Wines to Buy In Germany

I have a friend going to Germany who will be in Nuremberg, Regensburg, Passau and Melk. She is not a wine drinker and will be going to more touristy wine shops most likely. She has offered to bring me a couple bottles of Riesling back with her. I was wondering if you guys could give me some recommendations that I could list for her to hand to a shop owner. I was thinking of staying in the $100 per bottle range. Also I would like to get some stuff that you can’t get here in the U.S. I don’t have a ton of experience with Riesling, and when I do have something I like I never seem to write down what it was. I had a 15 Karthauserhofberg GG that I really liked, but beyond that I can’t tell you the names of other German Rieslings that I’ve liked. I like all different styles of Riesling as well, but I think it would be more fun to find something more age worthy. Thanks in advance!

It may be more trouble than it’s worth, particularly if you don’t have a specific idea of what you want.

  1. The differential may not be that great. Out of curiosity, I checked some expensive rieslings. From Wine Searcher, I see that an Egon Muller wine that retails for $350 a bottle here goes for $250 in Germany. A Donnhoff Grosse Gewachs that’s generally running around $80 here is $45 to $50 at stores in Germany. Is it worth the hassle to pack and lug it? I don’t know.

  2. Unless she goes to a high-end shop, the selection may be primarily from the local region, and that area doesn’t produce the most prestigious wines.

If you could narrow down what you’re interested in, you could try to find bottles in those four cities via Wine Searcher. A friend once brought back from Berlin an unusual red from Furst. But I’d had the wine and I found it listed in a Berlin shop, so I knew exactly what I wanted and where she could get it.

Melk is in Austria, not far from Wachau. Just saying it May be possible to look for Austrians.

Tim, outside the wine-producing areas and outside the handful of bigger cities like Berlin or Munich it is very difficult to find high-end wine shops or expensive Rieslings in Germany… Anyway, a reliable source for excellent wines in Nuremberg is ‘K&U Weinhalle Nürnberg’. They offer Rieslings GG from Christmann, von Hövel, Heymann-Löwenstein, Maximin Grünhaus, Beurer, Zehnthof Luckert, and Wagner-Stempel in a price range of about €35 to €85.

DUDE!!!
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Melk is a stone’s throw from Franz Hirtzberger & Franz Xavier Pichler!!!

[u]Hirtzberger

[u]http://www.fx-pichler.at/kontakt.php[/u]

We’re talking Grüner & Riesling Valhalla!!!
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You could practically WALK from Melk to Spitz [Hirtzberger] or Dürnstein [FX Pichler].
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You gotta hop on a plane and go join that chick and have the time of your life.

[And make dadgum certain she don’t come home with another man’s spawn in her belly.]

In terms of collectibles, I’d be on the prowl for well-aged magnums of Hirtzberger Honivogl Gruner & FX Pichler Unendlich Gruner.

Here’s free Wine-Searcher, but you definitely wanna upgrade to Wine-Searcher Pro:

[u]https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/honivogl+gruner[/u]

[u]https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/unendlich+gruner[/u]

If you got the $$$s, then you could look at magnums of Hirtzberger Singerriedel Riesling & FX Pichler Unendlich Riesling, although that’s getting well into Big Lumber territory:

[u]https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/singerriedel+riesling+hirtzberger[/u]

[u]https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/unendlich+riesling[/u]

But, again, you definitely wanna upgrade to Wine-Searcher Pro before you throw down them kinda $$$s.

Fohringer in Spitz are great.

Tim,

I’d be looking to buy wines that simply are never imported into the US. There are some stellar wines out there that are no longer available here. In particular, I’d search out Meßmer Burrweiller Schloßgarten Im Goldenen Jost Weissburgunder Großes Gewächs. It should be about €30 - €40 and is still the best Pinot Blanc I’ve ever had. Terry Theise brought these into the US for a short period of time, but that ended with the 2013 vintage. I’d also be looking out for the wines that never get exported from Keller & Donnhoff. I think there are a lot of really under the radar wines that come from Germany that never leave the country. Good luck! Please share what you found helpful and stores you liked. I plan to go to Germany in fall 2020.

There are still a number of German winemakers making wonderful GKA, BAs, TBAs and Eiswein that are having trouble selling them in Germany. There are also issues with importing right now for a few top estates given issues at one of the two or three top German wine importers in the US. I would look for sweeter wines from producers like Reinhold Haart or Zilliken from vintages like 2010 or 2015. Not sure they can be found at the types of stores you are describing, but if they can be they will really be treasures.

There are about 80 000 producers in Germany and the vast majority of German wineries – the average size is only about 5-6 hectares- are simply too small to sell their wines across the whole country, let alone to serve the international market. Therefore, unfortunately, it is highly unlikely that a particular wine can be found in a store outside the region where it was produced.

Thanks for the recommendations, I really appreciate it!

Hi Tim

I would suggest that you order the wines to her hotel, saves both of you quite a bit of trouble.

Have done it myself several times when in Germany. Never had a hotel reject the request but do check with them first.

Low transport costs usually (from Austria as well) to free if you order over a certain value (often around 150eur). Check with the retail about how far in advance but most deliveries doesn’t take more than 2-3 day.

Cheers,
Mikael

This.

Wine-Searcher Pro + Hotel Concierge FTW.

[Remember to be kind & generous to your Concierge…]

I was clicking through some Wachau websites and noticed that Franz Prager just died in October:
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Franz Prager: 1925 - 2019
[u]http://www.vinea-wachau.at/news/news/single/news/franz-prager-1925-2019[/u]
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Wilhelm Schwengler, Franz Prager, Franz Hirtzberger, Josef Jamek
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