2004 Two Mountain Lemberger

[dananne]

Those of you who attended the summer '05 mini-offline will remember that this is Matt Rawn's place. We picked this up last year when we went back to see Kat. In it's native Austria, where it's known as Blaufrankisch (or "blue Frankish"), the wine is known for dark colors, earthy fruitiness, and some spice, delivered with a lighter body and some acidity. That pretty much sums up Two Mountain's take, where the white pepper and vanilla on the finish is particularly noticeable. It was a pleasant change-of-pace wine, and particularly nice chilled a bit below room temp (just above cellar temp). Though it's a niche wine, in the right areas of Washington state, the FL region in NY, and in other, less-likely pockets (I hear there's a good one from a winery in NW Michigan), the wine can be very well made. 13.1% alc. We paid about $15 at the winery. It was a appropriate follow-up to the two Austrian reds we posted on over the weekend.

[wondersofwine]

Coincidentally, after holding on to a bottle of Two Mountain Riesling since the 2005 offline, I took it to a Fayetteville Wine Society meeting in May to share with others. The subject was Washington State wines. I either held onto it too long or opened it too soon (I suspect the former). At the winery tasting in 2005 it had been a crisp, fruity, slightly sweet Riesling (I believe about 2% residual sugar.) At the meeting it had the most petrolly odor I've ever encountered in a wine and no fruit detectable. Still, one couple prefered it to the Columbia Cellarmaster Riesling we had just tried which was too sweet for their palates. Some German Rieslings are petrolly in adolescence and emerge from that in maturity. I e-mailed Matt Rawn to see what his experience has been with Two Mountain Rieslings as they age but haven't heard from him.

[dananne]

Hmmm. That's weird. We picked up one of their Rieslings last summer. Maybe I'll pop it soon and see what it's doing. At the time we tasted it, it may have been our favorite white from the whole trip. So, it would disappoint me if it had fallen off.

[wondersofwine]

The Riesling and the Lemberger were my favorites at the tasting at the winery, but the Riesling certainly had changed in two years.