I need a recommendation, or two or three, for a general treatise on German wines. I was disappointed by Stephan Reinhardt’s “The Finest Wines of Germany.” I like to see nice celebrity-style photos of winemakers as much as the next person, but I was hoping for more history and more detail. Before I spend any more of my ill-gotten gains, I thought I’d inquire here. All suggestions gratefully accepted.
We all wish there was a good resource. Unfortunately it does not exist.
When is DS going to write one?
Just acquired Wine Atlas Of Germany, originally published as Weinatlas Deutschland. Authors: Dieter Braatz, Ulrich Sautter, and Ingo Swoboda. Published by University of California Press. http://www.amazon.com/Wine-Atlas-Germany-Dieter-Braatz/dp/0520260678/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408832688&sr=8-1&keywords=wine+atlas+of+germany
Thanks! I saw this on Amazon and thought it looked promising; ordering now!
Try Terry Theise’s blog for a lot of good information. He has written a book also, “Reading between the Vines”, but it is couple of years old, now.
The Wine Atlas is the one I think I will buy.
Start here. Home - Skurnik Wines & Spirits
Two classics are out of print today (as far as I know) - Hugh Johnson’s Atlas of German Wines and Peter Sichel’s The Wines of Germany: Completely Revised Edition of Frank Schoonmaker’s Classic, 1980
Both are great if you can find them. But, they will not help with current producers.
One other suggestion is subscribe to the outstanding wine newsletter A View from the Cellar by John Gilman. John does an excellent job covering German wines in his newsletter, but do note that John covers a bunch of wine regions, not just Germany.
I bought this book several years ago, it’s an older book but contains some good reference info on the producers, older vintages, and regions:
“Guide to German Wines” by Mitchell Beazley.
Don
I found Sichel’s revised edition on Amazon, a used hardcover for 22 cents! Thanks for the tip!
That is a great price. I thought these were going for a lot of money.
I rely on this free newsletter which I think comes out 4 times a year. There is a lot of Mosel info here but one needs time to scroll around.
The more I learn about German wine the more I realize a comprehensive book could never be written. It would take several books to cover the various regions. Starting with the Mosel…I would suggest the following in addition to some very good previous suggestions:
Understanding Mosel Wines by Eric Steinberg is a great start, unfortunately only available on Kindle. It is the most up-to-date book on the region and the author does a very good job of capturing what is so wonderful about the Mosel.
I would also highly recommend signing up for Lars Carlberg’s website.
In addition to Terry’s catalogs I would check out the Vom Boden journals:
Thanks for the shout-out, Robert. On May 16, Eric Steinberg gave a summary of his book on my site. He also wrote a piece on the codes of Mosel Auslesen.
Rumor has it that Jean Fisch is writing a book on fine Mosel wines. I’d really like for David Schildknecht to write a book on German wine, but he needs to find the time.
A couple of weeks ago, I published a review of Wine Atlas of Germany.
I got my Atlas about a week ago. I’ve spent several hrs skipping about here & there. There are a few interesting nuggets
buried in the book, but I’m kinda luke-warm about it. It’s an Atlas…not much more. A good reference to find where various
vnyds are located. But there are so many friggin’ vnyds to catalog that it doesn’t leave much room for anything else. It’s
probably a good reference to have on the shelf…but not much to learn from.
I found StuartPigotts book on Riesling much/much more informative and a very good read. True…it’s about Riesling
around the World. But rumor has they grow a bit of Riesling in Germany and those sections were a good read.
Tom
Tom, I focused on the Mosel chapter of the atlas, but I agree with you. By the way, I’ve yet to read Stuart Pigott’s new book on Riesling.
It’s a no-brainer, Lars. I think you’ll enjoy it.
Tom