What I'm Drinking Now & Various Comments

What I am drinking now is 2007 Salwey Henkenberg Pinot Gris Grosses Gewachs and it is the dregs of what I took out to show people over the last couple of days (ie yesterday and today). I showed this wine to a whole bunch of people and almost everyone seemed to love it. Love it! This is a wine that won top white Pinot in the Gault Millau, a guide that few people in the U.S. have heard about, but it is a food and wine guide, and in Germany, it is the top wine guide, kind of like a Decanter or Wine Spectator, but of course, even more in-depth with its reviews of estates.

So back to this wine. It has been blowing away all my customers with its complexity and its depth, its fullness in flavor and overall greatness. Of course it is not cheap! It is $224 a 6-pack and that seems to be over the line for many of the buyers I encounter.

But the wine is so excellent. It is nothing like any Pinot Gris you have tasted - it is like a Pinot Gris that has been treated like a Grand Cru white Burgundy. It is like what an estate is doing with Pinot Gris as what Dagueneau was doing for Sauvignon Blanc - making it noble.

We're talking super duper concentration, oak aging (though not excessively woody), great super long length, fantastic overall. Pears, tropical fruit, plus great laser-beam acidity, all in an elegant package fit for the finest dining rooms in the world.

But alas no takers!

Back when I was a buyer, I would probably be someone who would buy this wine. Sigh. I did buy wines like this, like the 1993 Nikolaihof Vinothek Gruner Veltliner which is now sitting alone, unloved, on the shelves because it is too expensive. Sigh. If only the great and delicious wines were ones that people who would pay Napa Cult Cabernet prices for. Sigh. If only these wines would be loved as much as Silver Oak, Opus, and Caymus Special Select. Sigh. If only great white wines would get the same love (and $$$) as reds did.

If only.

In the meantime, I will appreciate them any way I can.