by Patrick Ogle
Paul Anheuser's Blanc de Noir 2014 is a white pinot noir from Germany. The wine is an unusual and affordable white that may not appeal to everyone but certainly has its charms and its place.
When you pour this wine into the glass the first thing you notice is its lightness of color. Take a whiff of it and you may, incongruously, think of...cheese. Yes it has a strangely cheesy nose and this was not just my strange olfactory sense others noted the scent too. This sensation doesn’t translate into the taste of the wine.
The wine is light with a hint of sweetness, bit of honey when you hold the wine in your mouth. If you have to pick a fruit to hang on this wine you might come up with cherry—but there is nothing of the tartness of many types of cherry. You might, at first taste, also sense plum. But neither the plum nor the cherry is what you would really call red or black fruit here—imagine those cherry and plums that are less pigmented. Some might try this and think “It is sweeter than that?” but that would be the fruit. There is sugar here but the fruitiness is what amplifies that.
Pinot noir is usually a red wine obviously but you could make (almost) any grape into a white wine. Two of the main grapes used in making Champagne pinot noir and pinot meunier are red grapes. What gives the vast majority of red wines color is contact with red skins. When making a white wine with red grapes the juice is simply not left in contact with the skins. You will frequently find rose wines made from grapes that usually produce red wines (cabernet franc, blaufrankisch, zweigelt, pinot noir, mourvedre etc.).
I’ve read before that white pinots are big bodied golden colored wine. Perhaps they are but this one, while having some complexity isn’t; it is light in color and light to MAYBE medium in body. Hard to say that a wine that is less than 12 percent alcohol is even medium bodied but there is a sort of viscous sensation with this wine.
It is, all in all, an interesting wine for a hot day. It was not love at first sip but later, with some spicy food, the wine really came into its own. Try it with a dinner with some heat.
As a side note there are red grapes that produce red juice without skin contact. These are called teinturiers. They are rare and not, generally, highly regarded.
$14-16
Paul Anheuser's Blanc de Noir 2014 is a white pinot noir from Germany. The wine is an unusual and affordable white that may not appeal to everyone but certainly has its charms and its place.
When you pour this wine into the glass the first thing you notice is its lightness of color. Take a whiff of it and you may, incongruously, think of...cheese. Yes it has a strangely cheesy nose and this was not just my strange olfactory sense others noted the scent too. This sensation doesn’t translate into the taste of the wine.
The wine is light with a hint of sweetness, bit of honey when you hold the wine in your mouth. If you have to pick a fruit to hang on this wine you might come up with cherry—but there is nothing of the tartness of many types of cherry. You might, at first taste, also sense plum. But neither the plum nor the cherry is what you would really call red or black fruit here—imagine those cherry and plums that are less pigmented. Some might try this and think “It is sweeter than that?” but that would be the fruit. There is sugar here but the fruitiness is what amplifies that.
Pinot noir is usually a red wine obviously but you could make (almost) any grape into a white wine. Two of the main grapes used in making Champagne pinot noir and pinot meunier are red grapes. What gives the vast majority of red wines color is contact with red skins. When making a white wine with red grapes the juice is simply not left in contact with the skins. You will frequently find rose wines made from grapes that usually produce red wines (cabernet franc, blaufrankisch, zweigelt, pinot noir, mourvedre etc.).
I’ve read before that white pinots are big bodied golden colored wine. Perhaps they are but this one, while having some complexity isn’t; it is light in color and light to MAYBE medium in body. Hard to say that a wine that is less than 12 percent alcohol is even medium bodied but there is a sort of viscous sensation with this wine.
It is, all in all, an interesting wine for a hot day. It was not love at first sip but later, with some spicy food, the wine really came into its own. Try it with a dinner with some heat.
As a side note there are red grapes that produce red juice without skin contact. These are called teinturiers. They are rare and not, generally, highly regarded.
$14-16
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