by Patrick Ogle
Stefan Vetter Sylvaner 2014 is a great introduction to the varietal. I did this ass backward. I took a sip than said to myself
"Dammit...I should have sniffed." Once I taste anything I get on the nose is sort of compromised. There is something of what
I would call honeysuckle flower, what you smell in the south on a warm afternoon. The first taste sensation I had was red apple, with green apple following hard on the heels of that initial taste.There is an unsurprising hint of citrus and citrus pith here too which came to me later. The acidity and tartness sort of lurks. It wasn't the first thing I noticed.
Initially acidity and tartness was less pronounced than expected. Expectations about wine are often confounding. Thinking "a wine from region a should be like this" or "a wine from region b should be like that" isn’t necessarily always going turn out to be accurate. Also sometimes, like I did here you notice other things and think, "the acidity here isn't so high." A sip later you change your mind. This is a German wine and while I haven't had too many sylvaners but I expected
more acidity and I expected more citrus and less body.
Now if you've spent years tasting and sniffing wines for your job in a fine dining establishment ? Maybe this is less true. But so what. If you are not a fine dining server how you explore wines is different from those exalted professionals. Also?
What I taste, what you taste and what Robert Parker tastes are likely all different. As I've mentioned before I love tasting rooms where they employees won't tell you their opinions; what matters is what you get. When I write about this I am telling you to not be afraid of drinking wines with unfamiliar grapes.
Sylvaner likely comes from Central Europe. As many of the grapes I write about it has been derided as boring, neutral and undistinguished. BUT, as also is often the case, the real issue is the care winemakers take with the grape. Sure there ARE grapes that produce iffy wines in general.
And Stefan Vetter takes great care with this and all his wines. One place you can find Vetter wines is at Chambers Wines in New York City. They have descriptions on a number of Vetter wines and of Vetter himself HERE.
Stefan Vetter Sylvaner 2014 is a great introduction to the varietal. I did this ass backward. I took a sip than said to myself
"Dammit...I should have sniffed." Once I taste anything I get on the nose is sort of compromised. There is something of what
I would call honeysuckle flower, what you smell in the south on a warm afternoon. The first taste sensation I had was red apple, with green apple following hard on the heels of that initial taste.There is an unsurprising hint of citrus and citrus pith here too which came to me later. The acidity and tartness sort of lurks. It wasn't the first thing I noticed.
Initially acidity and tartness was less pronounced than expected. Expectations about wine are often confounding. Thinking "a wine from region a should be like this" or "a wine from region b should be like that" isn’t necessarily always going turn out to be accurate. Also sometimes, like I did here you notice other things and think, "the acidity here isn't so high." A sip later you change your mind. This is a German wine and while I haven't had too many sylvaners but I expected
more acidity and I expected more citrus and less body.
Now if you've spent years tasting and sniffing wines for your job in a fine dining establishment ? Maybe this is less true. But so what. If you are not a fine dining server how you explore wines is different from those exalted professionals. Also?
What I taste, what you taste and what Robert Parker tastes are likely all different. As I've mentioned before I love tasting rooms where they employees won't tell you their opinions; what matters is what you get. When I write about this I am telling you to not be afraid of drinking wines with unfamiliar grapes.
Sylvaner likely comes from Central Europe. As many of the grapes I write about it has been derided as boring, neutral and undistinguished. BUT, as also is often the case, the real issue is the care winemakers take with the grape. Sure there ARE grapes that produce iffy wines in general.
And Stefan Vetter takes great care with this and all his wines. One place you can find Vetter wines is at Chambers Wines in New York City. They have descriptions on a number of Vetter wines and of Vetter himself HERE.
RSS Feed