Silvaner

Juliusspital, Rödelseer Küchenmeister, Silvaner Kabinett trocken, 2008

This one is for the ladies. Actually, it is not so much for the ladies in general as for my friend Conny who always complains that the Wine Rambler ignores wine from the German region of Franconia, or Franken as we call it. Franken is a Protestant enclave in the north of otherwise Catholic Bavaria. People have a funny accent ('k' comes out like a 'g') and supposedly like robust food and dry wines with the necessary substance to go with it. Did I mention that Conny is from Franconia?

torsten Saturday, 12/09/2009

350 years of the Silvaner grape in Germany

By torsten on Friday, 11/09/2009

2009 is the year of the Silvaner grape variety in Germany - the country celebrates 350 years of growing Silvaner. Never heard of Silvaner? Quite likely, especially if you are not German. However, chances are that you have tasted it at some point as Silvaner is often mixed with other grape varieties, for instance in the infamous Liebfraumilch blends, because of its more neutral flavour. Does that mean it is a boring grape? Not necessarily - a good winemaker can use Silvaner to really let the characteristics of a particular vineyard shine, the famous French concept of terroir. To honour the Silvaner, the Wine Rambler will dedicate itself to opening the odd bottle of Silvaner this year to see what this grape has to offer.

Silvaner in typical Franconian 'Bocksbeutel' botle

Zehnthof Luckert, Sulzfelder Maustal Silvaner Kabinett trocken "Alte Reben", 2008

Zehnthof Luckert has put out a masterly collection of wines in 2008. After the explosively fruity dry Muskateller, the earthy and rich Müller-Thurgau, this old vine-Silvaner brings some more thunder (and these are all from the affordable section...).

Nice deep straw colour, almost a golden tinge. Smells of ripe pears, peaches, ginger. More peachy and Riesling-like on the second day.
In the mouth, ripe apples and peaches, textbook earthy minerality, quite creamy and rich, but with good acidity, vibrant, that great ginger spiciness again, and - is that curry? Not over-typical for Silvaner, as it could easily pass for a unusually creamy and spicy Riesling, but that doesn't take anything away.

Julian Tuesday, 04/08/2009

Weingut Seehof, Grüner Silvaner trocken, Edition Pinard de Picard, 2007

By torsten on Monday, 18/05/2009

A good food companion, this wine combines flinty mineral and green apple with a little hay, spice and nut. A nice dosage of acidity adds to the freshness but also introduces some bitter notes to this otherwise nicely balanced wine. Very pleasant with food (asparagus and fish in our case).

Trockene Schmitts, Randersackerer Sonnenstuhl Silvaner Spätlese trocken "konsequent", 2007

From the winery with the silly name comes a surprisingly good wine: Complex, quite powerful smell of ripe apples and cantaloupe melons. A lot of apply fruit in the mouth, very ripe and concentrated, earthy minerality.

By the way, I caught on to them: the label says 0,5 grams of residual sugar are still in the wine. Shame on you. Did you think we wouldn't notice?

Julian Sunday, 09/11/2008
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