom valley terroirs and reserve the hillsides for the Pinot Noirs.

Portugieser is an old grape variety traditionally grown at the Ahr. It stands very much in the shade of the Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) which the Ahr is famous for. Ahr Portugieser usually provides very light red wines that are not fully coloured. Very often, it is less complex than the Pinot Noirs, and I would file it under simple but good. As an extremely light red wine, I think it goes along very well with some sorts of white meat such as a traditional Sunday pork roast or a paprika chicken – but it is also a good choice with home made pizza.

From what I taste and smell I think most of the grapes of this Ahrweiler Klosterberg Portugieser must have grown on the bottom of the valley. From my experience I can tell that these bottom valley terroirs provide a wonderful bouquet: light, mellow and almost floral. Also the taste has that creamy and mellow aspects. I think, the fruit is rather like raspberry than cherry or blackcurrant. While most customers go for the more mineral Pinot Noirs I really enjoy this sort of Portugieser wines.

With Habit Rouge, the Ahrweiler Klosterberg Portugieser shares the lightness, the elegance, the 'red' appeal and the almost floral hints. But in one aspect, they do not match perfectly: at times, Habit Rouge can be a bit straining and difficult to wear due to a certain complexity. The Ahrweiler Klosterberg Portugieser however is very drinkable and always a welcome sight. As a light and uncomplicated wine, it has an everyday quality - which does not mean that I drink a bottle every day



I buy this wine directly at the Winzergenossenschaft Mayschoß, but they also have an online shop – unfortunately only in German. Their wines have won a lot of medals and currently they seem to be top league behind Deutzerhof and Meyer-Näkel.

www.wg-mayschoss.de

This is from a local winery. They do not have vineyards by their facility, but they make the wine here.

www.lynfredwinery.com/

I have a bottle of strawberry wine sitting in my fridge.

Great Topic Idea! (Says the Winemaker!):

Today I propose a wine from the godfather of the U.S. Pacific Northwest wine, Dr. Ernst Loosen and grape growing movement who studied Alsace and Rheingau varietals to determine which would grow well in British Columbia, Oregon and WA State. Producing some exceptional dry and late-harvest reislings, Muller- Thurgau, Gewürztraminer and silky Vetliners. His own estate vineyards are set in slate soil steep hillsides of the Mosel Valley, which provide the ideal terroir for minerality and a complexity of character to these styles of wine, unmatched anywhere else, IMHO. In the U.S. he was a pioneer of a modern generation of Gewürztraminer growers, collaborating under various labels for the sheer artistry and overall technical soundness of the industry.

I love all these varieties, but today's pick is the from the Gewürztraminer line with a flamboyant bouquet of lychees. Dry Gewürztraminers also possess aromas of roses, passion fruit and floral notes and go perfectly with warm lazy sunny brunches in the Spring Summer and early Fall with. Paired with spicy Indonesian flavors of galangal, green curries and red chili or mingled with rich Indian aromas of cumin, coriander, garlic, turmeric and mustard seeds, this chilled liquid gold will figuratively dance on your palate. Even a simple coupling with rich Roquefort stuffed figs drizzled with an aged balsamic reduction, the crisp taste and floral aromas create a seductive spell. Enjoy!

Forgive me for being stupid, Flavorite, but why no cork?

Ahhh, yes this is not a stupid question, not at all! This is the hottest debate in the wine bottling industry for the last few years! The old-timers/purests and snobs say it must be cork or nothing! While the new tech Vintners say, 'but with cork half of your wine will be moldy or filled with off aromas, volatile acidity and those annoying little pieces of crumbly old cork by the time you age it/open it' due to varying degrees of quality used in the cork making industry, contaminants, etc. Form over function. Now more and more practical wineries and some high-end Wineries, as well, are just going for what preserves the integrity of the wine, not the aesthetics of the bottle...similar to our issues with perfume bottles and the integrity of the fragrance, in fact. If you want to get a room full of Winemakers/Sommeliers in a total raucous... raise this issue!

Thank you for taking the time to give a detailed answer, Flavorite. It sounds like screwtops may be the wave of the future for all the reasons you cited. I'll miss the ritual of uncorking the bottle, though.

For inexpensive wine a screwcap is okay. I find it more practical because I do not have to search for the corkscrew.

More and more wine bottles come with that synthetic cork, and that is okay for me as well. I think it is also a good idea to protect the cork oaks a little. Natural cork is expensive. One of the wine growers I bought from told me that 0,50 € of the price of a bottle of wine goes into the cork.

Flavorite, I wonder where the Gewürztraminer comes from, the bottle and does not state the exact region. Possibly from the Pfalz region since this grape is not popular at the Mosel.

I think Gewürztraminer is a complicated wine. If the weather conditions are not perfect it very easily gets a bitter taste. I had this experience every now and then. The more south it grows, the better. That's why I would generally prefer Gewürztraminer from the neighboring Alsace region in France.

I will have to research this question a bit. It is very old and kind of like the legends of Count Dracula...dates back in some form to 1,000 A.D. But initially, I recall it comes from somewhere between the village of Tramin, located in South Tyrol, the German-speaking province in northern Italy and the Jura. My European historical geography is non-existent! A cursory internet search tells me that "It was spread down the Rhine to Alsace, by way of the Palatinate, where Gewürz (spice) was added to its name." I'll check into this tale some more.

That's it exactly, Apicius. From the Villa Wolf site:

"Gewürztrmainer is a wildly aromatic variety that is very much at home in the Pfalz, although it is not as widely planted as in the past. The Villa Wolf Gewürz­traminer is clean, fruity and wonderfully light on its feet. It shows off the aromatic charm of the variety without being heavy or ponderous. It has a deliciously juicy texture and a delightfully delicate aroma of spice and fresh roses. It’s very refreshing to drink on its own and makes a perfect accompaniment to spicy Asian cuisine."

Is there something like a wine-in-itself? And is there also a perfume-in-itself? What do you answer if you are asked to recommend “a typical cologne“, or “a typical wine”? Would this be a crossover of all the wines / perfumes that are available? And if so, would your answer be: Go to the next shop, buy as many different products as you can, pour everything into one big bowl and stir?

In both cases the result of such an experiment would be devastating. For sure, this is not the way to achieve something typical. Musing about the poor results one may come to the conclusion that there either is no perfume/wine-it-itself, or if so, it is not possible to create it. With such thoughts, we are close to the philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804) and his thing-in-itself. According to this concept, human science and cognition will always be able to capture only a part of the world that is surrounding us. Although human knowledge is continuously enhancing, we will never advance to the core or the very essence.

The thing-in-itself is still a very popular concept today but once you come to this conclusion, all you can do is go home. This is why I am not a follower of Kant.

Soon after Kant, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770 – 1831) entered the boxing ring in order to overcome the slightly defeatist thing-in-itelf. For his system, he needed just one starting point that he called the Pure Being. From that point, he developed one definition out of another by using his dialectical method, and in the end all knowledge and cognition would fit in to that system. I do not want to go deeper here but let's state that with Hegel, the focus shifted from the general inexplicability of the world towards the thought that there is progress: in history, in human perception, and in the world in general. With Hegel, we are on a good way towards the absolute.

One must be a clairvoyant to tell if the absolute perfume and the absolute wine or something close to it will ever be made. In his novel “The Perfume”, Patrick Süßkind gave us an account of how such an absolute perfume would be: sheer irresistibility. I am sure we will not come even near to that goal as long as wine and perfume making are mainly driven by business interests.

If we cannot move forward, we can still go back in time in order to look for the starting point. Will we find the Pure Wine and the Pure Fragrance in the past? And if so, does it already contain something typical, something like a secret essence or the mere idea of it that would have been conveyed through all stages of wine and perfume making until today?

Unfortunately, I am a bit limited in my means of acquiring knowledge. I am not able to conduct genetic analyses and reverse-breed the sorts of wild grapes that were picked and fermented by the humans of the stone age. All I can do is go to my local supermarket where I find this:



Elbling sounds very similar to an old latin word: vinum album – white wine. The story about this grape sort is that this is the wine that was first brought to Germany by the historic Romans over 2000 years ago. Modern science has proved that this was very likely not the case. It seems the Elbling is an offspring of the same genetic branch that also the Riesling belongs to.

At least, it is a nice story, and quite conclusive if you taste this wine. The Elbling by Moselland is my personal “wine-in-itself”.

The Elbling grape is not very well known, although considerable amounts of it are being produced in the upper Mosel valley. The most of it goes into the production of Germany's and Luxembourg's sparkling wines where it provides a robust and fruity backbone.

Elbling does not have the complexness of aromas that Riesling wines can achieve, and so, it is nothing special. But due to the respectable amount of fruit or acidity, I hesitate to call it bland. The Elbling by Moselland is made in a more traditional way – which means that the fruit is allowed to stay which cannot be taken for granted nowadays. There are many producers of Riesling and also Elbling wines who dim down the acidity to fit in with the so-called international style. If Riesling or Elbling wines are treated this way, then they easiliy become bland!

Moselland is a German chain store brand, and in this series you can also get a Riesling or a Pinot Blanc. However, a Riesling for 3 € is hardly recommendable, but this simple Elbling is. I always have a few bottles in store, and I pick it whenever I want to simply drink wine and not think twice about whether it is suitable for a certain food or mood or whatever. The essence of white wine is something simple. It cannot be found in a sophisticated and high-priced bottle.

Now, let's have the same look at perfume. Also there, we cannot really go back to ancient times. You can learn from the bible that fragrant unctions were reserved for the kings and the dead. During medieval times, people avoided to wash themselves as water was considered unhealthy. Thus, fragrances like the incense in a Catholic mass were also used to cover the stench of a human crowd.

Today, it is Farina Gegenüber who claim that Johann Maria Farina was the first to invent a light and lovely fragrance in 1709. It was called Eau de Cologne and contained the light citrus and herb scents that this Italian immigrant presumably found in his childhood memories. Soon numerous plagiarists copied this product, and so today Eau de Cologne denominates a whole class of light, citric fragrances and not just the Farina product.

If we consider Farina's historic Eau de Cologne the starting point of modern perfumery, I have my doubts if we are allowed the same smelling sensations as, let's say, Napoleon Bonaparte who allegedly used at least one Rosoli bottle per day.



At the Farina house in Cologne, the audience is told that the highly valuable secret formula that came down from ancient times is well kept, and that only Farina can label their product “Original Kölnisch Wasser”. However, when I try this beautiful fragrance today, I always ask myself how historic that slight white musk appeal really is.

In case of Eau de Cologne, it seems to me that some of the plagiarists have kept the original vibes better that Farina:



I have always found that the spectrum of possible tastes in wine is much smaller than the spectrum of fragrances in perfumes. Whereas I have found my typical white wine , I doubt that there is such a thing as a typical perfume. I can list a typical Fougère, a typical Eau de Cologne, a typical Russian leather - but a typical perfume as such? No.

So, what about you? Can you name a typical wine and a typical perfume?

Sometimes things come as a surprise. Having nothing to do in particular today, I decided to set off for the countryside, with a generous dash of Guerlain's Vetiver.

I drove westwards, the golden winter sun stood right above the horizon and hurt my eyes. I finally ended in Monschau – or Monjoie if you prefer the French/Belgium name. The picturesque old town with its antique timbered houses is situated in a narrow valley close to the border. The hills surrounding it are covered with dark vetiver green spruces and firs, and a respectable castle resides above a fairly romantic stream.

Here are some beautiful winter impressions of Monschau: www.eifelmomente.de/winter/195

What a perfect tourist trap! Besides the many cafés and souvenir shops, there was an atmospheric Christmas market. I strolled along the narrow streets, bought a few tit bits and enjoyed the day. Next to one of the many booths where cheap mulled wine was sold I found one that was a bit out of place. A young French couple stood behind it. They had come all the way from their winery in the Rhone valley, and they were selling their own wine. I tried their red Cote du Rhone cuvée, and it was very promising. Definitely looking forward to it!

Since I had come by car I could not taste all their wines, and so I bought their white wind blind. My curiosity was aroused when I asked for the sorts of grapes that went into it. The answer was Clairette, and that it was a very old and traditional sort of grapes.



To be honest, I know the English word claret which is actually Burgundy or Bordeaux red wine. But I had never heard about a white wine sort named Clairette. Back home, I looked into my wine book, and there it was.

What happens when a former popular perfume becomes slightly outdated, when sales volumes drop and people start refer to it as an old gents' cologne? Yes, it can still get a new packaging and a reformulation like Guerlain's Vetiver back in 2000. But grape sorts cannot be reformulated. They simply vanish.

This must have happened with Clairette Blanche. I have learned that it was one of the most widespread white grape sorts in France some centuries ago. It may be more difficult to cultivate compared to some more modern sorts, but most of all, at some point it did no longer match the general taste.

The color of this wine is pale white but with a strange brownish accent. Most of all, the taste is a surprise. It has no fruit at all. I have hardly ever tried a white wine with less acidity in it! And this Clairette Blanche wine is not to be compared with other less fruity sorts – it has a definite character of its own: a slight hint of dry sherry – unfamiliar but delicious!

Back home I quickly prepared my dinner. I had half a cooked haddock in the fridge from yesterday's meal, and it became fish balls with cheese and capers, mustard and horseradish sauce, and a green salad. Quite a good match with that wine.

I guess most of the Clairette Blache still being produced goes into blends with other more fresh and fruity grape sorts. I think I discovered a rarity.

I wonder if I should drive back tomorrow and buy a few bottles. Otherwise, I would have to wait for another year until they are back at the Christmas market at Monschau.

Well, there are rarities that are much harder to find than Clairette Blache wine: Can somebody please give me a decant of vintage Guerlain Vetiver?

Find Les Clairettes here: www.domainelapierrelaine.com/

Apicius, I'm sorry my dear, I will not share my vintage Guerlain Vetiver.

Time to continue the Wine of the Day thread...

Two days ago, I set off for the Mosel valley. It's a few hours to go by car, but you can enjoy a beautiful rural scenery. The weather was promising - I like the late summer sun, and that magic Indian summer mood. A very suitable perfume that brings together the freshness of summer with the earthy notes of autum is Hermès' "Eau de Pamplemousse Rose", and it was a good choice for my short holiday trip. It has a quite opulent top and heart note of pink grapefruit, and you can hardly find any other perfume where this note is celebrated so explicitly - Ellena's puristic style!

Would I discover a wine just as straightforward yet pleasing as this perfume?

My relation to Mosel Riesling wines is a bit complicated. In fact, Mosel Riesling was the wine of my childhood. My parents and me used to drive there on Sunday, and we never came back without a box or two of delicious Riesling. However, our passion calmed down during the 1990's. That was the time when Parker points became important to German winemakers, and they would tell you how perfect their wines would fit now to the light and modern mediterrean cuisine. As if anybody had Riesling with his pizza instead of a cheap Orvieto or Pinot Grigio from the supermarked!

IMHO, Riesling and the so-called international style do not go together well. The Riesling grape contains a lot of fruit - or acidity - much more than all the Chardonnays, Pinot Blancs and Pinot Gris' have. I presume, in order to make Riesling resemble a cheap Italian Pinot Grigio the winemakers shortened the time that the mash was allowed to stay on the grapes. They diminished the fruitiness but also a lot of taste went away.

The Riesling grape is known to interact with the terroir (the soil where it is growing) more intense than other wine grapes. In fact, many "Weinlagen" (terroirs) in the Mosel valley were designed to bring out different characters of Riesling according to the geological characteristics.

One place that we particularly liked was the small village Ürzig. Their main terroir is named "Ürziger Würzgarten" (Ürzig's spice garden). When you walk past the vinyards, you can see that parts of the stones and rubble in the soil has a red colour. In addition to the usual weathered shale that you find in the Mosel valley, some iron is incorporated, and they call it "Rotliegendes" (red shale). If the winemaker allows all the taste to go into the wine that the grapes can provide, the "Ürziger Würzgarten" is a Riesling that can easily be discriminated from most of the surrounding terroirs.



So, where to buy?

I parked my car near the river and strolled through the village. Winemaking in the Mosel valley is mostly family business. The winemakers all have a little display cabinet on the outside of their houses, and if you are interested, you simply knock on the door...

But I was clueless. The last thing I wanted was a yuppie winemaker who would tell me about the medals he had won in Toronto or Sydney. One cabinet displayed a press article: "... also this year the winemaker so-and-so shows that he is on a good way from a rather opulent to a finer and more elegant style" - No, not here.

Finally, I finished my round and came back to my car. Just opposite, I could see the backyard of a winemaker's house. Two very old gents were sitting together and had a little chat. Well, old winemakers tend to be conservative...

I was led into the cellar where the old gentleman produced one bottle after another from a fridge. Just like in a decent perfume shop: at the vitners' houses you can try before you buy. After about ten samples, my decision was made:



No, this Spätlese is not dry. Traditionally made Riesling wines can be a bit tough if they are dry. Some sweetness is needed to balance the fruit. And I was lucky that some older wines were still in stock: my 2007 Riesling already has that distinct mature taste, and its "top note" is flowery, opulent, amiable with a very slight honey touch - a nice contrast to its fruit. In one aspect it is light: it contains only 8.5 % alcohol. According to our wine laws, winemakers are not allowed to add extra sugar for the higher qualities such as Spätlese. It all has to come from the grapes.

I think I had a lucky day. Finding a good wine that suits your taste can sometimes be just as difficult as finding a good perfume!