May 21, 2019

Review: Joseph Cattin Cremant d’Alsace Brut NV

Last month I wrote a review on Muré Cremant d’Alsace, it was the final selection in our quest to find an Alsatian sparkling for the wine list at work, but it wasn’t the only one we tried. There were at least two others, Camille Braun Cremant d’Alsace, a wine we’ve carried in the past, and Joseph Cattin Cremant d’Alsace. Okay, there’s no way this won’t sound like bragging, and if I’m being honest it kind of is, but any day you have to come into work and try multiple samples of one of your favorite styles of wine, well that, my friend, is a good day.

Domaine Joseph Cattin was founded in 1720 by François Cattin, a Swiss builder who relocated to the Alsatian village of Voegtlinshoffen. The winery has been passed down through the family for 11 generations to today, where it is operated by Jacques Cattin and his wife, Anaïs. They have more than 65 ha (160ish acres) of vineyard spread across 3 sites, near the villages of Voegtlinshoffen, Steinbach, and Colmar. Also, since I’m always judging producer’s online presence, it seems worth noting that Joseph Cattin has a well-designed, user friendly, website.

The wine is a blend of hand-harvested Pinot Blanc and Auxerrois grapes. More than some of the other cremant d’Alsace I’ve had in the past, this wine had a distinct tropical flavor for me. There was also a clear evolution of flavors as the wine crossed the palate, moving from crisp and fruity to a more biscuity/ yeasty flavor that is generally associated with autolysis. These bready flavors are often cited in sparkling wines produced in the traditional method, though to be honest I rarely taste them with the same intensity they are described in tasting notes. In the case of this wine, it is just the opposite; the producer’s tasting notes make no comment on flavors associated with autolysis, though I found them more prominent here than in most Champagne I’ve encountered.

While we ultimately went with the Muré Cremant d’Alsace for our wine list, I would have happily chosen the Joseph Cattin. The goal for us was to find something reminiscent of Champagne, and we did that. Texture was an important component in our decision and the Muré Cremant d’Alsace was able to deliver a creamier mousse, which gave it the advantage. However, if our goal had been to teach to the nuances of sparkling wine, I believe Joseph Cattin would have had the advantage (at least for me) based on the structure of its flavor. If you’ve never experienced these biscuity, bready, yeasty, flavors in a wine, I’d recommend picking up a bottle.

Review
April 17, 2019

Review: Muré Cremant d’Alsace Brut NV

It’s no secret that I love wines from Alsace, so I was thrilled when we started carrying this cremant at work. With the exception of Champagne, I don’t think there is another sparkling wine that holds up to what is being produced in this region. Personally, I prefer the range of flavors I find here to those of any other sparkling wine.

The Muré family has been producing wines for 12 generations, going back to 1650 in Alsace. They are certified biodynamic by Demeter and organic by Ecocert. Grapes are picked by hand and their juice is pressed from whole bunches, on the stems. Their website has a wealth of information, including an annual report on harvest conditions. It’s a great place to geek out while sipping on a glass.

This wine is a blend of Pinot Blanc, Auxerrois, Riesling, Pinot Gris, and Pinot Noir, a pretty standard line-up of Alsatian grapes. It is the least expensive of their sparkling wines, but has a fascinating texture, almost like I was biting into an apple. I found flavors of nectarine, apricot, pear, apple, wet stone, honey, and a touch of citrus. Structurally, it was dry, with high acid, playful, creamy, effervescence and a long finish.

We wanted a wine that would sit comfortably between Prosecco and Champagne, in terms of price point. I’ve not been as impressed with cremant from other regions in France, and have had terrible luck with Cava. When it was suggested that we might, once again, carry a Cremant d’Alsace, I was thrilled. Of the 2-3 we tasted, this was the only one that displayed a texture creamy enough to set it apart from our Prosecco and rival our reserve list Champagne. This is an incredibly food friendly wine that would pair with a wide variety of dishes or to just enjoy after a rough day of work, because you deserve something nice in your life, damn it.

Review
February 27, 2019

Wine Diary: Domaine Gérard Metz Harmony 2015

Alsace is one of my favorite wine regions and has been since I first got into wine. In fact, Alsace may be one of the reasons I developed such a strong interest in wine. It’s one of the first things I look for when I walk into any shop and, frequently, it’s what I’m walking out with. That’s kind of what happened here. I was Augusta Food and Wine in Lincoln Square, purchasing a Croatian wine, when this bottle caught my eye. It’s unusual for me to pick up more than one bottle at a time, but when it comes to certain regions, I’m always trying to experience and learn more. Plus, it looked like a fun label to photograph.

If you do any amount of reading about Alsace you will quickly be confronted with the word “Edzelwicker,” which translates to “Noble Blend.” Despite the lofty sounding definition, it’s an informal term used to describe any blended white wine from that region. Although this wine is not labeled as such, it was tagged as this by Augusta on the shelf. Actually, the note commented that this style of blend is what is commonly referred to as “Edzelwicker.” Other than crémant, I really haven’t had many blends from Alsace, so I was intrigued and wanted to learn more.

Harmony is a blend of Silvaner, Pinot Blanc, Muscat, and Riesling. The producer’s website is, unfortunately, antiquated and, although it works as intended most of the time, it was unable to load the page devoted to this particular wine, instead giving me a loading screen of dubious integrity. After five minutes of, ” Page en cours de préparation,” I knew the page was never truly going to be prepared and moved on.

The importer’s website does list this label alongside one of the shortest blurbs I’ve ever seen. Seriously, my tasting note in Vivino was longer than their write-up. It’s also worth noting that the information I’ve gathered is for the 2014 vintage, they have no notes for this current blend, leaving me to assume the information is the same. However, from previous experience, blends like this tend to vary from year to year depending on the harvest.

From what I can gather, this is a more casual drinking wine from G. Metz. Food friendly, with a good amount of acid, lemon, and stone fruit flavors. Harmony seems to be perfect name for this wine, because it is superbly balanced. There was an interesting note in the aroma, a smell I thought was best described as “oily,” which sounds unpleasant, but wasn’t. While I didn’t find the wine to be terribly complex, it would be a great choice for a casual wine to have with dinner or share with friends.

I started this blog because I wanted to learn more about wine, bottles like this can be frustrating with so little information available online. Even the small amount of information I was able to find seems outdated and potentially inaccurate. In these moments it’s easy to let this frustration get the better of you, but that’s when you have to remember what the wine is for, close the laptop, and just enjoy the glass.

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Pinot Blanc Alsace white wine bottle
October 29, 2018

Wine Diary: Chateau d’Orschwihr Pinot Blanc 2015

Similar to Nemean wine, there’s something about Alsatian wines that just makes me want to put the rest of the world on hold. So, when I stumbled across this Pinot Blanc at Gene’s Sausage Shop, I knew it was time to clear my calendar.

According to their website, Chateau d’Orschwihr dates back to 1049 and is known to have been producing wine since the seventeenth century. The vineyard has been family owned since the 1950’s and have made a strong effort to produce wine sustainably, they touch on everything from fertilizer use to additives and even their recycling program.

Bollenberg, referenced on the label, is a hill that sits between the communes of Orschwihr, Rouffach, and Westhalten. It is home to a small church that dates back to the 6th century. It also, according to some sources I found, held significance for local Celts in the pre-Roman era. Some myths claim is was once a meeting place for witches, in fact, the church is sometimes referred to as the Chapel of Witches. Every August locals gather for a festival to burn an effigy of a witch.

Cat Wine Bottle Alsace France Pinot Blanc Chateau d'Orschwihr

As for the wine, this may be the first time I wasn’t absolutely blown away by a wine from Alsace. There was nothing technically off about it, I just wasn’t enjoying it as much usually do. It seemed to have this harsh grapefruit finish that I couldn’t get passed. I finished one glass and put it back in the fridge disappointed. The next night I tried it again and it seemed much more enjoyable. I don’t know if it needed time to mellow or if my palate was just off on the first day, in either case I developed a much more favorable opinion after the second tasting. If I find another bottle I may pick it up, just to see if I have a similar experience.

Despite my initial negative reaction, I had a lot of fun with this bottle. After taking it home and setting up the camera to get some pics, my cat decided I wasn’t paying enough attention to him and jumped up on the table. No matter how many times I put him back on the floor, he kept jumping back up there. I eventually gave up and used it as an excuse to get some pics of him with the wine bottle. He never sits still long enough for me to get a good photo.

Wine Diary