Author Archives: the winegetter

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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May 10 2012
5 Comments
2007, Germany, Mosel

2007 Kurt Hain Piesporter Goldtröpfchen Riesling Spätlese #13

Last Friday, we were invited for a BBQ in the park. It was a gorgeous day, we were playing soccer with our friends’ kids, awesome meat on the grill. Nina and I have been on a slow mission to get our friend who hosted this hooked to German rieslings…so, naturally we brought a bottle to share.

The winery Kurt Hain has been one of my favorite wineries in the Mosel village of Piesport, home to the very renown vineyard “Goldtroepfchen” (literally: “droplets of gold”). Gernot Hain, the winemaker (follow the link for a photo and his philosophy), has been making high quality wines for quite a bit now, and they rarely fail to impress me. They have a balance and sophistication about them, that just draws you in. There is someone who knows exactly what he is doing…and he is doing it remarkably well. Gernot also plays in the Weinelf, Germany’s “national” soccer team composed of winemakers (yes, they exist!).

Now, the wine we brought was the 2007 Piesporter Goldtroepfchen Spaetlese #13. It was in our stash that we brought over from Germany when we moved to Ann Arbor. We felt it was the right time and moment to try it now. In following posts, I will give you more background on how to read a German winelabel etc., suffice it to know for now that this is a riesling with rather high residual sugar made from quality grapes.

Note how beautiful the bottle is. Gernot’s wines tend to be bottled in longer-neck bottles which make them look way more fancy and elegant.

The wine itself had aged beautifully. A lot of people are not aware of the fact that you can age rieslings for a quite a while, the low yielding top of the spectrum for many many decades, but spaetlesen like this can hold on for 20 to 30 years no problem…when the wines are younger, their fruity smells and tastes tend to dominate, while in later years, the sugar and acidity balance each other out more.

The wine had retained its beautiful, lighter than straw color.  When we tried it, it still tasted refreshingly fruity, but you could tell that it was already moving on to the next stage of its existence, with less pronounced fruit and a tad more alcoholic taste. The acidity was doing a jumpy tap dance over the sweetness on my tongue. It was hilarious. And what I loved most, this fun taste lingered and lingered and lingered…too bad it was our last bottle.

Unfortunately, Kurt Hain does not export to the US. His listed importer went bust a while back. For European readers: You can contact the winery for a price list here. I am sure they can ship within Europe without a problem.

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