Weingut Ankermühle

Weingut Ankermühle, Riesling "Gabriel", 2010

torsten — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 07:38:09 +0000

Weingut Ankermühle, Riesling "Gabriel", 2010

As the wine review I posted on Good Friday revealed a lack of spiritual cohesiveness with regards to what an appropriate wine for Easter should feel like, I have decided to play it safe on Easter Monday. Rheingau winery Ankermühle have moved away from the usual German approach of confusing customers with long and unpronounceable vineyard names and instead use snappy ones like "Jungfer" (spinster), "Maria" and "Hölle" (hell) - or today's Gabriel.

Admittedly, Gabriel's feast day is 29 September and not today, but I figured that going with a archangel would somehow be keeping in line with the easterly spirit.

torsten Monday, 09/04/2012

Beyond Liebfraumilch: Exploring the Diversity of German Wine at the "Germany Unplugged" 2012 tasting

torsten — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 08:29:24 +0000

Beyond Liebfraumilch: Exploring the Diversity of German Wine at the "Germany Unplugged" 2012 tasting

We got drunk on that stuff as students because we didn't know any better and had no money. That is not what I would say, at least not in public, but it summarises how many British acquaintances refer to German wine - in particular the dreaded Liebfraumilch. German wine is associated with sweet, and sweet with bad. The British wine trade tend to love Riesling, dry or sweet, and some also appreciate German Pinot Noir. This is usually where the knowledge ends though. There are even "wine experts" who say Germany should not move away from the sweeter style of Riesling - whereas the reality is that the German wine industry has become so diverse it has long gone beyond that. German dry wines are now so varied as would confuse even the most sober foreign beholder.

Last week the German Wine Agencies, a new distributor of German wines in the British market, invited members of the trade to be confused (and to leave everything else but sober, one would hope) by German wines.

torsten Wednesday, 29/02/2012

Weingut Ankermühle, Riesling Classic, 2009

torsten — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 17:58:56 +0000

Weingut Ankermühle, Riesling Classic, 2009

The Germans and their compound words. Even people who haven't heard more than three words of German (presumably those will include "Achtung", "nein" and "Fuehrer", although amongst the more sophisticated "Kindergarten", "Zeitgeist" "Schadenfreude" und "Weltschmerz" are also candidates) know that the Germans like to build long words into even longer ones by attaching them to each other. Worry not though, I shall not be troubling you with yet another very complex word the length of the journey from Land's End to John O'Groats. Instead I will use a review of a Rheingau Riesling to introduce you to a short compound word every wine drinker should know.

The word is Zechwein.

torsten Sunday, 11/12/2011