TNs: GERMAN WINE ROUNDUP

WINE TALK
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Hi Berserkers,

In a previous post, I mentioned that I’ve suddenly gone crazy for German wine and am now ready to share with you my first experiences with the German & Austrian Prädikatswein.

DR. HERMANN RIESLING SPATLESE 2008 $22.95 (LCBO) – My first German Riesling Spatlese. Light golden in color. Medium body. Great peach blossom nose, very floral. I could’ve smelled this all day, just beautiful. Light but sweet peach and apricot flavors with a little hit of acid on the finish. Lots of minerality, too. A very refreshing lightly sweet wine that could go with either dinner or dessert.

My research shows this only has about 60 grams of residual sugar per liter, but it’s so well made it tastes a lot sweeter than that. I couldn’t believe it was just a Medium on the LCBO sweetness scale. I’m dying now to see what a medium-sweet spatlese and a sweet auslese taste like. This wine has made me a convert to German pradikat white wines. Wow. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

PFEFFINGEN GEWURZTRAMINER SPATLESE 2008 – Pale lemon gold color. Light bodied. Nose was really mild and very difficult to place, which surprised and worried me. Almost rubbery at first, it took several whiffs for the mild apricot nose to finally come through. Taste of golden apple, peaches, and white Florida grapefruit rounded out by some of that famous sulphuric Gewurztraminer acidity. I had this with a smoked tri-tip and beer can chicken dinner with homemade coleslaw and cauliflower au gratin for dinner and it paired beautifully.

At the end of the night, I had another glass by myself without food and detected a tiny bit of rubbery bitterness in the finish that reminded me of Chardonnay and was actually really bothering me by the end of the glass. This definitely needs to be paired with food, it is not a dessert wine in disguise as a table wine. I cannot give this a recommend due to the next wine being so much superior to this one.

PFEFFINGEN SCHEUREBE SPATLESE 2008 $19.95 (LCBO) – Light straw gold color. Light body. Nose of hard pear and quince with a bit of petrol. Really nice dry peach, red apple and honeydew flavors with a bright lemon acidity that really bites. The people I was drinking it with were 100% sure this was carbonated due to the acidity’s attack on the palate right from the second it touches your tongue. No rubbery aftertaste that I can detect even on its own without food, unlike its Gewurztraminer brethren above. It’s got just enough sweetness to do away with the bitterness I find in dry and extra dry wines yet is dry and mellow enough to go with any fish, chicken or pork meal. Easily as good as any high-quality Riesling Spatlese.

More importantly, this is the first $20 wine I’m actually happy to rave about. It’s easily the quality of a wine twice its price. Here comes my first official Berserker acronym, the QPR of this wine is through the roof. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

DARTING 2008 RIESLING KABINETT $15.95 (LCB0) – This Kabinett struck me because I noticed on the tag that it had 60 grams of residual sugar per liter, which is as much as a Spatlese (though I’ve been informed the Germans play fast and loose with their own sweetness labelling so I should pay no mind to it). A barely perceptible light peach nose, light gold color and a very light body all give way to really nice flavors of sweet peaches and pears. Nice sweetness and acidity. But for that very light body, this should really be labelled a Spatlese. Another sub-$20 wonder! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

OVERALL: This may be just me, but I really strongly suspect that these German folks really know what they’re doing with Scheurebe and especially particularly with Riesling. Has anyone else around here noticed that? pileon

Kidding. Of course, these were for the most part exceptional. The thing I really liked about them is that they opened up my palate quite a lot towards off-dry wines. More importantly, they have a very high quality QPR. It will be interesting now to see how off-dry Niagara Rieslings compare to these. I’ll find out at the end of this month when I return for a 3 day vacation to the Niagara Wine Country region.

I’ve got two $35 higher-end Riesling Spatleses (Frederich Becker 69 and Markus Moller) which are listed as having 130 grams of residual sugar per liter, the same as my $60 Gunderloch Auslese. Dying to try those now, though the fast and loose labelling of the Prädikatswein does force me to look up very carefully the sugar content of each wine. [cheers.gif]

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German wines are still the best value in the wine world for enjoy now, or enjoy in 20 years, and pair with just about anything, even Kabinett and steak is great.

As far as your comment on loose labeling laws, they are actually quite strict, requiring a minimum Oechsele to be labelled a certain Pradikat. Niagara wines won’t sniff the quality of top producers in the Mosel, Nahe, Rheingau, etc…but can still be quite good, just missing the natural acidity and minerality of Germany.

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Thanks for the note, Kris. I suspect the Niagara wines won’t be anywhere near as good as the German wines I’ve tried and still have to try so far, except perhaps in the icewine category.

I am definitely a convert towards German Riesling and find myself starting to lean now more towards white wine for food pairing even in place of traditional reds, such as your example above of a Kabinett and steak.

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As good as these were, the Markus Molitor should blow your mind. His wines show incredible minerality and power but still remain balanced. He ranks in my personal Top5 of Germany’s producers.
If you have the opportunity watch out for his 2009, his “Haus Klosterberg”, the entry level riesling, is a steal.

Cheers
Eric

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Echoing and expanding on what Kris said, the pradikat MINIMUMS are inviolable. There is no maximum though, so a producer can sell something that is ripe enough for auslese as a kabinett. The labeling requirements have nothing at all to do with residual sugar content. Because of the acidity levels it is very possible to have a kabinett with 60 grams of sugar and 9 grams of acid taste drier than one with 35 grams of sugar and 7 grams of acid.

One other comment - spatlese level wines (even auslese) rarely if ever work with dessert. The wines may seem sweet to you, but compared to most desserts they will taste bone dry and possible bitter.

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Thanks for that clarification, David. No, the Spatelese wines I’ve had so far are definitely dinner wines and I agree that even my young palate will find they won’t work with dessert at all.

Erik, the only other Markus Moltor available at the LCBO is their Riesling Auslese, a slight step up at $39.95 a bottle. So that’s $35 even for their 07 Spatlese and $39.95 for their 08 Auslese.

In comparison, the other LCBO carried brand that was recommended to me was Gunderloch. Their Spatlese was the highest price at $43 and their Auslese was $60.

If the Markus Molitor Spatlese is as good as you say, I better snap up those bottles fast because it seems to be a better value and there are literally only 3 left at one store in the entire LCBO system!

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Hi Tran,

I’d recommend giving Dr. Pauly-Bergweiler’s spätlese’s a try, I think it will be right up your alley. They have some at the LCBO though the more expensive and I personally believe much tastier Ürziger Goldwingert Spätlese is out of stock now.

PJ

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Thanks, Paul. Just looked it up on the LCBO website.