A list of all wines reviewed on the Wine Rambler with 13% alcohol by volume.
Nicely transparent cherry red colour (good. No tampering and pampering by adding juice from more colour-intensive grape varieties here)
This wine smells seriously good - a real pinot nose of raspberries, sour cherries, and a hint of manure (which is also good - embrace it).
From Baden's interesting, but little known sub-region of Markgräflerland,an area between Freiburg and Basel, named after the ancestral territory of the margraves of Baden, comes another unexpectedly serious, yet fairly priced Pinot Noir:
Surprisingly dark and dense cherry red.
Concentrated smell of earthy cherries, a few plums and leafy forest floor. Very very promising.
It has been quite a while since I tasted the sibling of this wine, the Graacher Himmelreich Spätburgunder of the same vintage; so sadly, I cannot really compare them against each other. What I can say though is that both are excellent Pinot Noirs.
The Trabacher Schloßberg ('Schloßberg' means 'castle mountain') comes in the massive bellied bottle Molitor use for their burgundy style wines. The Pinot has great colour, a very nice, intense earthy brown. The nose is gentle, very autumnal, but also fleshy; it showcases black truffle, rotten leaves, a hint of tobacco and black cherries, with a pleasant bit of vanilla and cocoa.
Light, clean colour. Just seconds after the cork comes out of the bottle, your nose tells you that this (dry) wine is a little different from the sweet Haarts. The mineral is more steely, focused, with light melon, fresh acidity, less herbs than usual.
Cherry red, with a purple edge
Smells vaguely of sour cherries and green wood, a little unpleasant funky, sweaty component as well.
Cherries again in the mouth, plums maybe, some sweetness, but also bitterness and a rough edge of tannin. Somehow, the fruit doesn't quite come through.
This has been one of our pasta wines for a few years, and it has done okay, but it doesn't deserve unwavering loyalty: Hard to believe there are no fresher, more focused Italian reds for under 5 €.
I have been looking forward to opening this bottle for almost a year, ever since I bought it at the winery in June 2008. From the tasting, I remembered that I liked it a lot. And now I like it even more.
Tastes deeply, most interestingly of fleshy peach, tart , very cool somehow, herbal, but also of spicy vegetables (artichokes?). Very promising.
Very dry in the mouth, noble Riesling fruit with perfect acidity and great mineral after-taste, but this wine's signature is the 'cool' feeling on the palate, Gletschereis-Bonbons, you know them, and an almost sharp herbal intensity. It's like a herbal tincture on overheated skin.
From the winery with the silly name comes a surprisingly good wine: Complex, quite powerful smell of ripe apples and cantaloupe melons. A lot of apply fruit in the mouth, very ripe and concentrated, earthy minerality.
By the way, I caught on to them: the label says 0,5 grams of residual sugar are still in the wine. Shame on you. Did you think we wouldn't notice?
Cherry red, with an orange-brown rim.
Phantastic smell, finest red berries, sour cherries, dry autumn leaves, a nice sour touch.
A bit morbid and smoky in the mouth, like eating berries by a wood fire, enormous minerality.
A melancholy, touching wine with secrets, like a trail into the woods ("down from the door where it began..."). Loved every drop of it.
