Merry Christmas everybody ... avec Pierre Frick Rot-Murlé Pinot Noir 2018, Alsace

For another precariously unusual (and painfully pragmatically organized) Christmas – the second in a row - this Pinot from one of France's godfathers of Vin Naturel might be just the suitable choice for such an "undertaking". Challenging wine, in challenging times ... if I may put it like this! The colour of the Rot-Murlé Pinot Noir 2018 by Pierre Frick was astonishingly dark and not so astonishingly hazy. Almost a bit faint. It's nose showed simmering raspberry puree, much more chilled red currants, a lot of black pepper, sesame and really dominant fragrances of muscat. Unfortunately some acetone as well. Not to forget traces of choucroute and not all too well done bitter'ish dolma. I know, the last two - well, actually three - were a little bit "tricky". Let's call ist character! Fortunately the last two character attributes eased over the hours. Acetone choosed to stay and muscat prevailed big time! Same for the tongue. A lot of muscat, cloves, pimpernel, gherkins, resinous pine branches and the already mentioned evident whiff of acetone. The actual fruit appeared lean sappy and surprisingly boiled. Maybe the vintage?! It was quite hot in 2018 after all. Again some warm raspberry impressions and additional aromas which reminded me of kitschy Amarena cherries. Disclaimer: absolutely not a big fan of Amarena cherries. The acid was quite alive and very kicking. Surely not surprising at all – unfortunately in this wine, at this very moment it appeared to be far to erratic for my taste. Well, such a wild combination of warm'ish ripe fruit, sharp nuances of muscat and sesame paired with rather challenging vigerous-sour acid „generated“ a very remarkable and most certaily challenging expierience I actually d'like to miss - hence quite suitable for challenging 2021! So la-la*** at best! Unfortunately! Because other wines of Domaine Pierre Frick – especially Pinot Gris (yes, I am not kidding!) - impressed me on several occasions.
Anyway, Merry Christmas everybody!!!