Out in the Field: Terry Theise Portfolio Tasting

The crowd at City Winery

On Tuesday, January 17th, our team hit the road to New York City for the annual Terry Theise portfolio tasting. Hosted by Michael Skurnik Wines at City Winery on Varick Street in Lower Manhattan, the tasting featured over twenty-five producers from Austria and Germany. We are fortunate to represent Theise's portfolio within Rhode Island and were thrilled to taste the most recent releases while meeting many of the winemakers.

Theise Manifesto

Beauty is more important than impact.

Harmony is more important than intensity.

The whole of any wine must always be more than the sum of its parts.

Distinctiveness is more important than conventional prettiness.

Soul is more important than anything, and soul is expressed as a trinity of family, soil, and artisanality.

Lots of wines, many of them good wines, let you taste the noise. But only the best let you taste the silence.

With Theise's manifesto in our back pockets, we spent nearly four hours tasting both new vintages of wines in our book and wines by new or unfamiliar producers. We shared this experience with a strong representation of Rhode Island store owners and buyers as well as a hundred + other national wine industry colleagues. Sharp elbows and stores of patience were generously utilized throughout the afternoon, but what's a tasting without at least one spit bucket mishap?

The crowd's better side at City Winery

Highlights from the tasting included meeting...

Johannes Leitz and tasting the 2011 Leitz "Leitz Out" Riesling

Johannes Selbach and tasting the 2011 Selbach Saar Riesling Spatlese

Bernhard Ecker and tasting the 2011 Ecker Gruner Veltliner.

Other highlights included the...

Hofer Riesling 2010

Berger Gruner Veltliner 2011

Schloss Gobelsburg Gruner Veltliner "Gobelsburger" 2011

Nigl's single vineyard Gruner Veltliner "Herzstuck vom Kirchenberg" 2010

Glatzer Zweigelt "Riedencuvee" 2010 and Glatzer Blaufrankisch 2009

Ecker Zweigelt 2010.

Cornelius Donnhoff and Johannes Leitz hang out behind the table

Wizard Nick and Johannes Leitz

 

One of our more challenging decisions following the tasting will be to select a rose from one of the tasted producers for the upcoming season. Last year, we featured Schloss Gobelsburg in our book and received very positive feedback from our accounts. We all found the Gobelsburg Rose 2011 to be very appealing: strawberry, a bit of spice, and touch of sweetness with nice acidity. However, we were also fans of the Brundlmayer Zweigelt Rose 2011, which was a very well balanced wine. We will keep you posted on our decision!

With tired palates and mouths abused by all of the acidity, we ended our day at Frank Pepe's in New Haven. Two large pizzas--one with cheese and the other with sausage and roasted red peppers--and a pitcher of Genesee were just what the doctor ordered (well, not exactly) after our excursion out into the field.