Invitation: All Sorts of Sparklers: How do the Bubbles get into that Bottle? - Wine Tasting by the German Wine Society with Annette Schiller on November 5, 2022

Picture: Visit of a Small, Premium Sekt Producer: Sektkellerei Bardong in the Rheingau, Germany – Germany-North Tour by ombiasy WineTours (2015), Germany

I am posting the e-mail invitation that was sent out by the German Wine Society (Washington DC Chapter) for the tasting event "All Sorts of Sparklers: How do the Bubbles get into that Bottle?" lead by Annette Schiller.

With the holidays nearly here, please plan to join the German Wine Society (Washington DC Chapter) on Saturday, November 5, 2022 for a presentation and tasting of sparkling wines by our own Annette Schiller, who has brought some of these wines back from Germany just for us. What a way to start setting a festive mood, and get some ideas for holiday tables! 

Registrations for this event are due by November 1, 2022, and the price is $55 for GWS members, $62 for non-members.  

Germany has a long history of producing sparkling wine - called Sekt in Germany - starting in the early 19^th century. The fascination with sparkling wine let trade and the exchange of knowledge with France boom. At some point in the later 19^th century it was the Germans who controlled the Champagne business in France.  

Today Germany is world champion in sparkling wine consumption. In 2021 Germans drank 274 million liters of sparkling wine (Statistisches Bundesamt) and produced 250 million liters (Statista.com). The bulk of production comes from big brands like Henkell or Rotkäppchen, who make Sekt with the tank method. However, premium sparkling wine production is on the rise. Many German Sekts made in the Méthode Champenoise are on eye level with the best of French Champagnes.

It can be confusing to see all the different labels of bubbles with prices vacillating between just a few dollars per bottle for a mass-produced sparkler to close to a hundred. There is Champagne, Cava, Crémant, Prosecco, Frizzante, Sekt, Winzersekt, Secco, Pet-Nat, to name just a few. But they all have one thing in common: they have significant levels of carbon dioxide in the bottle to make them fizzy. However, there are different procedures to get the fizz into the bottle. We will taste 12 sparkling wines and will evaluate the difference in the various methods of how the CO₂ gets into the bottle.   

Half of our sparkers are from German regions, and the other half from various other countries as listed, including Austria, France, Italy, and the U.S.

1)    Secco, Hillinger, Burgenland, Austria  

2)    Prosecco, Bisol, Italy

3)    Dr. L, Mosel 

4)    Pet-Nat, Melsheimer, Mosel 

5)    Pet-Nat, Tscherne 18-Pet Pink, Steiermark, Austria  

6)    Korbel, California  

7)    Steininger, Grüner Veltliner Sekt, Brut Nature, Kamptal, Austria 

        8)    Peter Jakob Kühn, Riesling Sekt, Brut, Rheingau   

9)    Jülg, Crément Brut, Pfalz            

       10)   Griesel, Chardonnay Brut Nature, Hessische Bergstraße

       11)   Domaine Carneros by Taittinger, Napa Valley  

       12)   Taittinger Brut La Française, France  

A tasty buffet of cheeses, bread, crackers, charcuterie, grapes and veggies will be provided to accompany the bubbly wines.

Our tasting will begin at 7 p.m on Saturday, November 5, with the doors opening at 6:30 p.m. to admit guests.  The location is the Van Ness Room that we have often used before for membership meetings and other events, at 3001 Veazey Terrace NW, Washington, DC 20008.  Enter through the main lobby of the apartment building on the 5th floor, and then go down to the 2nd floor by elevator and proceed down the hall to the clubroom.  While there is not off-street parking at this location, on-street parking is available (bear in mind DC parking restrictions and meters), and there is easy access to Metro, at the Van Ness Red Line station.

You can register and pay for this event in either of two ways.  

First, you can register on our chapter website, https://germanwinesocietydc.org , and make payment by PayPal.   You will need to create a GWS account for the website if you do not already have one, and you will also need to have a PayPal account, as we cannot accept payment by other forms of credit or online transfer.  If you are coming as a couple or other group, you can either register and pay for each individual separately, or do it as part of a single transaction and complete the payment on PayPal together.  If you do a single transaction, please also email the Secretary of the GWS Capital Chapter at the address below to provide the names of each individual coming, as the individual names will not all appear on the website form for multiple persons registering together.

Second, if you prefer to register by mail and pay by check for the event, please clip off the registration form attached to this notice, indicate the names of all who will be attending, and mail a check made out to the German Wine Society in the proper amount along with the form to: 

Carl Willner, President and Secretary, GWS Capital Chapter, 1014 Reserve Champion Drive, Rockville, MD 20850

Pictures: Mark P. Barth Hand Riddling. See: Tour and Wine Tasting with Lunch, with Mark Barth at Wein- und Sektgut Barth in Hattenheim, Rheingau – Germany-North Tour by ombiasy WineTours (2015)

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