Saturday
After the revels of the night before, Saturday dawned unbelievably bright and it was definitely a sight for sore eyes that I was able to look out from my riverside guest house verandah in Wehlen on to the sloping edifice of the Sonnennuhr (sun-dial) on the opposite bank, raked with fine shadows as the morning sun rose over the Mosel. Ernst Loosen arrived in his Porsche Cayenne at 8.30 and whisked us to join our vehicle which was to take us on to Leitz's estate in the Rheingau.
To get to Rudesheim we had to travel on the ferry across the Rhine as the only bridges are at either Koblenz or Mainz , both many miles away. This was quite a short hop but it gave time to sense the hot and stuffy caldron that is the micro-climate exhibited by the schlossberg cliff face above Rudesheim where the air gets trapped.
At the Leitz winery we first met Paul Furst who had come over from Franken to conduct a tasting of his wines from around Burgstadt. We went through 14 of his wines in all. The notable points were his '97 Riesling Spatlese Centgrafenberg Dry which demonstrated pears and soft apples on the nose followed by blackcurrant on the tip of the tongue with honey, caramel and fudge notes on the palate, grading into an extraordinary cream and strawberries finish. As a change and because of the climate in Franken, Paul makes excellent Spatburgunders (Pinot Noirs). In particular, his '04 Spatburgunder "R" (R = "reserve") which had plum and baises roses notes and full red fruits knitted nicely together, but finishing dry.
Lunch was prepared by Johannes Leitz, the young and talented star of the Rheingau firmament. He made a king prawns in a lemongrass reduction for startes with which we had his '05 Dragonstone Riesling. The lightly rounded wine went well with the orange/lemon soup and shellfish. This was followed by white asparagus and strawberries (a combination invented by Johannes himself, based on the two products which are in high season in Rudesheim at this time of year) with lamb's lettuce and freshly sliced Speck. He learnt to cook at an early age, following his father's death when he was 14 months old and had to muck in to help his mother.
Hot on heels of our food, and pressed for time, we went straight into tasting 14 of his wines. Undoubted highlights among exemplary Rieslings were the '05 Berg Schlossberg Alte Reben. A perfumed minerally nose led into a herb and grapefruit palate, followed by a beautiful tropical and stone fruit finish. The '04 Berg Roseneck Spatlese showed a malty "caramac" chocolate nose and entry with a rich waxy finish, a clear development from the extra year over the lighter and leaner apricot/peach flavours of the'05.
After the tasting we just had time to visit the vineyards. At the top of Johannes' street I could just see a fine monastic-type building and was quite gob-smacked and delighted when Johannes told me it was the famous Abbey of Hidegaard (of Bingen - the town of Bingen at the head of the Nahe/Rhine confluence was just across the river) as we drove past it. We also went past the chair lift that once served the ski reorty on the top of the hillside and on to the Berg Roseneck vineyard that over looks the old Schloss that acted as toll to the river trade in the early middle ages. It was extremely hot and bore witness to the role that aspect gives to microclimate.
We left Leitz on our way back to Hahn at the end of our visit to Germany, but not before we had chance to get thoroughly bogged down in a Harley Davidson bike rally in the heart of Rudesheim. My memory of the trip will include the vision of one of the oldest vineyards in Germany (the Rosengarten, which incredibly is not officially classified, but is now rented and restored by Leitz and in small production under that name), surrounding the town church, being completely hemmed in by rows of glistening motorbikes and leather-clad party-goers. But, like those bikers I saw with bunches of grapes strapped to their helmets, wine and wine growing is just the backdrop to normal life in such places, but nevertheless is a milieu worth celebrating.
I left Germany determined to drink more of their marvellous Rieslings - many at 7 to 8 per cent alcohol so perfect for the soul - and sure that we would find space to have more on our shelves for you to try.
Monday, 12 June 2006
Germany trip, Saturday 10 June 2006
Germany trip, Thursday 8 June 2006 Germany trip, Thursday 8 June 2006
With no particular interest in the sporting event taking place in Germany I nevertheless graciously accepted a once-in-a-lifetime invitation to join Nigel Blundell's Masters of Riesling tour to more outer-lying areas of the country. So I set off eagerly to Stansted airport and joined the merry throng of fans (and the airport was absolutely heaving with them), some of whom were clearly well into conditioning their livers for the onslaught to come.
Thursday
We left on an early flight on Thursday morning and touched down at Frankfurt-Hahn airport about an hour and ten minutes later. This was much to the bemusement of many of those afore-mentioned fans who hadn't been put wise to the fact that the "Frankfurt" part of the destination name had more to do with the owning authority than with the city of that name. Hahn airport is in fact a former US air force base, now revitalised by RyanAir and some 60 miles from Frankfurt.
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With impeccable German precision we were whisked of into the deep Rheinhessen countryside by Weingut Gunderloch to their winery in Nackenheim. Greeted by our host Fritz Hasselbach, his wife and Charlotte his winemaking assistant, we tasted through 11 wines ranging from his basic '05 Riesling to his '04 Nackenheim Rothenberg TBA. My favourites were the off-dry, peach and grapefruit, creamy finished '05 "Villa" and the best-selling full and richly perfumed '05 Jean Baptiste. Frau Hasselbach then produced a most delightful lunch of traditional meatloaf hot pot, dauphinoise potatoes and salad. With it we had the well-structured, long and lush, '04 "3-star" Auslese.
Following lunch we moved on westward to the Nahe and the quality Dönnhoff estate where Helmut Dönnhoff and his wife, Gaby, led us through a tasting of 15 wines. All of them were very fine indeed and so rewarding in the heat of the afternoon (though we were of course in their cool tasting room!). I was particularly charmed by the easy estate '05 Riesling - sherbet and pineappley with elegant yet racy acidity. Also catching my eye were the '05 Norheimer Delchen Spatlese (intense honey and floral fruit, plunging depth with beautiful mineral notes and structure) and the '05 Oberhauser Brucke Spatlese (huge, pure and smooth - sweet fruit yet with strident acidity).
In the evening we were taken by our hosts to the Zur Trauber ("The Grape") restaurant in Meddersheim, where the Michelin-starred chef (when he was in Wiesbaden ) Herbert Langendorf has set up in semi-retirement. Our delicious meal was accompanied by three new Dönnhoff wines, the most stunning of them being the '04 Grauburgunder "S" which had spent 9 months in wood and had a heavenly nougat and nutty nose and a stunning palate and length. And this was only Helumut's "play thing". Fantastic!