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.
**
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!
Monday, 12 June 2006
Germany trip, Thursday 8 June 2006 Germany trip, Thursday 8 June 2006
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