The "Riesling by the River"

 Every day is a perfect day for Riesling, but a sunny day by the River with a glass of Weingut Staffelter Hof in hand can only be described as ideal.

 I was introduced to Jan Klein (@moselriesling) by Meeghan Murdoch (@WineSagasu), one of the most passionate and energetic wine aficionados, especially Riesling’s, I have met in London. She organised the debut of Jan in the UK with great success, starting with a tasting by the River in Barnes Bridge.That would be the second tasting of the day for me, as we very early started a company tasting with wines that it was a shame to spit.

I kept my stamina up and left Chelsea with a perfect-little did I know- bus plan to make my way down to Cowley Road. Getting off at Kew Gardens wasn’t a bright idea, although I already knew I needed to take two buses to get to the tasting room… Well, these buses never passed; they may not even exist, as far as I know. So, I walked (…) on Mortlake Road, then turned left to Lower Richmond Road and finally found the Mortlake High Street after almost an hour. The sun was bright and warm and my blazer was very dark blue…

When I entered the tasting room I was already embarrassed to arrive half an hour before its finish, even more for looking like a mess (no photos of me from that day). Meeghan was kind enough to listen to my marathon story and introduced me to Jan Klein, the winemaker of his family owned winery, Staffelter Hof. I was handed a glass of Riesling Sekt 2009 (12.5% vol), from his Heraldic Wines range. It was simply delightful, very fine and delicate, nice small bubbles dancing in my glass; a very easy-going wine.

Meeghan and Jan minutes before the tasting finished

We quickly started discussing the new wave of German winemakers, pointing out that unfortunately there are still people who prefer to chaptalise their wines to end up with higher alcohol levels. A real shame, when Germany’s climate is favoring low-alcohol wines. He told me about his 20 years of experience in winemaking in Germany. I was very impressed to listen that his winery dates back to AD 862, being one of the oldest wineries. The name Staffelter comes from Stavelot; a monastery close to the Mosel, to which the winery was donated in 862. Riesling is dominating the vineyards with the majority grown on the steep slopes of the Mosel. Jan is loyal to the German winemaking heritage but feels that German Riesling should keep moving forward and become more modern but still stay true to its roots.   

Hildegunde (Gundi) Klein, Gerd Klein and Jan

 This was exactly the style and character of the wines we tasted on the 21^st June and some of them re-tasted during the UK Riesling Summit, organised by the Wines of Germany on the 27^th June.

Steven Spurrier meets Jan at the UK Riesling Summit

2010 Alte Reben S dry (13.5% alcohol) is what I think of a typical German dry Riesling; clean and pleasant fruity aromas; grapefruit and lime blossoms with a hint of ice bob-bon.  In the mouth the freshness reminds you of the cool winds during the winter in the Mosel. The complex notes are dancing in harmony with a nice finish.

2011 Kröv Steffensberg Spätlese (8.5% alcohol) is described in the winery’s website as a festival of senses. This is an elegant and sweet wine with 79.8 g/L residual sugar. I very much enjoyed its golden yellow colour, kind of took me back to my German summer of 2009. A bunch of jasmine flowers, honeysuckles and elderflower found their way into my glass.

2006 KrövSteffensberg Trockenbeerenauslese (6.8% alcohol) is the diva, the Merilyn Monroe of Staffelter Hof’s portfolio, having received the Trophy of best Sweet German Wine at Decanter WWA 2009 and very high score points at numerous wine magazines. With 377 g/L residual sugar, this Trockenbeerenauslese made me think of flower bouquets, forest honey and hints of fine orange blossoms. What a treat!

"Be yourself, everyone else is already taken.", Oscar Wilde

This is the absolute truth, Oscar Wild had once more identified a real problem and expressed it with a humorous touch.

This quote hasn't stopped running in my head, since that day almost one month ago, when I was given to taste a Greek red wine, which was actually a wanna-be French wine. Are you confused? Yes, me too!

So, the winemaker had the aspiration to make a fine quality red wine, a real Bordeaux... but in Greece. He used the classic Bordeaux blend and made everything by the book. The result was a truly fine wine, a professional taster would find it very challenging to put his finger on a fault or a problem. But who would guess the origin of this fine product? Let's check the bottle, some important information may be on it. Then I was even more triggered, as I lifted the bottle; the label was written in French with French words and colors and everything you would expect from a French wine.

It got me then thinking, what would I do if I went to Greece and  after getting off the aeroplane, I would see the Tour Eiffel in front of me? Then, what if I went go for a walk  by the sea and craved for grilled fishes and fresh salads and instead I would get a foie gras or cassoulet? Of course, I truly love South-West France cuisine, but.. I am in Greece. I want to smell and taste and eat Greek traditional recipes.  

But this wasn't the first and surely will not be the last time that winemakers are trying to make a wine in a country X but what they really want is to make the exact same wine, as produced in a country Y. The most recent incident, was in a Riesling tasting, where a Riesling of Washington D.C. was described as a real German Riesling. Why? Why? Alas, people do not have entirely understood the importance of Terroir.

                                                                  Respect your Terroir

The concept of Terroir refers to the relationship of an agricultural product characteristics (quality, taste, style) and its geographical origin. It can be described as an interactive ecosystem in a given area, which includes climate, soil and vines. (Senguin, 1988).

I think, that a wine should be the embodied pride of its origin and should reflect the soil, the sun, the rain, the fog; the micro- and macro climate of its land. Otherwise, it is a wine that has no character or personality or something to say really. So what? This would be my comment.

Riesling Madness

I am mad for Riesling, pretty much as most of the wine aficionados I encounter in tastings. 

Everyone has an opening line, hidden in their sleeve, that starts with: "Oh, I am so enthusiastic about Riesling these days......blah blah blah". I do not believe that there is a single person in the wine industry that would go and say it out loud: No, I do not have a clue about what Riesling is all about!

It makes you wonder how all the professionals in the UK are so passionate about Riesling, yet the consumers do not share their enthusiasm. Most of the tastings organised by the Wines of Germany, in order to promote Riesling wines, are targeting the professionals but not the consumer; I spot a clear communication gap just here. People tend to believe that by approaching the journalists, the bloggers, the restaurants or the retailers will just solve their problem but it's just not working. Wine consumers do not receive enough direct contact with the actual product, simple as that.

Last year, I submitted my Masters' Thesis, titled "The profile of German dry white wine in the UK- Repositioning Riesling in the British market." One of the major problems I came across is the difficulty to speak the consumer language and not describing wines with "elderflower", "lychee" or "ice bon-bon", for the simple reason that consumer do not tend to engage with such descriptors. Especially, in the UK, one of the most challenging and important importing wine countries, consumers tend to be very cautious about German wine in general, as they suffered huge quantities of cheap and sweet German wine, such as Liebfraumilch. So, let's travel back and understand how all these started.

Wine purchase and consumption was not democratised in the UK, until the 1970's. Wine was widely enjoyed by the aristocracy and was mostly originated from Bordeaux vineyards. New fashions, cosmopolitan spirit and the trend of going to holidays abroad became very popular and consumers were chasing after not that ordinary beverages. At the same time, New World of wine made its appearance, with countries such as Australia and New Zealand making and promoting their wines in a much simpler way, letting the consumers leave their lexicons aside, in order to understand a wine-label. The consumer's palette is moving away from the cheap, semi-sweet wines and is craving more complex and fine tastes. Now, combine all these with the 1971 German Wine law- mass production promotion and perplexing labels- and you have a recipe of disaster!

                                                German vineyards overlooking river Rhine        

Nowadays, German dry Riesling is in a much better place but still many changes have to be made. There is an immediate need to enter more restaurants, wine bars and pubs, this is the ideal place for wine lovers to get acquainted with this fine wine. Still, we all know how much fun it is to share our experiences with friends or even take a picture of  a bottle and share it in the social media. This is why it is so important to make wine labels much nice and neat and avoid all the drama of a consumer breaking his tongue, during the effort of explaining this "just out-of-this-world wine I had the other day".

 So, here we are talking to ourselves about German Riesling once again! What I would be very fascinated to do is to take my wine passionate friends to a German Riesling tasting that would be open to the public, taking place at interesting local areas, where they could learn a lot about Riesling but also have a memorable evening. Wine is fun, not just studying! Let's remember it.