My first Blaufrankisch in a while

When we were putting together our affordable selection of wines for drinking this stood out as being worth snapping up thanks to recommendations from both Eric Asimov and that top geezer [link2post id=”315$$##.aspx#commentstart”>Gernot Schleiss[/link2post]. Elegant and terroir specific, we are told.

[image image_id=”2102″ align=”left”] Blaufrankisch ‘Eisenberg’ 2007, Uwe Schiefer

A lovely nose of fresh plum fruit, not in any way overblown or heavy, and this fruit fits well with the other spicy, peppery aromas that are present. There is a pleasing amount of liquorice/aniseed/Thai holy basil* complexity as well. As I smell this so many memories of tasting with my old friend Gernot come flooding back: it smells like Blaufrankisch, good Blaufrankisch. The palate is really rather pleasing. There is a refined tannic structure intertwined with lots of lovely plummy fruit and bracing acidity. The fruit really persists on the rather long finish along with more of that peppery spiciness. It may only be a light-to-medium bodied wine but it has real depth of flavour and an impressive degree of complexity. All this from a £15 drinking wine? Brilliant! I could not possibly comment on its age-worthiness, but you can happily drink this now with a surprising degree of pleasure. Fascinating stuff and a good buy.

*Yes, I can write irritating lists of things in my tasting notes too, just like this arse.

8 Comments