Wine Review: Dr. Pauly-Bergweiler Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett 2016

May is Riesling Month on TheWineStalker.net!

Dr. Peter Pauly is the grandchild of Zacharias Bergweiler, historically one of the most esteemed Moselle winemakers. Already during his early studies at Geisenheim, the only German institution to award higher academic degrees in winemaking, Dr. Peter Pauly worked on the family wine estate before completely taking over the winery in the year 1959. In the year 2006, Dr. Peter Pauly transferred the operation of the wine estate to his son, Stefan Pauly. Stefan now not only carries forward the work of his father, but he also has achieved significant new success on the international wine market.

This is the second of two wines by Dr. Pauly-Bergweiler that I'm reviewing for Riesling Month., and it's the last from Germany. From their website: "Wehlener Sonnenuhr" (Sundial of Wehlen) is a vineyard located in the heart of the Middle Moselle wine region, directly opposite the well-known wine village of Wehlen. The small south-southwest-facing terraces reach up to 250 meters above sea level. Bluish-grey, primarily stony slate from the Devonian Period forms an especially good reservoir for heat, storing the heat during the day and releasing it to the vines during cool nights. Deposits of loess and quartzite bring additional mineral components to the wine.

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Wine Review: Dr. Pauly-Bergweiler Noble House Riesling QBA 2017

May is Riesling Month on TheWineStalker.net!

Dr. Peter Pauly is the grandchild of Zacharias Bergweiler, historically one of the most esteemed Moselle winemakers. Already during his early studies at Geisenheim, the only German institution to award higher academic degrees in winemaking, Dr. Peter Pauly worked on the family wine estate before completely taking over the winery in the year 1959. In the year 2006, Dr. Peter Pauly transferred the operation of the wine estate to his son, Stefan Pauly. Stefan now not only carries forward the work of his father, but he also has achieved significant new success on the international wine market.

This is the first of two wines by Dr. Pauly Bergweiler that I'm reviewing for Riesling Month., and it's from their "Noble House" label. Here's their little blurb on the label: Noble House was named in honor of the Prince Elect of Trier, the oldest city in Germany. He built this distinguished Noble House in 1743, where his grapes were pressed and his wines were made. Dr. Pauly-Bergweiler bought the house more than 100 years ago.

The day that I'm writing this (May 16th; my rated reviews are usually done a week prior to publication) is marking a beautiful moment of the year, because finally it appears that I can start taking pictures of the bottles outside again. The sun is out and it's actually warm! See that wood? It's wet, like everything else around here. Cape Cod has been nothing but dark gloomy overcast and rain for the first half of 2019, but there is a ray of hope that we'll finally get out of it for a little snippet of spring and maybe let summer in for a minute.

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All Hail Riesling, The Ruler of the Rhine and Our Hearts!

May is Riesling Month on TheWineStalker.net!

German wine is a wonder and dangerously close to not being possible. The position it holds on the planet and its altitude makes it cold for most of the year, so the plant growing season is longer and more drawn out than most wine varieties can handle, and they won't ripen in time before winter. But thanks to the long days, the vines see plenty of sun. The best wine growing regions in the country have slate soil and steep slopes along the Rhine River and its tributaries like Ahr, Nahe, and especially Mosel. The slate soil absorbs both direct sunlight and the reflected sunlight off of the rivers to warm the grapes above, and those rivers also help to moderate temperatures. But even still, it takes some special grapes and vines to handle the German climate.

So the entire world is lucky that Germany spawned one of the noblest of grapes: Riesling. Physically the vines's tough wood can handle the climate like a champion, and its fruit has the right amount of sugar and acidity to make world class wine in it as well. This is the varietal that makes me smile more than any other. Let's take a bow for Riesling, the ruler of the Rhine and our hearts!

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Wine Review: Heinz Eifel Kabinett Riesling 2017

May is Riesling Month on TheWineStalker.net!

In 1979 Heinz Eifel founded Römerhof (Roman Yard) in Trittenheim in the heart of the Mosel Valley. When his daughter, Anne Eifel-Spohr, received her oenology degree from Geisenheim University in 2000, Eifel set out to collaborate with her on top-quality wines that reflected tradition while simultaneously respecting the inspiration of the young winemaker. The family was so pleased with the quality and individual character of these wines, they decided to put their own name on the bottle, thus creating Heinz Eifel wines.

This is 100% Riesling of the Kabinett quality designation from Mosel, Germany. That's all I can really tell you about it except that the ABV is 8.5%, and that there's a typo on the back label that spells grapes as grspes, so let's just go right ahead and drink some Riesling!

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Wine Review: Heinz Eifel Shine Dry Riesling 2017

May is Riesling Month on TheWineStalker.net!

In 1979 Heinz Eifel founded Römerhof (Roman Yard) in Trittenheim in the heart of the Mosel Valley. When his daughter, Anne Eifel-Spohr, received her oenology degree from Geisenheim University in 2000, Eifel set out to collaborate with her on top-quality wines that reflected tradition while simultaneously respecting the inspiration of the young winemaker. The family was so pleased with the quality and individual character of these wines, they decided to put their own name on the bottle, thus creating Heinz Eifel wines.

Shine is the first of two wines by Heinz Eifel that I'm reviewing for Riesling Month. It's 100% Riesling from Pfalz, Germany, and it's of the Kabinett classification. The 12% ABV means that this is going to be a drier one, so don't skip out if you're against sweetness.

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Wine Review: Dr. H. Thanisch Bernkasteler Badstube Riesling Kabinett 2018

May is Riesling Month on TheWineStalker.net!

The wine-growing tradition of the Dr. Hugo Thanisch family can be traced back more than 350 years. In 1636, the name was mentioned for the first time in the registers of Bernkastel-Kues. The quality of the family's wines soon extended their excellent reputation far beyond the Mosel valley. At the end of the 18th century, the Thanisch's acquired the Berncasteler Doctor vineyard, a very steep site with deep devon slate structure, situated behind and overlooking the rooftops of the quaint old town of Bernkastel. The Doctor name originates in a legend about Prince Boemond II of Trier who fell sick and then was cured by a wine from this vineyard. Medicinal powers of fine wines are today being re-discovered! Without a doubt, the Doctor Vineyard is the most valuable and most famous German site.

The Bernkasteler Badstube Kabinett is the second of two wines by Thanisch that I'm reviewing for Riesling Month. It's 100% Riesling and the Bernkasteler hillside slopes down to the Mosel river on black and blue slate, which absorbs heat from the sunlight and reflections of sunlight from the river and warms the grapes. The final ABV of 9% means that technically this is on the sweeter side, but I bet you the acidity will balance that right out so it's not a sugar bomb.

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Wine Review: Dr. H. Thanisch Feinherb Riesling 2017

May is Riesling Month on TheWineStalker.net!

The wine-growing tradition of the Dr. Hugo Thanisch family can be traced back more than 350 years. In 1636, the name was mentioned for the first time in the registers of Bernkastel-Kues. The quality of the family's wines soon extended their excellent reputation far beyond the Mosel valley. At the end of the 18th century, the Thanisch's acquired the Berncasteler Doctor vineyard, a very steep site with deep devon slate structure, situated behind and overlooking the rooftops of the quaint old town of Bernkastel. The Doctor name originates in a legend about Prince Boemond II of Trier who fell sick and then was cured by a wine from this vineyard. Medicinal powers of fine wines are today being re-discovered! Without a doubt, the Doctor Vineyard is the most valuable and most famous German site.

So the Feinherb Riesling is the first of two wines by Thanisch that I'm reviewing for Riesling Month. This is 100% Riesling of the Qualitätswein quality level but harvested at the Kabinett level ripeness, and grown on steep hillsides with black and blue slate soil in Mosel. It's a dry-style Riesling and has an ABV of 11%.

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Jack & Ice Wine

And here we see the majestic ice wine harvester in his natural environment. Such beauty and elegance.

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Wine Review: Garage Winery A.R. Hammond Rheingau Trocken Riesling 2013

This is the second review from a series of three wines offered by Bill Adams - Selected. The first was Hammond Pinot Noir 2014, this one is Hammond Riesling 2013, and the final one will be Domaine Jocelyne & Yves Lafoy Côte-Rôtie 2013.

Bill is a wine consultant and a really cool dude that's putting together a portfolio of wines. I'm hoping he lands a distributor here in Massachusetts. His website is under construction but once it's up and running I'll add the link in this review.

Garage Winery was founded in 2000 by Anthony Hammond, born of a father from Chicago and a German mother, and raised in Upper Bavaria. After spending some time in Mississippi and San Francisco, he returned to Europe where he worked in wine shops and caught the winelover fever. Without any family history in the wine industry or winemaking, he settled in Rheingau and started purchasing vineyard land.

Today his headquarters is a warehouse on the banks of the Rhine, surrounded by farm animals, crops and frolicking children. The winery practices biodynamic farming and hopes to be certified soon.

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Wine Review: Garage Winery A.R. Hammond Rheingau Trocken Pinot Noir 2014

This is the first review from a series of wines offered by Bill Adams - Selected. We're starting off with Hammond Pinot Noir 2014, then we'll go to Hammond Riesling 2013, and finish with Domaine Jocelyne & Yves Lafoy Côte-Rôtie 2013.

Bill is a wine consultant and a really cool dude that's putting together a portfolio of wines. I'm hoping he lands a distributor here in Massachusetts. His website is under construction but once it's up and running I'll add the link in this review.

Garage Winery was founded in 2000 by Anthony Hammond, born of a father from Chicago and a German mother, and raised in Upper Bavaria. After spending some time in Mississippi and San Francisco, he returned to Europe where he worked in wine shops and caught the winelover fever. Without any family history in the wine industry or winemaking, he settled in Rheingau and started purchasing vineyard land.

Today his headquarters is a warehouse on the banks of the Rhine, surrounded by farm animals, crops and frolicking children. The winery practices biodynamic farming and hopes to be certified soon.

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April "Wine" Pick: Asbach Uralt Weinbrand (German Brandy)

This WINE PICK of the month was written for the Luke's of Cape Cod website.

What? Brandy is distilled from wine! The Dutch first distilled wine to make it last longer during transfer and called it brandewijn, meaning burned wine. Thus, brandy. I believe this fully justifies having a brandy as a wine pick. So nanny-nanny-boo-boo.

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Wine Subscription Review: Wineist Wine Carte, Part 1

"Small in size, big in wines" is the Wineist motto. They're I guess what you could call a wine club but they call themselves a "wine carte". Carte is actually a good choice of wordage because it can mean menu or map. You're getting a taste of the wines they sell and their wines are from all over the world!

This is how it works: you go to WINEIST.COM and see what plan works for you. You can get a monthly subscription, six month subscription or a yearly subscription. Let's just say you get a monthly subscription, which is $29 a month at the time of this review. Every month you'll receive six 50 ml sample bottles in a neat little box. There's also a pamphlet telling you what each bottle is, all the tech information you could possibly need, winery information, food pairings, etc, and space for your notes. If you like any of the wines then you can buy them in normal bottle size.

Just by seeing what they do, having this package in my hands, I can tell you this is a very cool product. But how are the wines in the package that I got?

I'm breaking it down into two reviews: In Part 1 I've got a Riesling from Germany, a Pinotage Rosé from South Africa, and a Tempranillo blend from Spain. In Part 2 I've got a Chianti Rufina, a Shiraz blend from South Africa, and another Tempranillo blend from Spain.

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Speed dating and dessert wine

Daaaaaamn!

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Wine Review: Villa Wolf 2014 Pinot Noir Rosé

German wines excite me. When there's a German table at a tasting that's usually the first table that I visit. German culture excites me and Germany is #1 on the list of places I need to visit before I die. Beer, brat and wine, baby! I would be living a life of gluttony the entire trip.

I'm also, as you should know by now, a big sucker for rosé so when I saw a German one I just had to have it. It's made from Pinot Noir, known as Spatburgunder over there.

Weingut J.L. Wolf is located in the Pfalz region (4 realz) and has been around since 1756, but the actual Villa wasn't built until 1843. It was successful as hell until the late 1900's when it started to drop off in quality and popularity due to lack of leadership and vision. Then our hero Ernst Loosen, you may recognize that name if you're a Riesling fan, bought it in 1996 and performed some hardcore CPR. It's still owned by Loosen but Patrick Moellendorf and Sumi Gebauer have managed the Villa since 2011 and have been doing a damn fine job bringing it back to the days of glory.

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A Bubbly Biography - The Story of Sparkling Wine - Part 3: Sekt and the Future

January is Sparkling Wine Month on TheWineStalker.net!

My trilogy on the history of sparkling wine concludes here. Part One: France and Spain was about the emergence of intentional carbonation, the creation of methode champenoise, and the people who made it happen. Part Two: Italy and The New World was about the charmat method, partial fermentation, and the people who spread sparkling wine to new places. Part Three: Sekt and the Future is about what lies ahead.

THE CELLARS OF KESSLER

France produces the most sparkling wine in the world but what country comes in second? Spain? Italy? America? Nope, nope, and nope. It's Germany and they call their sparkling wine Sekt. The Germans also consume the most sparkling wine in the world per capita, whether it be champagne or prosecco or sekt or what have you.

The Romans brought vitis vinifera vines to Germany in the first 200 or 300 years of the Common Era and it's been a wine wonder ever since. Never mind that it takes a special grape to work in Germany; we're lucky that wine can be made there at all. It's so far north and the climate is so cold that it's a friggin miracle. But the German's were blessed with the right soil, topography, and vines to make some of the best wines in the world. Riesling, for example, is a high acid and high sugar producing grape. It was a match made in heaven with their cold climate and longer growing season.

Vineyards are grown on dangerously steep slopes leading down to the rivers. You know in The Princess Bride when Wesley is tumbling and screaming AS YOU WISH? Yeah, it's like that but you'd probably die or have to go to a Krankehaus to have yourself put back together. These vineyards are almost always on the north-ish side of the river so the slopes face south, giving the vines the best sunlight possible. The rivers are important too because they moderate the climate and reflect sunlight and heat up to the vines. The blue slate of the Mosel river/region and the red slate of the Rheingau river/region absorb heat during the day and release it at night.

It's like Jack Frost wanted wine so he moved to a place he knew could handle his antics.

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January Wine Pick: Fitz-Ritter Riesling Extra Trocken Sekt

January is Sparkling Wine Month on TheWineStalker.net!

This WINE PICK of the month was written for the Luke's of Cape Cod website.

Trocken means dry in German and Sekt is the word used for sparkling wine in German-speaking countries. Thus, this offering is an Extra Dry sparkling wine. It's made from Riesling grapes in the town of Bad Durkheim within the winemaking region of Pfalz, Germany.

The family-owned Fitz-Ritter winery also has local ties for me: the family has a home-away-from-home in Falmouth, Massachusetts. All of their wine is organic.

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Wine Review: Schloss Saarstein 2011 Mosel Kabinett Riesling

In case you don't know me by now: I probably drink more Merlot than anything and I like to believe that Cabernet Franc is my favorite varietal... but Riesling is my weakness. It's my kryptonite. It makes me shut up for a goddamn minute. It also seems to be the wine that most often makes me jump up and down screaming "GODDAMNIT HOLY CRAP THAT'S GOOD!" And German Riesling? Fuggedabowdit.

Schloss Saarstein is located on the Saar River, Germany, and the winery is a friggin castle on top of a big ol' hill. The 24 acres of vineyards start right outside and are steep as hell, clinging to the slope of the hillside. Owner and winemaker Christian Ebert has been doing his work on this land his whole life. His family bought Schloss Saarstein in the middle of the 20th century.

Their 2011 Mosel Kabinett is off-dry with an ABV of 9.5%. Ebert believes it to be his best of the past decade.

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My Einzellagen In Your Grosslagen - The Reboot

Here's a reboot of the most popular Wine Stalker quote and graphic yet.

"I'm going to form a band called Trockenbeerenauslese.  Our first single will be 'My Einzellagen in your Grosslagen'. That'll be sweet. Chicks will dig it."

Get it? Sweet? I kill myself.

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My Einzellagen In Your Grosslagen - The Original

Get it? Sweet? I kill myself.

CHECK OUT THE REBOOT OF THIS MEME!!!

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