September 2024 - German Wine

 

Wines from Germany – Beyond Liebfraumilch

Another in house tasting, this time from Tim (me) and Jasia on German wines.

One of the more worrying discoveries in preparing for this tasting is how difficult it is in 2024 to buy German wines in the UK . When I went into Majestic in April for a first look, they had none – zero – German wines available. Strewth! Very few in Waitrose, or the other supermarkets too. Thank heavens for the Wine Society. 6 of the wines are from TWS, the other 2 – the Silvaner and Lemberger are from The Wine Barn in Winchester. www.thewinebarn.co.uk

The wines are from all over the German wine regions – Mosel, Pfalz, Franken, Baden, Rheingau, Wurttemberg, and 6 different grape varieties. 3 being Riesling, of course.

So, 5 whites, 3 reds as follows:

Riesling Trocken, Schloss Lieser 2022. Mosel. 11% £11.95

The Society's Saar Riesling 2021. 11.5% £11.95

 Ruppertsberg Linsenbusch Grauburgunder Trocken Ruppertsberg Winzerverein 2023. Pfalz 13% £9.50

Wirsching 2022 Iphöfer Kalb Silvaner Premier Cru dry. Franken 13.5% £22.70

Spätburgunder, Markgräflerland, Martin Wassmer 2021. Baden 13.5% £15.50

Dornfelder Trocken, Anselmann 2022. Pfalz 13.5% £9.95

Jürgen Ellwanger 2022 Hebsacker Lemberger dry. Württemberg 13.5% £17.90

Johannisberger Klaus Riesling Spätlese, Weingut Johannishof 2020. Rheingau 9% £14.50

 

The Silvaner was chosen specifically to show the Franken “bocksbeutel” or field bottle, unique to the Franken area along the river Main. Sadly, it was the least favourite white wine on the night. 

 

Of the 4 dry whites opinion was fairly evenly split between the Saar Riesling

 and the Grauburgunder 

as to the best. Me – I like both, and will be buying more of both of them. The Schloss Lieser is fairly ordinary as was the Silvaner. 

 

The reds – opinion again divided between 2 of the 3 – the Spatburgunder (pinot noir) or the Lemberger. Both old varieties, while the Dornfelder is new variety, first planted in 1980, and now the 2^nd most common red grape in Germany. But not preferred on the night by us.

The Lemberger is also widely planted in Austria as ‘Blaufrankisch’ and Hungary as ‘Kekfrankos’

And finally, the Johannisberger Riesling Spätlese, was a classic sweet Riesling, with that typical acidity. Very nice indeed.