Hip Tastes Blog

Ahr You Sure That's a Pinot?
filed under: Winning Wines

I'm currently enjoying a pretty wine from Germany's northerly Ahr region (sorry for the silly title; just be glad I didn't go with the pirate thing), where a unique strain of Pinot Noir called Fruhburgunder makes mega light reds that have been compared to light Burgundies. I actually find this one more similar to a Beaujolais Villages, but no matter: it's always a treat to find a wine I've never tried before, and it's even better when it's surprisingly tasty.

Not your everyday red
Meyer-Nakel is the producer of this rather simple but good drink, and I'm currently enjoying it while puzzling through the chapter in my soon-to-be-published-book about Grape Varieties. Because the Hip Tastes book will be for the wine novice, I'll in all likelihood not be including a profile on Fruhburgunder. So instead, I'm jotting my thoughts and tasting notes on the stuff here, where I can write whatever I want, no matter how "out there" the stuff may be.

But before the notes, a few words on the Ahr: Germany's most northerly wine growing district, the Ahr is climatically extreme for wine grape growing and produces, surprisingly, mostly red wine. In a country known for making boatloads of mostly white wine at varying quality levels (but don't you bag on my Mosel Riesling!), Germany is the last place that comes to mind when I think red. But, against all odds, here's the Fruh. ** Quick trivia: Pinot is actually called Spatburgunder in Germany.

A Question of Taste
This wine has a little bit of syrupy sweetness on the finish from (I'm guessing) the oak that's rather clumsy, in my opinion, but otherwise it's overall a pleasant, will o' the wisp sort of red. It's pale ruby in color with an extraordinarily light pink-orange rim and packs aromas of powdered sugar-coated raspberries, clove, orange rind, hazelnut and brown sugar. Its light body is reminiscent of a Beaujolais villages, as I mentioned earlier, and it has moderate acidity and low tannin underpinned by flavors of cinnamon stick, cranberry juice, dried cherries and mocha.

I'd score it an 82 or 3 out of 5 stars, depending on which of those systems floats your boat. A fun diversion from the livre, best of all.

Get some Fruhburgunder

Posted by Courtney on January 19, 2007 06:55 PM