Saturday, January 18th from 2 to 5 p.m. — Free to the public – Join us this and every Saturday for our weekly free wine tasting! This week’s tasting will revolve around wines from the Pinot family of grapes. There’s white Pinot (aka Pinot Blanc), red Pinot (aka Pinot Noir), and grey Pinot (Pinot Gris), and all of these variations are basically mutations of the same grape. We’ll let you taste an example of each and talk to you about the grapes and thier characteristics. Stop by, taste some wines, expand your wine knowledge, and have fun with us!
1. 2012 Alois Lageder Riff Pinot Grigio (Tre Venezie, Italy): Alois Lageder is regarded as one of the great producers of Italy’s Alto Adige zone, and for this wine, he selects fruit from his large and diverse list of high quality growers. The resulting wine is one of the best Pinot Grigio values we’ve ever come across. Ripe and nicely textured, with fresh apple, pear, peach and floral notes, this is a really nice interpretation of Pinot Grigio.
2. 2012 Meyer Fonné Edelzwicker (Alsace, France): Felix Meyer is one of the rising stars of Alsace, and his Edelzwicker (field blend) is absolutely stunning. Importer Kermit Lynch discovered this wine while tasting with Daniel Ravier, the winemaker at Domaine Tempier, and the two were blown away at the first, dazzling sip. A blend of 60% Pinot Blanc, 15% Muscat, 15% Chasselas, and 10% Riesling, this highly fragrant, dry, textured white bursts out of the glass with notes of golden apple, white peach, honeysuckle and mineral.
3. 2012 Stemmari Pinot Noir (Sicily, Italy): Pinot Noir from Sicily? We were very suspect when one of our favorite wine reps said this was one of the best value Pinot Noirs he’d ever tasted, but once we tasted it, all of our doubts faded quickly. Part of the large Feudo Arancio family of wines, this is a juicy, soft, fruit driven expression of Pinot Noir with a nice mix or red fruits and plum.