Wine of the Month March 2011

Deep Blue terroir !

2009 „Deep Blue“ (A.P. Nr. 01 11)

Weingut Tesch

€ 9,-

Much of what we think of as taste impressions, also those of wine, are actually things we smell or feel the texture of in our mouths. In the brain signals from the organs of smell are fused with tactile impressions from lips, mouth and throat and the genuine taste impressions from the taste buds on our tongue to create what we perceive as taste impressions. In fact, the tongue can only detect five things: sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami. The last of these was discovered by Kikunae Ikeda of the Tokyo Imperial University in 1908 when he realized that the Japanese dashi broth (made from dried kombu seaweed and katsuobushi flakes of cured bonito) had a taste which was neither sweet, sour, bitter or salty, nor an aroma or texture. Grapes are rather rich in umami, but some wines are even richer due to very long contact between the young wine and the yeast. The second bottling of Martin Tesch’s 2009 „Deep Blue“ (look for A.P. Nr. 01 11 in small print on the back label) is an umami Rogue Wave  thanks to an alcoholic fermentation that lasted a full year.  A very pale rosé colour it is richly textural with a mountain of „savoury“ tasting umami. If it wasn’t so dry and straight that might make it taste too extreme, but instead it takes you on a wild ride to the outer limits of contemporary German wine. Warning: an umami Rogue Wave can sweep you off your feet !