Brenneisen, Grauburgunder 2012

The wines of local vintner Dirk Brenneisen have featured on this blog before. The odyssey now continues with what, for me, is the most impressive of the lot so far.

Weingut Brenneisen, Grauburgunder trocken 2012, Baden, Germany
This was fermented in a large oak cask and then left on its lees for seven months. The result is an expressive, multilayered aroma with only very delicate cask notes lending a lovely savoury feel. Strawberry, honeydew melon, cashew nuts and complex smoky hints.

Well-integrated and balanced on the palate. The cask notes lift the other flavours into clear relief: mainly red berries and melon with a slight starfruit twist at the end. The wine is bone dry 0.7 g/l according to the label, but there is a fresh sweetness that belies this. Smoky, flinty notes emerge on the finish – tasting blind, I might have mistaken this for a Silvaner. The alcohol level is only 12 percent but there is an amazing density of flavour. I'm not saying this is grand cru quality, but for a measly eight euros, this is the best-value wine I've enjoyed in a long while.

Naturschönheit / Nature-made beauty

***Blatant commercial plug alert***

Further to my related blog post in January, the book launch for Vinipazzi, Vol. 1 (Naturschönheit / Nature-made beauty) – I did the English translation – will be taking place at Restaurant Café Boy, Kochstrasse 4, Zurich on Wednesday 19 March. Vintners Helmut Dönnhoff, Peter Jakob Kühn and Clemens Busch will be there, as will Stephan Reinhardt, author of The Finest Wines of Germany (2012).


The event will kick off at 6 p.m. with some Riesling (what else?) and nibbles, followed by the actual book presentation at 6.30 p.m. From 8 o'clock, a three-course meal will be served in the company of the three wine-growers:

Menu
Filet vom Loup de Mer mit Ofentomaten auf Erbsenstampf an weissem Tomatenschaum (Sea bass filet with oven tomatoes on a pea mash with white tomato froth); wine: Roxheimer Höllenpfad (Dönnhoff)

Coq au Riesling mit Perlzwiebeln, Speck, Champignons und Croutons mit Magerquarkspätzli (Coq au Riesling with pearl onions, bacon pieces, mushrooms, croutons and low-fat spaetzle); wine: Pündericher Marienburg GG (Busch)
Dessert variations; wine: Oestricher Lenchen Auslese (Kühn)

The event is free from 6 to 8 p.m. The cost of the meal from 8 p.m. onwards is CHF 100 (including water, coffee and wine).

To sign up for the evening meal, please visit www.vinipazzi.net.

Rock solid

Daniel Vollenweider originally hails from the Swiss canton of Graubünden. His is an unconventional story. This was recently the first Vollenweider wine I've ever tasted:

Weingut Vollenweider, Felsenfest Riesling 2012, Mosel, Germany
No trocken on the label, but this is certainly dry. It's Daniel V's basic dry estate wine. "Felsenfest" literally means "rock solid", but the "-fest" bit in the name also has festive connotations, surprise surprise.

At first, this wine showed slate, slate and more slate – but not much else. In fact, it felt quite thin, bony and austere on the palate. However, I should have known that this would improve 24 hours later. On the second day, it also showed mint and lemon on the nose, while the palate suddenly felt decidedly more mellow – and fruitier: citrus and some tropical notes, mainly – with some lacquer/varnish hints, the latter characteristic being very pleasant and not as bad as it might sound. Refreshing and sustained on the finish. Rock solid indeed.

Klingelberger Kabinett

Continuing the off-dry Riesling theme, but from a totally different locality to the Mosel:

Weinhaus Siegbert Bimmerle, Klingelberger (Riesling) Kabinett feinherb 2012, Baden, Germany
Riesling is commonly referred to as "Klingelberger" in the Ortenau, that small Riesling enclave within the otherwise Pinot-dominated region of Baden. In this case, however, Klingelberger is only mentioned on the back label. I tried this winery's flagship "Riesling Réserve" at a local wine fair a couple of years ago and was ever so slightly blown away (in the positive sense). The following wine is a more basic offering.

Overtly fruitier than the previous blog post specimen. Lime and pineapple dominate on the note along with a slightly prickly gooseberry hint, although these components need time to come to the fore – showing a lot more expressively 24 hours later. Pineapple again on the palate, with refreshing, pinpoint acidity. Unsurprisingly given its more southerly origin, this has a little more "oomph" compared to the more subtle, classical Mosel Riesling from Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium. Yet, what both have in common is sheer drinkability.
 

School of Riesling

Some of my most favourite wines are off-dry Rieslings. Not only are their alcohol levels lower, but I often find them more versatile and harmonious with food than their trocken cousins. I also find them extremely tasty, full stop. Wines for quaffing, and unashamedly so.

Dating back to the 16th century, Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium is one of Germany's oldest schools (Gymnasium is German for "grammar school"). It's also the name of a winery of the same name. How cool is that?


Weingut Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium, Riesling feinherb 2012, Mosel, Germany
I had only half-turned when the screw-top enclosure popped up into the air and hit the kitchen ceiling of its own accord. Quite a bit of carbon dioxide in there, then! However, this quickly dissipated, leaving a nose of fresh red apples and apricot. Ripe apple initially on the palate, then with some steely acidity and a satisfying, lip-smackingly juicy yet dry finish. This is a beautiful wine with just 11 percent alcohol. It is also straightforward in that it doesn't tax the old grey cells too much. On the other hand, it is as clean as a whistle and full of integrity. Simple pleasures are sometimes the best.

Triumvirate

Elmar Schauß is a little-known producer from Monzingen on the Nahe. Although, if you have Emrich-Schönleber as one of your neighbours, it's not hard to be overshadowed somewhat. Be that as it may, this wine is imported to Switzerland, so Herr Schauß must be doing something right.

Weingut Schauß, Riesling Monzinger Frühlingsplätzchen Hochgewächs trocken "vom Rotliegenden" 2011, Nahe, Germany
Exotic nose with tropical fruit to begin with, then gradually giving way to candied lemon and blossom. Lovely yellow fruit (apricot) with some peach to boot. Those are all the vague tasting notes I made, but this is genuinely good stuff.

Moving on to something completely different now, here's a powerful red blend from Austria:


Weingut Muenzenrieder, Grand Cuvee 2006, Neusiedlersee, Austria
Dark ruby with purpley/velvety hints. Notes of chocolate and herbs on the nose, along with super-ripe dark fruit. Quite mellow and viscous on the palate, with rippling, bustling tannins and a cool yet dense mouthfeel. Drinking great seven and a bit years since harvest, but there is still potential for improvement in terms of the tannins bedding in, I would say.

Completing this unlikely triumvirate, an Austrian "GrüVe":

Weingut Weinrieder, Grüner Veltliner Vinotheksfüllung 2009, Weinviertel, Austria
Light matt yellow. A dense, concentrated nose with peppery notes as well as slight oak cask hints on the one hand and a faint vegetable whiff on the other. The latter I would describe along the lines of fennel and sweaty socks ... Very forceful on the palate. Yellow fruit and cream, with a salty notes lending balance. Quite chewy. The finish is long.
 
This final wine was my favourite by a small margin, but all three shone in their own particular way.
                        

Not quite GG

Although the customary VDP grand cru symbol was embossed onto the side of this bottle, the "GG" initials were missing from the label. Indeed, this wine is simply referred to as a Spätlese trocken on the back label. The man at the wine shop was slightly confused by this, too. Upon subsequent research, I learned that the Knipsers chose not to classify this as a Grosses Gewächs at all in 2005.

Weingut Knipser, Riesling Steinbuckel Spätlese trocken 2005, Pfalz, Germany
Golden yellow in appearance. Showing a herbal and waxy opening on the nose before various notes of lemon and cream emerge. These twin components play an olfactory game of ping-pong right the way through. Quite bitter notes to begin with on the palate; not exactly what I was expecting. However, peachy lemon gradually takes the upper hand in tandem with a mellow, viscous mouthfeel. This is quite complex but, at the same time, not really at the level I would expect of a GG. This wine is simply a very good Spätlese trocken. Nothing more, nothing less.

But contained in one of those heavy GG bottles? Hm.