About Me

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Dublin, Ireland
Hi, I'm Dermot Nolan, and I became a Master of Wine (MW) in 1997, and resigned from the Institute of Masters of Wine in 2023 after being an MW for exactly 26 years. I opened a wine shop in Dún Laoghaire, Ireland, called The Wine Library, which closed in 2018, and this is my personal wine blog. I will do my utmost to be fair and responsible in my posts – please read my Who Pays article in re the ethics of wine trips and writing. I have worked in wine education, retail, and consultancy since 1990. I was a Director of the Institute of Masters of Wine (IMW) from 2008 to 2014 and was also a member of the Events Committee, founder of the Trips Committee, and member of the Governance Committee. Having had problems with potentially libellous comments from unidentifiable posters, I now require that if you post a comment, you must identify yourself properly or it won't be published. Please note that I do not review products or services on request so kindly don't ask. I value my independence and I believe my readers (few that they may be) do so also.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Back in Vienna

Well here I am in Vienna at VieVinum as a guest of the Austrian Wine Marketing Board and struggling to figure out how to get a comma on the german keyboard. Since I always instruct my students not to use commas perhaps I should try to practise what I preach! VieVinum is a big tasting of Austrian wines and it's an opportunity to get to know the country and its wines better.
I have just finished tasting Nikki Moser's excellent wines; some of these are available in Ireland through the wholesaler Febvre & Co. I first tasted Nikki's wines when in Vienna in June 2009 with the Institute of Masters of Wine (see my post Analysis in Vienna from 16 June last year) and really enjoyed them then so the chance to tase again was most welcome.
The Gebling 2009 Gruner Veltliner is fresh and crisp with pepper and apples on the palate. Good weight, still young and long. See, I found the elusive comma!! The Breiter Rain GV 2008 is amazingly creamy on the mid-palate with a mix of pepper spice and lovely savoury notes. Then, the Minimal GV 2008. The 2007 tasted last year was most unusual but this example is nuch better, to my way of thinking at least. It spent one year on lees and was bottled with 10 mg of sulphur only. It is round, ripe, creamy and nuch different to the 2007 vintage. This is a lovely wine and it would be interesting to taste it in a few year's time.
The Gebling Riesling 2008 is a round wine, fresh apples but broader mid-palate then the gruner from the same vineyard. The TBA Chardonnay 2008 from Apetlon is a rich elegant sweet wine, and very well-balanced. Also from Apetlon (which is in Neusiedlersee) is the Zweigelt Grosse Reserve 2007. This has fabulous ripe fruit, dark cherries, with rich, integrated tannins and a lovely long finish. Gorgeous stuff. However, this was topped by the Minimal Zweigelt 2008 - 2 years ageing and no sulphur at any stage. Ripe, round chocolate and berry fruit nose, with a beautifully balanced palate of juicy dark fruits, supple acidity and chocolate notes. Nikki reckoned that, having been bottled only a few weeks ago that it is still suffering a little from bottle shock; if so, it should be stunning in a month or two as it is very good now.
Well, that's all for now, see you all soon.
Posted by at Saturday, May 29, 2010
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