Monthly Archives: May 2012

May 14 2012
4 Comments
2010, Australia, Germany, Mosel

2010 Little Penguin Pinot grigio

Last night, we had my butternut squash risotto for dinner and decided to pair it with a bottle of the 2010 Little Penguin Pinot grigio from Southern Australia (the label has changed from the one they use on the website). The bottle was a gift for the party on Friday. Note the cute cork print. I love it when winemakers find ways to make their corks stand out!

Now, I am usually not an overly big fan of white wines from the Southern hemisphere. They tend to be too alcoholic for my taste (a result of the high amounts of sunshine they get: more sunshine, more sugar in the grape. And since sugar is turned into alcohol by the yeast, if you have lots of sugar and want to produce a dry wine, you often end up with high alcohol content).

This one was not bad, though. It was somewhat unimpressive, but that is what I often find pinot grigios to be anyway. It was quite refreshing, and the citrus notes went very well with the sweetness of the squash risotto. I think the penguin can be good company with sweeter foods. The still-attached price tag reads $9.99, which I would consider too much for this wine.

In better news, we received a box of six wines from my good friend Stefan Erbes (you can see him here) of Karl Erbes winery in Uerzig. Stefan and I became quick friends over a winetasting at his estate, and when a German friend offered to bring wine back for us from a recent trip, Stefan sent him a box of 2011s for us to try. I am really excited about this!! I am even more excited to be visiting his estate in June, when Nina and I will be in Germany.

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May 12 2012
2 Comments
2010, Michigan, USA

First homemade sangria and a pleasant Michigan surprise

Last night, we threw one of our parties at our place: We provide the venue and some initial drinks, you bring the booze…they’re always tons of fun.

To celebrate the beginning of summer (it is dark, and grey, and weird outside as I write this, but it was gorgeous yesterday), we decided to make sangria. Now, I have never made sangria in my life, but whatever, it cannot be too hard, I thought. So I scoured the web, and found tons of recipes, like this one or that one, usually boasting that they are the best recipe ever. A surprising number were for white sangria. I had never even heard of that before. I was also disturbed by the frequent ingredient of club soda or ginger ale…just did not sound right to me. Eventually, I just decided to give it my own try, pure and simple:

– 5 liters of Franzia boxed shiraz (hey, it is the world’s most popular wine after all…according to their website) – I picked a shiraz because it tends to be more spicy than the other varieties they have and I thought spice notes like cinnamon and cardamom etc. would go well with the fruit that was going in.

– 2 oranges, 1 lemon, 1 apple (all organic, because they will soak with their skins in the wine) cut in wheels

– 2 oranges squeezed into the wine

– 2 cups of sugar dissolved in 1 1/2 cup of warm water (to create a syrup that blends easier with the wine than the granulated sugar)

Mix it all, chill it for as long as you can (ours chilled for about 10 hours, overnight is even better) and that is that. No club soda, no ginger ale. We added some sparkling water to make it bubbly later, but I don’t think it is necessary. I thought it worked pretty nicely.

Friends of ours brought a Michigan late harvest riesling, a 2010 Chateau Grand Traverse Late Harvest Riesling. I had read about Chateau Grand Traverse as being one of the better wineries in Michigan, located on the eastern coast of Lake Michigan, in the west of the state. Those who know me can imagine my excitement. We opened it later in the evening, and I liked it. The nose was not very impressive, but I am not sure whether the problem was my sangria drinking before I smelled this one or whether it was actually rather neutral. But the taste was quite good. It reminded me of what vineyards smell like around harvest time, moist and succulent air, very grapy fruit notes, and just a nice, comforting and decent wine. Apparently it is available at one of the Kroger’s in Ann Arbor (definitely not at ours…I checked this morning). I need to go hunting…

Have you tried this wine? What do you think? Do you have sangria recipes that I should know of?

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May 11 2012
7 Comments
Germany, Mosel

Bread and butter dilemma

When we moved to the US from riesling heaven at the Mosel, we were quite worried how to cope. Nina went on a mission to force a minimum of 6 bottles on each person visiting us or friends going to the US. They had to deposit the wine at friends’ and we later collected it. So, we now have a nice stash with some amazing wines at our disposal…

However, it does not solve what I like to call our “bread and butter dilemma”: While amazing wines are…well, amazing, one also needs wines that one can drink at every occasion. You can call them everyday wines, I call the bread and butter wines, because a German dinner usually consists of bread and butter (and sausage and cheese…), so the term refers to wines that I can have with my everyday dinner. Easy, enjoyable, not expensive.

In Germany, one of our go-to rieslings was H Riesling (a photo can be seen on the US importer’s website) by Dr. Hermann winery. While this wine is readily available in the US (although I have not been able to unearth it in Ann Arbor), it is still significantly more expensive here than in Germany (duh, one might say).

However, we have found a wine that is a decent enough substitute (to be clear: it can never be a replacement, it is just a substitute). Nothing fancy, actually, in Germany I probably would brush it off as not even worth trying. But here, and for the moment, it is working. It is a Dr. Beckermann’s (a huge mass-producer) Piesporter Michelsberg (some might recognize the village name of Piesport from the wine I talked about yesterday). Michelsberg is a huge vineyard, covering the area opposite the Goldtroepfchen, not on the steep slopes, but on the flat lands on the other side of the Mosel river. The wine sells at Trader Joe’s for $4.99 or $5.99, and I’d say it is worth its money.

Our friend Alex came to town last night for a weekend from DC, and we opened a bottle, and talked about the great wines we enjoyed while she visited us in Germany…and we also enjoyed what we currently have. Nothing like friends and wine…

This one has hints of what I am looking for in a riesling: it is fruity and fun, not high in alcohol (therefore well suited for an extra glass or two), and the sweetness does not overpower some acidity, which makes it quite refreshing and just right for summer. 

Also, check out what this blogger, who seems quite focused on TJ’s wines, had to say about it.

Ann Arborites or fellow US residents: Any other suggestions?

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