Wasenhaus - Weissburgunder 2018
We drink a bottle of Baden Weissburgunder 2018 from Wasenhaus.
Although there are already many Weissburgunder here on the blog compared to some other grape varieties, it is still not the grape variety I would reach for first. I can’t quite put my finger on why that is. Maybe it’s because that inconsequential Pinot Blanc is really inconsequential, and unfortunately it often is. However there are so many different and interesting wines from the grape variety. In order to make this clear to myself once again, we will be tasting four different Pinot Blancs over the next few weeks. We’ll start with a representative from Baden from the Wasenhaus winery. Their Gutedel and Spätburgunder we already tasted. Now, then, the Weissburgunder. The vines for the wine grow both in the Kaiserstuhl on volcanic rock and around Staufen on loess. The wine is fermented spontaneously in used barrels and then matures on the full lees for a year. It then has some more time in stainless steel barrels until it is filled.
The nose is initially quite dense but without much fruit. There is some wood, spice and you can already smell that there will be structure on the tongue. And so it is, compact, rich in structure and with beautiful acidity, the wine lies in the mouth. With more air comes more texture and also more fruit. But the Weissburgunder doesn’t quite do it for me right now. Somehow it seems as if it is not quite in shape yet. Air helps a lot, though. There is now apple, some melon and herbs. Much better. The wine actually seems relatively cool, but in between it shows for a breath or two then the warmth that 2018 has brought and then seems unusually alcoholic to me. The wine becomes more and more creamy, especially on the back of the tongue and on the lips a great saltiness is added. Fruit wine this will never be, but you can practically watch it become more precise in the glass. The textural, mineral structure is great and I now really like it.
It stays that way a day later. The acidity is lively, the structure great. The Weissburgunder almost completely lives on the mouthfeel. There is some exoticism in the fruit, some fresh stone fruit with peels, honeydew melon. Only the wine must not become too warm, then the freshness is lost for me a bit. To some charcuterie today it fits in any case excellent and also solo afterwards it does succeed. I can imagine that the wine will be even better the next few years. Especially because it has gained so much with air. But this is now unfortunately the point at which I lack the experience to predict where this could go. The big question here is whether time in the cellar improves the precision or the warm year come to the fore and if both things are going to happen then in what order. I actually have no idea, but fortunately have another bottle of this in the cellar. I’m curious where the wine is headed.