Spatburgunder 2008

Back in December, we have an annual Wine of the Year taste-off, where the staff determine which wine deserves the merit for Wine of the Year. 2007's Wine of the Year happened to be my pick, an Oregon Pinot Noir called Quiotee's Lair 2004 from White Rose Vineyards. In my write-up of this very Burgundian-style Pinot, I said, "Yes, this year I voted for an Oregon Pinot Noir, even though I was thinking Spatburgunder. But that's okay, because 2008 will be the Year of the Spatburgunder."

Now we are three and a half months into 2008, and the Spatburgunder campaign is well under way.

I had to wait till 2008 because most of those great German Pinot Noirs that I had experienced were not really available in our store in 2007. No sense in promoting something that really wasn't there.

But now, finally, I have nine Spatburgunders in the German department, something completely legitimate! And we had a tasting of all 9 of these wines on Friday March 21.

Before the tasting even started, there was a positive energy about the wines. What happened was that 20 people had signed up for this tasting. At 20 people, we were not at full capacity, but we could not just open 1 bottle of each wine - we had to open 2. But what that also meant was that my fellow coworkers could taste each of the wine (we had enough wine so everyone could taste!)

This was fortunate because I don't think anyone else in the store knew what these wines were like. They noticed that at least two of them high high price tags - what was justifying these copycat Burgundies from Germany of all places to be $100? I'm sure in people's heads they are thinking "I can buy a real Burgundy for less."

I even got a question, "Are these sweet?" No, they Pinot Noir, they are all vinified dry.

Six of my coworkers, and the owner of the store got an opportunity to taste through all 9 Spatburgunders. The results were extremely positive. Especially flattering was the fact that Samantha, the Burgundy buyer, who has visited Burgundy a number of times and has a special place in her heart for these wines, said that these are lovely wines and very solid and very good, and very Burgundian. Yeah!!!

Owner Randy said they had come a long way.

Later, during the tasting, the customers in attendance were equally giving these wines the love. There was much love for Spatburgunder! Comments heard during the tasting included, "This is like a Grand Cru Burgundy but for half the price!" "This wine has that haunting Burgundian aspect." "This is better than a Bonnes Mares." Okay, maybe they were name-dropping a bit, but basically, they loved the wines!

Here are the 9 wines we tasted, in three flights of three, in this order:

1. 2005 Heger Pinot Noir

2. 2006 Meyer-Nakel Estate Spatburgunder

3. 2004 Rebholz Spatburgunder Spatlese Trocken Tradition

4. 2005 Furst Estate Spatburgunder

5. 2005 Furst Klingenberger Spatburgunder

6. 2005 Furst Centgrafenberg Spatburgunder "R"

7. 2006 Becker Estate Spatburgunder

8. 2006 Becker Estate Spatburgunder "B"

9. 2005 Becker Sankt Paul Spatburgunder Grosses Gewachs