Maker's Table

Summer of Riesling

Prinz du Salm-Dalberg'sches Weingut
Schloss Wallhausen Riesling
2000
10% ABV | Price of current vintage: about $18–20

We don't know where we got this bottle, and we don't know when. We don't know how much we paid, and we couldn't find the price for this vintage or the current release. We only know that at some point we put a sticker on this bottle to "Open in 2010," and that it seemed like it might be just right for a hot night in New Hampshire.

These grapes were grown in the Nahe region on the oldest continuously owned family wine estate in Germany, dating to 1200 (terroir, baby). The land is now organically farmed—and likely was back then, too. Wines labeled "Schloss Wallhausen" are not from designated vineyards, so are not this producer's top quality, and this one is a simple Qualitätswein.

Still, it's a delight. Gold in the glass, it has a full, white-flowered nose with a bit of lime and faint petrol. On the palate there's apricot and light citrus, with good acidity and a mineral aspect that together balance its moderate sugar. It finishes very long, the stone fruit trailing into the stony distance.

It's hard to say what age has wrought upon this wine, beyond buyer's remorse: I wish we'd laid down more.

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Les Beaux Soldats de L'armée Terroiriste

This Saturday, winemaker Randall Grahm of Bonny Doon Vineyard will pour his wine and read from his new book, Been Doon So Long, at Dartmouth's Tuck School. We expect sixty-five enthusiastic business students to take a break from the rigors of the curriculum to enjoy these spectacular offerings.

The wine arrived today. I lined up the bottles, handsome footsoldiers in the army of terroir. Left to right:

Ca' del Solo Albariño 2008 ($20)
Le Cigare Blanc 2007 ($22)
Vin Gris de Cigare 2008 ($15)
Syrah "Le Pousseur" 2006 ($18)
Le Cigare Volant 2005 ($32)

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A Trip to the Rhône

Seven years ago on our honeymoon, my husband and I spent a long weekend in the Northern Rhône. We thought of it as a kind of a reconnaissance, a chance to test, and sample, the waters, and to get a sense of what tasting wine in France is like. My new article for Palate Press tells the story; Part I is published today. Read it on Palate Press »

Pain de Terroir

Shopping for groceries this evening, I noticed that one of my favorite local bakers, Red Hen Baking Company of Middlesex, Vermont, now offers a loaf made of Vermont-grown wheat. They call the bread "Cyrus Pringle" after the Charlotte, Vermont, botanist and wheat breeder who believed "Horticulture to be one of the most innocent and ennobling avocations of man."¹ The wheat in this bread hails from Aurora Farms and Gleason Grains, both of the Champlain Valley. (Read more about Red Hen's efforts here.)

It's terrific; a little sour, a little sweet, with a nutty, chewy crumb and a gnarled crust. The perfect loaf from my terroir.