Rieslinghof

Incidentally, the hotel we stayed at in Wachenheim was called Rieslinghof - a most apt name if there ever was one. Rieslinghof is run by Sigrid Zimmermann-Oster, whose brother is the vintner at Weingut Zimmermann - also based in the village. She greeted us when we arrived and showed us into our rooms.

This blog isn't a hotel review website, but we were suitably impressed by both the accommodation offered and the general hospitality. The rooms were light and airy and there was a balcony, albeit a "communal" one. The breakfast on Monday morning (the Monday was a public holiday, incidentally) was top notch too. But best of all, there was a complimentary 0.5-litre bottle of Riesling Spätlese waiting for us in our rooms when we arrived.

Weingut Zimmermann, Wachenheimer Schlossberg Riesling Spätlese 2010, Pfalz
The "Spätlese" classification is slightly misleading. Even in Pfalz terms, this was more of an Spätlese feinherb (i.e. off-dry Riesling) than a true-blue Spätlese - as evidenced by an alcohol content of 12%. And this was good off-dry Riesling. In a vintage with relatively high acidity, the residual sugar was fighting quite a crazed battle to stay on level terms with the zing of the citrus fruit. It just about managed to, although the game of ping-pong between the two remained hard fought. Sweet and sour with a twist, you could say.