Between June 19 and June 27, 2013, German wine journalist Stuart Pigott went with a specially-designed "wine bar on wheels" on a Riesling Road Trip from the US West Coast to the US East Coast – from Los Angeles to New York City. For most of the trip, Stuart Pigott was accompanied by Paul Grieco from Hearth Restaurant and Terroir Wine Bars in NYC, except for the initial days (to Phoenix/Arizona), when Chris Miller, the Beverage Director at Spago in Beverly Hills, was with Stuart.
Kicking off at Spago in Los Angeles, the Riesling and Co mobile bar made stops in various culinary hot spots. At each location, Stuart and Paul hosted an intimate German wine tasting and seminar on the mobile bar. Attendees include prominent members of the wine trade, from sommeliers and beverage directors to retailers and wine media. The tour culminated in New York City for Wines of Germany’s annual Riesling and Co in Chelsea, with top winemakers in attendance to showcase the 2012 vintage.
Stuart Pigott in his announcement: “The Riesling Road Trip is a coast to coast journey to promote German Riesling organized by Wines of Germany in New York Wine City commissioned by the German Wine Institute back in Mainz/Germany. Venice Beach is our official starting point and Manhattan the official finishing line around lunchtime June 27th. Yes, that is fast and I’ll be a little amazed if we make it on time, not least because one of our vehicles is a 20ft shipping container remodeled as a mobile tasting room.”
See more:
Best German Wines and Winemakers – Stuart Pigott’s Favorites (2012)
Paul Grieco and Stuart Pigott in Washington DC
The Riesling Road Trip hit Washington DC in the late evening of June 26. From 10:30 to 11:15pm, Paul and Stuart led a tasting of 5 German Rieslings in their small mobile wine bar in front of Oyamel in the Penn Quarter. Annette Schiller and I joined a small group of mostly sommeliers for the amazing tasting inside the mobile tasting truck.
Tasting 5 Rieslings
In tasting 5 wines, Paul and Stuart emphasized German Riesling’s enormous diversity from feather light to granite density and from bone dry to honey sweet. Stuart Pigott: “That’s something Chardonnay simply cannot match wherever it comes from.”
2011 Kuehling-Gillot, Riesling, Trocken, Rheinhessen
See more:
The Wine Maker Couple H.O. Spanier and Carolin Spanier-Gillot, with Roland Gillot, Lead Wine Tasting of Kuehling-Gillot and Battenfeld-Spanier Wines at Weingut Kuehling-Gillot, Germany
2012 Pfeffingen, Riesling, Trocken, Pfalz
2011 Kruger-Rumpf, Muensterer Pittersberg, Riesling Trocken, Nahe
See more:
Visiting Georg Rumpf and his VDP Weingut Kruger-Rumpf in the Nahe Region, Germany
2003 Dr. Loosen, Bernkasteler Lay, Riesling Kabinett, Mosel
See more:
Riesling, Pinot Noir and Indian Cuisine: A tête-à-tête Dinner with Winemaker Ernst Loosen, Weingut Dr. Loosen, at Rasika in Washington DC, USA
2006 S. A. Pruem, Wehlener Sonnenuhr, Auslese, Mosel
Dry and Fruity-sweet Rieslings
We tasted 3 dry and 2 fruity-sweet Rieslings. The latter two were prime examples for Germany’s low alcohol, fruity-sweet Rieslings from the Mosel that are so popular around the world. These are exceptional wines, skillfully made by first-class winemakers like Dr. Loosen, JJ Pruem, Egon Mueller, to name a few, essentially made by not letting the fermentation going its full course so that natural sugar remains in the wine. Alternatively, German winemakers are allowed to add sweet-reserve (sterilized grape juice) to increase the sweetness level in the wine, but today, this is mostly done, if at all, for fine tuning the residual sweetness. These fruity-sweet wines are the wines that are so popular among the fans of German wine in the world.
But today, wine loving Germans drink dry. There is no doubt about it. The large majority of the premium wines produced in Germany is dry. And the German (dry) grand cru Rieslings can compete with the best wines in the world. The word is getting around - slowly but surely - and more and more dry German Rieslings appear on the international market. “But while in Germany the demand for my fruity sweet wines is low, the Grosses Gewaechs wines are very high in demand. Here in the US, it is the other way around” says Ernst Loosen.
See more:
When Americans Drink German Wine - What They Choose
German Wine Basics: Sugar in the Grape - Alcohol and Sweetness in the Wine
Riesling in the World and in Germany
Worldwide, there are about 34.000 hectares planted with Riesling. Germany – with 22.400 hectares – accounts for 2/3 of the total. The second largest Riesling producer is Australia, with 4500 hectares. But this is only about 1/10 of the total. Alsace follows with 3500 hectares. Austria, the US with Washington State and New York State as well as New Zealand make up the remainder. But overall Riesling is really a niche wine, accounting for only less than 1 percent of total wine production in the world - but a very special niche wine.
German Wine Classification Systems
Although many people think that there is only one wine classification system in Germany – the classification system of the Law of 1971 – this is not correct. True, the classification system of the Law of 1971 with its pyramid of ripeness of the grapes at harvest (Qualitaetswein, Kabinett, Spaetlese, Auslese …) at the center is the standard classification system in Germany and the vast majority of winemakers in Germany use this approach. A large number of winemakers, however, have moved away from the standard, in particular the producers of premium and ultra-premium wines. Importantly, the powerful group of German elite winemakers – the VDP (Verband Deutscher Praedikatswein Produzenten) – has conceived its own classification system and is developing it further.
In sharp contrast with the standard classification system of the Law of 1971, the VDP classification system is based on the terroir principle. The pyramid of ripeness of the grapes at harvest has moved to the backburner in the VDP system. Indeed, for dry wines the pyramid of ripeness of the grapes at harvest has been completely eliminated in the VDP classification system.
Following Bourgogne, the classification system of the VDP comprises 4 quality layers:
• VDP.Grosse Lage (Grand Cru in Burgundy)
• VDP.Erste Lage (Premier Cru in Burgundy)
• VDP.Ortswein (Village level in Burgundy)
• VDP.Gutswein (Bourgogne régional in Burgundy)
See more:
Stepping up: From 3 … to 4 Quality Levels - The New Classification of the VDP, Germany
Approaches to Classifying German Wine: The Standard Approach (the Law of 1971), the VDP Approach and the Zero Classification Approach
13 German Wine Regions
There are 13 German wine regions.
Five large regions - Rheinhessen 26000 hectares, Pfalz 23000 hectares, Baden 16000 hectares, Wuerttemberg 12000 hectares, Mosel 10000 hectares.
Three medium-size regions - Franken 6000 hectares, Nahe 4000 hectares, Rheingau 3000 hectares.
Five small regions - Saale Unstrut 700 hectares, Sachsen 500 hectares, Hessische Bergstrasse 500 hectares, Mittelrhein 500 hectares, Ahr 300 hectares.
The German Wine Industry
Germany has 48.009 winemakers (Winzer) and a vineyard area of 102.000 hectares. Large wineries are rare to find, except for the wine co-operatives. In this concept, “winemaker” does not stand for making or even bottling wine, but stands for growing vines and producing grapes. In some areas of Germany, like Baden and Wuerttemberg, 80% of the so called winemakers deliver their grapes to a wine cooperative.
See also:
Ombiasy Wine Tours: Wine and Culture Tour to Germany Coming up in August 2013
Almost 90% of the winemakers operate with less than 5 hectares of vineyard area. There are only about 6.000 wineries with more than 5 hectares of land. Excluding wine-cooperatives, there are only 10 wineries in Germany with more than 100 hectares of land.
Compared with an estimated vineyard area of 7.000.000 hectares in the world, Germany accounts for only a bit more than 1% of world production. The big 3 are Spain, France and Italy with a combined vineyard area of 3.000.000 hectares.
See more:
The Size and the Structure of the German Wine Industry
schiller-wine - Related Postings
Stepping up: From 3 … to 4 Quality Levels - The New Classification of the VDP, Germany
The Wine Maker Couple H.O. Spanier and Carolin Spanier-Gillot, with Roland Gillot, Lead Wine Tasting of Kuehling-Gillot and Battenfeld-Spanier Wines at Weingut Kuehling-Gillot, Germany
Visiting Weingut Josef Leitz in Ruedesheim – Johannes Leitz is Germany’s Winemaker of the Year, Gault Millau WeinGuide 2011
1.International Riesling Symposium
Impressions from the Riesling & Co World Tour 2010 in New York
When Americans Drink German Wine - What They Choose
Tasting with Wilhelm Weil the 2010 Weingut Weil Wines in Kiedrich, Germany
Visiting Armin and Caroline Diel and their Schlossgut Diel in Burg Layen in Germany
Phil Bernstein’s Third Annual German Riesling Tasting with the German Wine Society, Washington DC Chapter - Rieslings With a Touch of Sweetness
Visiting Georg Rumpf and his VDP Weingut Kruger-Rumpf in the Nahe Region, Germany
Riesling, Pinot Noir and Indian Cuisine: A tête-à-tête Dinner with Winemaker Ernst Loosen, Weingut Dr. Loosen, at Rasika in Washington DC, USA
Best German Wines and Winemakers – Stuart Pigott’s Favorites (2012)
Approaches to Classifying German Wine: The Standard Approach (the Law of 1971), the VDP Approach and the Zero Classification Approach
The Size and the Structure of the German Wine Industry
Ombiasy Wine Tours: Wine and Culture Tour to Germany Coming up in August 2013