Wine ChroniclesGermany: Brief Introduction and Focus On … Red Wine!
Posted on May 30, 2014
By Panos Kakaviatos for Wine Chronicles
Do not expect an encyclopaedic entry here. You can find plenty of great books on German wines, written by people who have far more expertise than I do. Nevertheless, I will be adding experiences from Germany as this website/blog develops, because I recognize and appreciate the excellent quality one can find in wines from Germany – even from reds. I recall working for the Associated Press in Frankfurt back in 2004, and every Wednesday an outdoor food market near the train station proved perfect for lunch, which sometimes included a bit of quaffing Dornfelder. Dornfelder is the second most grown red wine grape variety in Germany, and it can be adequate enough but too often monolithic. Germany however does have some excellent Pinot Noir as well as its more famous white wines.
In any case, few people seem to know that over 100 years ago, German wine was sought by connoisseurs just as much as high end Bordeaux. Prices for some of the top whites from Germany matched and even surpassed first growth Bordeaux for example.
What (still) sticks (for lack of a better word) in peoples’ memories, however, is a Liebfraumilch image of sweetish white.
As friend and wine author Stephen Brook has written: “In the minds of the general public, German wine became associated not with its glorious Rieslings, its stern Sylvaners, its robust Pinot Blancs and its exquisite sweet wines but with sugar water.”
Even today some people focus more on Germany’s late harvest Beeren- and Trockenbeerenauslese or Eiswein styles, and they can be indeed fantastic.
Revisiting 2004 Bordeaux, 10 Years On
Posted on May 12, 2014
By Panos Kakaviatos for Wine Chronicles
As Wine Chronicles gets underway, this is a fitting tasting because Bordeaux 2004 was the first Bordeaux vintage I had tasted fully from barrel. So it was great to assess many of these wines again 10 years later.
So much the better to base one’s judgment on an excellent tasting organized by Bordeaux Index in London.
Many thanks go to Michael Schuster for organizing the event and to his wife Monika for splendid quiche and other delectable foods and 2004 Dom Perignon for a post-tasting lunch.
All wines tasted were red.
Well-known tasters, including Wine Advocate Neal Martin, attended this event, which was held under impeccable conditions. I was surprised that more people did not attend, as there was plenty of room to stand up and ponder the wines if one so desired. Seating areas were spacious with much room for the spitting bucket, a laptop and more than one glass if one wanted to compare – as I did. Even the weather outside was sunny and pleasant: conducive atmospherically for tasting wine.
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