Germany, Austria, Champagne, oh my!
I know lots of people who say they simply don't like white wine. I used to be one of them. But I learned the error of my ways once I realized that all white wines were not the wretched Chardonnays we produce here in California. So now I do my rebellious best to get others to not snub whites. And there are few weapons in my arsenal as effective as a good bottle of German or Austrian wine.
My love affair with these wines started in a wine class I took last year, but came into full bloom at a tasting event at bacar, which I described in one of the earliest posts to this website.
That event featured Terry Theise, who is the number one importer of quality German and Austrian wines, as well as estate-bottled Champagne (Champagne is normally a blend of grapes from innumerable vineyards). When people ask me for advice on buying German wine (and some do, every now and then, so my efforts are beginning to pay off), I say that the easiest thing to do is look for Terry's name on the bottle. If it's there, it's bound to be good.
So a month and a half ago, when K & L Wines announced a mega-tasting of some of these wines, with Terry Theise and some of the producers present, it didn't matter that I was unemployed at the time; I plopped down the $100 for Melissa and me to go.
And while the tasting featured maybe ten different Champagnes, and around two dozen Austrian wines, the real excitement for me was the twenty or so 2001 German wines. Because the 2001 vintage from Germany is causing everyone who cares about such things to pee their pants.
The event was actually at Chantilly, a restaurant/hotel next door to K & L. As Melissa and I walked in, we were given a tasting sheet for notes. Or, rather, a package of tasting sheets. There were somewhere around 50-60 wines in total for us to try over the next three hours. Melissa made me promise to spit a lot.
In many cases, the producers of the wines were there, and so we got to talk to them about their winemaking, their vineyards, and what they like to eat with their wines. This was a spectacular idea on Terry's part. It gives you a much deeper connection to what you drink, an understanding of the person behind the bottle. It is too common for wine drinkers to think of wine makers in the abstract and not as real people.
And these wine makers were enjoying sharing their wines. So much so that a number of them brought extra treats for us to enjoy: barrel samples of the not-yet-bottled 2002 vintage, an eiswein or a Trockenbeerenauslese, snuck in among the rest.
So here are some of the highlights for us. The wines from Meulenhof were amazing. Stefan Justen had brought his 2001 Kabinett Riesling, which was of course delicious, but also barrel samples for his 2002 Kabinett and his 2002 Spätlese. Everything was superb. In fact, I took a break from the tasting to go next door and buy a case of the 2001's, just to ensure that I got some if there was a run on them at the end of the tasting (they only had 4 cases left before I got there). And as soon as I see them show up in stores, I'm buying the 2002s. I'll figure out a way to pre-order, if I can.
I could wax rapsodic about all the 2001s from Germany. And with an infinite budget, I would have walked out with cases of virtually all of them. But, alas, I am not quite able to do that. So the Meulenhofs were the only full case I ended up with. The Selbach-Osters and Josef Leitz bottles were all quite good, but those are also somewhat easier to find, even still.
Martin Kerpen of Weingut Kerpen shared a bottle of his Bernkasteler Bratenhofchen Riesling Eiswein, which is a steal at $78 for a half-bottle (no, really), but it won't be available at K & L for a little while, so I'll try and refrain from calling and pestering them every day. I did, however, buy two bottles of the 2000 Schloss Gobelsburg Riesling "Heiligenstein" Trockenbeerenauslese, which also seemed like a great buy at $55 for a half-bottle.
But I could go on and on. The event was a blast, and my only regret is all the wine I spit out (though, for the real treats, I didn't spit; I just couldn't bring myself to do it). Find yourself some 2001 Germans and try them.
P.S. Some quick notes on German terms for ripeness (which mostly apply to Austria as well, but they have one additional level of ripeness, and they have completely different names in the Wachau region of the country). Ripeness of the grape at harvest often correlates to sweetness (ripeness = sugar), but not always. Even when very sweet, however, fine German wines are not cloying. This most northerly of wine-growing regions just doesn't get a lot of sun, and getting the grapes ripe is a tricky business there. The minimum level approved by the government is simply Qualitatswein. Anything below that is unclassified. I tend to buy wines at least one level up at the Kabinett level. Karen MacNeil's Wine Bible calls Kabinett Rieslings one of the most food-friendly wines in existence. Another level up in ripeness are the Spätleses, which I often pair with a plate of soft cheeses at the end of the meal before dessert. Next up are Ausleses, then Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese (often abbreviated to BA and TBA for obvious reasons). When you're making a TBA, the grapes might have sat on the vine until December, if not later. And you are at that point squeezing the juice out of dried-up raisins. Hence the cost. Eiswein has an extra requirement. It's wine produced when the grapes freeze on the vines, and they have be picked when it is still very cold to be used for Eiswein (in Germany, the rules for eiswein state that they have to be picked at -8 ° Celsius). Eiswein is considered the highest achievemnt for a winemaker. Other countries produce ice wines, most notably Canada, but a good German eiswein is in a category entirely of its own.
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