Even-mice-can-become-snooty-wine-experts
Unsatisfied with the number of reasons people have to hate rodents already, scientists at Japan's
Hiroshima University have taught mice to be wine snobs. After being trained to pick red
wine over other kinds the mice were taught to
distinguish between brands. From the article: "We examined performance of mice in discrimination of liquor odors
by Y-maze behavioral assays. Thirsty mice
were initially trained to choose the odor of
a red wine in the Y-maze. After successful training (>70% concordance for each trained mouse), the individual mice were
able to discriminate the learned red wine
from other liquors, including white wine, rosé wine,
sake, and plum liqueur."
Germany's Pinot Trio March 2, 2011
Germany = Riesling
right? Well German’s Pinot Trio: Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris & Pinot
Blanc begs to differ.
It is far
from easy to produce good Pinot Noir anywhere, but it is even more difficult
in Germany
due to its climate. Hence I was not the only taster surprised by the quality
of many of the wines there. Still in the competitive global market the
price/performance aka value was not compelling. Oregon offers far more and even New Zealand and California
is better value. Perhaps these growers are taking the long view and believe
this will change over the next 50 years as global warming trends continue.
So why am
I writing about this now and not waiting? Primarily because of one
interesting discovery: Classically, students of German wine first learn about
the different sugar levels (at harvesting) such as Kabinet, Spatese etc. but
perhaps no more. Here several of the new younger generation of wine makers
preferred international labels such as “Reserve”, “*”, and “***” ratings. I
wonder how much of my previous German wine studies will become as obsolete as
knowing how to conduct commerce in East Germany -
no longer relevant in the 21st century?
DOES
PRICE MATTER?
It
appears that it does. My two favorite wines were also coincidentally the most
expensive poured.
The Best
wine, voted 3-1, was Schmitt Sohne
2007 Markus Molitor Pinot Noir Graacher Himmelreich *** Mosel $150.
Rudi Wiest Selections (2008 Meyer-Noir
Dry “S” Estate Ahr ($80) was my runner up. They also offer a drinkable
popular wine Pinot Noir Dry “Hooked!” Baden
for just $12.90.
The best
Pinot for aging may be Weingut
Bernard Huber’s 2007 Pinor Noir “Reserve” Widenstein $80. I tasted their
1990 Pinot Noir “Reserve” no longer for sale; it aged nicely offering
reasonable complexity. It is not surprising that a 700 year old winery knows
a thing or two about aging!
WHITE
PINOT NOIR
One clear
favorite among the white wine lovers was the unique white Pinot Noir of Alde Gott Winzer, an inexpensive 2009
Pinot Noir Blanc de NOIR Dry.
Please visit and enjoy my new wine website at http://www.afund.com/wine and
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Thank you
Henry Weingarten
WEINGARTEN
32 West 39th Street 12th Floor
New York, NY 10018-3810
(646) 278-4155 (212) 949 7275
Fax (212) 608 6964 (212) 691-1882