Impromptu wine dinner with an eclectic lineup, including Enderle & Moll, Sabelli-Frisch, 7 Fuentes and others

Last night 4 friends and myself got together in an improvised wine an Spanish tapas + Argentinian empanadas dinner. While we had 5 bottles of wine, 2 whites and 3 reds, I took notes on 3 of them, so I would only add that the 2018 Arnaldo Caprai Grecante left a good impression, with a flavor profile comparable to a white CdP.

2018 Enderle & Moll Müller-Thurgau Pur (Germany, Baden)
Controversial at least, while drinkable It’s hardly discernible as “wine”.
Green apple on the nose, very austere and dry palate showing some cider, beer like yeast and sour acidity. It remained me about this new hype of making citric / sour artisanal beers.
We decanted the rest of the bottle for about 2 hours only to find that the sourness got more prominent.
I don’t have any previous experience with this wine so I could call this an off bottle, but my intuition tells me that this is what it is and there is no “good” bottle.

2019 Sabelli-Frisch Syrah Harris Knowles Vineyard (USA, California, Lodi Mokelumne River)
I opened this bottle by mistake because my intention was to open a 2019 Sabelli-Frisch Mission Hernan Somers Vineyard, but grabbed this one instead.
The general impression was “Syrah meets Rioja”. After my initial shock about having a Syrah wrapped in Vanilla I came to realize the somehow it works, once you pass that layer there is a core of fresh dark berries, balanced acidity and gentle tannins, all very rounded and elegant.
Good paring for the Argentinian empanadas. 2 of the attendees loved it and declared it WOTN.


2018 Suertes del Marqués Valle de la Orotava 7 Fuentes (Spain, Tenerife, Valle de la Orotava)
A blend of Listán Negro with a small percentage of Tintilla (Trousseau).
Needs to be aerated for about 30 minutes. Smoky minerals, red fruits and white pepper on the nose.
On the palate cherries, mineral tones and white pepper. It presented good tension, lifting acidity and subtle tannins.
This was declared WOTN in a contested 3-2 vote.
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I like Enderle & Moll’s Pinot Noir based wines, but the whites have never really been a good experience for me neither.

I’ve heard many good things about this producer so next time I’ll follow your tip and get their reds instead [cheers.gif]

7 fuentes was a wine i discovered 9-10 years ago as i first started drinking wine in a meaningful way. i recently picked up a few bottles for daily drinkers and it continues to impress. great qpr.

Get them in warm years like 15 and 18. They shine in warm years. Try and avoided 14 and 17.

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Thank you Mariano!

I agree with your points. I put about 40% AO on the Syrah and after bottling, thought it was too prominent. I chastised myself for going so deep and swore to go lighter for this years (which I did). 6 months down the road in bottle and the AO has integrated well and I feel it’s getting better by the day.

Syrah has a reputation to be able to take both AO or FO, but since I like subtle use of AO, that’s what I want to use for some of my wines (like this one). If done right, AO can be undetectable and really make a wine elegant. To me, it makes little sense to proclaim “low-interventionism” and then ship French barrels from across the world to use here. The natural thing would be for US wineries to use AO. But I know I’m in a minority on that subject - there’s a lot of AO skepticism in the wine business still.

I liked the E&M Pur a bit more than you.

  • 2018 Enderle & Moll Müller-Thurgau Pur - Germany, Baden (11/20/2020)
    Stood up for a few days to concentrate the sediment/yeasty things. Chilled well then decanted off the sediment and let warm up. Bright yellow gold color. Very yellow fruited nose of apricot. Palate however leans to skin-on loquat and clementine. Really nice and very different wine. Needs a little cellaring and a bit of handling as noted above, but it’s a great changeup wine. Paired with mushroom tart, broccolini and filet mignon. It compliments the rich food. Very Good. (89 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

This was my first time with this wine and I’m already hooked, I agree that as a daily drinker is impressive, unless you don’t tolerate some volcano into your wine, in that case I would avoid it [snort.gif]

I been reading the CT reviews and it sounds that there is a lot of bottle variation, personally I tend to like edgy wines, but this bottle was beyond my limits

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One thing that is worth to clarify, as a regular Rioja drinker I don’t mind some detectable AO in the wine, I wouldn’t be able to drink most of the LRA portfolio if detecting some vanilla was a problem for me, but initially I didn’t expect to find it on this Syrah, which by the way, it doesn’t lack of elegance at all.

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