Chateau LaFayette Reneau Pinot Noir 2013, Finger Lakes New York

I have sent my tongue along the Hudson River. I've sent it to Long Island – where by the way the best wines in the Empire State might come from - but that's just my opinon … and even more scary might be the fact that these pretty convinving potations were made from, errr from … I almost not dare to type it: Mmm ... Merlot! Whatever, today I am glad to send my tongue to the Finger Lakes betweeen Syracuse, Buffalo, the outback of north Pennsylvania and mighty Lake Ontario. Of course it is not the first time I let my tongue venture in this area. I had a few fairly good Rieslings, some solid Chardonnay, one or two interesting over-peppery Cabernet Sauvignons and wines from unmentioned varietals I actually don't want to try all too often. Anyway, but I've never had a fairly good Pinot Noir, although quite a lot of producers offer wines made from this finest of the finest. Most Pinots I had where easy-drinking fruit-driven at best, quite often displeasingly sugary and unfortunately without exception rather thin representatives of their kind. Today I'll have a Pinot Noir from Chateau LaFayette Reneau from the southeastern slopes of Lake Seneca. Lafayette Reneau was established in 1985 by Dick and Betty Reno. Like so many other winelovers all over the world they decided to go one step further. Not just collecting and drinking. They wanted more. Since then, their main focus lies on wines made from Riesling and Chardonnay from gravely loam soils. Today's Pinot originated from the same gravely loam. After harvest and fermentation it was aged for 12 months in new and used French, Hungarian and American oak barrels then racked together in a tank as well as filtered and stabilized. So, let's give it a try ...

Vinařství Krásná Hora Pinot Noir 2015, Morava

I love Prague! I still do … as it seems! Especially in summer! A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to reaffirm this love. I can't really tell you why exactly I love this surely beautiful city so much. Because beauty isn't everything! There are tons of beautiful places I've been to and many of them did not impress me that much. Perhaps it is the usual daze generated by highly unsensible amounts of cakes, coffee and high-voltage Absinth which might soften my ever critical personality. Noooo, I don't think sooo. I am not as critical as many people d'like to think. So, I assume it is this unusually relaxed – at least unusually relaxed for a large central European city, tranquil, serene and slightly morbid touch to this place which makes it so appealing to me. Well, of course tranquil and serene apart of those well known hords of bachelors from Germany, Britain and other palces in their Borat like swim suits and their slightly louder form of unconcious multilateral-communication. These performances are not so enormously appealing, I think. And there is  Franz and my everlasting love for his stories. And little Krtek the hero of my childhood. And, and, and ... So, I guess there are plenty of reasons to love Prague, but what on earth has this to do with wine!? Well, nothing at all! Or almost nothing at all! Well, in Prague I had the chance to hunt down a couple of bottles of Czech Pinot Noir which isn't that easy to find outside the country! And today I'd like to share the first of these bottles. Thanks to my total inability in the Czech language - by the way a very difficult language - I won't be able to jibber-jabber all to much about today's Pinot. What I can tell you is that it was produced by Vinařství Krásná Hora in Morava, more precise from Starý Poddvorov region, in the very south-east of the Czech Republic alongside the border to Austria and Slovakia. Krásná Hora is a very small family winery with approx. 5 ha. It was established in 2005 and produces wines from various Burgundian varietals as well as Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Muscat, Traminer and Zweigelt. All grapes are cultivated in accordance with organic principles and were grown on loess dominated soils. My Pinot Noir was aged in used oak barrels for round about 12 months. I guess, that is enough.Let's get started ...