The Rheingau

Classical, long-lived Riesling from the south-facing slopes between Rudesheim and Wiesbaden. Perfumed and floral on the nose, with wonderful precision in the mouth.

 

Prinz (Hallgarten)

Until recently Fred worked for the large and well-known State Domain at Kloster Eberbach in Stadt Eltville. He started as Sales Director and then became responsible for the winemaking. He, his wife Sabine and their two children live in a second floor flat in the village of Hallgarten high up on the slopes above the Rhine. You only find evidence of what was his "hobby" in the garage below the flats. Here you will find a few tanks and pruning tools - a true garagiste! He and his wife built up their original 1.5ha of holdings in two vineyards around the village; Schönhell (generally used for the dry styles) and Jungfer (for the fruity, sweeter styles). The exception in both the 2001 and 2002 vintages is the dry "Erstes Gewachs" (First Growth) which come from Jungfer. Quality is high, yields are low, output tiny.

He green-harvests once or twice a year, stripping out 20-40% on each pass. In the cellar he allows the grapes to cold soak overnight before allowing them to ferment. This, Fred says, boosts the extraction and lowers the acidity. After fermentation he then leaves his wines for 4 months on the lees, adding more layers of complexity. The wines have a wonderful precision and focus - not overblown, just quietly persuasive.

Demand for his wine is so great that he has just given up the day job to turn the hobby into a full time job. Uneconomic with just 1.5 hectares, he needed to find another hectare.  He always keeps his ears open while he's out working in the vines. Gossip and rumour are rife among the vines.who has been approached by who, who's thinking of selling to who! As a result he has now managed to scoop up a couple more parcels of old vines in his favourite locations, almost doubling his holdings to 3 hectares.

 

trocken
	Riesling trocken	2007	11.99
	Hallgartener Schonhell Riesling Kabinett trocken	2007	14.99
	Hallgartener Schonhell Riesling Spatlese trocken	2007	19.99
	Hallgartener Jungfer Riesling trocken	2007	25.99
fruity
	Hallgartener Jungfer Goldkapsel Riesling Spatlese  trocken HALVES	2007	13.99
sweet
	Riesling Auslese  HALVES	2005	24.99
	Hallgartener Jungfer Riesling Eiswein HALVES	2007	67.99
	Hallgartener Jungfer Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese HALVES	2003	94.99

 

Chat Sauvage (Johannisberg)

We were having dinner at Zum Krug in Hattenheim in the Rheingau last Wednesday evening, when Josef Laufer Junior (Zum Krug’s excellent chef) flashed a bottle in front of us that looked suspiciously like Burgundy. “You really have to try this!” he said. Try it we did and next day we were rattling the gates of Chat Sauvage in Johannisberg. Gunter Schulz is from Hamburg, made his fortune in the construction trade and developed a bit of a Burgundy habit. An expensive DRC type habit (Domaine de la Romanée Conti, the most sought-after Burgundy there is). Given that DRC isn’t for sale and given that he didn’t want to leave Germany, he set up 27 year-old winemaker Michel Stadter with some excellent old vines and a brief for uncompromising quality. Unfiltered and unfined, we were startled by the style and polish of this Pinot from a region overwhelmingly known for its Riesling.

 

red
	Pinot Noir Cuvee Rheingau	2006	24.99
	Pinot Noir Johannisberger Holle	2005	27.99
	Pinot Noir Assmannshauser Hollenberg Erstes Gewachs	2006	49.99

 

Zum Krug - Josef Laufer  (Hattenheim)

In the village of Hattenheim there is a wonderful hotel - Hotel Zum Krug - with a superb restaurant serving traditional German specialities for lunch and dinner, and a more ambitious Michelin-style menu available in the evenings.

Eccentric, bow-tied Josef Laufer is the owner. He is passionate about Rheingau wine and is an authority on the subject. His winelist is staggering : two inches thick with wines only from the region. He also has some vines of his own and makes delicious Sekt. German sparkling wine, although popular on the home market, can sometimes be a bracing, rather harsh experience, but not here. Beautifully made Extra Brut with bottle fermentation - dry, full of character with layers of flavour, and makes a wonderful change from Champagne.

 

sparkling
	Riesling Sekt BRUT Black Label	2007	10.99

 

Eva Fricke (Walluf)

Our eccentric, Berlin-based, journalist mate Stuart Pigott has often tipped us on hot new growers. "Stuart here. I must tell you about something really special. Eva Fricke. She's the winemaker at Leitz and has been doing her own thing on the side. I told her she should charge double what everyone else is charging. " Thanks, Stuart. Very helpful!  Roll forward a few weeks and we're back in Germany having dinner with Erni Loosen. Yes. La-di-dah. He asks who we're seeing and I mention Eva Fricke. "Oh, I know Eva." What I'd neglected to say was that we hadn't actually made the call yet. Next day we get a call from Eva, who is in London showing Leitz wines. "Eva here. I'm sorry I didn't realise we had a meeting" (well we didn't, yet) "I just wanted to make sure I would be there to meet you." The jungle wire works again. Fantastic. You only have to think it and say it out loud, even if it's not actually to the right person, and lo-and-behold it happens! If only that was always the case. So the following evening, the striking, blue-eyed girl from Bremen shows up at Zum Krug for dinner with her two bottles. "I have a half hectare across two red slate terraces at Lorch. I was looking for a special soil. I was looking for slate, which is hard to find on the Rheingau." And the wine is delicious. Intense, but not showy.

 

trocken
	Lorcher Krone Riesling Auslese trocken	2006	32.99

 

Asbach-Kretschmar  (Oestrich-Winkel)

Rudesheim is on the western edge of the south-facing Rheingau, where the Rhine then makes a sharp turn north. There's a statue of Germania (not unlike Britannia) at the top of the hill, the car ferry from Bingen below. A cable car crosses the vines. We had long been searching for a great Rudesheim Riesling and it was a BIO-vintner on another river, Rudi Trossen from the Mosel, who gave us the tip. Anglophiles Peter and Tania Kreuzberger lovingly tend their handful of rows in Rudesheim, Oestrich-Winkel and Hattenheim. The wines are perfect Rheingau; oily, almost unctuous Baroque perfume emerges as the wine warms up. Classical structure. Enjoy the thrilling rollercoaster ride of New Wave dry German Riesling!

 

trocken
	Rüdesheimer Berg Rosenheck Riesling Kabinett trocken	2007	9.99
	Hattenheimer Hendelberg Riesling Spatlese trocken	2007	11.99

 

Becker  (Walluf)

Like something out of Laurel and Hardy, Maria Becker sloshed some Riesling out of the window anointing a surprised passer-by - and so the crazy world of the Beckers continued to unfold around us. They were the best double-act we encountered in Germany, complete with an excitable dog and the moustachioed brother Hans-Josef, the winemaker who looks suspiciously like a circus ringmaster - it wouldn't entirely surprise us if he really was.

 

They were the first in the world to use the cutting-edge glass closure, and the wines are made in the traditional way, fermented in huge old creaking Fuders with a long, slow fermentation. The wines are poised and elegant, the trockens are very lean, the brother and sister are a great team, and Maria even manged to dig out some of the fruity Steinmacher Spatlese 1976 that we drank with enormous enjoyment at Zum Krug!

 

trocken
	Wallufer Walkenberg Riesling Spatlese trocken	1998	16.50
	Wallufer Walkenberg Riesling Spatlese trocken	2002	17.50
	Wallufer Walkenberg Riesling Spatlese trocken Alte Reben	2002	18.99
fruity
	Wallufer Sonnenberg Riesling Spatlese	1988	18.99
sweet
	Wallufer Sonnenberg Riesling Beerenauslese HALVES	1999	39.99

  

Flick  (Wicker)

Hardly anyone has heard of the village of Wicker. It is part of the other bit of the Rheingau next to Hochheim where the River Main meets the Rhine and from whose slopes you can watch the planes on final approach to Frankfurt airport. Although wine has been in the Flick family since 1775, it is only now, through the rising fortune of Reiner and his wife Kirsten, that Wicker is being put on the map.They live in a rennovated 13th century mill and work their 14ha of vines - scattered across 102 seperate parcels in two villages. Jewels in their crown are the Wickerer Mönchsgewann and the Hochheimer Hölle where Reiner spends much of his time working with the s oil, trying to get a 2-3% level of houmous. The wines have blasted their way onto the German wine scene over the past two vintages. We found modern but stately wines here - sometimes with savoury herbal notes, such as thyme or lavender. Supercharged Rheingau, classical lines but definitely supercharged! His Charta wine was made only using yellow grapes, the Erstes Gewachs is quite simply explosive!

 

 

What is CHARTA?  (see Flick’s Charta wine)

Charta was a forerunner of the “Erstes Gewachs” movement in the Rheingau, an association of growers committed to enhancing the quality of Rheingau’s dry wines. Grapes have to be 100% Riesling, be of one Pradikat level higher than that stated on the bottle (so a Spatlese would be made from Auslese grapes), and finally be approved by the Charta panel. They come in a tall brown bottle embossed with a Roman double arch and a Charta back label.