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!!!

Swick Wines Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2019, Willamette Valley

Haven't had all too many Pinots from Oregon lately! I guess it's about time to have my probably first veritable Natural Pinot Noir from the Willamette Valley. Not quite sure it is, however thinking of this, not so much is all too sure about this wine-sub-category anyway. Today my tongue is off to an old Christmas tree farm in Gaston in the northern part of the Willamette Valley. Actually not too far away from Portland. Just a hop south-west. In the mid 2000/2010s - took a while -  Joseph Swick, a native Oregonian, moved back to the Willamette Valley to start a wine business after working in wine retail and working several harvests around the globe. With help – mostly fruity help - from Ken Cancilla from Cancilla Vineyards Joe produced his first vinatge in 2008. Cancilla Vineyards plantings are mostly located in the elevated northern Patton Valley (500 – 600 ft.) on Melbourne soils - which is a very deep, well drained soil formation in residuum and colluvium weathered from siltstone and sandstone. The rather young vines (planted between: 1999-2005) for the 2019 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir have been cultivated in a wild mix of clones on very - not Mosel steep, but respectably steep - steep slopes. Now, I fear I might stress your attention with far too many details which I hardly - maybe a bit - understand myself, therefore only numbers: 667, 777, 114, 115 (Wädenswil) and 3309 as well as some 101-14 (Pommard). Okay, that was certainly enough stress … let's give it a go!

Right from the attic of the Pinot Universe: Barranco Oscuro El Pino Rojo 2016, Andalusia

This time we are off to the attic of the Pinot universe! Well, at least approx. 1400 m high vinyards in Andalusia's Sierra Nevada sounds pretty convincing that this might be actually the highest Pinot Noir there is. Perhaps there are some Pinothiasts in Yunnan or arable niches in Tibet with a few even higher Pinot Noir vines! Who know!? I don't, nor do I care! Today we are about 30 km south east of Granada on the southern foothills of the might Sierra Nevada in a district called Costa-Albondón. Lorenzo Valenzuela of Barranco Oscuro, son to founder Manuel Valenzuela – one of Spain's natrual wine pioneers, cultivates a broad vareity of mostly French grapes. Well, there is even some Riesling and some more classical Spaniards like Albarino or Tempranillo, too. Starting in the early 1980s, most vines have been planted on predominately slate'y soils at an elevation between 1280 to 1368 meters above sealevel. The vines for today's El Pino Rojo 2016 Pinot Noir have been planted in 1996 on a tiny strip of just 0.6 ha. Let's hold my theoretical input horeses and just give it a go ...

Alice et Olivier de Moor, Bourgogne Aligoté 2011

As far as I can remember, well you never know – wine and braincells don't get along that awfully well, my first 2011 Burg' so far! And my first Aligoté in two or three years! Probably not my favourite grape varietal!? The producers? Never ever heard of them before! Pretty embarrassing, I guess! Alice and Olivier de Moor are highly experienced and qualified oenologists who concentrate themselves on “minimum intervention wine” (or maybe even “Vin Naturel”)! After a few engagements in different wineries they established their own small estate in 1988 in the vicinity of Courgis/Chabils. All their wines are fermented with wild yeasts in approx. ten year old oak casks, are aged for approx. 11 months in neutral oak, don't get filtered, hardly sulphured and only sometimes fined. To me, this winery was a totally rencontre nouveau ! At first I thought they were Dutch dropouts or something like that! Well, not really correct!!! Let's see how my first 2011 was: