Sketchy or No? Restaurant labels something as GG that wasn't...

WINE TALK
1

I was in NYC recently for Phish’s Baker’s Dozen and we had the opportunity to sample several highly regarded restaurants while in town.

At one ** establishment, I choose to bring a Rhys 2006 Alpine Hillsides Pinot and buy a glass of bubbly and bottle of white from their extensive list. Unlike some other places, I didn’t read over their list in advance of the trip, as I was frankly expecting to splurge on pairings but veered away from that after a week’s worth of excess that I could choose to document in a separate thread.

The Somm took note of the Rhys and on his first visit and I laid out my plan. I love white Burgs and order them relatively often in restaurants but this week had already seen several Chardonnays, so I prompted the Somm to recommend Rieslings, indicating my historical affinity for Mosel Kabinetts and Spatlese but openly wondering if a dry Riesling like a Grosses Gewachs or Austrian wine might be nice for a change, unless he thought an off-dry wine would be better with the cuisine. He stated that a dry wine was better for their menu and suggested a 2006 Gunderloch wine listed on the menu as a Grosses Gewach and one other wine around the same price point. $150 IIRC and I went for the Gunderloch. We also ordered the “full tasting menu.” I gulped a little when the caviar course came out because I hadn’t actually intended on spending on the supplement but I said full tasting menu so I went with it. With an excellent champagne in hand, as well as a joyous week of entertainment in the city, I was feeling groovy.

When the Gunderloch arrived I actually expressed a little hesitation – “I think that’s right, I’m sure your service team wouldn’t have made an error” or something like that, because I was semi-expecting an explicit label including the GG designation. It was opened and served. It was a lovely wine, not mind blowing but at times a terrific match for the diverse, complex, and delicious tasting menu. As you can see below, however, it is not a GG wine, and when I inspected this back label later in the meal I realized something was amiss. I asked to see the wine list again and confirmed the discrepancy.

I am not one to make a scene and my husband was mortified, but I called the Somm on this situation in a polite way “…I understand the German labeling laws, so I think you understand my point.”

“I’ll look into it, thank you sir (etc.)”

A while later he returns and offers that the GG on the menu was meant to indicate dryness, but in light of the error, the corkage on the Rhys would be waived.

Ultimately the bill also omitted the caviar charge. I was satisfied with that from a financial equity point of view and left a reasonably satisfied customer if not a little proud of myself for going toe to toe with serious wine pro. Still, I would have preferred the GG version of the wine for my meal and shouldn’t have to deal with the awkwardness in the midst of a luxury sort of experience.

So, I also want to consult the wisdom of the board. Was this sketchy, or innocent? Did I handle it OK?

The restaurant’s wine list is not currently available online (if it ever was.) I would hope that they would make the effort to correct the listing. I really did want to try an aged GG. Still, an incredible meal and an incredible vacation.
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2

Sounds like they think all Trockens are GGs. A pretty big gaff on their part. You were right to complain.

3

So what Prädikat was it finally? Can’t really tell on that label.

I think you (and the restaurant) handled it quite well.

4

Do you have a picture of the front label?

5

Could have been something as innocent as a mis-shipment from the distributor that found its way into their inventory.

6

Yes, and here is one on cellartracker from another vintage that shows that there are separate bottlings with separate labels. The back label of the wine I drank indicates “Qualitatswein” (not QmPradikat or GG). There are also labels that show “trocken” which I think is a 3rd wine. I’m not sure if the wine I drank was technically trocken but it was certainly a light year away from Kabinett.
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7

I hadn’t thought of that exactly but some such explanation (better than the one offered in person) is why I was hesitant to name the establishment in the first post. That being said, the conversation, including a recommendation of that specific wine, is not entirely reassuring. OTOH, there weren’t THAT many dry, mid-aged, German Rieslings under $200 on their list, so once passing the food complementarity test – having eaten the food, letting a guest talk himself into any sort of Riesling is a good plan, duh – the somm may have been feigning more familiarity with that specific wine than he actually had, which would explain him somehow not noticing the lack of GG credentials. Saying that they put GG on the wine list to indicate dryness makes no sense to me – it’s as if they expect the customer to know some (but not all) of the arcane classifications and nomenclature. Perhaps he was just embarrassed.

I’d like to revisit the list and see the wine in context. My guess is that this was one of the lower priced GG options, which would fit an inventory / listing control explanation pretty well.

8

Sounds like you pointed it out respectfully, and the restaurant made it up to you appropriately. As best as can be expected.

9

Probably an honest mistake and you were right to point it out.

Happened to me recently at a restaurant where I saw a French syrah I loved on the menu, but with the vielle vignes designation. The price was less that what I expected, restaurant pricing considered, but above the base domaine bottling price that I would have expected. Waiter brings it out and it was not the VV, the VV is designated in thin red lettering diagonally across the label. The waiter was cool, brought out the Owner/Somm, who was pretty confident that the bottle was the VV, said they just don’t note it on the label. At this point my wife is aghast since were were with friends, but I was polite and tried to be pretty subtle. Plus, we had a couple of whites already going. I said to the Owner, I have this wine in my own collection, many prior years, can you just check or google it really quick, and within minutes he came back, acknowledging I was right, but more importantly making an appropriate adjustment to the bill. I did want the one regardless, just not at the VV price. I let him try a wine I brought in, everyone was happy.

10

I wish I could recall the year Gunderloch started making a GG bottling from Rothenberg (versus just skipping any pradikat & dryness labeling), but I can’t.

2007 sticks in my head for some reason (probably because I bought it), but I think it was sooner.

Perhaps the sommelier himself was not all that familiar with the arcane mysteries of German labeling.

11

As others have said it sounds like an honest mistake, you handled it well, and the resto did also.

More importantly how did you like the shows? How many did you catch?

12

At 13% ABV, per the label, it’s pretty much guaranteed to be dry. That’s usually a good way of figuring out whether a German wine is sweet or not.

Indeed. And how many are!?

13

If this was a Michelin 2 star restaurant as implied, misdescribed wine shouldn’t happen.

That said, I wonder if this is the wine that was to become labelled GG but from a previous vintage.

14

From what I can find, Gunderloch was not using the GG designation with their 2006s. I could see this having been sold to the restaurant as “GG” if it’s the same bottling that is now called GG, but it’s hard to know if it is really from the same selection of fruit and made the same way. Obviously if it isn’t GG, it shouldn’t say that on the list, but I remember seeing even a very reputable shop calling Adam’s top dry wine a GG before he joined the VDP. Still, a restaurant of this caliber should have a wine director who knows the difference and labels the wine properly on the list. It is possible, though, that this really is the same stuff that they started labelling as GG a couple of years later. I don’t see different bottlings from the same vintage, and I don’t think the VDP would have allowed them to make one GG and one trocken without Pradikat from the same vineyard in the same year.

Yeah, what Phil said.

15

I think you handled well. I would guess honest mistake. And I’m not sure that Gunderloch bottles more than 1 trocken Rothenberg. Looks to me that the post-2007 wines listed as Nackenheimer Rothenberg are actually just Nackenheim, at least from labels posted.

16

That was David’s point, I think.

Oddly, there’s no reference to a GG on the winery’s or the importer’s sites that I can see:

http://www.rudiwiest.com/wp-content/upload/2012/02/2013-Gunderloch-EP.pdf
http://www.rudiwiest.com/estates/gunderloch-estate-rheinhessen-germany/

Also, isn’t it a condition for GG designation that all wines from that producer and that vineyard be bottled as GG? In other words, you can’t bottle a GG Rothenberg as well as other Rotherbergs. Perhaps before 2008 (based on the photo here) they had several bottlings and therefore couldn’t bottle the top dry version as GG. That would sort of exonerate the restaurant – if this 2006 was a wine later designated as GG.

17

Donnhoff bottles GGs and sweet pradikat wines from the same sites, so you can definitely have GG and other bottlings from the same site. I’m not super knowledgeable of the nitty gritty (and the less gritty), so perhaps it’s not allowed to bottle multiple levels of dry wines from the same site?

18

It’s more a restriction on dry wines from the same site. Producers are not supposed to bottle a GG and (for example) a Spatlese Trocken from the same site. Using Donnhoff as an example, the Niederhauser Hermannshohle Spatlese Trocken disappeared from the line up in 2003 when they started the Hermannshohle GG.

19

It’s also why Emrich-Schönleber bottles a Frühtau and Halgans (lower-tier trocken from Frühlingsplätzschen and Halenberg bzw.)

20

Got it.

I have a law degree, but you really need an LLM in German wine law to keep up with this stuff.