Checking out a little Pinot Blanc

What's Pinot Blanc?

This is one place where the Wikipedia entry is pretty lame. Come on folks! To describe one of the great white wines of Alsace (one of my favorite wine regions in the world) as "a full-bodied white wine" is like calling Pierre Robert "a soft, creamy cheese".

At it's best, Pinot Blanc can be either spicy and round or massively flowery and aromatic. True, when overcropped or poorly made, it's a pretty generic white wine....But the same can be said for Riesling, Pinot Gris, or Chardonnay, too.

Why am I suddenly talking about Pinot Gris? Well, we might have lucked into some really beautiful wine that someone needs to unload to generate some quick cash flow. While we normally do not like to work with wines we don't personally make, this is an exception. The nose is hugely expressive, floral, and complex. On the palate, there's a nice balance of sweetness and slightly perceived astrigency - it'll definitely hold up to those late winter and early spring dishes. Likely, we'll bottle this under the Pappas Wine Co. label. Watch for it in May!

Anyway, tomorrow, we're back to notes about the 2006 Pinot Noirs.

-sb