Category: Germany

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.