The Rheingau
The Rheingau is a 20km long, full south-facing slope overlooking
the Rhine, west of Frankfurt. This is the classical home of Riesling. Evocative
names like Steinberg, Marcobrunn, Johannisberg, Hochheim - the home of Queen
Victoria's ŅHockÓ, back when German wines were the most expensive in the world.
The wines here are classical, long-lived, almost baroque, often with an
intense, oily perfume.
Asbach-Kretschmar (Oestrich-Winkel) BIO
Rdesheim 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 wanted something lovely from Rdesheim
and it was Mosel Eco-vintner Rudi Trossen who gave us the tip. Peter and Tania
Kreuzberger lovingly tend their handful of rows spread across three villages; Rdesheim,
Winkel and Hattenheim. Their organic wines are perfect Rheingau. Expressive, oily,
almost unctuous Baroque perfume. Classical structure. And ridiculously
affordable which ensures they sell out very quickly. Too quickly for us!
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trocken |
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Rdesheimer Berg Rosenheck Riesling Kabinett trocken |
2007 |
9.99 |
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Hattenheimer Hendelberg Riesling Sptlese trocken |
2007 |
11.99 |
Eva
Fricke (Kiedrich)
From
ridiculously affordable to the other end of the scale (almost). Eva Fricke is a
star. A young woman on an interstellar trajectory. Tireless energy, possessed,
fired-up. She knew we were coming to see her before we had even made the call.
Her current day job is as winemaker at respected Rdesheim winery Leitz. Her
duties donÕt end at winemaking, she also does all the marketing and
presentations for Leitz around the world. Nobody knows how she manages to squeeze in time doing her own
wine. She has two parcels on steep slate in Lorch totalling a tiny half
hectare. She has made a ridiculously intense trocken from Auslese-level grapes
in a style all of her own. Keep watching. ItÕs going to be quite a ride!
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trocken |
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Lorcher Krone Riesling Auslese trocken |
2006 |
32.99 |
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;
Schnhell (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 Gewchs" (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.
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trocken |
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Hallgartener Schnhell Riesling Kabinett
trocken |
2005 |
11.99 |
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Hallgartener Schnhell Riesling Sptlese
trocken |
2006 |
16.50 |
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Hallgartener
Jungfer Riesling trocken |
2006 |
21.99 |
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fruity |
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Riesling Auslese |
2005 |
24.99 |
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Hallgartener
Jungfer Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese HALVES |
2003 |
94.99 |
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.
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sparkling |
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Riesling Sekt BRUT Black Label |
2007 |
10.99 |
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
managed to dig out some of the fruity Steinmcher
Sptlese 1976 that we drank with enormous enjoyment at Zum Krug!
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trocken |
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Wallufer Walkenberg Riesling Sptlese trocken |
1998 |
16.50 |
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Wallufer Walkenberg Riesling Sptlese trocken Alte
Reben |
2002 |
18.99 |
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Wallufer Walkenberg Riesling Sptlese trocken |
2002 |
17.50 |
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fruity |
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Wallufer Sonnenberg Riesling Sptlese |
1988 |
18.99 |
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Rauenthaler Steinmcher Riesling Sptlese |
1976 |
24.99 |
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Wallufer Sonnenberg Riesling Beerenauslese HALVES |
1999 |
39.99 |
Trenz (Johanissberg)
We have been looking for a good Johannisberger for some time.
Schloss Johannisberg is one of the big names in German history. Not for us the
imposing Bordeaux-like Chateau with its tree-lined drive. We had to dive into
the back streets to find ours. Young buck Michael Trenz took over from his
parents five years ago - here's his exhilarating, super-lean, dry Kabinett from
the Vogelsang (John's Hill Birdsong) vineyard.
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trocken |
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Johannisberger Vogelsang Riesling Kabinett trocken |
2006 |
9.99 |
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 Mnchsgewann and the Hochheimer Hlle 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 Gewchs is quite simply explosive!
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trocken |
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Wickerer Stein Riesling Kabinett trocken |
2005 |
10.99 |
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Wickerer Nonnberg Riesling trocken |
2005 |
12.99 |
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Riesling Charta Q.b.A. |
2005 |
12.50 |
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Wickerer Mnchsgewann Riesling ERSTES GEWCHS |
2003 |
23.99 |
What is
CHARTA? (see FlickÕs
Charta wine)
Charta was a
forerunner of the ŅErstes GewchsÓ movement in the Rheingau, an association of
growers committed to enhancing the quality of RheingauÕs dry wines. Grapes have
to be 100% Riesling, be of one Prdikat level higher than that stated on the
bottle (so a Sptlese 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.
Langwerth
von Simmern (Stadt Eltville)
As close to royalty as
you find in Germany today, Baron Georg-Reinhard, Freiherr Langwerth von Simmern,
and his glamourous wife Andrea (who handles much of the client facing side of
the business) inherited the estate (originally a gift from a grateful Duke to
his Chancellor in 1464) in 1996. There was major restructuring to be done on
his arrival, with 20 employees in tied accommodation and German wine sales in a
slump. They have 27ha, with plots in some of the most hallowed vineyards on the
Rheingau – Erbacher Marcobrunn, Rauenthaler Baiken, Hattenheimer Mannberg
and Nussbrunnen, all of which (with the exception of Marcobrunn) are now only
made in the dry style. Now a lean, mean machine, there are 8 employees,
including the young star wine-maker Dirk Roth, who joined for the 2001 vintage.
The results are as spectacular as their eye-catching 19th century label!
Harvested
four weeks earlier than usual in 2003 trying to keep the acidity levels up.
Dirk has been experimenting with cultured yeasts. Andrea says the yeasts
influence the fruit aromas in the first year but the influence falls away after
two.
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fruity |
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Rauenthaler Baiken Riesling Sptlese |
2003 |
19.50 |