By the time you read this, you’ve probably missed most of the rivetingly exciting 2023 Daniel Fries Pinot Noirs … and the bad news is, there are no follow on 2024’s! His vineyards were very badly frosted, and he wasn’t able to make any. We were exploring any other options we might have when Daniel mentioned that he had a barrel of ‘Vom Schiefer’ and a barrel of ‘Terrassen’ that hadn’t quite fallen completely bright naturally. He doesn’t usually fine his wines but these two barrels, steadfastly refusing to get with the plan, maybe presented an opportunity? He took the wines out of barrel, blended them together in a stainless steel container and gave them a very light treatment. It’s obviously neither Vom Schiefer nor Terrassen but it is 540 bottles (we took the lot) of now perfectly bright, very nicely priced, very lovely quality Fries Pinot Noir that hopefully gets us at least part way towards the release of the ‘25’s.
You might expect a simple, ‘bit more than Vom Schiefer, ‘bit less than Terrassen’ … but it’s definitely not, it hasn’t worked out that way … at least not at first tasting in what is obviously it’s real ‘youth’. It’s different to both, whilst still clearly part of the family. There’s the lightness, the freshness, the charm but there’s a hint more ‘texture’ than you might expect too. Does that come from the slightly extended spell in barrel whilst they were being all introspective? Maybe, though there’s absolutely no hint of wood on nose nor palate … more a slight deepening of the fruit. Whatever, there’s absolutely no doubt it’s been a very successful blending, and it gives us all something to work with for a few months at least.
