Guys, let me tell
you something! As you all – well, probably – know! At the moment
I am working off some hyper autochthonous and scarce grape varietal
stuff. One, for a start, from each grand wine growing nation. So far
I had this Prunelart fellow from Galliac in France and a Sardenian
called Nieddera! Today, I'd like to taste a Teutone wine made from
an at least equally hyper-autochthonous and rare grape varietal! And now to the
telling part! It was quite an unexpected difficult task to detect a
varietal which complys with my specific and of course super
subjective requirements! Well, for instance there is Blauer Gänsfüßer from Pfalz
region. Unfortunately this fellow is also still scarcely resident in
Jura under the name Argant. So, not suitable! Another one, this time
from Württemberg, could have been highly suitable. The name? Blauer
Affenthaler! Unfortunately this stuff is close to impossible to buy.
Just a few vines left. Pity! Wines from much better distributed varietals
would have been Blauer Silvaner from Franken or Gelber Orleans from
Pfalz / Rheingau or even a rather famous and super ancestral
varietal called Heunisch. But these would have been kinda boring, far too
well known and already rather well covered and most importantly probably
far labour-intensive to procure for a lazy guy like me. So, I just popped over
to my extended neighbourhood and grabbed a bottle of the even more
scarce Urban or Blauer Urban. About a hundert years ago Urban was a
pretty wide spread grape varietal in the South-West of Germany, in
Northern Italy (probably its origin), in a very few areas of Austria
and Hungary. Today, only two wine producers offer pure “monovarietal”
wines made from Urban. One of these producers is the well renowned
winery of Graf Adelmann in Württemberg region. Enough typing for today! Here we go, let me introduce you Urban ...
6:11 pm (popped and
poured)
Colour: transparent,
mostly dark ruby, to the rim a bit faintly dilute brick cola like
Nose: plenty of tart
almond slivers, extraordinarily smoky, a bit peppery, strong touch of
nutmeg, downright cool and well equipped with fragrances of black
currant
Taste: very lean and
almost kinda crisply fresh, bone dry, well pampered with curt acid, plenty of
distinct smoke, tart almond slivers all and intense nutmeg flavours
over the tongue, frutiful character is dominated by vital, a bit
pithy, very cool and slender (not thin) flavours of black currant,
overall rather herbal and quite a bit ethereal without being
alcoholic; so far full of strong – until now a bit juvenile
repelling - character
11:02 pm (a couple of hours and a piano concert later)
Nose: more balanced and not as tart as well as harsh as before, supplementary traces of rosehip and a few indications of red berries
Taste: a bit more round and settled, by far not as mildly repellenet as before - especially the nutmeg tamed substantially, still a rather tart and tough fellow; here, too some starting flavours which remind me of rosehips, especially the seeds, and diffuse red berries - perhaps red elder and marsh calla - anyway, as I mentioned several times: it is tart business
5:59 pm (the day after)
Nose: those red berries are appearing a bit more distinct and slightly more fruitful, smoke is still very present; I dare to say the nose "improved" overnight ... a bit
Taste: today there are more tart or bitter liquorice'y flavours, the acid has integarted a bit more - still enormously vital, those berries did not evolve like the nose - however there is some shy savoury fruitful improvement; the rest seems to very much the same
Well, this Urban shows plenty of straightforwardness, perhaps a bit stubborn and super exaggerated self-confident one, with character and vigor. Its distant kinship to Vernatsch / Trollinger / Schiava is rather evident, however I think there are more darker aromatics, more sternness, far more herbal character and more vigorous challenging complexity to this stuff. For me a still solid so la-la*** redster for curious auto' wine lovers.
Nose: more balanced and not as tart as well as harsh as before, supplementary traces of rosehip and a few indications of red berries
Taste: a bit more round and settled, by far not as mildly repellenet as before - especially the nutmeg tamed substantially, still a rather tart and tough fellow; here, too some starting flavours which remind me of rosehips, especially the seeds, and diffuse red berries - perhaps red elder and marsh calla - anyway, as I mentioned several times: it is tart business
5:59 pm (the day after)
Nose: those red berries are appearing a bit more distinct and slightly more fruitful, smoke is still very present; I dare to say the nose "improved" overnight ... a bit
Taste: today there are more tart or bitter liquorice'y flavours, the acid has integarted a bit more - still enormously vital, those berries did not evolve like the nose - however there is some shy savoury fruitful improvement; the rest seems to very much the same
Well, this Urban shows plenty of straightforwardness, perhaps a bit stubborn and super exaggerated self-confident one, with character and vigor. Its distant kinship to Vernatsch / Trollinger / Schiava is rather evident, however I think there are more darker aromatics, more sternness, far more herbal character and more vigorous challenging complexity to this stuff. For me a still solid so la-la*** redster for curious auto' wine lovers.
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