Category: Germany

The only bit of Germany’s vineyards I’ve explored is the very pretty riverside Rheingau. Happily there’s lots of dry Rieslings to be tried from what seems to be a lot of quality minded producers. It’s also very easy to explore by train from sky scraping towered and bankered Frankfurt. German wine labelling is still not entirely clear in my old brain but the back label says VDP Grosse Lage which I think means the vineyard is defined as being top of the quality pyramid under wine law and can be further loosely defined as Grosses Gerwachs meaning dry wine from such Grand Cru sites. Should be good then. Perfumes of white peach and citrus with a dab of vanilla bean. It’s all a bit reserved and controlled by that word…mineral..freshness and some sweet green herbiness. Really powerful as it glides on fruit sweetness and a glycerol slide of tightly bound mouth watering acidity and a touch of alcohol warmth. One of those Rieslings that’s either got a touch of fruit sugar or the fruits so dense it seems sweet, beyond me and no bad thing. Just balancing itself adroitly. Opened at the same time as a really good Eden Valley local which was rich in developed flavour with a broad burst of wide acidity. So different to the linear brightness of this Jungfer tingle, so bound into the whole. There’s some Rolls Royce power in this GG top of the range. Quite different to the Toyota reliability of a good Eden Valley to stretch a dubious metaphor.

13% alcohol, it’s ripe. Cork lottery. Thanks to a generous dinner companion.

96 points.

Good on Frankfurt airport for having a selection of Rieslings, some from the nearby Rheingau. Stopping for few days in Singapore on the way home to Australia meant a duty free bottle was a possible hotel room aperitif. Singapore may be a comfortable and easy break in the journey but it’s certainly no friend to the budget conscious wine freak. A cold beer with some good hawker spice is pretty good though. This bottle seemed appropriate as I was preparing my ancient body for thirteen hours of flightmode and a delicious reward it was for running out of interesting in flight entertainment. From grand cru vineyards and made in perhaps the older way in big old oak. A new producer for me. A bit of petrol development already but loads of fresh white peach, citrus and honeyed candle wax. A breath of aldehyde to lift the end. Some lovely flavours were carried by a beautiful lightness of feathery acidity. A cool breeze of mouthwatering lift, delightful. Like a welcome tailwind to cut the hours high in the sky.

12.5% alcohol. Screw cap. €23.

92 points.

I must admit to loving Riesling but have a sad lack of experience with the best of Germany. The basic ones around $30 available in Australia are lovely on a hot summer evening but don’t seem to compete in terms of depth with locals at the price point. Spending more and it always seems to be other grapes. And I’m not a big fan of sugar, albeit, yes, the best 8% or 9% Germans do have a scintillatingly delicious balance where you hardly notice any sweetness. Planning to go through the enormous Frankfurt airport on this year’s Europe trip, the overused Googlemap app showed Rüdesheim was a hour away down the river. I picked three producers easy to reach by train and sent begging emails. Fancy being bothered by an old wine nut for a while? The nicest reply was from Leitz, please come and taste. Well, that’s lovely, yes please. Getting off the local S Bahn, a misty autumnal stroll from the pretty village of Geisenheim to Leitz was under a slope of vines just thinking of a winter doze. A warm welcome and a generous tasting took us on a trip across that slope overlooking the Rhine with peaks in the GGs. The bottles opened started with their cutely named Eins Zwei Dry and climbed up the heights of three GGs. The Schlossberg was really loooong.

For some nutty reason, Leitz seal their GGs with corks. Yes, the best expensive sort but…which is why this particular screw capped bottle seemed a good buy to take back to the hotel room that lacked a corkscrew. At a quality level just below GG, that unofficial measure of dry Riesling quality, the Magic Mountain stood out in the lineup, much closer to the GGs than the standard Rüdesheimer. Tasting at length over a couple of nights, it’s got that extra detail, depth and nuance that Riesling can do so well. Fresh ripe white peach, a touch of mango and citrus and that waxy flowery honey thing that distinguishes the best of Rieslings for me. The finest float of mouthwatering acidity to refresh, delicious. Elegant you could say. Lingers long. It’s named Magic Mountain in English as Thomas Mann had already written something in German by the same title.

12.5% alcohol and trocken. Screw Cap. €18.50.

94 points.

Still a pale colour and pristine sparkly flavours of ripe citrus, white peach together with old church candle wax and flower arrangements show some sprightly youth. There’s a sniff of petrol creeping in and some honeyed melding of flavour from time in the bottle. Fine ripe acidity that tingles the teeth is perfectly balanced by just the right sweetness. No cloy just integration. Is there anything better on a fan forced oven of a hot summer evening?

10.50 % alcohol. Screw cap, performing perfectly. About $50 at the time.

94 points.