Tag Archives: Germany

September 25, 2012 · 6:54 pm

Vintage 2012 – Preparations

My first week working at Weingut Gunderloch in the Rheinhessen was pretty quiet as the winery finished a few loose ends before the vintage really starts, and also makes necessary preparations. I had an induction of sorts and also had the chance to settle into my digs for my time here. Some bottlings here and a day doing some leaf thinning say out the week for me. Here are some photos from the first week.

Fritz Hasselbach showing me the condition of the Rothenberg vineyard

Rielsing bunches in the Rothenberg vineyard
Healthy riesling berries
2010 Rothenberg Trockenbeerenauslese needed to be decanted to be re-stabilised and re-bottled
Fruit sample ready for analysis in the laboratory
Freshly squished grapes, the juice about to be analysed
In the higher parts of the Rothenberg vineyard I was thinning leaves on the northern side to expose the grapes to the morning sun so that they wouldn’t suffer from heat exhaustion, and also open up the canopy to reduce humidity and potential rotting of the fruit
Considering that rot means red, you can see why this vineyard is called Rothenberg (berg meaning hill/mountain)

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September 18, 2012 · 10:44 am

The next phase

Almost a year has passed since I departed Australia for my huge journey discovering the world of wine, and I have been fortunate enough to experience a great many things. Apart from learning about some of the world’s greatest wine regions and the many wines and winemakers, I have also had the chance to visit some amazing cities and areas across three continents. The past seven weeks I have taken a break from the wine related travel and enjoyed being a fairly typical Australian backpacker. I spent about five weeks in the United Kingdom and Ireland; visiting breweries, historic cities, bars, lochs, distilleries, cliffs and of course, more bars. It was pretty tough work, don’t get me wrong, but it was also a nice opportunity to meet more people and be a tourist.

The two towers

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March 9, 2012 · 8:57 am

Prowein 2012, aka "The Business" – Dusseldorf, Germany

I’m not ashamed to admit that I am a Wine Trade Fair virgin. Way down in Australia we don’t have anything like this as it is not a big enough market for such a trade fair, and most of the market is dominated by six wine companies. The closest thing we have is individual distributors inviting their producers to show new release wines either once a year or every other year. Having visited Prowein 2012 I can say that this is preferable, as there are far less producers to see and I am familiar with them all. There is also the fact that I know many other attendees and can chat about the wines with them. Attending Prowein is a little bit like the edible room scene in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, except in that scene they knew what everything was and what they wanted to taste. I spent most of my time wandering around not knowing many of the producers and not knowing which were good enough to visit. It is amazing to see all of these big bright shiny stands, and the layout is generally clear and makes sense. There are a lot of stands for negociants and importers, so you sometimes stumble on Australian wines in the German hall, or French wines in the Spanish hall.

Shiny Prowein 2012

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March 8, 2012 · 3:30 pm

The other Burgundy (Baden, Germany – Day Two)

The largest town in Baden is Freiburg, and is famous in Germany for two things. The first is that it is the capital for cycling, and it is hard to miss them. When I say that I don’t mean that I hit a bunch of people on bikes in my rental car, I just mean that there are a lot of them, obviously. They are a little aggressive, but I guess you would be if you finally outnumbered cars on the road. The second thing that makes Freiburg famous in Germany is that it is a university town, and so is filled with plenty of good places to eat and drink for not much money. There is a really nice brauhaus where I enjoyed a stein of local lager with a big plate of smoked ham and sauerkraut, for only 10 Euro. I spent a fair amount of my time in Starbucks taking advantage of the free wifi, as my hostel didn’t have any. The coffee is terrible, but you can’t pass up on free wifi.

Schlossberg vineyards of Weingut Huber

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March 4, 2012 · 7:35 am

Border hopping (Baden, Germany – Day One)

You forget how close Alsace is to the border considering how different it is, but it dawned on me five minutes after leaving my accommodation in Strasbourg I was back in Germany. Situated on the eastern bank of the Rhine is the state of Baden-Wurtemberg, but Baden and Wurtemberg are legislated as different wine regions. Baden alone is the third largest wine region in Germany covering 16,000 hectares, but compared to Rheinhessen and the Pfalz it is not really known outside of Germany. The region has similarities to its neighbour over the French border, but is generally considered the red wine region of Germany. Much like Alsace cooperatives are very common, and 85% of the production is made by them. Also similar to Alsace, burgundian varieties are very popular, the most important being spatburgunder (pinot noir), grauburgunder (pinot gris) and weissburgunder (pinot blanc). The region is separated into nine districts from north to south, with the best known being Kaiser Stuhl. This name may be familiar with Australian wine consumers, but associate it with very cheap cask wine from the last century, no longer in existence (as far as I know).

Kaiser Stuhl vineyards

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February 20, 2012 · 1:43 pm

Outside the square (Pfalz, Germany – Day Three)

After two and a half weeks of sub-zero temperatures, seven degree temperatures feel positively balmy in comparison. It’s almost to the point that I don’t need to wear my thermals under my clothes every time I go outside. It is nice to get to the point now when I am actually noticing a difference in my understanding of not only riesling, but also German riesling. My palate has picked up enough experience in the past three weeks to be able to detect subtle differences between vineyard sites within the same region, and the subtleties of style between producers and regions. My limited experience with German riesling back home was negligible at best, but at least I was able to determine quality. It is so nice to be able to take that further and understand the nuances, particularly when working with the top grosses lager wines and sweet wines. My appreciation and respect for these wines has risen sharply, so much so that German white wines are some of the finest and diverse I have ever tasted.

Old barrels in the cellars of von Buhl

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February 17, 2012 · 11:54 am

Heir splitting (Pfalz, Germany – Day Two)

There seems to be a revolution taking place in the German wine industry, perhaps in reaction to market perceptions of the wine they produce. During the 1990s and 2000s there seemed to be a move away from the large volume blended sweet and fruity white wines of the 1970s and 1980s, towards very steely crisp and bone-dry wines. Today there seems to be a movement away from the aromatic and bright dry wines towards more complex textural and rich wines that retain concentration and mid-palate structure. Wineries also seem to be shifting towards more traditional techniques in an effort to craft wines in this style. Firstly in the vineyard the VDP is introducing classification of better parcels of vineyards, much like the French appellation system, and there also seems to be a movement to organic and biodynamic viticulture. Secondly in the cellars winemakers are reintroducing practices like extended must contact, barrel fermentations and oxidative handling. After almost three weeks in six German regions I am starting to wrap my head around the varietal, and see how each region expresses the variety using terroir and winemaking.

Vineyards near Bad Durkheim

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February 15, 2012 · 10:19 pm

Pfalz start (Pfalz, Germany – Day One)

After four and a half months of visiting a few hundred wineries on three continents, it’s interesting looking back and deciding which were the best to visit, but not necessarily had the best wines. When I had the owner of the winery as a host it was always fascinating as you get the full story, and can ask any question and get a thoughtful and clear answer. Whether they own the winery or not, it is also great to get the perspective of the winemaker as they are the ones determining the style of the wine, and can also provide much more technical answers. Sometimes it has been great to get the perspective of a commercial/marketing director, as they provide insights on dynamics and branding. With no disrespect intended (particularly as I have worked in the position myself), rarely do hospitality/cellar door hosts provide any insights into the winery, and often are unable to provide all the answers. This is not to say that I don’t have enjoyable or interesting visits with these hosts, but I don’t always learn something. Occasionally they also don’t understand the nature of my visit, and in extreme cases ask if I would like to buy any bottles in spite of my restricted budget. This mostly happened in North America though.

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February 15, 2012 · 12:17 pm

A silvaner lining (Franken, Germany – Day Two)

The Franken region does not export very much, at most about 20%. The wines that are exported tend to go predominantly to Scandinavia and BeNeLux, with very little leaving Northern Europe. I’m not sure why this is, as the Franken produces more wine than the more famous Rheingau and Mosel regions. It may be the very traditional nature of the region, particularly the Franken bocksbeutel they use, which although unique is harder to store in cellars and stock in retailers. It also looks a bit old-fashioned. Another reason may be that the general quality of wines in the region aren’t outstanding, and don’t have a history of being so, different to the Mosel and Rheingau. This may be something to do with the choice of varieties, but may also be the nature of the climate. In my humble opinion there is huge potential in the region, as there is great diversity of sites and soils, but they have to modernise and focus on certain varieties in certain areas.

Weingut Hans Wirsching

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February 15, 2012 · 12:10 pm

The Main vein (Franken, Germany – Day One)

Ask most Germans and they will agree that Frankfurt is a pretty boring, mostly functional/financial city, and serves as mostly a transportation hub to Europe and the world. So it was with no regret that I left after only one day in Frankfurt for Franconia, one of the most traditional regions in Germany. Thankfully the weather started to get a bit warmer, but still didn’t get to zero degrees. Today it snowed again, which made this region look gorgeous with forests and vineyards covered in white. The Franken region in northern Bavaria sits on the banks of the Main River, which used to be much bigger several million years ago. As such there are large deposits of alluvial soils and limestone in different areas, and make the cultivation of grapevines on the mostly south-facing banks perfect for a range of varieties, including riesling, sylvaner, muller thurgau, spatburgunder, weisburgunder and more. The region is very large, and there are three major areas for viticulture; the Mainvierick (Main Square) in the west; the Maindreieck (Main Triangle) and the Steigerwald.

Escherndorfer Lump vineyards of Weingut Horst Sauer

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