Vimto

Five years ago, I first learnt of the existence of Weingut Winter from an article written by Stuart Pigott. To my knowledge, the only version of the article freely available on the world-wide web is here (after clicking on the link, you need to scroll down a bit). After reading Mr Pigott's piece, the name of Winter's vineyard site, Leckerberg, became engrained in my memory, if only for the fact that the modern German adjective lecker means "tasty" or "yummy".

After all this time, I've finally been able to get my hands on a Winter wine, albeit a Scheurebe. In order to obtain a Leckerberg Riesling, you normally need to be a bit quicker off the mark than I usually am.

Weingut Winter, Dittelsheimer Scheurebe 2008, Rheinhessen
Exotic or what? The holy trinity of grapefruit, lychee and blackcurrant bursts into life. At first, grapefruit takes a bow, offering a luxuriant palate held together by a moderate dose of acidity. Other exotic notes develop without going over the top. Quite filling, but rather elegant too. Over the next 72 hours, blackcurrant notes gradually take the upper hand, offering a sensation vaguely reminiscent of Vimto.

Hm, I've just re-read the above. At this juncture, you would be forgiven for wondering how anything "rather elegant" can evoke memories of a long-standing British soft drink made of grapes, raspberries and blackcurrants.

This wine really does hit the spot, though. Without putting too fine a point on it, I feel that the secret is a little touch of residual sugar. There isn't really a lot of it, but there's just enough to lift the wine from one-dimensional to kaleidoscopic without descending into kitsch. As such, this Scheurebe rises above the everyday.