Score: 90/100
This vintage sparkling cuvée by Alsace winery Dopff au Moulin is a Blanc de Noirs (white wine made from red grapes) made from 100% Pinot Noir grapes using the traditional method with a second fermentation and ageing on its lees in bottle.
Tasting Notes
This Alsace sparkling Pinot Noir comes in a rather unique kind of light orange, slightly pink, salmon color. Sort of between a white and a rosé wine. Not clearly rosé but you can see just a little anthocyanins (the red pigments giving their color to black grapes) from the Pinot Noir grapes have ‘tainted’ the wine (the French say taché, as in tainted by red pigments). Unusual, but great to look at and still shiny, and great to observe something different.
The nose is intense, super lively and intense. There’s a lot going on…
The aromatic profile is clearly dominated by nutty and leesy, buttery or creamy characters. You can tell this wine must have spent its shar of time in bottle on its leesy, extracting the goodness and toasty cookie-dough characters.
But the primary Pinot Noir fruit notes still shine through: grapefruit, pomegranate, gooseberry are there, powerful, spicy and intense. Typical PN earthy notes are perceptible too.
I told you: it’s complex to smell at!
As soon as you put the wine in your mouth, the wine strikes by its fruity and explosive vibrancy. Bursting citrus fruit flavors explode on your palate. They’re peppery and come with tropical notes of passion fruit and mango underlining the ripeness of the fruit that’s gone into making this sparkling wine.
The surprising but starring feature here is also the dryness in this wine. Zesty acidity with no sugars perceptible at all, leaves you with a mineral acidic feel. But don’t get me wrong, it’s not aggressive by any mean, thanks to ripeness and round body, and an oily texture. It’s simply dry and almost more savory than sweet, if it wasn’t for these ripe fruity flavors that are so powerful.
Delicate tannins provide even more savoriness to the finish, as well as some bitterness and silky texture, a salty feel too. The whole for a long and refined finish that suggests this is wine to pair with delicate foods for all types; it should match with everything: seafood dishes, white and red meats, even cheese or desserts. It’s so powerfully aromatic, sharp, balanced, and crisp that it should not stand shy in front of any ingredient.
It’s so easy to right positive and visual notes when the wine is good, expressive and with distinctive features like this one ?
Overall
Truly a standout sparkling wine from Alsace we find in this Dopff au Moulin Blanc de Noirs. Layered, fruity, it features great dryness and acidity and minerality yet with perfect balanced.
Displaying depth and complexity from obvious leesy characters, the ripe fruit element still has been respected through the winemaking process and shines in our glass.
Please let me know your thoughts