Opened tonight with a dinner of leftover salmon, orzo, asparagus and peas.

2005 F. Pinon "Cuvée Tradition" Vouvray
nose: grapefruit, minerals, peaches
palate: medium-full body, off-dry, rich fruit, high acidity, clean finish

Although this wine wasn't labeled as such, both the name and the
apparent off-dry character make me think that this is a demi-sec
Vouvray. It almost came across like a very big Muscadet, though the
stone fruit character took me further upriver to Chenin-land.
Thoroughly enjoyable, but will it make old bones? Who cares! At 1/4
the price of Huet, we can afford to drink these wines young.

Mark Lipton
--
alt.food.wine FAQ: http://winefaq.hostexcellence.com

On Jun 8, 11:18 pm, Mark Lipton > wrote:
> Opened tonight with a dinner of leftover salmon, orzo, asparagus and peas.
>
> 2005 F. Pinon "Cuvée Tradition" Vouvray
> nose: grapefruit, minerals, peaches
> palate: medium-full body, off-dry, rich fruit, high acidity, clean finish
>
> Although this wine wasn't labeled as such, both the name and the
> apparent off-dry character make me think that this is a demi-sec
> Vouvray. It almost came across like a very big Muscadet, though the
> stone fruit character took me further upriver to Chenin-land.
> Thoroughly enjoyable, but will it make old bones? Who cares! At 1/4
> the price of Huet, we can afford to drink these wines young.

Yes Vouvray can range from bone dry to very sweet. If it is labeled as
one of the sweeter grades, then it must meet certain standards.
However I do not know of anything that would require even a late
harvest, very sweet, Vouvray to mention that it is a high grade sweet
wine on the label, although most do as good examples are rare and
bring a premium price.

Much the same happens in Germany. Many 1976 German wines that could be
sold as Beerenauslese were sold as Auslese because there was not much
Auslese that year at many of the better estates. But, although most
Auslesen are sweet, there are a few fermented nearly completely dry.
These could be labeled trocken if they are dry enough, and likely
usually are, but I do not know of anything that requires them to be
labeled trocken. One of the requirements for Auslese is that the must
weight reach at least a certain minimum level. However this does not
say what the residual sugar must be after fermentation. Hence the
additional terms trocken and halb-trocken may be added if the wine
maker wants to and the wine has the correct level of residual sugar to
allow such terms.

On Jun 9, 12:18�am, Mark Lipton > wrote:
> Opened tonight with a dinner of leftover salmon, orzo, asparagus and peas.
>
> 2005 F. Pinon "Cuvée Tradition" Vouvray
> nose: grapefruit, minerals, peaches
> palate: medium-full body, off-dry, rich fruit, high acidity, clean finish
>
> Although this wine wasn't labeled as such, both the name and the
> apparent off-dry character make me think that this is a demi-sec
> Vouvray. *It almost came across like a very big Muscadet, though the
> stone fruit character took me further upriver to Chenin-land.
> Thoroughly enjoyable, but will it make old bones? *Who cares! *At 1/4
> the price of Huet, we can afford to drink these wines young.
>
> Mark Lipton
> --
> alt.food.wine FAQ: *http://winefaq.hostexcellence.com

I think the Tradition (fine wine!) would have historically been
referred to as a sec-tendre, but Pinon didn't want to be locked into
calling it a sec or a demi-sec as current regs would have insisted.
2005 probably would be a demi-sec, less ripe vintages might be drier.

DaleW wrote:

> I think the Tradition (fine wine!) would have historically been
> referred to as a sec-tendre, but Pinon didn't want to be locked into
> calling it a sec or a demi-sec as current regs would have insisted.
> 2005 probably would be a demi-sec, less ripe vintages might be drier.
>
Here's what I gleaned about this wine from SFJoe's tasting with François
Pinon last year:

RS 23 g/l, TA 5.0 g/l

So, legally this would have to be labelled Moelleux since demi-sec runs
from 9-17 g/l RS whereas Moelleux takes in the range 18-45 g/l
(sec-tendre FWIW is from 4-15 g/l RS). Pinon himself says that he
labels the way he does to avoid having to change designations from
demi-sec in years like '05. He also says that he doesn't consider 23
g/l RS a real Moelleux, so that may be part of his reasoning, too.

Mark Lipton
--
alt.food.wine FAQ: http://winefaq.hostexcellence.com

On Jun 10, 2:58�pm, Mark Lipton > wrote:
> DaleW wrote:
> > I think the Tradition (fine wine!) would have historically been
> > referred to as a sec-tendre, but Pinon didn't want to be locked into
> > calling it a sec or a demi-sec as current regs would have insisted.
> > 2005 probably would be a demi-sec, less ripe vintages might be drier.
>
> Here's what I gleaned about this wine from SFJoe's tasting with François
> Pinon last year:
>
> RS 23 g/l, TA 5.0 g/l
>
> So, legally this would have to be labelled Moelleux since demi-sec runs
> from 9-17 g/l RS whereas Moelleux takes in the range 18-45 g/l
> (sec-tendre FWIW is from 4-15 g/l RS). *Pinon himself says that he
> labels the way he does to avoid having to change designations from
> demi-sec in years like '05. *He also says that he doesn't consider 23
> g/l RS a real Moelleux, so that may be part of his reasoning, too.
>
> Mark Lipton
> --
> alt.food.wine FAQ: *http://winefaq.hostexcellence.com

makes sense. I didn't know there was an official classification of sec-
tendre. I think vintages like the 2004 might struggle to make demi-
sec. My note on the 2005:

2005 Pinon "Cuv�e Tradition" Vouvray. Based on 2004 of this I thought
this would be slightly on the sweet side of sec-tendre, but this is
more full-blown demi-sec. Sweet but with a tremendous backbone of
acidity. that waxy Chenin thing over a tight peach and apple butter
fruit core. Chalk and a hint of flint (in Vouvray? go figure). B+ ,
and
great QPR at $15ish.