Vinography Unboxed: Week of 7/28/24

Hello and welcome to my weekly dig through the pile of wine samples that show up asking to be tasted. I’m pleased to bring you the latest installment of Vinography Unboxed, where I highlight some of the better bottles that have crossed my doorstep recently.

This past week included a wide range of wines, so let’s get started with a classic expression of the Mosel Valley, Dr. Loosen’s Urziger Wurtzgarten Grosses Gewachs Alte Reben Riesling. German wine names can be somewhat overwhelming for the uninitiated, so let’s break this one down a little. The easy bit is Riesling, of course. Then we move to Urziger Wurtzgarten, which is the name of the vineyard. Actually the vineyard’s name is Wurtzgarten (“spice garden”) and it is near the town of Urzig, so the spice garden of Urzig. Alte Reben means old vines, and in this case, these are very old indeed. This parcel of vines is named Urglück, and they are 120 years old, planted on their own roots in the red volcanic sandstone that sets this vineyard apart from the generally slate-dominated landscape of the Mosel valley.

Volcanic sandstone can sound a bit of an oxymoron to the geologically inclined. Sandstone is a sedimentary rock, and not igneous (or volcanic). But when small particles of volcanic material accumulate and are then later compressed by layers of stone above them, they can become what is known as volcanic sandstone. Finally, there’s the designation of Grosses Gewachs, which means “Great Growth” and according to German wine law, to receive that designation, a wine must be made from a Grand Cru site (which the Germans call a Grosse Lage) and it must be made in a dry style with no more than 9 grams per liter of residual sugar. If you’re interested in what really great Riesling tastes like, I suggest you track down a bottle of this stuff.

This week I received a set of wines from a young winemaker named Jonathan Walton, whose day job includes assistant winemaker at Two Shepherds. Jonathan has recently started his own label, Glassmaker Wine Co., and since I like the Two Shepherds wines a lot, I was excited to try his wines. He describes his skin-contact Sauvignon Blanc as “tangerine laser beams,” which made me laugh, but is a fairly apt description. It’s a fun, orange interpretation of the grape. His Chardonnay from Cienega Valley has a nice hint of resin to it, and his glou-glou style light red wine from Lodi has a nice mix of berry and earth flavors with a good grip. If you enjoy low-intervention wines, you might want to check out Glassmaker.

I also recently received a set of wines from organic and biodynamic micro-negociant Arnaud Boué in Burgundy. This week I’m recommending his Coteaux Bourgignon white, a blend of Pinot Blanc and Aligoté, their Nuits-Saint-Georges, and their Côte-de-Nuits Villages wine. Unfortunately, these wines seem hard to find online in the US, in terms of buying a bottle.

Speaking of Pinot Noir, I received the latest bottling from Kendric Vineyards in Marin County, which is nervy and bright, and, like most of Stewart’s wines, quite fairly priced, especially in the world of cool-climate Pinot Noir.

I always enjoy winemaker Bibi Graetz‘s interpretation of Sangiovese, especially in recent years, as the wines have become (to my memory at least) brighter, more lithe, and more restrained. The Colore bottling is a blend of three vineyards, including the Graetz holding of Lamole, which is a very old vineyard trained in the albarello style (also known as head-trained or bush-vines) at 620 meters of altitude. Graetz, a self-taught artist-turned-winemaker thinks of Colore as the highest expression of his estate.

It’s wrong to suggest that wars ever have a silver lining at all, so horrific are they. But one of the things that the war in Ukraine has produced is a much higher visibility for the country’s wine industry, which has suffered greatly along with the rest of the country. I’m happy to be…