Maximin Grunhaus Pinot Blanc 2017
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Enthusiast
Wine -
Suckling
James
Product Details
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Winemaker Notes
With global warming it has become possible to successfully grow Pinot varieties in the cool Mosel Valley. Sourced from the red slate Herrenberg vineyard, this sleek, racy, focused Pinot Blanc exhibits aromas and flavors of white flowers, yellow plums, beeswax and herbs.
Bone dry and imbued with invigorating acidity, this begs for fresh seafood like ceviche, cracked crab, or swordfish with dill.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
While delicate in body and alcohol, this elegant, dry Pinot Blanc offers a supple silken texture and crisply concentrated lemon and yellow-apple flavors. Its a refreshing easy-drinking wine with hints of caramel and smoked nut that linger on the finish. Enjoy now–2022.
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James Suckling
Plenty of pears and lemons. Medium-bodied with an animating yet discrete acidity. Drink now or in 2019 and 2020.
Other Vintages
2018-
Suckling
James
Approachable, aromatic and pleasantly plush on the palate, Pinot Blanc is a white grape variety most associated with the Alsace region of France. Although its heritage is Burgundian, today it is rarely found there and instead thrives throughout central Europe, namely Germany and Austria, where it is known as Weissburgunder and Alto Adige where it is called Pinot Bianco. Interestingly, Pinot Blanc was born out of a mutation of the pink-skinned Pinot Gris. Somm Secret—Chardonnay fans looking to try something new would benefit from giving Pinot Blanc a try.
Following the Mosel River as it slithers and weaves dramatically through the Eifel Mountains in Germany’s far west, the Mosel wine region is considered by many as the source of the world’s finest and longest-lived Rieslings.
Mosel’s unique and unsurpassed combination of geography, geology and climate all combine together to make this true. Many of the Mosel’s best vineyard sites are on the steep south or southwest facing slopes, where vines receive up to ten times more sunlight, a very desirable condition in this cold climate region. Given how many twists and turns the Mosel River makes, it is not had to find a vineyard with this exposure. In fact, the Mosel’s breathtakingly steep slopes of rocky, slate-based soils straddle the riverbanks along its entire length. These rocky slate soils, as well as the river, retain and reflect heat back to the vineyards, a phenomenon that aids in the complete ripening of its grapes.
Riesling is by far the most important and prestigious grape of the Mosel, grown on approximately 60% of the region’s vineyard land—typically on the desirable sites that provide the best combination of sunlight, soil type and altitude. The best Mosel Rieslings—dry or sweet—express marked acidity, low alcohol, great purity and intensity with aromas and flavors of wet slate, citrus and stone fruit. With age, the wine’s color will become more golden and pleasing aromas of honey, dried apricot and sometimes petrol develop.
Other varieties planted in the Mosel include Müller-Thurgau, Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) and Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc), all performing quite well here.