Two Bottles Landerer
We drink an Oberrottweiler Sauvignon Blanc 2022 and a Fumé 2021 from the Landerer winery in Baden.
Sauvignon Blanc is personally associated with a similar amount of prejudice as Grauburgunder for me and thus a nice continuation from last week. Instead of flat and meaningless, it is then either grass-green or cheesy fruit bomb, but prejudice is prejudice. And yet, also very similar to Grauburgunder, the number of bottles that I have enjoyed is quite considerable by now. Quite incidentally also the number of wineries from Oberrotweil. After Salwey and Wagner, Landerer is already the third winery from there. Johannes Landerer planted Sauvignon Blanc in his own vineyard here at the Kaiserstuhl in Baden at a young age already, where otherwise mainly Burgundy varieties on the volcanic soils cause a stir and also occupy the largest part of the vineyard area at the Landerer winery. After his father died unexpectedly, Johannes has been responsible for vineyard and cellar since 2016. Sauvignon Blanc is available from him as a village wine and as a single-vineyard wine and we simply try both. The Oberrotweiler village wine is cold macerated (which helps against my prejudices only to a limited extent) and then aged on the fine lees in stainless steel. The vines for the Fumé single-vineyard wine grow in the Oberrotweiler Kirchberg, where they have been standing since 1994. The wine stays on the mash for 10 hours before it is aged for eight months in small and larger wooden barrels with half new barrels on the full lees.
Accordingly skeptical frowning accompanies the first pouring of the Oberrotweiler Sauvignon. The better half is quite happy from the first sip, I need a bit of time. There is actually quite a lot, quite typical fruit in the nose. Fortunately, however, neither too offensive nor cheesy, that’s actually quite nice. There is some exoticism, something flowery fragrant and a good portion of creaminess. The acidity is fresh, the gooseberry can be found both in the nose and in the taste and at the back the wine has a great structure that is carried away by a small note of green pepper.
That remains so on the next evening. I still have the feeling that the wine has become juicier and has developed more structure. It pulls really hard on the tongue and has a almost salty minerality at the front of the tongue tip. When we taste the wines, the sun has pushed the attic apartment back towards a 3 in front of the thermometer, so the salt could also come from self-production, but I’m almost sure that it comes from the wine. The wine anyway fits pretty perfectly to the temperatures and even I as not-so-much-Sauvignon-Blanc-drinker have a lot of fun with it right now.
The Fumé is as expected a completely different wine. Much yellower in the fruit and overall also much less fruit. With half new wood I would have expected much more wood than actually is in the wine. It smells the first moments rather charmingly of skin care for sensitive skin. The acidity is ultra juicy, reminds very much of fresh citrus fruits, the fruit when drinking is then exactly as yellow as the fruit when smelling and then on the tongue the wood slowly comes along. The wine is a year older, but seems much more closed. That needs time in the glass and maybe also in the cellar.
In my head, the Sauvignon Blanc image has become so entrenched that I would probably not even guess the grape variety here blind. Because even on the second evening it is rather creamy yellow than exotic. Everything smells a bit riper than on the first evening, a bit yellower. The missing exotic fruit that would lead me astray when smelling is now fully there when drinking. That tastes of passion fruit and grapefruit and when you have that in your mouth, then the scent also changes in that direction. Tasting and drinking are indeed crucially connected. The wood is also more noticeable in every phase now and at the same time perfectly dosed. It does its work rather in second row, although it has of course influenced the wine completely in its aromatics. The art is that it does not iron over the rest and bury everything else under it. Two completely different Sauvignon Blancs, but also two more Sauvignon Blancs on my like list. So I do need to try the Burgundy varieties of the winery eventually too.