Tag Archives: mosel

May 18 2012
11 Comments
1987, Germany, Mosel, Wineries

1987 Vereinigte Hospitien Erdener Treppchen Spätlese

Photo taken from the winery’s homepage

I mentioned this wine in an earlier post, when I was talking about how German rieslings can age. I think it is proper to describe the wine in full.

The Vereinigte Hospitien (“Unified Hospices”) winery in Trier has a loooooong history and tradition. Its name stems from the fact, that until German Mediatisation in the early 1800s, most hospitals were run by the Catholic church. The Trier hospitals, that were also called hospices at the time, were unified into one corporation under public law in 1804 by Napoleon. A lot of these hospitals financed themselves by owning vineyards and selling the wine (just like universities at the time). The Vereinigte Hospitien are still a corporation under public law, maintaining several hospitals and nursing homes, and are a big employer. But they also never gave up winemaking, though. Through the church possessions, they own property in some of the most prestigious hills along the Mosel and Saar rivers. Most notable is the Scharzhofberg, one of the most famous German vineyards at the river Saar, but also Piesporter Goldtröpfchen, Wiltinger Kupp and others.

The winery has a tasting room were you can try the wines for free. Even better, ask for a wine tasting with friends in their cellars, which are among the oldest in Germany…dating back to Roman walls of the fourth century AD. I have been quite fond of their good but affordable quality wines. If ever you get to Trier (be it for its Roman ruins, medieval history, or any other reason), I recommend you go and check out this winery.

The bottle with the deteriorated cork

Now, this 1987 I got at the winery shortly before I left for Ann Arbor. It happens to be Nina’s birthyear (not a very good year for German wines), and Erdener Treppchen, a vineyard in the central Mosel valley, is one of my favorite. To me, there is something special about old wines. I immediately have to think about what happened in that year, and it feels like the wine gives me access to a time that is passed. It is like a captured moment in time, that has aged as well, and will be gone when I finish (or pour out) the bottle. It is almost magical.

We opened it for Nina’s birthday party.  I decanted it for about half an hour. As you can see on the photo, the cork had deteriorated quite a bit, but when I pulled it, it was clear that it had not destroyed the wine. The color was a lighter rhine stone. The nose seemed quite complex, I smelled honey as the strongest. The taste was surprisingly fresh, with a well boiled down alcoholic tone. Unfortunately, and I guess this owes to the rather weak vintage in general, acidic notes were strong and dominated the palate to a degree that some found objectionable. I thought it was still an acceptable level…it was yummy!

Cork art

With older wines, it is interesting to see how they taste after they have been open for a while. So, we preserved some and after two days, tobacco and leather smells started dominating the nose, but with beautiful hints of strawberry. It just kept wowing me.

And to give you an idea why I am often surprised by the wine prices in the U.S. I think I paid about 15 euros for this bottle, that is $20. For German standards, that is already a rather expensive wine…

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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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