Aldinger - Spätburgunder Rosé Reserve 2022
After all that Riesling, we follow with a bottle of Spätburgunder Rosé Reserve from Weingut Aldinger from beautiful Württemberg to ground our taste buds.
After four weeks of Riesling in a row, one naturally needs rosé. And not just any rosé, one needs rosé from Württemberg. But calm down, at least it’s not Trollinger. Of course, that would also be available from the house of Aldinger. Because if far in the south, in the land of yellow feet (if you don’t understand this reference, do not worry and simply ignore the local rivalry between Baden and Württemberg), one can charge three-digit amounts for Gutedel, why shouldn’t one do the same for rosé made from Trollinger? Exactly. And we skillfully ignore the fact that my better half quietly mutters “Schwobesäckel” (kind of hard to translate dialect insults) while reading. We are promoting understanding between peoples in our household. And we’re drinking Spätburgunder today, because I’m not completely crazy yet. I still have to admit that the Trollinger Rosé with its pink splash of color on the bottle shelf of my trusted pub in Stuttgart-Wangen tempts me a little more each time. I’m still strong though. As with every semi-darkly pressed bottle of wine that arrives here, let me say upfront: I don’t really drink rosé that often. Maybe that’s a bit too much of a self-fulfilling prophecy and there really would be a lot to discover, but I actually think that a lot of rosé simply doesn’t fit my taste profile at all. And that’s okay. All the more delightful when bottles do appear here and there that win me over. This is such a bottle.
The vines for the rosé grow in the Untertürkheimer Gips and in the Fellbacher Lämmler. The free-run must is processed before pressing, which is pushed out of the berries by the weight of the grapes alone. In French, this is called the saignée method and occasionally ends up with bubbles as champagne in the bottle. The goal of this method was actually not what runs out as juice, but what still remains inside. Because what remains inside is, of course, much more concentrated than before. The must is spontaneously fermented and then disappears into barriques and tonneaux for over a year before it goes into the bottle.
The first few moments outside the bottle, the rosé doesn’t smell like rosé. At least not like what is often served as rosé. There’s not a bit of squeaky fruit, not a bit of kitsch, nothing boring. It’s very serious, and presumably this very characteristic is the element that unites all the rosés that appear in this blog. I must be able to take the wine seriously. There’s a bit of lactic strawberry and smoke and a lot of aromatic depth coming from the glass. There’s a lot going on when smelling, but the wine doesn’t jump at you. The first sip is also initially a lot, it has pressure, is incredibly juicy, and then has a fruit that transports more spice than fruitiness and a hint of tannin. I like it very much this way.
And even a day later, there’s still more spice than fruit in the nose. The small wooden barrel is leaving its scent mark. The better half still smells the strawberry yogurt, for once, I don’t agree. There’s some citrus and yes, also the strawberry, but the lactic acid has completely disappeared for me. But I’m also not a big yogurt eater. When drinking, then, one might think that the acidity pulls you in that direction. It drinks so relaxed. It remains juicy, the spicy structure and the berry fruit remain. The time in the wooden barrel has done the wine really good, the spice and texture somehow form a center around which berries and acidity can position themselves, and so everything has space and none of it gets on your nerves. Thus it remains exciting and multidimensional. And somehow the wine also mixes up our drinking habits. Across from me, where it should actually be much better received than by me, there’s an indifferent look into the glass, while I drink in large gulps and eagerly refill. No pink wine has managed to do that so far. But that I would like Württemberg rosé so much, that wasn’t really on my radar either.