Wine rally

Or "Weinrallye", as it's known in these climes.

This is an initiative which was brought to life by Heidelberg vintner Thomas Lippert via his blog. The idea is that each month a designated "host blogger" announces a topic generally related to wine and publishes this on his or her blog. People who wish to participate in the "rally" then have until a certain date to write a piece on their blog devoted to the topic in question. All participants then publish their respective pieces within a given 24-hour window, hence the comparison with a "rally".

This month's wine rally, the 21st such event, is devoted to the mother of them all, Riesling. But not any old Riesling. Bloggers must write pieces about Riesling from any one of Germany's top vineyards. The question of whether a given vineyard is worthy of being considered as belonging to Germany's top echelon of vinous real estate is a subjective matter which will be left to the respective participating author. The one condition though is that any wine covered must have a vineyard name mentioned on its label.

Lemberger

Lemberger is a varietal I've heard quite a lot about in recent times. In Austria, where is widely grown, it is called Blaufränkisch. Oddly, I remember British wine writer Stuart Pigott drinking a glass of it on air during a chat show called Nachtcafé a couple of years back on Südwest Fernsehen. I know he was drinking Lemberger, because he said so himself. It's funny how certain things stick in your mind, but that particular television appearance - the name Lemberger - certainly did.

I'd always associated Lemberger with the Württemberg region of Germany, about which I would freely admit I know a minimum amount of information. Maybe it was fear of the unknown, or just apathy, but I'd never really felt the urge to acquaint myself with Lemberger - until now, that is.

Weingut Drautz-Able, Lemberger trocken 2007, QbA, Württemberg
Now, I'd heard of the name "Drautz-Able" before, though I'm not sure when and how. I guess it's one of those names which you pick up through "osmosis", so to speak, when reading about Württemberg wine.
Anyway, here are my scribbled notes:
First day: light, very "straight-lined", or - shall we say - gradlinig. Green pepper, veggy, but cheerful enough.
Second day: Nose almost threatens to descend into kitsch. Candied cherry aroma. But quite a bit of charm coming through. I think I "understand" this wine a bit better now. "Drink me!" it's imploring.

Hm, on balance, the jury is still out on Lemberger, but there's enough there to make me want to have another try before too long.

Jagged elbows

Here in Baden, wine cooperatives (Winzergenossenschaften or Winzerkeller) seem to play a much more prominent role than in other regions. For example, the big daddy of all these cooperatives, the Badische Winzerkeller, is not only Baden's biggest winemaker but also one of the largest wineries in Europe.

Down here near the Swiss border we have the Haltinger Winzergenossenschaft. Although tiny compared to its cousin from Breisach, this cooperative very much dominates the local terrain in and around Weil.

Such organisations are very much the "workhorse" of winemaking down here in Baden. That is not to belittle them, I'm just stating a fact. While private wine estates rightly represent the creme de la creme of vinous endeavour in Baden, cooperatives, too, can attain excellence, and are doing so with increasing frequency. With that in mind, my attention was drawn the other day to this particular bottle of SB (aka Pinot Noir) by the aforementioned concern from Haltingen. It had been a while since I'd last tasted one of their reds, so I thought I'd give this one a try. The cooperative recently revamped its labels, thus bringing its brand kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Goodness, you should have since their previous labels. Firmly rooted in the 1980s. The epitome of naffness. Unfortunately, I hadn't been all that enamoured by their wines, either. Maybe their whites were their strong points, but their reds - for my palate at least - tended to be shrill, acidic and "green". However, I was hopeful this time that a bit of the sleekness in the new label design had maybe rubbed off on the wines.

Haltinger Stiege Spätburgunder QbA trocken 2007, Haltinger Winzergenossenschaft
Cost EUR 5.79. Open the bottle, the cork is surprisingly made out of cork, as opposed to plastic. A nice ruby colour, too. So far so good, I think. I swirl the liquid around the glass, and what do I get? Hm, nothing much at all, to be honest. Try again. I doubt the wine was matured in barrels, but maybe in large wooden vats, because I can eventually detect something along those lines. Then some cherry and redcurrant on the nose, but the overall effect is muted. On the palate, undeniably acidic - and gaunt with jagged elbows. And the finish...? Short, to say the least. This is a cleanly made wine, but overall, I'm disappointed. For little more than five euros, I'm not looking for anything special, but even in this price bracket I do expect red wines to be more forgiving than this one.

Like a "GG" but minus the price

Although Germany's high-end dry grand cru Rieslings are still a total snip compared to the best Burgundy whites have to offer, I'm now increasingly of the opinion that they offer less value for money than wines classified further down a notch. For me, one of a number of problems with the Grosses Gewächs (or "GG") concept is that participating wine estates have to sell their GGs at a minimum price. The last I heard, the minimum for a bottle of GG had to be EUR 15, though judging by price rises over the last couple of years, this figure may well have risen. This is all well and good if you produce something warranting the price, but all too often wine estates have used the system as a chance to cash in by charging inflated prices for what would otherwise be "Spätlese trockens" but for the abbreviation "GG" on the label. Admittedly, things have improved in recent years, though quality is still patchy.

However, one of the happier upshots of the GG movement in certain regions such as the Pfalz or Rheinhessen is that wineries have introduced quality levels for their various wines which partially mimick the Burgundy classification. Whereas you might have premier cru as the next level down for your Burgundies, you have klassifizierte Lagen or similar as the next designation down in these regions. This basically means wine from designated vineyards, as would be the case with premier cru (e.g. Deidesheimer Kieselberg), but without any "P.C." designation, or equivalent (although Weingut Bürklin-Wolf are a notable exception to this). The next level down would be Ortswein, i.e. wine only named after the village in question - whereby the similarity here to Burgundy is that, while you might have a Cru Village, the equivalent in, say, the Mittelhaardt in the Pfalz would be "Wachenheimer Riesling", for example. Then the "lowest" level - with the exception of wine from litre bottles for everyday consumption (or cooking) - would be Gutswein, i.e. the equivalent to, say, Bourgogne Rouge. These latter wines would normally be the "estate wines" in English-speaking parlance, e.g. "Bürklin Estate Riesling".

Maybe the result of this French-inspired classification system is that the "underclass" below GG is where the real steals are to be found. For the level next down from GG, for example, a lot of wine estates actually use fruit from their grand cru vineyards. In practice, the grapes might have been picked during the initial "dry" run through the grand cru parcel, or they may come from younger vines. Often, the resultant wines can be almost as stupendously good as the GGs, but half the price or less. They tend to be regarded as the terroir wines of the wine estate's portfolio, and are therefore a category replete with suffix designations such as Muschelkalk, Terrassen, Bundsandstein, Rotliegendes, vom Porphyr, von der Fels. Blauschiefer or Keuper - to name but a few examples.

The wine featured here, however, a 2007 Riesling Spätlese trocken by Weingut Pfeffingen from the "Ungsteiner Herrenberg" grand cru site in the Pfalz - cost EUR 10.50 - has no need for such frills.

Weingut Pfeffingen Ungsteiner Herrenberg Riesling Spätlese trocken 2007
Lovely nose. Intense yellow apple and apricot (to be honest, this was the description in the wine price list I received from the winery, though I would fully concur with it). I think I detected some pineapple, too. Minerally on the palate, but with that unmistakable Pfalz Riesling "earthiness". Great wine at an affordable price.

Two Schneiders

There a quite a few vignerons in Germany who go by the name of Schneider. One of them, Markus Schneider of Ellerstadt in the Pfalz, has carved a niche for his wine thanks to his excellent Rieslings and red blends that combine local varietals such as Portugieser and St Laurent with more internationally recognised varietals such Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Syrah. As you can see from his website, he is also good at marketing. However, the quality of his wines speaks for itself. I'm fortunate enough to own a few bottles of his 2005 "Einzelstück" (see photo), which was made exclusively from a single parcel of Portugieser vines that was planted in the 1920s on the sandy flats of Ellerstadt. Portugieser is regarded in the Pfalz as somewhat of a workhorse varietal producing light and cheery reds for everyday consumption. It's quite rare to find them at the high end of wine ranges, However, in a blind tasting you'd be forgiven for mistaking this particular "Portu-geezer" for a top Rhone or Italian red.

Schneider was recently awarded a third Gault Millau "grape", as was another Schneider winery a lot closer to home: Weingut Claus & Susanne Schneider from Weil am Rhein. Personally, I couldn't be happier for them, given that they're my local winery, so to speak. Their range of wines covers Spätburgunder, Gutedel, Weissburgunder, Grauburgunder and Chardonnay, but thanks to the chalky soil of the Weiler Schlipf vineyard, it's the Burgundy varietals which you could call their specialities. Steep limestone slopes - very reminiscent of Burgundy terroir - and a favourable climate lend both reds and whites tremendous elegance and minerally character. The wines also offer great value for money.

Cab Sauv?

I went on a walk today through the local vineyards. Being freelance, I can do this on Monday afternoons, although this job status is soon set to change from the beginning of November, after which I'll be on a proper day job like everyone else.

My goodness, it was a lovely day, and very mild (around 21C). What interested me was that probably around 10-15% of the vineyards parcels in Weiler Schlipf were still unpicked. With rain forecast for tomorrow and Wednesday, I was surprised that there weren't any teams of pickers out this afternoon, apart from the two souls on a tractor who I think were harvesting their parcel for the Bezirkskellerei. From Wednesday onwards, it'll be markedly colder. However, a high front will set in again from Thursday onwards, so I don't think the imminent change in the weather should worry the vintners too much.

Anyway, the way the vintage has shaped up so far, it looks like local wine growers have had a relatively stress-free time of it. The weather in September was really cool at times and some grape varieties (notably Gutedel) weren't yet at optimum ripeness. This meant that wineries were in no hurry to send their teams out into the vineyards. Instead, they waited for more of the sun's rays in October so that the grapes could achieve physiological ripeness. And, over the past couple of weeks, the sun finally shone in abundance.

One particular parcel interested me. The black grapes hanging there were obviously not pinot noir. These were quite young vines - probably no older than 10 years - so I came to the conclusion that the grapes might be what Germans refer to as an "international" varietal. I know that the Bezirkskellerei do grow some Cabernet Sauvignon on Weiler Schlipf, so I'd be inclined to plump for that. I can usually recognise vines from the pinot family due to the shape of the leaves, and these definitely weren't pinot noir.

Pot pourri

Apologies for the huge break again inbetween posts. It's been an eventful few weeks for me, and it's been hard to keep track. Anyway, I eventually got through the six bottles from Wiesloch, plus I've started on a couple of wines from the winery in Bad Dürkheim. Unfortunately, I didn't make proper notes, so the following is more or less based on memory. Featured are three Wiesloch wines, plus one from Weingut Pfeffingen. I'm refraining from giving scores, though I may start doing that for other wines in future, probably according to the 100-point Parker scale:

Großsachsener Rittersberg Weißburgunder Kabinett trocken 2007
Nice flinty aromas with yellow fruit. Elegant.














Wieslocher Spitzenberg Riesling Kabinett halbtrocken 2007
Light, spritzy, well balanced with nice fruit. Sensorically speaking, still dry, despite being a halbtrocken.



















Zeuterner Mannaberg Müller-Thurgau QbA halbtrocken
"Uergh, a Müller-Thurgau!", I hear you say, and not even bone dry. How uncouth. But how this wine surprised me... Pears! And I don't mean that pear-drop whiff of sulphur you sometimes get with recently bottled wine, but lovely succulent September orchard pears. Most pleasant and most surprising. Definitely not for wine snobs.



















Weingut Pfeffingen, Ungsteiner Herrenberg Riesling Kabinett trocken 2007
This just oozes class. The label - which recently underwent a face-lift - is quite un-Germanic. Cleverly, it uses a back label to show all the information every German winery is legally bound to include. Lovely minerally characteristics, quite elegant, but with that characteristic Pfalz oomph.