Wine Bars in Paris --- Le Petit Monceau, Willi’s Wne Bar and Lavinia in Paris

I review three wine bars, one where I used to go with my neighbors when I lived in Paris during 2002 to 2005, one where I would go with my visiting friend from the US and one where I would go with my visiting friend from Germany.

Le Petit Monceau

When I lived in Paris my “down the road bar” was Le Petit Monceau, just next to my apartment building in the 8th district.

93 rue de Monceau 75008 Paris
01 45 22 55 97

There are hundreds of these wine bars in Paris. This is the place where people from the neighborhood meet after work “pour un pot”. You would stand at the bar, talk about Carla Bruni and other gossips and have a decent French table wine. Typically, only French wines are on the wine list, but not the expensive ones,only the reasonably prices ones. Many of the wines at the Le Petit Monceau are from the South of France. The food is simple, nothing special, but good. I would stand at the bar from 7 pm to 9 pm and then move on to one of the tables and have some food. Le Petit Monceau in the rue de Monceau was run and owned by a guy by the name Richard, my friend , when I was there, but has changed ownership and management since then.

Willi’s Wine Bar

When I had visitors from the US,

Willi’s Wine Bar, 13 rue des Petits Champs, 75001 Paris

was the place to go to. In the first district, right in the center of right bank Paris, it is one of Paris’ classic wine bars with an excellent selection of French wines and it is a place where you would here some English at the bar. Willi’s wine bar was created by Mark Williamson and has become one of the meeting points of the Anglophones in Paris. It is very strong on Rhone wines, among others, and has half a dozen tables were you can have excellent French Bistro food.

Lavinia

When I had visitors from Germany, I would take them to

Lavinia – restaurant et bar a vin, 3-5 bd de la Madeleine,75001 Paris

Also on the right bank (I used to live on the right bank myself), Lavinia is one of the biggest wine shops in Paris, with a broad and deep selection of French wines, but also some New World wines. Upstairs there is a restaurant and a bar where you can drop in for a glass or a bottle of wine at the wine bar, until 8 pm. At the wine bar, you can choose any of the more than 5000 bottles they sell at the shop and just pay the shop price.

The Wine Bar by Bazilika in Budapest, Hungary

Picture: The Wine bar by Bazilika

When people think about Hungarian wines, they often think about Tokay wines with 3 puttons or more. This are sweet wines made like sweet German Spaetlese, Auslese or Beerenauslese, taking advantage of the mist in the Tokay region that helps creating the famous noble rot.

But not all wines from the Tokay region are sweet. Just as most of German wines are not sweet. Tokay can also be dry and fresh and an easy to drink summer wine. In fact, when I spent a week in Budapest earlier this year, I came across several times a dry Tokayer, with a distinctive note of oxidation. Initially, I thought the wine was faulty. But then I learned that some wine makers in the Tokay region still use a vinification method whereby the wine is exposed to air during fermentation , as the Sherry from Spain, and adopts a distinctive style. This style is clearly not appreciated on the international market, but I found it interesting to experience this taste in Budapest.

While the Tokay region Hungary’s is best known wine, there are a a total of 14 wine regions in Hungary. A good place to get an overview of Hungarian wines in Budapest is “The Wine bar by Bazilika”. Here, they sell a wide range of Hungarian wines by the bottle to go and to consume at the premise as well as many wines by the glass. The staff speaks English and they serve cheese and charcutterie snacks. The cheese, to my disappointment, was all French cheese.

I focused on the wines of Joseph Bock from the Villany region in the South. This is arguably the best wine region of Hungary. Joseph Bock has German roots and has become one of the top winemakers of Hungary. His reds were all thick and high in alcohol, full, heavy wines and not cheap.

The wine bar also hosts wine tastings and other events from time to time.

Budapest is composed of two cities: Buda and Pest, divided by the river Danube.

Buda is hilly, made of rock and trees, with small houses, small pedestrian streets and some antiquities (Matthias’ Cathedral and Royal Palace). This area is very nice, but quite empty when the sun goes down. Buda is nice to visit, but not a good place to stay/sleep.

Pest is flat, lively, vivacious, with a pulsating urban life full of shops and historical cafés. It also houses the city’s major public buildings: the Saint Steven’s Basilica, the Opera House, the Parliament and the Great Market Hall. This is the best place to stay. In Pest there are 2 main areas: Vaci utca and the Opera district. Vaci Utca is the most famous pedestrian street of Pest, full of shops and restaurant. This area is very nice during the day, but a little bit empty when shops close.

1051 Budapest, Hercepprimas u.8.







http://www.winebar.hu

In the Glass: Pinot Noir from California, France and Germany

Picture: Christian G.E. Schiller at Koenig Wilhelmsberg vineyard

In the US, Pinot Noir shows great promise in Oregon and California. In the latter, a wine region south of San Francisco has recently moved to the forefront with its Pinot Noir and other wines: The Santa Lucia Highlands. This unique California AVA established in 1991 produces some of the finest Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays on the market. The International Wine Review visited the region for a first-hand look at the vineyards, wineries and wines. The report is being prepared in collaboration with the Wine Artisans of Santa Lucia Highlands and expected to be issued in a few days.

In Germany, the Pinot Noir is called Spätburgunder. It is to red wine what the Riesling is to white wine: the cream of the crop.

The reputation that gets Pinot Noir so much attention, however, is owed to the wines of the Bourgogne in France, where it has probably been cultivated since at least the 4th century (first documented, however, in the 14th century).

Sensitive to climate and soil, Pinot Noir needs warmth (but not intense heat) to thrive and does well in chalky soils. As the German name implies, it ripens late (spät).

My wife Annette and I tasted three Pinot Noirs from Aloxe Corton in the Bourgogne/France, from Santa Lucia Highlands in the US and from Hochheim in the Rheingau/Germany.
1996 Aloxe Corton, Appellation Aloxe-Corton Premier Cru Controlee, Maurice et Anne-Marie Chapuis, Aloxe Corton, Cote-d’Or
2007 Pinot Noir, Sleepy Hollow Vineyard, Santa Lucia Highlands, Martin Alfaro, Corralitos, Californaia
2003 Wickerer Koenig Wilhelmsberg, Spaetlese trocken, Weingut Wilhelm Hueck, Hochheim, Rheingau

Picture:Wickerer Koenig Wilhelmsberg

Interestingly, the French wine does not mention the grape variety on the label, but the village in which the wine is grown and made is printed in fat letters, with the exact appellation below it; for the American wine it is just the opposite: the grape is printed in fat letters. Well, the focus in the old world is clearly on the terroir. Terroir is a French concept involving the complex combination of micro-climate, geology, topography and soil that determines the taste of a wine. The classification for Aloxe Corton groups all wines into four different groups. Terroir is on the back burner in the new world. The focus here is on the grape variety.

All three wines were great.

The American Pinot Noir was purple red in the glass--a deep red wine. An amazing attack of concentrated dark red fruit and dark chocolate note on the nose. Spicy wild berries, deep fruit aromas on the palate that lasted through a long finish.

The French Pinot Noir was 10 years older and a bit on the brownish side in the glass, but still very fresh and at its height. Smoke and wet leaves on the nose, typical for the Pinot Noir. In the traditional French style of a Pinot Noir, it was lighter in color and body than its counterparts from the warmer climate in California.

The German Pinot Noir was a Spaetlese trocken, thus had elevated sugar content at the harvest, but was fully fermented and became a bone-dry wine, like the French and American counterparts, with 1.3 gram sugar/liter. Koenig Wilhelmsberg is a vineyard in neighboring Wicker, which is in Alleinbesitz, that means Hueck is the only winemaker who owns that piece of land. Smoke on the nose, even lighter in color and body than the Aloxe Corton, but not in terms of tannin and acidity.

Spaetlese is part of a classification system that is unknow outside of Germany, except in Austria. It is based on the sugar content of the grape at harvest. As I have discussed in my blog of August 14, 2009, it however does not say anything about the sweetness of the finished wine. This is unfortunate in my view.

We had a jambollaya with it and it paired very well with all three wines.

Emerging wine country Serbia - Still in the early days after the break-up of Yugoslavia

Picture: Benjamin and Christian G.E. Schiller in Belgrade

Introduction

Serbia is still an undiscovered, unknown country in the heart of Europe, when it comes to wine making. Wine is being made all over the country, for hundreds of years, but overall the quality remains low. It is not yet easy to find Serbian wines that are up to international standards in these days, due to 50 years of Yugoslavian-style socialism and 15 years of war and political repression and unrest, although things are changing rapidly in this lovely country in the Eastern part of Europe. Serbia has a long wine making tradition and quality wine making is gaining momentum. There are now about 70,000 hectares of vineyards in Serbia.

History

As in most of Europe, the wine industry in Serbia is over 1000 years old.

The history of Serbian wine making begins with the birth of the Serbian state in the 8th century. Serbian rulers made great efforts to foster the culture of wine making. Under the Serbian monarchy, the Nemanjić dynasty in particular (from the 11th to the late 14th century), the vine growing culture expanded at stupendous rates along with other agricultural industries. Laws were enacted concerning the wine production and trade. Wine was taken very seriously in medieval Serbia. Wine would witness the sealing of a treaty, the swearing of an oath or the giving of a promise; in short, it stood as a reminder of the laws and traditions of the time.

With Ottoman conquest of Serbia however, the vast majority of Serbian vineyards fell into disuse and decay, and the organized production of wine faced destruction as the Muslim faith forbade the consumption of alcohol.

Things took a turn for the better after the liberation from the Ottoman Empire. Being a protectorate of the Austro-Hungarian empire, wine production began again in Serbia.

But Yugoslavian-style socialism during the second part of the 20th century was a set-back as private winemakers were not allowed to operate. And the past 15 years of war and political repression and unrest did not help either. Until recently, private investors, in particular foreign, were practically absent in Serbia.

Grape varieties

The eldest authentic grape sorts are considered to be Prokupac and Tamjanika. Prokupac is a red grape with a long history, while Tamjanika is a kind of a Muscat grape originating from Southern France. In addition, Chardonnay, Sauvignong Blanc, Rhine (Italian) Riesling, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon are grown.

Wine growing areas

The most important Serbian wine growing areas are the following.

(1) Sandy grounds, a temperate continental climate with much sun during the summer are the main features of the Subotica-Horgos wine region up in the Voijvodina. The main producers here are two large wineries.
(2) The town of Sremski Karlovci region at the foot of the Fruska Gora mountain in the Srem region is known as Serbian wine capital, a little baroque city which had an important role in Serbian history. The Srem region is one of the oldest viticultural areas in Europe. Wine has been grown here for over 1,700 years, ever since it was first planted by Roman Emperor Probus. The specialty wines Ausbruch, Bermet and Schiller are produced here.
(3) Vrsac Wine area (Banat). Already famous in the days of the medieval Hungarian kings, the Serbian Banat region centers around Vrsac in the North East of Serbia, at the border to Romania. One of the largest mass producers of wine in Europe is here, the Vrsacko Vinogorje.
(4) The Sumadijsko-velimoravski wine region is know for the Royal Wine Cellars of the Karadjordjevic dynasty, established in 1903. Further up the Morava river is the village of Krnjevo. Radovanovic, one of the best winemakers in the country, is there.
(5) The Timok wine region stretches along the river of the same name from Knjazeva to Negotin. Wine has been cultivated in the border region to Bulgaria and Romania for hundreds of years. The region is known for its historical wine houses - entire villages consisting of nothing than stone built wine cellars.
(6) The Zapadnomoravski wine region is spreading on the hills around the central Serbia town of Aleksandrovac. All of the wealthy medieval monasteries had their vineyards here and that tradition was never abandoned in this quiet corner of Serbia. The Radenkovic winery is one of the leading wine makers of the area.

Winemaking in Serbia

By international standards, quality wine making is pretty underdeveloped in Serbia. This has in my view several reasons:
(1) Over many centuries, Serbia was ruled or under the control of the Ottomans, who do not drink alcohol.
(2) During the 50 years of Yugoslavia-style socialism, the key word was self-government, which meant that workers had all the control over their factories and production. Wineries were all workers-owned and private winemaking was forbidden.
(3) Since the break down of Yugoslavia, the country was involved in several wars, including the one against Croatia and the war against Nato in connection with the establishment of Kosovo, clearly limiting the opportunities for foreign investors.
(4) Finally, Serbs tend to prefer beer and hard liquors, like the famous Slivovic, the plum brandy. It is amazing to see the long list of brandies offered in Restaurants, compared with a rather short list of wines.

Winemakers

But still, things are happening, in particular since 2000. Private winemakers are beginning to emerge. Serbia is not currently producing too many world class wines but with new up-and-coming small, family owned vineyards, the industry is once again growing in terms of both quantity and quality. I would like to list the following. There may be more, but here is what I found in my first week in Belgrade.

Podrum Milijan Jelic
Podrum Radenkovic in Aleksandrovac in the Zapadnomoravski wine region
Podrum Radovanovic in Trnavci in the Sumadijsko-velimoravski wine region
Podrum Do Kraja Sveta in Kovilji in the Srem wine region
Domaine Oplenac from Kraljevo in the Sumadijsko-velimoravski wine region

In the Train: ICE (Second Class) from Frankfurt am Main to Paris in October 2009

The ICE has a bistro and a restaurant. The restaurant is small and lacks class. But both the bistro and the restaurant have a selection of 10 excellent sparkling and still wines.

I had the

2008 Riesling, dry, Rheingau, Peter Jakob Kuehn, Euro 8.20 for the 0.25 liter bottle

An excellent Gutswein from a top winemaker from the Rheingau. An every-day table wine with a densely mineral structure and fine fruit.

And the

2005 Cuvee Gaudenz, dry, Pflaz, Knipser, Euro 8.20 the 0.25 liter bottle

An unusual wine from the Gault & Millau Deutschland 2009 winemaker of the year. A blend of Dornfelder, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. The latter two grapes have only recently begun to be planted in Germany, reflecting global warming. An easy to drink wine with strong blackcurrant notes. This wine has been aged in old French oak barrels for 12 months.

The other white wines were a dry Grauer Burgunder from Baden, a dry Spaetlese from Krug’scher Hof in Rheinhessen and a Chardonnay from Australia. The other red wines were from Spain, Australia and the Ahr region in Germany.

The Sekts were also impressive: a dry Sekt from Germany’s largest Sekt estate Rotkaeppchen and a brut Sekt from one of Germany’s finest Sekt estates Menger-Krug in the Pfalz.

Climate Change - French Men and Women Pose Naked in Vineyard

In Burgundy, one of the best if not the best wine region of France, 713 hardy French men and women stripped down in vineyards and posed nude to send a message about climate change.

Read more about it here and here. The latter link also includes a video.

Foires aux Vins 2009 in Paris

It is always good to be back in Paris. I will be there tomorrow evening and eat at the Brasserie Wepler at the Place Clichy in the 18th with my friend Jean. C'est correct as the French say. Excellent brasserie food. Not fancy. Nothing special. But honest and good quality, good price quality ratio ...and French. The Wepler celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1992 but has not changed much, I assume. When people like Picasso, Utrillo, Modigliani,Henry Miller, Truffaut and Chabrol used to eat and drink there, it was probably not very different from today. This is the Paris I love so much.

Now is the time of the big wine sales in Paris. Casino, Carrefour and Monoprix have already finished their sale this year, while those at Auchan, Leclerc and Champion are in full swing. This is the time the Parisians stock up their wine cellar for the coming year. Reportedly the foires aux vins have a volume of Euro 400 million, or US$ 600 million. Quantities are slightly down, but prices are considerably down. Wines above Euro 30, or US$ 45, are difficult to sell. See Le Figaro.

I always took advantage of these sales when I used to live in the Rue de Madrid in the 8th in Paris between 2002 and 2005. It was always great fun to do that. I will enjoy myself tomorrow at the Champion's and Leclerc's wine departments, but unfortunately will not be able to buy as I no longer have a wine cellar in Paris.

Wine Bar: Podrum Wine Art and Question Mark, Belgrade/Serbia

Picture: Christian G.E. and Benjamin Schiller in Belgrade, 2009

This cannot be more of a contrast.

Podrum Wine Art, Visujiceva 7

Podrum Wine Art just opened a few days ago and has a state of the art wine dispenser, an enomatic-- a $10,000 machine that spits out wine pours for 31 bottles. The wine bar could easily draw a crowd in New York City. It is fancy, stylish, pop music.

As a big disappointment to me, the enomatic has only 3 Serbian wines by the glass, a red one, a white one and a rose wine. Half of the wines that you can buy by the glass are Italian wines. Still, the two wines we tried were excellent.

2006 Cabernet Sauvignon, Barique, Podrum Radovanovic


Radovanovic is one of the top winemakers in Serbia now; his wine estate is not too far away from Belgrade. Dark red in the glass. Hint of vanilla and raspberries on the nose. A lush and fruity New World-style wine. I paid RSD 400 for the glass, which is about Euro 4.

2007 Sauvignon Blanc, Do Kraja Sveta

Attack of peach and tropical fruit on the nose, fruity and juicy on the palate, full body. RSD 400. I reviewed the Cabernet Sauvignon on October 1, 2009.

Podrum Wine Art is a wine store and a wine bar at the same time. All wines can be either bought to go or to drink at the premise. In terms of prices, if you drink the bottle at the premise, the price is about double compared with the to-go prices.


“?” Taverne, Kralja Petra 6

The Question Mark (Znak Pitanja) has been around for many years. It is a simple wine tavern, where the clergymen from the orthodox Saborna church across the street still come in and have a glass of wine with hearty Serbian food. Booming trade and political stability following the Second Serbian Uprising , in 1815, prompted entrepreneurs to open a large number of taverns in a short period of time. Some of these stayed on for a very long time. The “?” tavern is one of them.

I never ordered a bottle of wine there, not only because I had a hard time reading the wine list, but because I loved the house wine in the carafe. The white one was a delicious muscat wine with the typical strong perfumed aroma and distinctive musky flavor. And I always had a shopska salad, the traditional Serbian salad that is a must for every meal when you are in Belgrade

Leading Austrian Wine Retailer in Germany - Gerhard Biber's rotWeissrot in Munich

Pictures: Christian G.E. Schiller and Gerhard Biber at the rotWeissrot wine store in Munich and 2008 Gerhard Markowitsch Carnuntum Cuvee

Famous for white wines, Austria is now increasingly producing exciting red wines. Winemaker Roland Velich, for example, made history this year, when the Wine Advocate awarded him its highest rating ever for an Austrian red. Read more about it in the Wall Street Journal here

My interest for Austrian wines began in the 1990s, when I lived in Zagreb in Croatia, at that time a country that was struggling to come out of 50 years of Yugoslavian-style socialism and a war against Serbia. Things were improving there but overall still rather bleak, at least from an American and German perspective.

Coming from or going to Frankfurt am Main in Germany, we would always pass through the South Styria. What a beautiful area in a little corner of Austria just above the Slovenian border. No wonder that South Styria is called by many the Tuscany of Austria, although only few Americans have heard of it. Wine is thoroughly intertwined with lodging and dining options across South Styria. I used to buy the wines from the Polz brothers, including their delicious Sauvignon Blanc and the Welschriesling. But these wines are long gone from my cellar.

How do I now stock-up my wine cellar in Frankfurt am Main with Austrian wines? There are a number of wine merchant selling Austrian wines in Germany.

One of the leading wine merchant for Austrian wines is Gerhard Biber in Munich. Gerhard was born in the Wachau in Austria. Before opening his wine store in 2003, he was a successful business manager. During the last 6 years, I have watched him building his second career as a wine merchant. Within a couple of years he has become an authority for Austrian wines. When I am at his wine store, I am always overwhelmed by the amazing range of Austrian wines, from inexpensive table wines for every day consumption to high quality wines to be laid away to wait for a special occasion.

rotWeissrot has also created an extremely informative web site with an online-shop, which is in German only. But Gerhard speaks English so one can order wine in English by e-mail or phone.

rotWeissrot is a real family operation as Gerhard is supported by his charming wife Marianne and increasingly by their two sons Alexander and Christoph.

I recently bought the

2008 Gerhard Markowitsch Carnuntum Cuvee

a blend of 85% Zweigelt and 15% Pinot Noir for Euro 7.90, a wonderful every-day table wine. I just ordered the wine on his web site and within 48 hours, the wine arrived at my house by DHL.

I also have had the pleasure to participate in a Gerhard's wine tastings that he organizes regularly at the wine store. Gerhard knows so much about Austrian wines and he possesses this amazing ability to communicate with people.

In the Glass: 1987 Field Stone Winery (California), Petite Sirah

Picture: Field Stone Winery Healdsburg California

1987 Field Stone Winery, Healdsburg, 13 % alcohol, Petite Sirah, Alexander Valley

The wine comes from a celebrated century-old heritage vineyard that provides a rare taste experience of California wine history. The vineyard was planted in 1894 by an Italian farm family in Alexander Valley. The picturesque plot of gnarled head-pruned vines, which is part of the larger Old Terra Rosa block, was described in the 1895 Alexander Valley Directory as “the best grape land in California.” From the 1987 vintage, only 7272 bottles were produced.

This more than 20 years old wine was ruby-dark in the glass, not the slightest hint of over-aging. A wave of strawberries and other red fruit on the nose. Big red wine with appealing flavors of chocolate, plum and spices on the palate. A powerful, yet balanced wine.

I had the pleasure of detecting this bottle (actually two bottles) in the wine cellar of the father of my daughter’s fiancé. He prefers younger wines and was unsure if he could serve that old wine to us. But after we had opened the bottle he concurred with me that this wine had aged gracefully and that it was a pleasure to drink it after so many years waiting for that moment in his cellar in Potomac/Maryland.

Stuart Pigott at the Weinhalle in Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Picture: Christian G.E. Schiller and Stuart Pigott

The Weinhalle in Bornheim is one of the best wine stores in Frankfurt am Main. Stuart Pigott, the renewed wine critic was there a few days ago to present his new book and brought along a dozen of boutique winemakers.

My friend Matthias, who is single and in his forties, thinks that Bornheim, along with Bockenheim, is the only area in Frankfurt am Main, where somebody like him could live. Indeed, the central road of Bornheim , the Berger Strasse, houses a large number of trendy bars, restaurants and shops, reflecting the crowd that lives there; not poor, but also not rich, intellectual, sometimes left-leaning, often wine connoisseurs.

The Winehalle caters to this crowd. I saw only a a few New World wines. The focus is on European wines, in particular Germany, France, Spain and Italy. The wines tend to be off the beaten track wines.

Last Monday, the Winehalle hosted Stuart Pigott, one of the leading German wine and international Riesling journalists. Those in the US could see him at the Riesling festival that Chateau St. Michelle organized with Ernie Loosen in Washington State. Pigott presented his new book “Wein weit weg” (Wine far away) and brought along about half a dozen mini boutique winemakers.

Pigotts new book is about new wine producers in the changing international wine market. Pigott focuses on two trends: First climate change is making formerly unsuitable regions of the world to promising wine areas. The Nordic countries fall into this category. Second, globalization and the collapse of communism is bringing new regions into domestic and international markets. Russia, China and Eastern Europe fall in to this category. Lastly, Pigott has a chapter on young German mini boutique winemakers that a experimenting with new approaches. He brought about half a dozen of these along. They presented their wines. Most of them were from the Mosel area. I was most intrigued by a German speaking artist from Georgia, who lives in Berlin and has started to grow grapes and produce delicious red wine in his home country and to market the wine in the Berlin area.

German Wine Basics: Sekt

Picture: Christian G.E. Schiller with Mark Barth, Sekt- und Weingut Barth, Hattenheim, in Wiesbaden, Germany. See more: Barth Primus is Germany’s First Sekt Made with an Erstes Gewaechs Wine

Germany is one of the largest sparkling wine markets in the world. One out of four bottles of sparkling wine is consumed in Germany. Sparkling wine produced in Germany is called Sekt.

Sekt is made in all German wine regions, both in the méthode traditionnelle and charmat method. There are three groups of Sekt makers: (i) large and (ii) smaller Sekt houses, who only make Sekt and (iii) winemakers, who make predominantly wine, but complement their wine selection by a few Sekts. The Sekts produced by large Sekt estates tend to be in the demy-sweet and sweet range, while the Sekts of smaller estates and the wine makers are mostly in the brut and extra brut range. In addition to Sekt, Germany produces semi-sparkling wine, which is called Perlwein. But the production of Perlwein is small.

There is a dozen or so large Sekt houses. They produce more than 2.000.000 bottles each annually. Most of these large Sekt houses were established in the 1800s. At that time, there was only one method known to produce Sekt, the méthode traditionnelle. But in contrast to the champagne houses, the large Sekt houses have all moved to the charmat method as main method of the second fermentation after World War II. Like the champagne houses, Sekt houses do not own vineyards, but purchase the base wine from winemakers. More than three quarters of the base wine used to make Sekt is imported from other EU countries, essentially Italy, France and Spain. Sekt can only be labeled as Deutscher Sekt if it is made exclusively from German grapes, which is rare in the case of the large and the smaller Sekt houses. Most of the Sekt houses have beautiful chateau-type facilities with old underground cellars for the second fermentation and storage. Overall, these Sekts are reasonably priced, are of good quality, but with the introduction of the charmat method are no longer in the same class as their counterparts in the champagne region.

The Rotkäppchen-Mumm conglomerate is now the largest Sekt producer. Rotkäppchen was founded in Freiburg (Saale-Unstrut) in 1856, in the eastern part of Germany, and has experienced a phenomenal expansion since reunification of the two Germanys in 1989. It introduced the charmat method in 1956. Mumm was founded in 1827, initially as a champagne house, by the German banker and wine merchant P. A. Mumm. His sons J. and H.G. Mumm created the famous “Mumm Cordon Rouge” at their estate in France and also branched out to Germany. A few years ago, the French branch was bought by Pernod Ricard and the German branch by Rotkäppchen, and the Mumm estates separated. Henkell-Söhnlein, also a conglomerate, is the second largest Sekt house. Henkell was founded in 1832 in Mainz (Rheinhessen). Its most famous “Henkell Trocken”, made of Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir and Chenin Blanc, is available in the US with (supposedly) the same taste as in 1894, when this cuvee was created by Adam Henkell, although then, the charmat methode had not yet been discovered.

The smaller Sekt houses, like the large Sekt houses, do not own vineyards, but also buy the base wine from winemakers. They also tend to have a long history and often links to the champagne region, beautiful facilities and old cellars for the second fermentation and storage. The big difference is that they typically have not gone the route of tank fermentation but continue to ferment in the méthode traditionnelle.

Geldermann in Breisach makes its Sekt exclusively from French wines imported from the Loire valley. The two Germans Deutz and Geldermann founded a champagne house in 1838 in the champagne, and the Breisach (Baden) outlet became their German branch in 1904 for tax reasons. Another one is Kessler, in Esslingen (Baden-Wuerttemberg), the first German Sekt house, founded in 1826 by Georg Kessler, who had worked for Veuve Clicqot. Fürst von Metternich Sekts are produced in a beautiful castle overlooking the Rhein river in the Rheingau. Von Metternich received the castle from the Austrian Emperor Franz I in 1816 as a gift for his skillful negotiations as his Minister of Foreign Affairs during the Vienna congress (1814 -15). The von Metternich Sekts are all Rieslings from von Metternich vineyards.

Finally, increasingly, there is a number of top quality winemakers, who, in addition, to their still wines, have started to include Sekts in their portfolio. These Sekts are typically vintage Sekts, from a specified vineyard, made of specific grapes, often Riesling, in the méthode champenoise and with little or not dosage (brut or extra but). While the first fermentation typically takes place at the winery, the second fermentation is often not in the cellar of the winemaker but in the cellar of a Sekt house that bottle-ferments for other wineries. One of those is award-winning Volker Raumland in Rheinhessen. He bottle-ferments for himself and for others. He keeps the bottle sur lie up to 12 years before corking and labeling the bottle for sale. There is a large and growing number of winemakers who have started to produce world class Sekts. Unfortunately, their production is very limited and they are difficult to find in the US.

One of them that is available in the US, is the “Georg Breuer Brut 2002”, an outstanding sparkling wine differing from the champagnes only in the mineral content of it’s soil. Georg Breuer is a top winemaker in Rüdesheim (Rheingau). This Sekt is made using the Riesling grape, but premium Sekts are also made with the Pinot blanc and the Pinot gris grapes.

Sekt from Austria - Schlumberger and Others

Austria does not have the large Sekt houses as Germany does. It has one smaller Sekt estate, Schlumberger, which was established in 1842 in Vienna by Robert Schlumberger. Schlumberger was born in Germany, worked in Reims in a champagne house and married an Austrian, who brought him to the capital of Austria. There, he rose quickly and became the “father” of the Austrian Sekt industry. For over 150 years Schlumberger has been producing their Sekts in the méthode champenoise.

At the same time, like in Germany, there is an increasing number of ambitious winemakers, who have complemented their still wine portfolio with Sekts. Those Sekts are essentially all made in the méthode champenoise with the Welschriesling and Grüner Veltliner grapes giving the wine a golden hue color. Sparkling roses are made from the Blaufränkische grape. Many of the winemakers also producing Sekt are in the Kamptal, like Bründelmayer and Lenz Moser.

In the Plane: Germanwings from Belgrade to Cologne (September 2009)

Germanwings is a no-thrills low-cost carrier, which belongs to the Lufthansa group. They offered three wines, all in 0,187 liters bottles (i.e. a quarter of a normal bottle) and each for Euro 4,--. A Prosecco, a red South African Wine and a white German wine. I chose the latter. It was a good choice.

2008 Weisser Burgunder, QbA trocken, Rheinhessen
Krug’scher Hof, Gau Odernheim

Krug’scher Hof is owned and managed by the winemaker couple Regina and Klaus Menger-Krug, who also own and operate the Motzenbecker estate in the Pfalz; the sparkling Menger Krug wines from there are well know.

The Krug’scher Hof Weisser Burgunder is an excellent "Gutswein", with 11.5 percent alcohol, which I enjoyed very much flying over Serbia, Hungary, Austria and Germany. It had a nice acidity and was fresh on the palate.

World Class Wines in Hochheim, Rheingau, Germany - Weingut Kuenstler

Picture: Joelle Schiller at Weingut Kuenstler and Gunter Kuenstler, Christian Schiller, Annette Schiller

Over the past 4 decades the Kuenstler estate has been one of the most successful wine producers in the Rheingau, if not in Germany. I have watched it rising from a small winery to one of the world leaders of German wine. The Kuenstler estate presented their new wine portfolio during two weekends in September 2009 to the interested wine drinker at their new winery in Hochheim.

The wine growing tradition of the Künstler family can be traced back to Southern Moravia in 1648. After the Second World War, the Künstlers had to leave their home in what is now the Czech Republic and the head of the family, Franz Künstler, laid the foundations in Hochheim for what was to become one of the most successful family businesses in the Rheingau. I remember very well the small row house in Hochheim that was the initial home of the Kuenstler winery. And I remember very well the wonderful tastings we had at the Kuenstler estate. All my life I have been buying Kuenstler wines and there is quite a number of Kuenstler bottles in my wine cellar in McLean, Virginia.

His son Gunter Künstler bought the Geheimrat Aschrott'sche Erben wine estate in Hochheim in 1996 and in doing so acquired a major share in the very best vineyard locations in Hochheim.

Recently, as another giant leap, the Kuenstler estate moved into the former Burgeff Sektkellerei, just at the entrance of Hochheim, when you come from Mainz. It is very impressive.

The autumn presentation of his wines was quite an event. We had the opportunity to taste all of his wines. Further, Gunter Kuenstler had invited two other wineries from Franken and the Pfalz to present their wines.

The autumn presentation comprised the following:
(1) About half a dozen sparkling wines, all “brut”, in the range between Euro 10 and 16; I found the 2006 Chardonnay Sekt brut for Euro 15,50 very appealing.

(2) “Unsere Klassiker” --- good table wines for every day consumption, including the 2008 Kuenstler Riesling in the liter bottle for Euro 7.90, which is one of my favorites.

(3) A few sweet wines, up to the Auslese level; clearly, sweet wines are on the back-burner at the Kuenstler estate, accounting for only 10 percent of the wine portfolio. In fact, there was neitherr a Beerenauslese nor a Trockenbeerenauslese on the list.

(4) Kuenstler’s best single vineyard wines; all dry; two were Erstes Gewaechs wines, ranging from Euro 14 to 39 for the 0.75 liter bottle; the most expensive wine was the 2007 Hochheimer Hoelle Riesling Goldkapsel which is available in a doppelmagnum bottle (3 liters) for Euro 170. A very impressive and long list. Kuenstler is clearly focusing on dry wines.

(5) A couple of other wines: two Spaetburgunder rose wines, one Silvaner trocken and a Chardonnay wine.

(6) Finally, 6 red wines, all Spaetburgunder, all dry, including a dry Auslese, ranging from Euro 10 to 42.

The Hochheim wines in general rely largely on the very warm southern location protected from winds. The low terrain of 80 to 130 m above sea level provides a long and stable weather period for the grapes to fully ripen. Yet despite the common southern location, each of the top vineyards, starting in the west with „Reichestal“ then „Stielweg“ and „Domdechaney“ to „Kirchenstück“ and „Hölle“ in the east, has its own very individual character.

Of the three grape varieties cultivated by Künstler, the main one is Riesling. Only the warm location of ‘Reichestal' has the right climatic requirements for a Spätburgunder , and only on a very small plot in the east of the Hochheim area does the soil meet the prerequisites for a Chardonnay.

American Riesling Wines

I have spent the last couple of weeks in Germany. It is now the time of wine festivals and wine presentations by wine estates. Thus, I had the pleasure of tasting an enormous amount of excellent German Rieslings. When you are in Germany, you forget that there is also good Riesling wine elsewhere. When I opened the on-line version of the NYT on Wednesday, I was happy to me reminded that there is also good Riesling in America.

Eric Asimov has a review in yesterday's NYT about American Rieslings. The panel tasted Rieslings from America’s four primary wine-producing states: New York, Washington, California and Oregon. They favored the Rieslings from Washington and New York.

Their favorite, the 2007 Eroica, is a collaboration between Chateau Ste. Michelle, the huge Washington winemaker, and Ernst Loosen, the eminent Riesling producer from the Mosel region of Germany. The wine is made at Chateau Ste. Michelle from grapes grown in the Columbia Valley. I fully agree that regardless of where the inspiration comes from, the wine is superb, graceful and tangy, full of mineral, peach and ginger flavors. It is not quite dry, meaning the wine has a bit of residual sugar in it, yet it was so balanced it didn’t taste sweet.

The other area that showed a strong performance was the Finger Lakes in upstate New work. This is a wonderful area with excellent wines. I concur with Eric Asimov's assessment that the Dr. Konstantin Frank estate and the Herrmann Wiemer estate, but also others, make excellent Riesling wines. Stuart Pigott has written a wonderful account of his trip to the Finger Lakes, which unfortunately did not make it into his recent book, but you can read it here.

You can read Eric Asimov's NYT column here and his blog posting here.

I am looking forward to be back in Washington D.C. to drink the delicious American Rieslings.

In the Glass: 2006 Do Kraja Sveta from Serbia

It is not yet easy to find Serbian wines that are up to international standards in these days, due to 50 years of Yugoslavian-style socialism and 15 years of war and political repression and unrest, although things are rapidly changing in this lovely country in the Eastern part of Europe.

On my recent visit to Belgrade, I detected a number of very promising wineries. One of them is “Do Kraja Sveta” (At the end of the world). I had the:

2006 Cabernet Sauvignon
Selection
Do Kraja Sveta
Serbia

The Cabernet Sauvignon was dark, ruby in the glass, attack of cassis on the nose, juicy and full fruit on the palate, very much new world styles packed with fruit. A lovely wine.

The Do Kraja Sveta wine labels on the front and the back are both nicely designed. But there is a long story on the back label which looks interesting, but which I was not able to read. Equally, the web site is all in Serbian. Furthermore, Serbia is increasingly using the Cyrillic alphabet. That makes it even harder to read Serbian.

Italy's Prosecco

Prosecco has enjoyed a boom worldwide, notably in the US and Germany. This sparkling wine with its roots in a region north of Venice has become very popular on both sides of the Atlantic. But the expanding consumption of Prosecco has encouraged the production of Prosecco not only in its traditional home in northern Itlay, but also elsewhere in Italy and even outside of Italy, such as in Brazil. The reason for this expansion is that Prosecco is not only the name of a region, like Napa Valley, but also the name of a grape, like Merlot. As a consequence anyone can use the name of the Prosecco grape, as long as the Prosecco grape is in the bottle. Thus, other regions have tried to participate in the Prosecco boom and have started to produce a Prosecco with the Prosecco grape outside of its traditional home. The boom went so far that Prosecco started to be sold in cans at rock-bottom prices. All this will change in the future, hopefully. Back to the roots. At least in Italy and in the EU, which will probably follow Italy.

As of the 2009 vintage, the Prosecco grape has been renamed. Its new name is Glera. From now on, a wine producer in Sicily, for example, can no longer sell the Prosecco/Glera grape under the Prosecco name. Secondly, the heartland of the Prosecco has been upgraded to DOCG status and the larger Prosecco region to DOC status. Thus, Prosecco has become a regional application, just as Champagne in neighboring France. Only wine produced in the official Prosecco production zone can be labeled as Prosecco. The sale of Prosecco in cans has been banned.

Most likely the wine makers in Italy and in Europe in general will adhere to the severely tightened rules. For other countries, I would guess it will take some time until the EU Commission will also have negotiated deals with other countries that would prevent them from selling Prosecco. So, for the consumer, if you want authentic Prosecco you have to make sure that it is a DOC or even better a DOCG from Italy.

Prosecco will continue to come in three categories.

First, there has always been a still Prosecco wine, as there is a still Champagne, although not available on neither the American nor the German market.

Second, there is a fully sparkling Prosecco (spumante). It is produced using the Charmat method. The second fermentation does not take place in the bottle, as is the case with champagne. Champagne re-ferments in bottles, which is labor-intensive and expensive. Prosecco, like many other sparkling wines, re-ferments in large tanks, a process that keeps prices down.

Third, in between there is the lightly sparkling Prosecco frizzante. It is produced using a process of carbon injection (or carbonation). This does not involve initiating a secondary fermentation but rather injecting carbon dioxide gas directly into the wine. This method produces large bubbles that quickly dissipates and is generally only used in the cheapest sparkling wines.

Fully sparkling wines, such as Champagne, are generally sold with 5 to 6 atmospheres of pressure in the bottle. EU regulations define a sparkling wine as any wine with an excess of 3 atmospheres in pressure. These include German Sekt, Spanish Espumoso, Italian Spumante and French Cremant or Mousseux wines. Semi-sparkling wines are defined as those with between 1 and 2.5 atmospheres of pressures and include German spritzig, Italian frizzante and French petillant wines.

Finally, the Bellini, the long drink cocktail that originated in Harry’s Bar in Venice, is a mixture of Prosecco and peach puree. Today, it is popular also at the bar’s New York counterpart.

In the Plane: Lufthansa/Business/Washington D.C to Frankfurt am Main/September 2009

Lufthansa serves 5 excellent wines in business class and one has ample time to taste all of them. It is a very good selection of both old and new World wines.

Champagne Jacquart Brut Mosaique. This is a cuvee of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier. An excellent champagne. Maturation on the fine lees after second fermentation. Intense straw-yellow color, yeasty aromas and fruity notes of pear and apple. On the palate, the wine is very refreshing with pleasant mousse.

2008 Sonnenwind, Riesling Spaetlese trocken, Weingut Motzenbaecker, Germany. Motzenbaecker is one of the wine estates of Gina and Klaus Menger-Krug, who met at collage and now own several wine estates in different wine regions. They are also known for producing one of the best German sparkling wines. This was a dry Spaetlese with a bouquet reminiscent of ripe apricots, juicy peaches and ripe citrus fruit, which flatters the palate with freshness and finesse.

2007 Columbia Valley Chardonnay, Red Diamond, USA. The wine region of Washington State north of Oregon has scored a huge upswing in the wine world in recent years. This is a chardonnay in classic New World style, with pleasing aromas of ripe citrus fruit, juicy pineapple and subtle hints of vanilla.

2005 Chateau Barreyres, Haut Medoc, Cru Bourgeois, France. A classic elegant Cru Bourgeois with subtle spiciness, cassis fruit and elegant toasty notes. A classical Haut Medoc in the traditional style.

2006 Quinta do Gradi, Vinho Regional Estremadura, Portugal. A juicy wine crafted in the New World style. The bouquet is appealing with well-integrated oak spiciness, a little cinnamon and clove, as well as dark berry fruits. It has a touch of chocolate on the palate and well-knit tannins and a good structure on the finish. A wine from an upcoming region in Portugal that is turning to New World style techniques.

A finished the dinner with a Schladerer Kirschwasser, a very nice German brandy which is made on the basis of cherry.

Meeting J. Schaefer from Weingut J. Schaefer, Hochheim, Rheingau, in Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Picture: Josef Schaefer and his Wife

I had a lot of fun at the Rheingau Festival in Frankfurt (see my Blog posting of September 2, 2009). There were perhaps 2 dozen booths with winemakers from the whole Rheingau area. I focused on Weingut J. Schaefer from Hochheim.

The senior boss Willi-Josef was there until 16:00; for the rest of the day until mid-night it was his son Josef with his lovely wife, who has been managing the winery now for several decades. This is a family-owned and -operated winery with about 7 hectares of land.

There were 14 wines to choose from, of which 12 were dry and only 2 were sweet. Although from the other side of the Atlantic ocean, you get a different impression, but the Germans predominantly drink dry wine.

11 wines were white and mostly Riesling and 3 wines were red, all Pinot Noir. Pinot Noir is coming up in Germany as we all know.

Schaefer wines, though dry, are allways at the legal limit of dryness. You never find bone-dry wines here, but wines with a nice balance between acidity and sweetness.

All wines had screwcaps. Josef Schaefer told me that he has moved over to this concept completely. I noticed that other winemakers use shrewcaps only for the lower quality wines but Schaefer does it for his whole range.

I had four wines.

I started with a Riesling Sekt, traditionelle Flaschengaerung, a very well made Winzersekt:

2007 Hochheimer Stein Riesling brut (Euro 8.50)

Then I move do the successor wine of the wine that got the Best of Riesling 2008 award:

2008 Hochheimer Kirchenstueck, Riesling Spaetlese trocken, a dry Spaetlese with a lot of tropical fruits on the palate and a nice long finish.

Then I moved to an unusual grape; I had a

2008 Gewuerztraminer Spaetlese trocken; also a dry Spaetlese, but a Gewuerztraminer, which is unusual for the Riesling dominated Rheingau: nice wine with lots of tropical fruit, in particular pineapple.

I finished with a

2008 Hochheimer Hoelle, Riesling, Erstes Gewaechs; this was a powerhouse.

At first, crunchy green apples dominate the nose. As the wine blossoms in the glass, wet slate and Asian pear emerge. On the palate, the wine is crisp and full bodied, with underlying slate minerality, and a slight hint of sweetness in tension with firm, crisp acidity. Nice, long finish.

Josef Schaefer explained to me that this wine was his first Erstes Gewaechs. As described in my posting of September 28, 2009, Erstes Gewaechs is part of a new classification that was introduced in Germany a few years ago, pushed by the VDP. In short, all vineyards have been classified along the French terroir way and the top vineyards have been identified as Erste Lage. Schaefer owns Erste Lage vineyards. Subject to a number of quality criteria, an Erste Lage wine can be awarded the Grosses/Erstes Gewaechs label. Erstes/Grosses Gewaechs wines are always dry, although they have to be at least at Spaetlese level in terms of ripeness of the grapes at harvest. This one was at Auslese level. Surprisingly, all Erstes/Grosses Gewaechs wines are sold as a QbA.

Hochheim's Erstes Gewaechs Wines of 2008

Picture: Producers of Erstes Gewaechs Wines in Hochheim from left to right: Josef Schaefer, Thorsten Dienst (Dorotheenhof), Pia Rosenkranz (Rebenhof), Verkaufsleiter Weingut Kuenstler, Emmerich Himmel, Franz Werner Michel (Domdechant Werner)--- Photo from Luettges.

In a Blog posting of September 27, 2009, I reviewed the new concepts of Erste Lage, Erstes Gewaechs and Grosses Gewaechs that wine lovers will find more and more on the labels of German wines.

In another posting, I discussed the 2007 Grosses/Erstes Gewaechs Wines of the VDP wine estates that were presented to the General Public in Wiesbaden a couple of weekends ago.

But not only VDP wine estates can produce these top wines. All wine estates can do this as long as they own a vineyard that has been classified as Erste Lage. As far as the Rheingau is concerned, the Rheingau Winemaker Association presented their Erstes Gewaechs wines at the same time. Remember, Erstes Gewaechs wines are in terms of sugar level at harvest at least at the Spaetlese level, but always dry, and the grapes are grown on exceptional (Erste Lage) soil.

Six wine estates from Hochheim, of which two are VDP members, had Erstes Gewaechs wines to present. These comprised 2008 Riesling and 2007 Spaetburgunder wines. Here are these outstanding wines (in alphabetical order):

2008 Hochheimer Kirchenstück and Hochheimer Domdechaney (Domdechant Werner’sches Weingut)

2008 Hochheimer Hölle (Weingut Dorotheenhof)

2008 Hochheimer Kirchenstück (Weingut Himmel)

2008 Hochheimer Kirchenstück, 2008 Hochheimer Hölle, 2007 Hochheimer Reichestal Spätburgunder (Weingut Künstler)

2008 Hochheimer Hölle (Weingut Rebenhof)

2008 Hochheimer Hölle (Weingut W.J. Schäfer)

The prices for these wines range between 12,00 € and 36,50 € for Riesling wines ex winery and between 22,50 € und 42.20 € for the Spaetburgunder.

You find a nice write-up by the Secretary of the Weinfreundeskreis Hochheim, J. Luettges, about this event in the Hochheimer Zeitung, but they charge for it. You can also get a copy from Mr. Luettges through me, I guess.

Wine region: California's Cabernet Sauvignon reviewed by the WSJ wine couple

The WSJ wine couple Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher reviewed American, in particular Californian, Chardonnays a few weeks ago and I reported on it on my posting of September 27, 2009. Their review was devastating; they were "angry after our tasting of Chardonnay, because we found too many of those wines stupid and insulting—bad, thoughtless wines made for profit, not passion".

Last week, they gave us their impressions on Cabernet Sauvignon from California. This time, their review was more upbeat, but still disappointing. They found some values, but many wines were just "okay". The wines were technically fine and Dorothy and John were pleased with the fruit and minerality of many of the wines, but they were in their judgment not, overall, exciting. What they lacked was that amazing combination of focus, structure and balance that makes Cabernet great.

Overall, they felt that they tasted too few Cabernets that would move them to gush, "Wow, if we paid $70 for this, we'd be happy because it's special and worth every penny." But there were a handful. One of the best of tasting, Antica, is owned by Italy's Antinori family. The winery made about 2,000 cases, which were distributed nationwide. Our other favorite, Duckhorn, is made in relatively large quantities: 11,782 cases, which were distributed nationwide. Both of these wines had them talking all night about their complexity, from hints of black olives on the nose to blackberries and earth on the finish. That's what fine Cabernet should do.

Read the whole article, which is, as usual, very entertaining or watch the video here.

In the Glass: Federweisser - Between Wine and Juice

Picture: Federweisser and onion tart

I have not seen this in the Washington area, but in the Frankfurt area it is now widely available: Federweisser.

This is grape must, which is in the process of fermenting. Typically, when you buy it, it is at the early stage of fermentation. It has 4% of alcohol or a bit more and tastes like fizzy lemonade.

Over time, as it continues to ferment,the sweetness goes away. This process continues until an alcohol content of about 13 percent has been reached. The Federweisser assumes a dry and often bitter taste at this stage. It is become badly made wine.

Federweisser is available in Germany from early September to late October, and is generally served together with hearty, savory food. The classic combination is Federweisser and Zwiebelkuchen (onion tart).

Two final points: As the fermentation of the Federweisser continues in your stomach, it is advisable to limit consumption to a glass or two at the most. My mother can tell you a painful story about disregarding this.

Federweisser has nothing to do with Beaujolais Nouveau, which is finished wine that however has not benefited from any or very little aging and is sold starting the third Thursday in November of each year.

Wine Merchant Kermit Lynch in Berkeley

When I am in Berkeley--and as my daughter lives there I am quite often there--one of the things that I do first after arriving is to check in with Kermit Lynch, the wonderful wine merchant on 1605 San Pablo Avenue, just a few blocks down from where my daughter lives, and stock up the wine cellar of my daughter with his wines. It is an amazing wine store with an outstanding selection of wines, in particular from the South and South West of France. You find wines there that are usually hard to come by in the US. Well, Kermit Lynch owns a vineyard in Gigondas and lives part of the year in Provence. for many years he has been introducing off the beaten track wines to the Berkeley and more generally the American market. But Kermit Lynch is also a musician since the Berkeley days of the 1960s. Recently he has recorded a new CD. Jancis Robinson has written up a great story about him on her blog.

The other place I like very much in Berkeley is Venus, a restaurant on 2327 Shattuck Avenue. This place is amazing. The food is fresh, local, organic, and extremely creative. The food is put together with great care and integrity. Their motto is seasonal--organic--sustainable and what arrives on your table is indeed that.

Look out for Katharina, who works there 3 days per week.

German Wine Basics: Erstes Gewaechs, Grosses Gewaechs, Erste Lage

There are new terms appearing on German wine labels and wine lists: Erstes Gewaechs, Grosses Gewaechs, Erste Lage. This reflects efforts that are under way to supplement or even replace the current wine ranking system.

The main reference for wine making in Germany today is the wine law of 1971. At the center of the 1971 wine law is the content of sugar in the grapes at the point of harvest. Accordingly, wines are classified from Tafelwein to Trockenbeerenauslese depending on the sugar content of the grapes at harvest. This, however, does not say anything about how sweet a wine in the glass will be at consumption. Thus, a Spaetlese, for example, can be bone-dry or very sweet, although being made from exactly the same grapes with the same sugar content at harvest. See my blog posting of August 24, 2009 on that.

The 1971 wine law also has elements of a terroir concept. There are Grosslagen (collective vineyards) and Einzellagen (single vineyards). For the average consumer, Grosslage sites became virtually indistinguishable from Einzellage (single vineyard) sites. Furthermore, all the single vineyard sites were given equal status and only wine experts know which single vineyards are good and which not so good.

Driven by the objective to restore the prestige of Germany’s significant vineyards and to help the consumer in terms of distinguishing dry from sweet wines, the wineries that are members of the Verband der Praedikatsweingueter (VDP) introduced the concepts of Erste Lage, Erstes Gewaechs, Grosses Gewaechs.

In a first step, all vineyards were rated and the best parcels of them were identified as Erste Lage (First Site). This took several years. Historically relevant maps were used. After a lengthy process and lots of discussions, the Erste Lage concept was introduced in 2001. In my region, the Rheingau, about 1/3 of the wine growing area comes under the Erste Lage label.

Erste Lage vineyards are the top vineyards. Further restrictions apply: there are yield restrictions; only hand picking of grapes is permitted and harvest must be late in the autumn; the sugar content of the grape at harvest must be at least that of a Spaetlese; only certain grape varietals can be planted: Riesling is the only varietal allowed for Erste Lage wines in the Mosel, Nahe, and Mittelrhein, but grapes like Spaetburgunder (Pinot Noir), Lemberger, Fruehburgunder, Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc), Grauburgunder (Pinot Gris), Gewuerztraminer, and Silvaner are included in other regions.

Second, the Grosse Gewaechs and Erste Gewaechs concepts were introduced. These terms basically mean the same thing but for some reasons the latter is used in the Rheingau and the former in all other wine regions. Grosse/Erste Gewaechse wines are always fully fermented and dry. The Grosse/Erste Gewaechs lable is thought to resemble the Grand/Premier Cru designation in neighboring France. Here and there, these wines are dry. Grosse/Erste Gewaechs refers to a top dry wine from a top vineyard.

Erste Lage wines that are made in a sweet style continue to carry the traditional Spaetlese, Auslese, Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese and Eiswein lebels.

A dry Auslese is thus a thing of the past, as far as the Erste Lage vineyards are concerned. If the wine has the Auslese level of sugar at harvest, is fully femented and made dry, it will be sold as Grosses/Erstes Gewaechs. If the same wine is made in a sweet style, it will continue to be marketed as Auslese.

In sum: The Erste Lage concept is singling out the top vineyards. If the wine is then a Erstes/Grosses Gewaechs, the consumer can expect a powerful top-quality dry wine than can compete in the international market with other great dry wines. By contrast, Erste Lage wines with the traditional Spaetlese, Auslese, Trockenbeerenauslese and Eiswein labels will be noble-sweet wines, which are typical for Germany and difficult to find elsewhere.

Will this help? I doubt it. The new classification covers only 1/3 of wine produced in Germany. The large majority of wine will be produced outside the new rules. I think it has not simplified things, it has complicated it.

In the Glass: An 1974 Bacchus Kabinett from the Pfalz, Germany

Picture: Old Barrel of the Winzergenossenschaft Kallstadt

We had a bottle of

1974 Kallstadter Steinacker
Bacchus Kabinett
Winzergenossenschaft Kallstadt, Kallstadt Pfalz/Germany

This was an unusual wine. Bacchus is one of the new breeds of grape varietals that were created in the 1960s and 1970s in Germany; it was released for general cultivation in 1972. Thus, the 1974 we had, was one of the first, if not the first vintage of this wine and the winemaker was probably still experimenting with the new grape. The Bacchus grape is Silvaner crossed with Riesling and this animal again crossed with Mueller-Thurgau. It is a large yielder that tends to produce fruity wines with a distinctive bouquet. It has no high requirements for sites it can be planted and ripens early.

The producer of our wine was the wine-coopeative of Kallstadt/Pflaz. This is an old one, founded in 1902. There are more than 200 wine-cooperatives in Germany currently, which account for about 1/3 of the wine production.

The wine did not disappoint us. In fact we were pleasantly surprised. The winemaker has done a good job. The wine was dark-yellow in the glass. Despite the age, there was not even a hint of a sherry tone, but a light tone of honey on the nose. The finish was long, although Bacchus is a grape that is low in acidity. There was still a fair amount of sweetness. As a Kabinett, the wine was not chaptalized so the body came all from the sugar in the grapes at harvest. I guess, the sweetness was produced by adding “Suessreserve” and not stopping the fermentation (see my posting of August 24, 2009).

The Bacchus grape hasn’t been a great success story. Since its peak in the 1990s, the grape has been on the decline to the extent that the Winzergenossenschaft Kallstadt, for example, no longer produces Bacchus wines today. Instead, I found on their price list Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc wines, which are well known further south in France and which were definitely not in the portfolio of the Winzergenossenschaft when I bought the Bacchus wine about 30 years ago with my wife Annette and my parents.

The Wine Region South-West of France

Funny...Dave McIntyre from the Washington Post and Eric Asimow from the New York Times covered the same wine region in their weekly wine column last Wednesday: the South of France. And both came to the same conclusion that the wines there remain stylistically unpredictable. One never knows whether one has a New World-style fruit bomb in the bottle or a lighter wine with a more delicate balance of flavors.

I would like to add: the South West of France, with the Cahors (the Malbec has its roots here before it became the signature grape of Argentina), Jurancon, Gaillac, Madiran and--my favorite--tiny Irouleguy (see my wine in the glass column of September 10, 2009).

To complement that, last night I drank a

2006 Domaine Larribere, Bearn Rouge, Cave des Producteurs, Gan, Appelation Bearn Controlee

A wine made by a wine-cooperative in the Jurancon, this is an Old World-style wine with a lot of tannin, as the Tannat grape is dominating the cuvee.

I bought the wine for Euro 4.60 at Jacques' Weindepot in Frankfurt/Germany.

In the Rheingau: Me in the middle of 6 Wine Queens, Germany

Picture: Christian G.E. Schiller and 6 wine queens.

The wine queens of 6 villages of the Rheingau – Hochheim, Eltville, Hattenheim, Kiedrich, Winkel and Geisenheim--were holding court in Hattenheim/Rheingau on April 11, 2009 and I had the pleasure of being in the middle of them.

A wine queen is an ambassador of the wine village or the wine region that she is representing of for the whole of Germany. Typically, each German wine village has its own wine queen. One of them is then chosen to represent the wine region. Finally, one of the 13 regional wine queens becomes the German wine queen and represents German wine around the world. The German Wine Institute/Mainz has organized the elections of the German wine queen since 1949. The 13 candidates that make it to the finals tend to be well-educated, articulate (in German and in English) young women able to represent German wines and wine-growers at home and abroad.

The current German wine queen is Marlies Dumsky, a charming young lady from the Franken region. She was in New York City earlier this year and did a session with Gary Vaynerchuck. It is episode #711.

Looking ahead, the next round of selections is in full swing. As for the Rheingau, the new regional wine queen will be crowned on September 6, 2009 in the castle Johannisberg. There are two candidates. One of them is Isabelle Diefenbach from Hochheim. I hope she will win. Then she would also be a candidate for the national competition which will take place on October 9, 2009.

Best of Riesling Awards 2008

Every other year in Bingen, Germany, the Best of Riesling competition invites a group of internationally recognized experts to choose their favorite Riesling wine. In 2008, more than 50 experts from a dozen countries gathered to assess over 1,800 wines from 10 countries. Prizes were awarded to three groups of wines: German Rieslings, Non-German European Rieslings, and New World Rieslings.

German Rieslings. This group was divided into four subgroups: (i) dry (up to 4 grams per liter residual sugar); (ii) off-dry (up to 12 grams); (iii) sweet (from to 12 to 90 grams) and (iv) extra sweet (more than 90 grams).

Most of the wines which were awarded prizes were from small and medium-size wineries not well known in the United States. The first prize in the dry category was awarded to the 2007 Hochheimer Kirchenstueck Spaetlese from Weingut Schaefer in the Rheingau. Hochheim is a cute little village close to Frankfurt. You can take the S-Bahn from the Central Railway Station in Frankfurt to Hochheim. Weingut Schaefer is in the center of the village, at Elisabethen Strasse 4.

Surprisingly, all three winners in the dry category were Spaetlese. Many wine drinkers believe that German Spaetlese is always sweet,, but this is a misconception. I discussed the question why German Riesling can be sweet in my Blog posting of August 24, 2009.

In a country with a cool climate like Germany, sweet wines are sweet because of three reasons: (i) the fog in the vineyard producing the noble rot and botrytised wines, (ii) the frost during the harvest resulting in ice wine or (iii) the skillfull processing of the grapes by the winemaker after the harvest in the wine cellar. Indeed, German wine makers have developed extraordinary skills in arresting the fermentation or blending the dry wine with suessreserve to produce wines that display a combination of a low level of alcohol and delicious sweetness making them unique in the world.

All wines in the off-dry and sweet categories were Spaetlese or Auslese wines, with one exception. A Qualitaetswein besonderer Anbaugebiete (QbA) won a medal: 2007 Laubenheimer Vogelsang, QbA, Weingut Carl Adelseck (Nahe). This is a wine that most likely has been chapitalized and stopped and/or enriched through suessreserve. While chapitalization of wines is allowed in neighboring France up to the top categories of wines, in Germany it is only permitted for grapes with a low level of ripeness, i.e. the Tafelwein and QbA categories. Though little known in the United States, the QbA wines can be good value for the money.

Non-German European. The Austrian: 2007 Riesling vom Urgestein, Qualitätswein, Winzerhof Stift in Roeschitz was judged best wine in this category. The Austrian classification of wine is similar to that of Germany, with two major differences. The enrichment of wine through suessreserve, a major component of German winemaking, is illegal in Austria. When wines are sweet, this reflects noble rot, frost during the harvest, arresting the fermentation and sun drying. The latter is common in Austria, while it is illegal in Germany.

New World. All of the winners in this category were from the United States. The first prize went to the 2007 Chateau Ste Michelle dry Riesling from Washington State. Winemaking of Chateau Ste. Michelle, as far as Riesling is concerned, is influenced by the famous Weingut Dr. Loosen from the Mosel region. Indeed, Chateau Ste Michelle and Dr. Loosen, in a joint venture, produce a wine called Eroica (with the name being taken from the famous van Beethoven symphony), which is an off-dry Riesling (with more than 20 grams remaining sugar per liter). But this delicious example of successful New and Old World cooperation did not enter the competition.

Three silver medals were also award. One medal went to another wine of Chateau Ste Michelle: 2006 Late harvest Riesling Ethos. This is a sweet wine with 220 grams of sugar per liter and a low alcohol level (8 percent). If it were a German wine I would think the fermentation had been arrested, given the low level of alcohol, but winemakers in the United States have more sophisticated technologies at their disposal. The second silver medal went to the: 2007 Jana Michigan Riesling. This is a wine from Michigan, produced by California wine maker Scott Harvey. He is based in California and produces wine under various labels, mostly from Napa valley and Amador county. Finally, a third medal went to the New York Finger Lakes wine: 2006 Riesling dry from the White Springs Winery. This is evidently an area with strong German/Austrian/Swiss roots that produces excellent Rieslings. This one is a dry one.

For more information on the Best of Riesling event go to www.best-of-riesling.de

If you have a favorite Riesling, I would be delighted to hear from you.

This is a slightly revised version of an article that has been posted on the website of the International Wine Review in August 2008.

In the Glass: Irouleguy -- A wine from the South West of France

Picture: Domaine Brana/Irouleguy/France

We had drinks at Cork Wine Bar, a wine bar with a lot of off the beaten track French wines on 14th Street in Washington DC, NW and discovered that they had the

Domaine Brana

2006 Rouge

Appelation Iroulegy Controlee

St. Jean Pied de Port, France

on their list.

Irouleguy is a tiny wine region in the Basque country in the South West of France, virtually unknown outside of France, but an AC region. The Basque country covers areas both in Spain and France. The Irouleguy is considered to be the wine of the French part of the Basque country and it goes very well with Basque food., which is hearty and a bit spicy.

We were in the Basque Country earlier this year and had the Domaine Brana Rouge in a restaurant in St. Jean de at the coast near Biarizze. Tpically, the Irouleguy Rouge have a deep dark colour with a high level of alcohol. These are full bodied wines. As the Brana Rouge opens in the glass, the dried herbs and green peppers meet the nose, followed by a wave of tannin with raspberry aromas. Already then, I was overwhelmed by the wine’s inherently sauvage nature.

The winery Etienne Brana exist since 1897 in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in the heart of the Basque country. The primary grape variety is the Tannat, complemented by Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc.

The Madiran in the Gascony, further up south, is a similar wine with a strong Tannat component. Tannat in Irouleguy and Madiran is what the Malbec is in the near-by Cahors region. It is the dominating grape. At the same time, in the New World, Malbec has become the trademark of Argentina wine. Similarly, the Tannat grape has become the trademark in neigbouring Uruguay. It was introduced by Basque settlers in the 19^th century.

In the Washington DC area, the wine is being imported by Wine Traditions. In Frankfurt, I had a nice Bearn at Jacques’ winedepot .