half-dry

Adgestone Vineyard, Owner's Reserve, Medium Dry, 2012

torsten — Sun, 23 Mar 2014 13:14:04 +0000

Adgestone Vineyard, Owner's Reserve, Medium Dry, 2012

Do you eat ice cream on cold winter days? I do, and for some reason I fancy it more often when it is cold than during the few really hot days of summer which London allows me. Maybe for that reason I don't seem to be buying into seasonal wine reviews and I don't find that I crave heavy reds more often in winter than in spring. Therefore it is purely coincidental that I am reviewing this year's first rosé just in time for the official start of spring.

However, if you do enjoy strawberry goodness with sunshine I am sure this English rosé will deliver the goods for you this summer - almost too much, in fact.

torsten Sunday, 23/03/2014

Prinz von Hessen, Riesling Dachsfilet, 2010

torsten — Sat, 08 Feb 2014 18:52:15 +0000

Prinz von Hessen, Riesling Dachsfilet, 2010

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

Daniel Häcker, Lemberger (litre), 2011

Julian — Sun, 02 Feb 2014 22:16:30 +0000

Daniel Häcker, Lemberger (litre), 2011

Northwest of Stuttgart, there is a land of wooded hills and industrious little towns called the Stromberg. In the Stromberg, there is the tiny village of Schönenberg. In Schönenberg, there is an Inn called Lamm, the lamb. There, I've had some of the best, most unpretentious Swabian regional food of my life, and took away this bottle of home-produced Lemberger. Price tag: below 4 €.

Julian Sunday, 02/02/2014

Martin Müllen, Riesling Spätlese halbtrocken, 1995

torsten — Tue, 29 Oct 2013 07:39:52 +0000

Martin Müllen, Riesling Spätlese halbtrocken, 1995

People, it is said, become more interesting with age. In the same way as our faces start telling a little about the lives we have lived we too have more stories to tell, gain some wisdom - at least that's the theory - and become more distinct characters. The same is true for ageworthy wine, but with a pleasant difference: while people can become a little difficult over time, stuck in their ways and perhaps too edgy, a good wine becomes more harmonious and balanced. At some point the wine will decline rapidly and become an old grump, but that is a question of timing and also not what today's wine story is about.

Today I am revisiting Martin Müllen's exciting Mosel wines and in particular an aged specimen I recently got my hands on.

torsten Tuesday, 29/10/2013

Max Ferd. Richter, Mülheimer Sonnenlay, Riesling "Zeppelin", 2011

torsten — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 18:09:52 +0000

Max Ferd. Richter, Mülheimer Sonnenlay, Riesling "Zeppelin", 2011

Following last week's review of a kick-ass aged Mosel Riesling it seems only fair to follow up with an exploration of a much younger Mosel wine's ass-kicking abilities. Today's hero may just be a baby in comparison but it comes with a good family history and a coup de grâce delivered by one of the grand masters of ass-kicking, Dr Indiana Jones. Most importantly it comes with an airship (not included in the price sadly): "the wine most often drunk during the flights of the 'Graf Zeppelin' (airship)", as the label proudly claims in German.

torsten Wednesday, 24/04/2013

Reinhold Haart, Piesporter Goldtröpfchen, Riesling Kabinett, 2010

torsten — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 08:50:37 +0000

There is nothing unusual with me drinking Mosel Riesling from the village of Piesport. Quite the opposite in fact - it would not be far off to call this my favourite tipple. This time it was unusual though as I tasted the Kabinett from the Goldtröpfchen vineyard blind, against a much cheaper Mosel wine produced for the export market.

Why would I do that? It is a long-ish story, but if you care you can read it in my open letter to Waitrose. For the moment let's just say I needed to demonstrate what a good wine from the Mosel village of Piesport tastes like.

Legends of Germany, Piesporter Michelsberg

torsten — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 08:50:04 +0000

Legends of Germany, Piesporter Michelsberg

You may have heard of Sisyphus. He is the bloke doomed to roll a giant bolder up a hill, only to watch it roll down and having to do it all over again. Forever. I am not there yet, but my quest to find good, affordable German wine in a British supermarket feels a little similar. Here is the next instalment from the series, and it takes us to upmarket supermarket chain Waitrose.

It also takes us to the Mosel region - Piesporter Michelsberg is the name for a fairly large sub-region of the Mosel. Theoretically it is named after the village of Piesport, where they have been making outstanding wine since the time of the Romans. In reality though "Michelsberg" on the label pretty much guarantees that the wine in your bottle has never seen Piesport and is in fact a cheap blend, mostly from Müller-Thurgau grapes. That Waitrose sell such a wine as "Legends of Germany" made me almost angry, so much so that I wrote them an open letter.

torsten Tuesday, 12/03/2013

Moselland, Dornfelder "Avantgarde", 2010

torsten — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 08:41:53 +0000

There is no German wine that pairs with chocolate - this is what I have been told at a recent event on matching German wine with food. Whether you agree with this statement depends on what type of wine you would pair with chocolate of course. If you are amongst those who believe that sweeter red wines might work, well, then that statement is wrong. After all not only is about 40% of all wine made in Germany red, some of these do come in sweeter style too.

"Avantgarde", a semi-sweet Mosel red wine in an, er, avantgardistically shaped bottle is one of them. It is also a wine I have been scared of for a long time.

Ansgar Clüsserath, Trittenheimer Apotheke, Riesling Kabinett, 2011

torsten — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 17:19:50 +0000

Remember that one perfect meal? That special memory that has been with you for years? A taste or texture you can still recall? Some treasure these memories so much that they do not want to go back to the restaurant in question as they fear it might not live up to the memory and spoil it. Now, I think it is worth taking that risk, but in the few cases when you are let down I do wonder whether the disappointment might come from expectations that are just too high for anyone to meet.

Today's wine is such a case, but luckily I had help judging it.

Moselland, Riesling feinherb 'Goldschild', 2010

torsten — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 19:22:15 +0000

Moselland, Riesling feinherb 'Goldschild', 2010

"The law made me do it!" is probably one of the excuses judges don't hear very often. If it comes to German wine, however, it may be more common than you think. The infamous German Wine Law, in combination with the regional wine establishment, is a very odd beast, so much so that you will find top producers who deliberately rate some of their top wines in a fairly low category as they don't quite meet inspectors' expectations. There are all sorts of complaints about the wine law of 1971, but it is still enforced with German precision. So much so that when winemakers wanted to print a new word on labels, "feinherb", they had to go to court as you cannot possibly print something on a label that has not been regulated beforehand.

Well, they succeeded and now we have a new, completely unregulated term in the precisely structured German wine classification: feinherb.

torsten Monday, 13/08/2012