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wotwine? lowdown on misunderstood German gems. View this email in your browser
wotwine? gives you the lowdown on misunderstood German gems plus some other bargain Old World classics
Wot? is in a name? Good question! Some wise crack once said a look at the label is worth 10 years of tasting experience. They certainly had a point... as long as the labels are decipherable. The new world wines are a veritable breeze, they happily state the grape, region, vintage, producer and often say ‘sweet’ or ‘dry’. The old world like to make you work a bit harder, they will tell you the region but expect you to know what grape variety that equates to, and the style it is made in. Chablis for instance is always made from Chardonnay and almost always unoaked. Red Bordeaux can be made of one or any number of the following grape varieties; Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet France, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Malbec.
Red wine:
Bordeaux is rarely a cheap proposition I am afraid, but we can make sure that the money you spend is worth it. We can highly recommend Château Darzac Bordeaux 2012, a classic with rich black and red berry fruit, a lovely cedar spice complexity and a fresh, grippy finish. We felt the wine was worth £9.00 but from Asda it is cracking buy at a promoted £6.97. Click here to buy.
For something a little more special try the wonderfully elegant and complex Les Fiefs de Lagrange 2011, St Julien, Bordeaux. This is the second wine of renowned Château Lagrange and boasts a wonderfully perfumed nose of briar fruit and spiced cassis, leather and intense dark fruit with a long structured yet classy finish. We felt a wine of this calibre warranted a price tag of £20.00 but we were delighted to find it is available at Asda for an exceptional £16.00, a price you will struggle to beat elsewhere. Click here to buy.
German white wine:
German wine labels get more complicated. They generously let us know the wine is made from Riesling (definitely a good starting point, this is one of the world’s great white grapes) but rather than clearly stating whether a wine is dry or sweet, they use terms which indicate the ripeness levels at which the grapes were picked, ranging from Kabinett (the earliest harvest, lightest style) to Spätlese, then Auslese, Beerenauslese, until they reach the latest harvested sweetest of the sweet; Trockenbeerenauslese. Confusingly this graduation of ripeness doesn't always equate to the sugar levels going from driest through to sweetest. Kabinett, Spätlese and even Auslese can be dry or surprisingly sweet. Top tip: check the alcohol, in general if the alcohol is low the sugar level will be higher, if it is up at 13% alcohol it is more likely to be pretty dry.
We say EMBRACE THE SWEETNESS! The magical thing about those off dry and sweet wines in particular is that the acidity – that wonderful mouth-watering, vibrantly citrusy, cleansing character in wine offsets the sweetness, giving you lovely sweet fruited palate and a refreshingly bright, fresh finish. This is combined with an ethereal lightness of body and a delightfully low alcohol, often at around 8%, absolutely perfect for a summer’s lunch. This is combined with the fact that German wines are such a hard sell they are fantastic value for money!
The crystalline purity of the Dr Loosen Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Kabinett 2013 (8.5%) from the Mosel has a delicately sweet palate leading to a crisp, green apple and citrus finish and is available at Sainsbury’s for £12.99. We thought it was worth £12.00 – a great quality wine and more or less fair value. Click here to buy.
The crowd stopper however was the Kendermanns Riesling Spätlese 2014 (8%) from the Rheinhessen, it is a beguiling wine with soft, honeyed tangerine and white peach on the silken palate leading to a beautifully fresh finish. We thought this was easily a £10.00 wine that could also be tucked away in the cellar for another 5+ years, and were delighted to find that it is available at Morrison’s for an astonishing £5.99! Bargain hunters get your running shoes on! Click here to buy.
Check out our website: www.wotwine.com for all of our tasting notes. Please also sign up for our Facebook and Twitter pages @wotwine.
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