Masterclass Exploring the Pinot Grapes of Germany: Red, Grey and White - Tasting at the German Wine Society (Washington DC Chapter), led by Annette Schiller (March 2024)

Invitation

Please plan to join the German Wine Society on Saturday, March 23, 2024 at 7:00 pm for a presentation on the Pinot grapes of Germany, and tasting of nine wines to illustrate the varieties using these grapes, by our own Annette Schiller, who has brought some of these wines back from Germany just for us.  This is our first in-person event of 2024.  Registrations for this event are due by Tuesday, March 19, 2024, and the price is $45 for GWS members, $52 for non-members.  Please be aware that, due to limited supply of the wines, we have a maximum cap of 40 for attendance at this event.  Reserve early to avoid disappointment!

The 13 wine-growing regions are spread across Germany like a picture. Only in these different regions can the different grape varieties find what they need: the right soils and sheltered locations facing the sun.

 

Germany has been known in the U.S. mostly for its delicious Rieslings. Yes, Riesling is the #1 grape produced in Germany and Germany is also the #1 producer of Riesling world-wide (40% of the global Riesling production is in Germany). However, because of Germany’s very different wine regions ranging from 48.5° latitude to 51° latitude, the Pinot grapes also discovered perfect growing conditions and feel very comfortable in Germany. The monks from Burgundy brought Pinot grapes to Germany as early as the 12th century (and this origin is reflected in the “Burgunder” part of each grape’s German name). Today Germany is the #1 producer of Pinot-Blanc (Weissburgunder), #2 producer of Pinot-Gris (Grauburgunder), and #3 producer of Pinot-Noir (Spätburgunder) world-wide.

 

We will take you on a discovery tour through 7 different wine regions (including at least one that is normally impossible to find in the U.S.) and taste 3 Pinot Noir, 3 Pinot Gris, and 3 Pinot Blanc wines.  

 

Exploring the Pinot Grapes of Germany: Red, Grey and White - Tasting at the German Wine Society

 

President's Report

 

Carl Willner, President of the GWS, Washington DC Chapter: On the evening of March 23, 2024, at Klaus Teuter’s apartment building clubroom in Van Ness, Washington, DC, the GWS Capital Chapter held its first in-person event of 2024, the tasting of nine wines made from the Pinot grapes of Germany (three each of Grauburgunder, Weissburgunder, and Spätburgunder).  We had 40 persons registered to attend the event, and 38 of them attended...

 

The event went very well, and Annette was pleased to be able to make use of the speaker and mic, since she and other speakers have sometimes had difficulty being heard over the guests having their own discussions at our events.  As usual, Annette was well prepared with detailed slides covering all of her nine wines, the places from which they come and the growers, and good background information on the grapes.   There were a number of questions throughout the evening, to which Annette provided well-informed answers.   There did not appear to be any consensus on which of the three Grauburgunders was best, with all three being favored by some, but among the Weissburgunders, the most popular appeared to be the Weingut Wittman from Rheinhessen (one of the least expensive wines) while the Weingut Schloss Proschwitz from Sachsen was also quite good (and would be very hard or impossible to get here without help from the Schillers on their travels), and among the Spätburgunders, the final choice, the Weingut Schnaitmann from Württemberg (which was the most expensive, and overall appeared to be the favorite for the evening).... 

 

I was particularly pleased to have the GWS doing this Pinots presentation now, since I have been doing a fair amount of research into German wine growing statistics in updating information for our new National website (soon to go public), and have been impressed by how much growth there has been in Pinots since the 1990s in Germany.   Indeed, the three Pinots/Burgunders we discussed together now slightly surpass plantings of Riesling in Germany, and have all grown significantly even as various other varietals have declined.   We did not even have any GGs from these three grapes, holding down costs of the event, but what we had was still quite enjoyable.  Annette explained that each region has its own rules on which grapes can be used for GGs, but a number of them do allow GGs to be made from one or more of the various Pinots....

Congratulations to the Schillers, and to all others who helped, on this very successful tasting!

9 Pinots

The Grauburgunders

 

2021 Pinot Gris, Asselheim, Weingut Gaul, Rheinhessen

 

2021 Grauburgunder, Schweigen, Weingut Jülg, Pfalz

 

2017 Grauburgunder, Reserve, Weingut Hunn, Baden

 

The Weissburgunders

2020 Weissburgunder, Weingut Wittmann, Rheinhessen

 

2021 Weissburgunder, Weingut Dönnhoff, Nahe

                         

2022 Weissburgunder, Kloster Heilig Kreuz, 1.Lage Weingut Schloss Proschwitz, Sachsen

The Spätburgunders

 

2020 Pinot Noir, Weingut Kloster Eberbach, Rheingau

 

2020 Spätburgunder, Simonroth, Weingut Schnaitmann, Württemberg

2018 Blauer Spätburgunder, Weingut Ziereisen, Baden

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