white

Gerhard Klein, Grüner Veltliner, Junge Reben, 2013

torsten — Sun, 05 Jul 2015 13:58:45 +0000

It's been a busy few months for me. Almost all of June I spent on the road, or at events in London. So to ease myself back into blogging I thought I write about a nice little wine, nothing extraordinarily expensive or with a long and complicated backstory. There is, after all, a place for those wines that are there just to be enjoyed. When I unscrewed Gerhard Klein's Grüner Veltliner I hoped it would be one of those quiet, enjoyable companions. And it was. With a little twist...

Pievalta, Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi, Classico Superiore, 2012

torsten — Sun, 01 Mar 2015 18:31:03 +0000

Sometimes it is about the simple pleasures. When I first got really excited about wine I was drawn to the more expensive, prestigious wines. The average price I paid per bottle started creeping up. Looking for something "unusual" for the Wine Rambler contributed to this trend. Over time though I got a little frustrated with this approach. After all, all these "special" bottles need "special" attention. They want to be carefully selected, properly photographed, precisely analysed and interestingly described. What happened to just enjoying a nice looking bottle with dinner without feeling the need to pay too much attention? This feeling led me to order more "drinking" and less "reviewing" wines, and recently I even managed to put an order in where the average price per bottle was below seven quid.

The wine you see above is one of these wines, although I put a little more effort into selecting it. After all tradition dictates that the first wine to be reviewed on the Wine Rambler each year does not come from Germany.

Karthäuserhof, Eitelsbacher Karthäuserhofberg, Riesling Spätlese, 2007

torsten — Sun, 10 Aug 2014 10:44:43 +0000

Karthäuserhof, Eitelsbacher Karthäuserhofberg, Riesling Spätlese, 2007

Drinking wine is expectation management. It is many other things too, and I would hope on most occasions the expectation management is invisible, but sometimes it can become centre stage when writing a wine review. If your expectations are low but the wine delivers, is there a risk you praise it too much? And if your expectations are very high, will you be led to write a review that compares the wine with your expectations instead of looking at it on its own merit? The above-pictured late harvest from the Mosel tributary Ruwer falls into one of these two categories for me, so approach with care.

torsten Sunday, 10/08/2014

Bernhard Huber, Müller-Thurgau Trocken, 2011

torsten — Sat, 28 Jun 2014 14:55:25 +0000

Bernhard Huber, Müller-Thurgau Trocken, 2011

Earlier this month, Bernhard Huber died. As the last few weeks have been very busy with work I am only now catching up with news from the wine world - and with news like this I almost wish I hadn't. While I have never met him in person I have appreciated his outstanding wines on more than one occasion, and I am only too aware of what he has done for the reputation of German wine, Pinot Noir in particular. Looking through my cellar, the only Huber wine left is a Müller-Thurgau, not quite the obvious choice, but it has to do for a toast to one of the greats of wine making.

torsten Saturday, 28/06/2014

Domaine Huet, Vouvray Clos du Bourg, Sec 2011

torsten — Mon, 26 May 2014 08:44:28 +0000

Domaine Huet, Vouvray Clos du Bourg, Sec 2011

As this week will have a French wine theme - Wednesday I am invited to a French rosé and food event - I figured I should kick it off with a wine from one of my favourite French regions: the Loire. Admittedly, its more famous cousins Burgundy, Champagne or Bordeaux would usually be mentioned first, but I love both the freshness and the quirkiness of the Loire wine. In many ways it is the French region that suits my style most.

It is also the French wine region that got me hooked on Chenin Blanc, partly due to the exciting wines coming from Domaine Huet.

torsten Monday, 26/05/2014

Müller-Catoir, Riesling Großes Gewächs, Breumel in den Mauern, 2009

torsten — Sun, 27 Apr 2014 12:38:32 +0000

Müller-Catoir, Riesling Großes Gewächs, Breumel in den Mauern, 2009

Not everyone may agree with the National Health Service's classification of nosebleeds as potentially 'frightening', but even tougher characters don't seem to consider them fun. Looking back at one or two childhood nosebleed experiences I am inclined to take sides with the NHS here - and yet a Riesling tasting like a nosebleed was probably the most interesting wine I encountered this year. Enter Müller-Catoir's 2009 Grand Cru Riesling "Breumel in den Mauern".

As you can see from the photo above there is a prominent "1" on the bottle, indicating that this wine comes from one of the most highly rated vineyards in Germany (at least according to the winemakers association VDP). Together with the designation as "Großes Gewächs" (great growth or grand cru) this is designed to inspire some awe - which is, one would hope, at least subtly different from nosebleed fright.

torsten Sunday, 27/04/2014

Joh. Jos. Christoffel Erben, Erdener Treppchen, Riesling Auslese 1971

torsten — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 21:55:12 +0000

Joh. Jos. Christoffel Erben, Erdener Treppchen, Riesling Auslese 1971

When the topic of really expensive wine comes up, my dad has a story to tell. Years ago, when he was working in a Michelin-decorated restaurant, one of the guests told him that he had made a good deal that day and now wanted to find out. To find out whether the most expensive wine on the menu was really worth it. So he asked my dad to bring that bottle and get his colleagues too so they all could taste the wine. A few minutes later a group of highly trained sommeliers and waiters clustered around the guest and sampled the wine - I think it was a Bordeaux - to conclude: nice, very nice in fact; but not nice enough that any of them would spend even remotely as much money on a bottle. Even so they were all happy, especially the guest as he now had found out what he always had wondered about.

Today I am embarking on a, somewhat, similar mission. Behold, and you will see the most expensive wine I have ever bought, a Riesling older than yours truly. And the question is: was it worth it?

torsten Monday, 31/03/2014

Bernhard Huber, Chardonnay R, 2009

torsten — Sun, 16 Mar 2014 23:51:59 +0000

Bernhard Huber, Chardonnay R, 2009

What you are looking at is nothing less than the best Chardonnay ever made in Germany. Well, sort of. First of all the photo below only shows Chardonnay grapes and not the bottled "R" as, despite following best practice in digital preservation, our shots of the "R" had an unfortunate encounter with oblivion. Secondly, I have no idea whether Bernhard Huber's 2009 Chardonnay really is the best German Chardonnay ever bottled - but when we heard that the respectable wine guide Wein Plus had made that claim it was time to investigate.

Chardonnay Grapes at Working Dog Winery, by slgckgc, licensed CC BY 2.0 https://www.flickr.com/photos/slgc/9582907983/

So, ladies and gentlemen, come join us for another mission in our never-ending quest to do our journalistic duty.

torsten Sunday, 16/03/2014

Kellerei Kurtatsch/Cortaggio, Weißburgunder Hofstatt, 2012

Julian — Sun, 23 Feb 2014 22:33:02 +0000

Kellerei Kurtatsch/Cortaggio, Weißburgunder Hofstatt, 2012

Is it too early to say that Italy, once haughtily ignored, is making a comeback on the Wine Rambler? In November, Torsten has had his eyes opened by a white from Trentino, and I, for my part, am more and more impressed with its northern neighbour, Alto Adige.

Now that everybody seems to concur that 2012 was over the roof on the banks of the Adige and the Isarco rivers, I have looked closer on reports of the last few vintages, and would you believe it, this has been going on for some time: Excellent on international varietals like Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc, excellent on local growths like the reds Lagrein and Vernatsch.

So I've woken up to it: The Alto Adige has been stealthily creeping up on us. We can't have that, of course. So at the risk of blurring our core germanic focus, I will from time to time over the coming year report on what I have stocked up on.

Julian Sunday, 23/02/2014

Prinz von Hessen, Riesling Dachsfilet, 2011

torsten — Sat, 08 Feb 2014 18:52:22 +0000

Prinz von Hessen, Riesling Dachsfilet, 2011

This skin-contact Riesling is reviewed in more detail in our article Two Princes. The short summary, lacking horribly in context, is below.

torsten Saturday, 08/02/2014