Source: Schmitt Sohne USAOver the past year I have become a big fan of German wines. Not
Barry's Spätburgunders - too rare outside of Germany - but those made from their signature grape,
Riesling.
I picture
my wine buddies right now - is Joe delusional? Who drinks this stuff? Certainly very few of the people I know with an interest in wine - beginners, well-to-do collectors, blog writers - ever talk about it. But sales are growing -
German exports to the U.S. doubled every year from 2002 to 2006, and I can't believe all of this is ending up in
Lyle's cellar! Somebody is buying, so where is the "buzz"? Certainly it is not for lack of critical acclaim:
"
Fine dry German wine must represent some of the world’s best bargains." -
Jancis Robinson"
I was struck by how high many (German wine) prices have gotten in U.S. retail dollars ... yet I was also repeatedly amazed at outstanding, sometimes even extraordinary Riesling that still seems under-valued." -
David Schildknecht"
I can’t help but think that dry German rieslings are singular in their own way, combining grace, delicacy and power in a way that nobody else’s dry rieslings can do." -
Eric AsimovI could fill a page with critical acclaim for German wine, so my title is misleading - there really is nothing wrong with German wine at all! More than a millennium of wine history and a dedication to quality has ensured Germany's place amongst the world's great wine regions.
So I guess my real question is, if it is so good, where is the "buzz" beyond the ivory towers of the wine intelligentsia? In my travels across North America, from the high-end restaurants to your neighbourhood bistros, there are few (if any) German wines on the lists, and I cannot recall the last time I heard a sommelier plugging a German wine. And a quick review of most wine shops in North America seems to confirm this - you have to work hard to find anything beyond a smattering of selections (or worse, they are well stocked with the cheap, sugary stuff).
I guess I should have an answer to my question but, like most of life's important questions, there is no simple answer. Some have suggested the daunting German language labels are to blame, but Italian and French labels don't seem to scare anybody. Another hypothesis I have heard is that Germans make sweet wine, whereas North American palates seek dry white wines. But German wine production and consumption is overwhelmingly dry, so why are they sending us the sweet stuff?
Seems like a "chicken and the egg" problem - we don't buy it so they don't ship it, and the little bits they do ship are hiding behind bottles of cheap, sweet plonk so we leave the store with American, Canadian, Australian, Alsatian or Austrian Riesling instead. The wine world is subject to waves of fashion, and I predict that renewed interest in Riesling will soon lead to a wider "buzz" around German Riesling.
If I've piqued your interest, head over to
Lyle or
Barry's sites, Germanophiles with a deep knowledge of and love for these wines.
Prost!
(PS - I have never tasted the cleverly marketed wines of Schmitt Sohne, but I love those "Take Home a Little German" ads)
Those of you with kids know exactly where this is going:
Source: Schmitt Sohne USA
There are hundreds of gadgets for the wine afficianado, but a cheap - and absolutely necessary gadget (in my opinion) - is the cork retriever. The gadget on the left in the picture, it may also be referred to as a cork extractor, a twin prong cork puller, the "butler's friend", or the "Ah-So".
My visit to Montreal's Salon des Vins in March was a whirlwind of tasting activity, but two whites stood out at that event - tonight's Alsatian "Grand Cru" Riesling and a Mosel Riesling from the famed "Wehlener Sonnenuhr" vineyard. Now I love Alsace whites, and I love German Riesling, but I never thought to taste them head to head - tonight we paired these two gems with a spiral ham...
As the price for Elderton's "Estate" Shiraz has moved up in price, Elderton's "Friends" bottling (using grapes from independent Barossa growers) has filled in as their entry-level wine. Yes, I'm a big fan of Elderton's wines, and this was another winner. The 2005 Elderton Friends Shiraz was a classic Barossa Shiraz: an expressive nose of violets, black earth and ripe berries at first, later adding musk, leather, pepper and flinty notes. A rich palate of ripe, dark fruit, while firm tannins and wet stones add structure and a lingering finish. Well done! 
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I would guess that when I first "got into" wine that 80% of my whites came from Alsace. Well, times have changed - it has been a year since I last posted on an Alsace wine as German whites have taken up the slack.
I couldn't help thinking about my comments on palate drift as I wrote up my notes on this d'Arenberg Shiraz. After all, d'Arenberg's wines were amongst my first loves and have been consistently recommended here - but with a sizable collection of d'Arenbergs in my cellar have I "drifted" from first love?
I've had some success with the inexpensive whites from Burgundy's "Mâcon" appellations - Mâcon-Loché, Mâcon-Lugny, Mâcon-Villages - so it was a no-brainer for me to try a bottle of this wine from Mâcon-Azé. The 2006 Moillard Mâcon-Azé delivered: notes of lemony cream and yeasty ripe apples, some oak, bananas and chalk. Rather stern on the palate, but with a soft underbelly - riper than a Chablis yet better structured than those recent Mâcon whites. I highly recommend this for my Ontario friends.
Zin lovers have little reason to visit this site - with notes on over a thousand wines I can only point to a half dozen Zinfandels reviewed here. Not sure if it is the grape, or the style that winemakers use to express the grape these days, but I generally find them fruity, flabby and alcoholic. Despite that intro, a successful tasting of Zins at Bella Vineyards last year led to a few bottles of Zin coming home with me, and since I couldn't go to Sonoma this year I have to settle for revisiting the treasures in my cellar... 
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