Heiner Sauer, Weißburgunder Kabinett trocken, 2009
This humble review is actually a double tribute. First, to wines that don't dazzle the nose or titillate the palate so much as enable food to shine by their ready availability, selfless service and smooth background operation. We Germans call them "bread and butter-wines". The kind of wine that you buy by the case and whose steady supply you take for granted, so much that it is only with the final bottle that you get round to properly appreciate (and review) it. Because of that, this is also a tribute to that specially cherished sixth bottle.
So here's to the very last taste of Heiner Sauer's more-than-serviceable 2009 Pfalz Pinot Blanc that I will ever have:
Straw colour, a chalky-apply nose, with subtle hints of raw pumpkin and cantaloupe melon as well. Bone dry, with very clean and fine-grained fruit on the palate, slim and elegant in structure. Surprisingly polished and obviously made with great care, this just lacks a little length on the finish to be a truly notable wine. Add to all that a very palatable and liver-friendly alcohol content of just 12 %, and you know why I'm sorry indeed to have seen the last of it.