by Patrick Ogle

This wine is a pet nat or Pétillant naturel. This is the method of making sparking wine that predates the method used to make Champagne. I won't get into the details of the differences . You can find that out HERE.

The video tells you what I think about this wine, Curated Mutations, by Liten Buffel in New York state. It is a mix of riesling and vidal blanc. It is unfiltered, gunky even. But if you like the style? You will like the wine.

What caught my eye here, aside from the label which is fabulous, was the fact they use vidal blanc. This is a hybrid grape, a crossing between a European wine grape and an American grape. American grapes are not generally the best option, to put it mildly, for making wine. Hybrids, however, can make some pretty nice wines in the right hands. Vidal blanc is well-known for its use in ice wine and is a crossing between one of the many "Seibel grapes" and ugni blanc (itself mostly known for it's use in brandy production).

Some sources-

Find out more about Liten Buffel HERE.
You can find out more about Vidal blanc at WIne-Searcher.

by Patrick Ogle

Libertine Wines' Acid Freak rosé is made from riesling and dolcetto. If that sounds a little odd it is because it is a teensy weensy bit odd.

Out of the gate the wine has cranberry, then raspberry with a bit of vinegar. It is a little a little funky with great , bright acid, as you might expect from the name. I say "this tastes like summer" about a lot of roses and this one really tastes like that but it is a great deal more interesting than the ocean of Provence rosés flooding the market. 

A dolcetta riesling co-fermentation is unlikely. You can read more about how it came to be on Wilamette Valley-based Libertine's website.  The fact that this is an odd mix does not mean this wine is, in any way, off putting or weird.  It is not. I cannot imagine anyone not liking this who enjoys rose. There are a number of such co-fermentations, sometimes with much more peculiar combinations of grapes, out there. Sometimes they veer toward red, other times are more obviously rosé. Once upon a time it was considered a BAD thing to mix red and white grapes (even though it was often done traditionally). These days orthodoxy isn't king and we are seeing more creative blends.

Even though it isn't traditional this co-fermentation makes sense. You get bright fruit from dolcetto but not much in the way of acid. Of course riesling BRINGS the acid. Riesling is one of the white grapes with the highest acidity. There is a lot of fruit here. One drinker thought it was sweet but that is likely the fruit masquerading as sweetness. The acid might cover a little but there isn't more than a small amount of sugar even if it is there.

Riesling gets its due. People who know realize it is one of the premiere grapes for white wine. Dolcetto is often regarded as a poor stepchild of the more famous reds from Piedmont.  This is unfair. Not every wine needs to be something you save for 20 years, nor does every wine have to rip your head of with its tannins.  Maybe wines like this will get people interested in their more traditional counterparts.

by Patrick Ogle

Maloof Wines Where Ya PJ's At?, Pinot Gris/Riesling 2018 is an easy drinking skin contact wine from Willamette Valley, Oregon.
 
A friend told me I would love this so I grabbed a bottle. I didn't read a word about it before the purchase but thought "Riesling and Pinot Gris?...White wine." It is a common white blend.

Nope, wrong.

When I poured "PJs" I was mildly surprised to see it was a skin contact wine, in this case a sort of "cloudy rose." Unlike "orange" wines this one isn't harsh or tannic;  it is a delicious and easy to drink wine. That said, I understand  that folks  who think the only good wines are Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir might not be able to get their minds around this. It is different. Yet it isn't different for the sake of being weird. It is for the sake of being a unique, different wine.

I always say that orange wines are food wines and this one isn't totally untrue here. It certainly would be a good food wine but this is a lot more of a friendly wine than many more traditional skin contact wines (I am likely to use skin contact and orange wine terms interchangeably; you can feel free to question this).

This wine has plum, grapefruit and less than ripe strawberries. This isn't strawberry flavoring taste this is straight up fresh strawberries. It is tart and acidic. Don't serve it too cold.

In some respects this reminds of wines like Les Skullions from Finca Parera but only a little. There are as many differences as similarities. I think it is just a certain indescribable vibe that caused this recollection (not to sound like a hippie or anything).

by Patrick Ogle

Chateau Grand Traverse, in Michigan, makes some excellent wines. Really. I am not kidding. People living in the area or who have traveled through may know this but this maybe isn't common knowledge. Ive had their gamay which was outstanding and a cab franc that I liked. I didn't write about either though and felt I was neglecting these fine Midwestern winemakers.

When I saw a bottle of their dry riesling I grabbed it.

The wine doesn't have the pronounced "petrol" scent most rieslings have but you won't mistake  for another varietal. I've never gotten this scent as really being "petrol" but I also have no other scent to use din describing riesling.

This wine seemed fruitier than some rieslings Ive had recently. However, the most recent rieslings Ive ingested have cost twice as much (or more) and been from Germany or Austria. This wine has different qualities. It is a different creature. It is also, mercifully different from the cheap West Coast rieslings you find in the super market too. This is dry with some viscosity and the high acidity you associate with riesling. It has some citrus and definite hints of pear. Good rieslings are excellent wines to pair with food and I kept thinking of all the things that would be delicious with this wine: seafood, Thai food, Indian food and even with your Thanksgiving dinner.

For $15 this is an excellent purchase. And this wine positively kills most of the other rieslings in its price range. It is a different style from the European versions and less cloying than some of the West Coast American versions.

Do not fear the Michigan wines! There are some bad ones but if you see "Chateau Grand Traverse"? Buy with confidence. I haven't had a bad wine from them yet.

Richter's Mülheimer Sonnenlay Riesling Brut 2008,  is a sekt made from riesling. This is a sparkling riesling. The first thing that often comes to mind with riesling is "sweet." While there are many sweet still rieslings (and I assume sparkling as well) this one is brut. Riesling is commonly used to make sparkling wine in Germany but it is less familiar to Americans as a sparkler.

As noted this wine is dry. Brut generally means less than 12 grams of sugar per liter. Extra brut is driest followed by: brut, extra dry, sec, demi-sec and doux.  This sekt has fine bubbles and a bit of that oily, petrol-y feel you get from rieslings. There is a hint of bitterness in the finish. It is made from ice wine, grapes left on the vine until they freeze.

This is a unique dry white sparkler. I couldn't name its fruit as I drank. In fact, I finished the whole bottle before I came to any determination. This seems like a pretty solid endorsement regardless. There is perhaps something of the apple in this wine, almost a reminder of some fine ciders.  Maybe a hint of some sort of mild stone fruit but  fruit  isn't this wine's most important feature.

The name "sekt" denotes a sparkling wine from Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and occasionally the term is may be applied in sparkling wines from other areas (although perhaps not officially). This wine is labeled "Deutscher Sekt" so all the grapes are grown in Germany.

In many cases grapes are imported to make sekt. Another thing to note about sekt is that much of it is made using the "charmat" method rather than the traditional method (as is done in Champagne). This wine uses the traditional method. There is, by the way, nothing wrong with the charmat/tank method; some fine wines are made using it.

A number of sources say nearly 90 percent of sekts use imported grapes and the charmat method meaning this wine is something of a rare creature in that. It is also a sparkler that stands out in it's price range.

$15-16