The Wine of the Week (WoW) is the Martin Wassmer Winery’s Dottinger Castellberg Pinot Noir 2014.
Over the last year since moving to Europe, we’ve been building up our wine cellar. We love wine– good wine– so we’ve made it a point to buy a wide variety of wines in our travels.
So last spring, I was spending a few days in the Black Forest of Germany, in the Markgräflerland wine region. It is known for its Spätbergunders (reds) and Graubergunders (whites). I happened upon the Martin Wassmer winery because of its reviews. I only had a couple of half-days in the area… I was actually there so my son could take two U.S. College Board AP exams; so on the first day I had to drop him off in the morning to take his exam, and then I needed to pick him up at 1:00 in the afternoon…. on the second day I had to drop him off at 1:00 to take an afternoon exam, and then had to pick him up at 5:00… so I was trying to fit in some wine-tasting while he was taking exams!
(Mom of the Year… I know)
ANYWAY… after accepting my Mom of the Year award, I happened upon the Martin Wassmer Winery. They are on the northern side of the Markgräflerland wine region, just south of Freiburg; and because of the great reviews, I HAD to make the drive (even though it was kinda’ far from my son’s AP exam testing center), in order to check it out.
The wine tasting storefront is really nice. I walked in there, not dressed particularly nicely (and in Europe, that means something– not in a good way); however, the purveyor still treated me with the utmost respect. I think he was a bit skeptical at first, but then after the first round of tasting, he was impressed that I actually knew a thing or two ; ) about wine. I tasted a couple of flights of reds… which showed me most of what he had to offer. The lower end ones were nice, but not what I was looking for. But, the higher-end wines were fabulous!
So, then I told him that I wanted to purchase three cases of his higher-end red wines; he was ecstatic. He promptly gathered my cases of wine from the back, and then I paid.
But before I left, he brought me over to his display racks of wine. He then said that he’d like to give me a bottle of wine, gratis. He asked me if I’d like white or red… and seeing as I’d just bought three cases of reds… he then answered his own question.
He then handed me a $60 bottle of Martin Wassmer Dottinger Castellberg Pinot Noir 2014. So, a year later, we just opened this very nice, gratis bottle of wine.
He also asked me to let him know what I thought about it.
So…. now that I’ve actually had a chance to enjoy it, I am going to contact Herr Martin Wassmer and let him know how awesome his Pinot Noir really is.
Tasting Notes:
This is a really nice, complex wine. It is fruity, yet still maintains its dryness. It has an interesting leathery bouquet, but does not have any of that in the mouth. It is medium-bodied, medium tannins; starts in the mouth with black cherry, but finishes with blueberry.
We ate it with a five-spice rubbed duck breast, and a spicy Thai salad. It married immediately with the duck breast, but had to reach equilibrium with the spicy Thai salad– which it did efficiently. After the second sip of wine and second bite of salad, all had resolved, and it was magical!
