2016 Jean-Luc Mader
Pinot Gris
Hunawihr, Alsace
Regular Price $22.99
Sale Price $17.99
But here’s the real problem with wines from Alsace; they just don’t behave!
I mean, they are mostly white, and as the wine gatekeepers will tell you, white wines are thin (not true, but stay with me here). The critics gush over thick, viscous, ripe, fruit forward wines…which supposed to be red, right? Any everyone knows that Riesling and Gewurztraminer are German and sweet? Not French and dry! And what about Pinot Blanc? It’s kinda like Chardonnay, but WHERE’S THE DAMN OAK! That’s just not right!
But, Pinot Gris is the worst. Big, rich, muscular with grippy tannins, its supposed to be just like that cuck Italian Pinot Grigio! But instead, this is a wine that takes no shit! It will get right up in your face and kick your ass!
WHITE WINES ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO ACT LIKE THAT! EVERY WINE BIGOT, I MEAN, WINE CRITIC, KNOWS THAT!
Ok, I’ll calm down.
Alsace is dry and sunny and the coarse, mineral-rich, granite, limestone, schist and sandstone mountainside vineyards face east and southeast and have good drainage and exposure. All of which is in the original ‘How to make Great Wine’ recipe book. Because it gets cold in early fall (northern latitude), red grapes don’t fully ripen, but, wow, the white grapes sure do. And because the wines are typically fully fermented, they are dry and rich and fruit-forward but with racy and invigorating finishing acidity. Or exactly what the critics claim modern red wines are like but so seldom are.
This Pinot Gris, from Jerome Mader, the precise and exacting head of the family winery, practically leaps from your glass with floral and tropical fruit aromas. Its full bodied and rich with spicy and smoky stone fruit flavors. Because of its weight, its completely mouth-filling but closes with an almost hoppy finish which makes you want to take another sip. Rinse, repeat. Its remarkable. Really remarkable.
Or, you can assume that you won’t like it, because, you know, it’s in a tall bottle and its white. And, as your wine expert friend assures you, real wine experts sneer at wines like that. Which is true. Not the part about expertise, of course. But absolutely about the sneering. People who don’t even know what they don’t know have no recourse but to sneer.