Winephabet Street W is for Weissburgunder

Welcome to Winephabet Street Season 1 Episode 23 W is for Weissburgunder.

Winephabet Street is a monthly series where Lori Budd of Draceana Wines and I work our way through the alphabet exploring wine and wine regions on letter at a time. The show is live on the third Monday at 8pm and is free, but you must register to attend. Put it on your calendar, pour yourself a glass of wine and hang out with us.

Weissburgunder as it’s known in Germany, but you may be more familiar with it as Pinot Blanc. In German Weiss means White and Burgunder means Pinot, hence Weissburgunder – white pinot grape. It is a mutation of Grauer Burgunder which is Pinot Gris which is a mutation of Pinot Noir. Yup, lots of mutations here.

The grape originated in Burgundy and there was no distinction between Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay. Pinot Blanc is somewhat of a full bodied wine as is Chardonnay. When you see a wine labeled Bourgogne Blanc it has Pinot Blanc blended in with the Chardonnay.

La Maison Willm 2016 Pinot Blanc Reserve

The wine for this episode I chose a 2016 Willm Pinot Blanc Reserve. Founded 120 years ago by the Willm family. Adolphe Willm both a restaurateur and winegrower. His passion for the wine side was stronger and he decided to go at it full time giving birth to Maison Willm.

Willm’s wines were among the first Alsace wines to be exported to the United States when Prohibition ended.

The 2016 Pinot Blanc Reserve was hand harvested and fermented in stainless steel. It matured on its fine lees for 2 to 3 months. It’s full of lemon, pineapple and grapefruit with refreshing acidity. They say it will keep up to 5 years, but I would drink it now.

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