Category Archives: Wines

Austria, Wines

Wine Notes: Austria’s Steiermark

 

What I Learned

The Steiermark is a wine region in the southeast corner of Austria. It is called Styria in English. The Steiermark lies just north of the Slovenian Alps, and east of the Austrian ones. Within this political and wine entity, there are three wine sub-regions.

-The easternmost, the Suedoststeiermark lies closest to Hungary, from where gets some of its climatic influences. Its topography is moderately hilly in most places, and as the name for its Vulkanland district implies,  is influenced by remains of ancient volcanos.

-The southernmost, is the Suedsteiermark, which shares a long border, as well as a tradition of viticulture, with Slovenia.

-Then there is the Weststeiermark. It is known by Austrian wine-lovers, and promoted by the local tourism industry, as Schilcher-land, home to a rose wine of the same name.

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Germany, Wines

Wine Notes: Wuerttemberg’s Oberer Neckar

 

What I Learned

The Oberer Neckar, Upper Neckar, in English, is the smallest wine district in the Wuerttemberg Wine Region, with only about 30 hectares (acres) to its credit. The district’s name is due to its position in the upper third of the valley defined by the Neckar River. Its closest viticultural neighbors, Metzingen and Neuffen, as well as the Stuttgart Weinsteige, lie to the north (downriver) within the Remstal-Stuttgart wine district of the Wuerttemberg wine region.

Historically, the region’s vintners were challenged to get a crop undamaged to harvest. Tradition says that their wines were sour, and hence having a poor reputation for quality. Since 1990, that is changing. Helped by climate change (meaning better ripening for the grapes), and education, the wines are much improved.

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Spain, Wines

Wine Notes: Spain’s Cava

 

What I Learned

Spain’s sparkling wine, known as cava, is truly exciting. The range of grape varietals that can be included in the final cuvee is so diverse, and so unique in some cases, that the end product can be rather surprising to anyone who routinely enjoys other sparkling wines made in the Champenoise (Champagne) or traditional method.

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Germany, Wines

Wine Notes: Pfalz’s Suedliche Weinstrasse

 

What I Learned

The Pfalz has more hectares (about 23, 600) under vine than any other wine region in Germany, except Rheinhessen. It is divided into two districts: the Mittelhaardt, and the Suedliche Weinstrasse. White wine varietals, of which there are over 70 different types, predominate, especially Riesling, but red wine varietals are increasing, now with over 50 types, in proportion to the white varietals.

In the Suedliche Weinstrasse district, the Deutsche Weintor Winery (Winzergenossenschaft) primarily serves the Suedliche Weinstrasse district. Founded in 1956, the winery takes its name from Deutsche Weintor, the iconic wine gate in Schweigenhof-Rechtenbach on the French border, which marked the end of German’s first car tourism Route: The German Wine Road (Deutsche Weinstrasse). A popular tourist site, many people are familiar with the Deutsches Weintor vinothek there. However, its cellar, begun in 1957, is a bit further north, in Ilbesheim bei Landau. It likewise has a vinothek. Nowadays, with over 600 wine growers, and over 850 hectares, the Deutsche Weintor Winery dominates the wine production of this area.

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France, Wines

Wine Notes: Sancerre

 

What I Learned

The Loire River, being over 1000 kilometers long, has several appellations along, or near it. Previous posts covered the wines of the lower half of the Loire, by Anjou, Amboise, and the famous chateaux of the Loire. This post concerns Sancerre, the appellation in the upper half of the Loire.

Sancerre is famous for its racy Sauvignon Blanc wines. Nowadays, a bit over 80 per cent of all wine production here is Sauvignon Blanc wine. It is a varietal wine made from Sauvignon Blanc grapes, which do exceptionally well in this area’s cooler, continental climate. (By contrast, the lower Loire has an Atlantic climate.) As most wine lovers know, Sauvignon Blanc wine is rather distinctive. Like Sauvignon Blanc wines world-wide, Sancerre Sauvignon Blanc exhibits a crisp, fruity, citrus sharpness, from the nose to the palette, and a fair amount of acidity. Flavor descriptions tend to include citrus, green gooseberries, and green apple.

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Germany, Wines

Wine Notes: Ortenau Riesling

What I Learned

Riesling grows in every German wine region, and in some, a lot more than others. In the Baden wine region, Riesling is the single most cultivated white varietal. The Ortenau, in particular, grows more Riesling proportionally, than any other wine area within the Baden wine region.

Riesling has a long and interesting history here. Traditionally, the name Klingelberger applies to Riesling wine from the Ortenau. In a nod to this tradition, you can still find Riesling wine sold under this label, (much as you can find Pinot Noir grown in Affental, bottled under the name Affentaler). Another tradition involves the use of the uniquely shaped flat Bocksbeutel as the bottle of choice. The Bocksbeutel is traditionally associated with the Franken/Franconia wine region, but this area of the Ortenau adopted its use in the 1700s, when a nobleman from Franconia took up residence here, and bottled his wines using the Bocksbeutel. After a lengthy legal suit in the 1970s over Franconia’s exclusive right to use the Bocksbeutel, the court upheld the Ortenau tradition, ruling that outside Franconia, only the Baden areas around Neuweier, Steinbach and Varnhalt could bottle their wine that way.

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Germany, Wines

Wine Notes: Affental Red Wine

 

What I Learned

Monkey Valley, or  Affental, in German, has a long history of wine making. Located just south of Baden-Baden, this corner of Baden, Germany long attracted and encouraged monastic foundations. As is often the case, it was medieval religious who established the viticulture of the region, as they needed communion wine. In this case, the 13th century Cistercians from the Lichtenthaler Monastery of Baden-Baden planted Pinot Noir vines in this area of steep slopes with good exposure to the sun.

The practice of viticulture has continued ever since. In 1908, local vintners  created the Affentaler Winzer, a cooperative winery. This cooperative focused on red wine production. Although other cooperatives were also in Eisental, Affentaler Winzer has since incorporated them into its cooperative.  Affentaler wine has stood out, literally, since 1949, as the Affental Winzer red wine bottles have a raised metal plaquette of a monkey on them.

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Germany, Wines

Wine Notes: Baden/Lake Constance

 

What I Learned

Germany’s Baden wine region contains a district on the shores of Lake Constance, or Bodensee, as it is called in German. The lake itself has two distinct parts: the Bodensee, and the Untersee. Both have vineyards which fall under Grosslage Sonnenufer. This post comments on the Kirchhalde slope by Uhldingen, on the Bodensee itself.

The lake and the northern shoreline’s southern exposure to sun help to warm this area, making it a garden spot for Germany. Vineyards are tucked among the villages and religious foundations, along with fruit trees and fields of vegetables, grains and flowers. In this district, vineyards grow primarily in gravelly, moraine clay soils. The Kirchhalde slope, with a nice south, south-westerly exposure, is fairly pronounced, but overall, the elevation is less than 500 meters.

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France, Wines

Wine Notes: Grignan-les-Adhemar

 

What I Learned

The Rhone River drains much of central and south -eastern France. Along the Rhone, starting just south of Lyon and ending a bit south of Avignon, there are many wine appellations along or near the river. Therefore, the Cotes du Rhone wine appellation, such a large area, is of necessity, divided into the northern Rhone (Rhone Septentrional) and southern Rhone (Rhone Meridional) zones.

This post focuses on the northernmost appellation of the southern Rhone zone. This is where, when driving south along the highway, through Valence, you note that northern France is now definitively in the rear-view mirror, and southern France has begun. It is where the department of the Drome meets Provence’s department of the Vaucluse.

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Germany, Wines

Wine Notes: Mittelhaardt’s Freinsheim

 

What I Learned:

The Pfalz wine region in the southern Rhineland Palatinate (Rheinland Pfalz, in German) has two divisions: Suedliche Weinstrasse and Mittelhaardt. The Mittelhaardt has some of the best-known vineyards. While the official German quality system does not necessarily recognize particular sites as being better than others, many vineyards, and even sections of vineyards, have names. Some of these named parcels, at least among the vintners, have better reputations than others. Thus, even though the official quality system does not focus on particular sites as superior, the VDP (Verband Deutscher Praedikats- und Qualitaetsweinguter) association members will name particular sites on their wine bottle labels as an Erste Lage (loosely equivalent to a Premier Cru site in France), or as a Grosse Lage, identified on the label as GG (for Grosses Gewaechs) (again, in VDP terms, loosely equivalent to a Grand Cru site in France). Some of the sites designated by VDP vintners as Grosse Lage in the Mittelhaardt around Bad Duerkheim include Bad Duerkheim’s Michelsberg parcel, and Ungstein’s Weilberg and Herrenberg parcels. Although Freinsheim does not have any Grosse Lage, it does have the Erste Lage  of Schwarzes Kreuz, and the named parcel of Musikantenbuckel. The names can date from a long way back, and often have an interesting history associated with them. For example, the Musikantenbuckel received its name from the practice of itinerant musicians of yore travelling to Freinsheim, and beginning to play their instruments, once they reached that spot. (Being on the downside of a slope – good for vines, by the way – from that point apparently, townspeople could both see and hear the music men approaching through the vines.)

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