Day One in Austria

I’m outside the NH hotel across the street from the Vienna airport. It’s Saturday morning 9 AM and Klaus comes up to me with his charismatic big smile and a firm handshake. I think he says hello in Austrian (German) and I confess, I really don’t understand what he is saying to me. His disarming smile and hurry up let’s go attitude set the tone for the next four days. We have lots to cover and the work will be fun. I climb aboard a luxury tour bus and meet my spiritual wine brothers and sisters for the journey. We will pretty much be eating and drinking together day and night until Wednesday.

The trip to Austria is an entirely different set up. The group totals about fifteen in a combination of wine buyers of some sort, such as retailers and restauranteurs, and a few wine wholesalers who represent Klaus’ wines in Virginia.  This trip was organized by Klaus Wittauer and his company, KW Selections. Klaus was born in Austria and worked in the restaurant industry before coming to the import and wholesale business. He represents eight Austrian wineries and soon he will be bringing two additional properties (more to come later in the story) to the US market.

Our bus driver, Christian, speaks no English and this is his fourth trip with Klaus touring Austrian wineries. In time we get to know Christian and even with the language barrier, he is a nice guy and clearly a talented driver as he guides our behemoth through small passes and around mountain vineyards. Christian lands the great white whale at our first stop, Netzl winery in Burgenland.  

Netzl is one of the two new producers coming to the US and truly a family business. Franz and his wife Christine along with their two daughters, 

Christina and Anna Marie, run the estate. Franz greets us with Christina acting as translator and his presence carries gravitas. With a dark fedora style hat and big black bushy mustache, his hands are large and rough, clearly those of a working farmer. With two young daughters, I feel for their boyfriends having to meet this man before a date. Netzl owns 25 ha of vineyards with the red variety Zweigelt (ˈsvī-gehlt) being his most important. I am amazed at how flat the vineyards are in the area with no mountains in sight and rows of vines in open fields, easy to see. We take a tour through the vineyard to see his vines and discuss the pruning. And, no the weather is not any warmer in Austria as we stand on the frozen ground looking at the vines for about 30 minutes. The plus side to this deep freeze for Germany and Austria is that some of the bug populations will be reduced naturally. Some farmers had joked that if the warm winters continued, soon you would see scorpions around the vines!

The tasting commences in the winery’s tasting room with its glass windows overlooking the vines. The style of Netzl is clearly more modern and international. The reds enjoy a good bathing in oak and their top bottlings are intended to compete on the international market employing a high alcohol, oaky, fruit bomb approach. We taste traditional Austrian varietals like Gruner Veltliner and Zweigelt, but also get a dose of Cabernet, Merlot and Syrah.  My reaction favors their white wines and the traditional varietals for Austria vs. the heavy handed international blends. One of the hits at the tasting is a dryish rosé called Rosanna. It’s a play on “rosé” and the daughter’s name “Anna.” This is definitely on our list to bring to Durham for Spring 2009.

We work through a dozen or so bottles and then we get our first goulash! The Hungarian influence is felt throughout the trip with many variations on this dish for lunch at the wineries. I can’t help but think there is a business opportunity back home. Goulash in a cup? A mobile goulash truck similar to the taco trucks of Durham? Why isn’t anyone doing that back home?

Lunch is enhanced by “getting to know you” conversation as the group sits and we tell our wine life stories and where we are from. Once again wine brings people together. The group is made up of wine veterans and neo-oenophiles, with some having been on this exact wine trip multiple times. We have a Virginia journalist for a small paper and wine shop employee writing a travel/leisure style piece about Austrian wine. We have two young wine buyers from a large retail grocery chain on the east coast and a specialty department buyer for wine and cheese in a separate chain. The table is complemented on the restaurant side by Chef Bret Jennings of Elaine’s in Chapel Hill and a woman sommelier from a fine dining restaurant in Virginia. The overall group is a great one and fortunately we don’t have any knuckle-heads on this trip. All of us can tell at least one story of an inappropriate traveler on one of these trips who came because they thought it was drink-fest. No, this trip we all have our pens, notebooks, cameras and lots of questions firing away all day long. After lunch we head to Michlits/Meinklang winery to see “the eggs.” -Salamanzar

Germany Wrap Up

Final Thoughts on Germany: At work I keep an audio clip on the computer from Mel Brook’s Young Frankenstein. Okay, it’s on all my computers. It’s the one where Gene Wilder and Teri Garr discuss the giant size of Frankenstein and she says, “he would have an enormous schwanstucker.” I have Googled this word, schwanstucker, several times to see if it’s real.  So, while in Germany, I randomly polled local people asking them if they knew the word schwanstucker. Hmmph. Not a single person knew this word. Such are the things that keep me up at night.

Attached is a slide show of nearly 200 photos from the trip.  Just in case you had absolutely nothing to do with your day today.

Leaving Germany, I am in awe.  Boy are those vineyards steep.   The German market clearly enjoys very dry white wines, yet they are convinced that our domestic US market is not ready for these. Even at my insistence, they explain that every time they bring their road show to the US, they include a few dry examples and no one buys. I can’t blame the winemakers, they are trying. German wines have come so far and yet they are still stuck in our retail. We struggle with this daily at work. I recommend a German Riesling to go with a dish, and the customer has a frown followed by, “but I don’t like sweet wines.” Sometimes even at my near begging to trust me, the wine is dry; the customer refuses to try that bottle. Germany is clearly plagued by the self-fulfilling prophecy. A restaurant assumes the Riesling drinker wants a sweet wine, so they put a sweet wine on the list by the glass. A customer hears that Riesling can be dry, so they order the Riesling and wham, sure enough it’s sweet. Rarely do the dry ones make it to the limelight. We are devoted to Riesling at Wine Authorities and almost always feature dry versions.  I often say that if I were on a desert island, a dry riesling would be a good candidate for my only wine.

The “international dry” level means mostly dry. Most of us would taste these wines and say they are pretty much dry vs. sweet. More and more German labels are carrying the term Feinherb for such wines. It’s not quite trocken (dry), but not halb-trocken (off-dry). Derek likes to use the Feinherb translation as “fine dry finish.” You’ll be seeing several Feinherb Rieslings arriving this spring to Wine Authorities.

German red wines are about to explode on the market. Or are they? The quality I was tasting from the red grapes Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir), Dornfelder, and St. Laurent was outstanding. Whether it’s global warming or better winemaking, the reds are coming on strong. But is the market ready? Again, the consumer assumes Germany makes only white wines. We have had good luck with selling Dr. Heyden’s Pinot Noir and will continue to bring great wines to our customers even if they are less well known from a region or country. 

Frank Heyden told me that the entire EU is banning the use of copper sulfate in vineyards farming organically.  The catalyst was due to some regions, particularly Bordeaux, having used excessive amounts to combat fungal disease and loaded their soils with copper. However, most organic farmers use the bare minimum necessary and are rarely worry about high levels. So, any farmer certified organic within the last two years is not allowed to purchase copper sulfate. Certified farmers for more than two years, have an opportunity to purchase as much as they want before the ban takes place and use up their copper sulfate for as long as it takes and still maintain their status. So, farmers are buying years worth of the stuff in giant drums. Currently there is no alternative option as a fungicide. Frank said some studies using milk spraying were attempted and the farmers lost all their grapes to fungus.

I heard several producers mention a movement away from the glass top, Vinolock. These can get knocked in transit and the seal breaks. Stelvin is still in favor, but many makers are concerned about the age ability of a wine in screw top. The research is still coming. This Diam cork (real cork and plastic combined) may be a solution for those who insist on a cork closure. The absolute best closure is the crown cap, i.e. beer cap, but can you imagine the outrage to that on a $30 bottle of wine?

I want to thank Derek Vinnicombe for being my host and driving me all over Germany to visit his estates and for his patience with my many hundreds of questions. I also want to thank the winemakers I met, often in their private homes sitting at their dinner table, who showed me great hospitality, generosity and wonderful wines. I am very committed to sharing the quality and value German wines have to offer our customers in Durham.


Next stop, Österreich (Austria), specifically Wien (Vienna). Thanks for continuing to read. 

-Salamanzar

Germany & Austria Part V

Germany & Austria Part V: Confession here, I have too much to say and have had to spread three days of Germany over 5, maybe even 6 blog entries. So I will no longer date the entries, but just label them as parts. Okay, I feel better now.

In retrospect, the recent snow fall has made my education about the region easier. As we drive along the rivers, the snow blankets the vineyards in an even bed of white fuzz. Occasionally we see a completely snowless plot, as if someone tooka hair dryer to the picture and melted a perfect rectangle shape among the vines. When I inquire about the bare land, it is inevitably one the more famous and usually more costly vineyards in the area. The lack of snow reinforces the idea that a vineyard has better sun exposure and perhaps more rock/slate to warm by day thus continue 

reflecting the warmth by night. These things are often talked about when discussing great vineyards and the vine’s ability to ripen the fruit. The pictures here show snow covered land and then the famous Doctor vineyard in Bernkastle behind the church, see? No snow.

The last three wineries Derek and I visit are FK Schmitt, Paul Anheuser and Molitor.

We drive the busy roadway along the Rhein river in the city of Nierstein and arrive at the FK Schmit estate in Rheinhessen. It looks just like the label on the bottles, and Franz Karl Schmitt explains the house was built in 1925 post WWII. You may have enjoyed his 2007 Weissherbst (Rosé) this year, especially at Thanksgiving and I am happy to let you know the 2008 is in tank, clarifying right now and will be bottled in two weeks.

We sit in a small parlor with the wine samples and his cat watching from a room across the hall. Franz Karl talks of his vineyards being on “the red slope” referring to the red decomposing rock we see along the river. This red rock is the primary reason we love Rheinhessen’s acidity. He also produces wines from the grand cru vineyard, Niersteiner Hipping. We taste the 2007 Hipping and it is truly excellent, although a bit backwards at this very early stage of life. I look forward to retasting this wine down the road. We work through just six wines, and I have my highest “buy” ratio, preferring 5 of the 6 wines as possible vintages for the store. In fairness, the sixth was a 1997 vintage bottle, no longer available for purchase, but to show me how his wines age.

FK is a big fan of Diam cork. This brand is a blend from 70% natural cork chopped up like a minced onion and 30% plastic pressed under high heat to form the cork shape. It is guaranteed to be bacteria free and therefore no cork taint can occur to the wine. FK is losing faith in the plastic Nomacorc because he says after about 5 years the plastic corks are loosing resiliency and becoming loose in the bottle necks. Before we leave, FK asks me for a recommendation in bottling his 2008 Hipping vineyard Spätlese. I am sort of awestruck as I think, who am I to tell YOU what to do. The question is, how much of the 2008 vintage should he bottle as a truly dry wine and how much to bottle with some residual sweetness? Alert, here come the politics of wine! Here’s a look behind the curtain of the great and powerful Oz.  FK wants to know what I have heard from the US press regarding the 2008 German vintage. Winemakers have to make critical decisions, sometimes not based on the wines, but on simple economics and I can’t blame him. He has to pay his bills. Germans prefer truly trocken (dry) wines. I mean really dry. Surprised? And the rest of the world, i.e. the US being the usual reference, says they want dry, but actually the wines with some residual sugar are preferred. (I continue to blame this on a little blue Nun) The Germans refer to this type of dry as “International Dry.” FK has to make a decision at bottling where if the press is loving the 2008 vintage, then he will need to bottle much more of this wine with some “süss-reserve” or a bit of unfermented auslese grape juice to take the dryness out to meet the export demand. If the press pans the vintage, he will have to sell the majority of his wines at home and they will need to be very dry. What a gamble! I’d hate to be in his shoes. So I politely say that I haven’t heard much about 2008 from the press yet. The truth is that I haven’t. In the car I am lost in thought about this economically driven decisions a winemarker is forced to deal make which have nothing to do with quality or their personal preference. I guess if cream soups sell better, the chef has to keep the cream of broccoli on the menu.

***

Into the Nahe we drive toward Paul Anheuser’s estate. 

We sit in a very cold, old home and taste through loads of wine with Paul, his mother Dorothee and his baby son and next generation,  Jakob. I have to keep my jacket across my legs to stay warm and slowly nudge my chair back from the table toward the barely luke warm radiator behind me. I am sort of curious why no one else is shivering today.  Must be my thinned NC blood.

As we visit 12 wines on the table today, I am treated to new vintages of his Scheurebe, which we religiously sell in Durham and a fantastic Gewurztraminer. I can’t wait to see these back home 

this spring. The estate was established in 1627 with vines, farm agriculture and forest. At one time they ran over 1,000 ha, but today a much more manageable 30 ha are maintained. One of the oddity highlights of the entire trip is the Anheuser, Blanc de Noir Fineherb. This is a dry white table wine made from Pinot Noir!  No skin contact leaves the color out and the result is an outstanding dry white that will surely become a 

best seller at Wine Authorities later this year.  Paul and his mom treat us to some afternoon coffee, cake and wine. I have the apple strudel type thing and want to try the Amaretto and chocolate, but have to pace myself.

***

The final German leg takes me to the Rheingau region to visit the Molitor estate. Klaus Molitor is on a ski holiday, so we are treated to the company of his father and mother Rosel & Karl Molitor. Karl is a hunter and we sit in the tasting area surrounded by more horns, tusks and creepy grinning stuffed animals than I am used to. 

The 2007 vintage in the Rheingau was challenging. Many farmers were fearful of rains coming and ruining the vintage, so they picked early, too early, leaving too much acid and unripe flavors in their wines. Molitor, waiting until late October for physiological ripeness, achieved great flavors and balanced wines. It was risky, but worked. One of the tasting highlights is a Riesling Trocken, Edition René. I am hoping we can bring this to the US market exclusively.

That night, Derek and I have our last meal together and I have the best Schnitzel to date. The server says there is a sauce on top and I figure

this will do just fine. I guess I missed the word Béarnaise in her German accent, something I would normally pass on for health reasons. I am treated to the most juicy pork cutlet with sautéed onions and ham, smothered in tarragon herbed Hollandaise sauce. My cholesterol surely shot up 100 points that night and Derek politely watched me all but lick the plate.

Derek drops me back in Frankfurt at the airport, and I leave for Austria that evening.

  -Salamanzar

Germany & Austria Part IV

Germany & Austria Part IV January 9, 2009: The red wines of Germany are coming on strong with sales and demand shooting skyward the last 5 years or more.  Maybe it's me not getting to taste them or perhaps global warming allowing the reds to ripen fully, but in either case I am really excited about German red wine.  At the Schäfer estate we meet up with Volker Schafer and his father Karl-Ludwig.  The Schafers are red wine and specifically, Pinot Noir producers, and we have featured their Pinot Noir Spatlese and Auslese back home.  This cellar is one of the few we visit which is not polished for press photos, it's wet, dark, old, covered in black mold - I love it.  The wines are the exact opposite - clean, bright, fresh, full bodied and not oaked.  The dad had a friend many, many years ago who gave him some Pinot Noir vines, so he stuck them in the ground. Now they are one of the top red wine producers in the area.  These guys were doing German red wines before the color was invented.  We taste Blauer Portuguiser, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Dornfelder, and Cabernet Sauvignon- all reds.  Then we go to their whites.  Cool stuff like a Siegerrebe, Kanzler and Pinot Blanc to name a few.  This afternoon we finish off 25 wines and finish with a 1971 Portuguieser Spatlese (38 year old red wine).  This was the very first vintage of red Portuguiser Volker's dad harvested.

Next stop in the Mosel is to an old favorite and friend, Stefan Bollig of Bollig Lehnert. We sit in his kitchen with his lovely wife Jill and taste through Riesling and Pinot Blanc. Stefan’s style is different. He is outright and upfront about liking sweet wine. His wines all tend to show sweetness on the finish even if they are labeled dry. However, he builds his wines using traditional techniquues which means the wines show better several years down the road. Stefan wants to make wine for future drinking. The market often demands the latest and greatest, and he struggles with this because his best wines right now to be drinking are 2003, 2004 and 2005, not the 2006, 2007s which customers ask for because they are the "freshest."

Bollig-Lehnert still uses a designation called Hochgewäch on the label "special designation" for a stand out wine in a vintage. The problem, and there’s always a hitch, especially in German wine law, is this special designation can be for sweet or dry wine and doesn’t help the customer know what the wine tastes like. It’s just "special". The press murdered the German 2003 vintage, but as I taste some 2003s this trip, they are really coming around.  I think the press got this wrong and I will go on record now.  Stefan stands by his 2003s confidently and they are really drinking nicely today.  He treats us to a bottle of his 1994 Riesling Kabinett Feinherb. This is remarkable and shows “all growed up flavors” of shitake mushrooms, lemon pound cake and ginger, and it’s totally dry on the finish.

Stephan’s wife, Jill, is a trained chef and she prepares a wonderful steak lunch with a sauce of port jelly and riesling auslese over a greens salad with boiled potatoes. The meat is cooked

 perfectly and a great example of red meat with white wine pairing. We end the meal with a Beerenauslese which is honey and liquid golden raisin in the glass. It's elegant, not heavy or cloying and just sweet enough to finish the meal.

Without haste we are off to another Mosel property, the Studert-Prum estate to see Gerd. Prum is a common name in Germany and especially in wines from the Mosel. My first question is "who are all the Prums?" Gerd explains in the immediate area some are related cousins and such.  The largest estate is JJ Prum, followed by SA Prum, coming in third our Studert-Prum and finally the smallest related wine Prum is Weins-Prum. The amazing thing is that all four of them are Pradikat (top quality) producers and all from the Mosel and all with different styles.

We dive in with 12 wines to work through on the table. Sitting at a small round wood table in the entry way of their home, I am surrounded by antiques Gerd’s father has collected over years. He apologizes for the clutter. I am perfectly happy to sit amongst treasure going back decades and wish I had more time to look at every little trinket.  We start red with his Dornfelder Feinherb wine. The Dornfelder grape continues to show quality from good producers (see the first post from Germany, Day I). This example is grapey with moderate tannin, light acidity and has a hint of residual sugar in a pleasing way. Dornfelder tends to grow abundantly and Gerd says the challenge is pruning back regularly to keep yields low.

As we continue tasting, I learn that the EU is considering forcing all wineries that chaptalize (adding sugar at the time of fermentation to boost alcohol levels, but never used to produce a pradikat wine) using rectified grape concentrate. It seems that Italy has a lot of grapes, especially in the south, that they can’t use.  So the grapes are made into a neutral

concentrate and they want everyone to use the stuff around all of Europe.  Currently, beet sugar or cane sugar is used. Of course most wineries are against this measure. It doesn’t benefit anyone but the producer of the concentrate and the there’s the thought of a German wine containing 10% Italian grapes! I also learn that German wine law approved the use of “Private Reserve” on a bottle of wine starting in December 2008. Of course this has no meaning and once again the consumer is presented with yet another confusing wine label term. Sort of like Reserve having no legal meaning in the US on a wine label. Humph.

We finish with a treat, the 1997 Riesling Auslese. The wine is a mere 11 years old but sure tastes fresh like a fruit cocktail with a little mushroom and lively acidity.  Gerd walks me through the cellar where I can see my breath it's so cold.

The Wehlen area of the Mosel is planted to Riesling, of which 99% is ungrafted original rootstock.  I look at the trellising and see the vines are trained straight up on poles rather than in rows on wires, typical of this area.

And off we go toward the Rheinhessen.  So much time, so little wine. Scratch that.  Reverse it.

 - Salamanzar

Germany & Austria Part III

Germany & Austria Part III - January 8, 2009.   Will someone please put on the heat around here?  I am drinking cold Riesling all day long in -5º C weather.  Germany heats their rooms with radiators, yes, radiators.   Do you know how long it takes to heat a cold room with a radiator at this temp?  We could make a killing installing heat pumps and vents in this country.

After Frank Heyden, Derek lets me take an hour catnap as the diesel Peugeot gurgles off to Ockfen in the Saar region, and the Dr. Fischer estate.  We are greeted by the smiling and friendly, Karen Fischer, head of winemaking at her family’s home.  Sitting at the round tasting table in the living room/tasting room/office, we run through nine wines including tank samples of the 2008 vintage still working after harvest, and then a glorious 1973 Riesling Spatlese. More on that later.  The funny thing about Karen’s wines- even the sweetish ones taste dry, and that’s her style.  Lots of acidity in proportion to any residual sugar so the palate tastes nearly dry, or in many cases it is dry.   The wines are aged in giant 1,000 liter wood casks, used year after year. The wood does not impart flavor but keeps the wines round and lets them breathe through the barrel’s pores over time.  In the cellar we see these giant, dark brown/almost black casks sighing with the new 2008 vintage slowly coming to life.  The yeast are doing their thang and I notice the dripping water and icicles on the ceiling as we are underground.
Karen tours us through the “old” wines, laying in darkness like bones in a tomb. The bottles sit in cement cubicles with yellowed paper tags indicating the vintages: 1945, 1958, 1971, 1983... Some bins have just one bottle lying in wait. The corks are looking mealy, some bottles are leaking, ullage levels are low (air space in the neck of the bottle as wine evaporates) and the cobwebs and dust all make me feel like I am invading their privacy and peering into the opening of Egyptian tomb. Karen is gracious to pull one 1973 Spatlese and we go up to uncork it. The bottle is dead, so she makes a second trip to retrieve a replacement bottle and the nectar inside is a golden brown with tobacco and spritzy, lively acidity (after 35 years!), cinnamon, orange peel, and tastes fairly dry. What a treat.
Her backyard is the famous vineyard, Bockstein and she lets me take a photo of her with her “children” in the background and her warm smile up front. At dinner we discuss the new law allowing the use of just “Mosel” as a designation on a wine label. Previously, the wines always said: Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, encompassing all three areas. Today the Mosel guys use Mosel, the Saar guys use Mosel but add “Saar Riesling” to the label and the Ruwer? We’ll they are like me, left out in the cold of Germany. The Ruwer wines have to say Mosel and can’t use their name on the bottle. As a result the wines of the Ruwer are nearly extinct. Ah, wine laws. When someone figures them out, let me know.

Wednesday morning we’re off to the Mosel region to taste with a new to me winery, Karp-Schreiber. We meet the son and father at the winery tasting room. Like Frank Heyden, Alwin Karp's son has gone to oenology school and is apprenticing with wineries around the world to bring back ideas. He has done a stint at Flower’s winery in CA and just got back from Spain.

 

This winter he is about to leave for Australia while their German vines sleep in the winter cold.

The winery was established in 1664 and today they have just 4.5 hectares of vineyards including part of the "Grand Cru" Juffer-Sonnenuhr vineyard.   Outside their bay window I see the famous sundial in the Sonnenhur vineyard.  The giant sun dial sits on the side of the hill for time keeping on sunny days, which is not now.  The big joke in the town is when the newspapers announce that the dial has been changed from the winter to the summer correction, like our daylight savings. Apparently it makes the tourists ask lots of questions.

I am presented with a piece of slate (soon to adorn our overly crowded coffee table at the wine shop back home) from this famous vineyard area with a small hole in the center.  These fossils are from the works using hand tools to break the ground for planting many, many years ago (1700s) and the metal picks would puncture small pieces.   The black and blue slate is a defining soil characteristic of the Mosel. It heats during the day from the sun and reflects energy back to the vines at night, it adds a flinty quality to the vines, and with the vineyard’s southern facing exposure towards the Mosel river, the climate is moderated for optimal ripening. This slate is also the roofing tile found on roof tops throughout the entire Mosel region.

We plow through 16 wines this morning finishing. They are fantastic and completely different than the styles we have enjoyed so far on the trip. I am excited to bring a new winery back to NC this spring from the Mosel. We finish with the 2006 Juffer-Sonnenuhr vineyard Trockenbeerenauslese, or TBA for short. This wine is only made every few years and in small quantities. It is nearly always in a half bottle and wicked expensive. The selected grapes have suffered through Botrytis or Noble Rot, decreasing their moisture content and increasing their sugar ratios. The grape juice is so thick it takes much longer to ferment. This one is a carpet of honey, golden raisin, flan and a touch of caramelized pineapple. It’s a dessert on its own. The acidity is so high, that the wine actually finishes very clean and not syrupy, a work of art. 

Curiously, in the 2005 harvest they attempted to make a TBA wine. The grapes came in at 265º Oechsle (This is the measurement of the grape must sugar weight. As a

 comparison, his regular wines come in around 90º-100º and can be sweet. They let the grape must ferment for months as the yeast trudged through the sugar only to come up with 1% alcohol, a no go. Wanting to be helpful, I suggest the ancient technique of pouring in a Red Bull to jump start the yeast, but they had not heard of this used in Germany. I shrug. Hmm, guess the young Karp has more apprenticing to do.  

 - Salamanzar

Germany & Austria Part II

January 7th, 2009 - I arrive in Frankfurt safe and sound from the overnight flight. Germany is six hours ahead of North Carolina, so I need to stay awake until bedtime to avoid the jetlag.  No problem I feel great. I get through baggage and customs, walk out the door to the curb and wham! The frigid, cold air fills my nostrils and goosebumps cover my skin. I meet our German Estates contact, Derek Vinnicombe and he quickly informs me that the day started at -16º C, but it’s already warmed to -14ºC so things are looking up.  

Derek came to Germany from England in the 1970s for “two years,” and never left.  His English and German are perfect and he lives in Germany full time for his business. Derek helps us find the estate producers and is our contact for getting the wines exported to the US. He piles me and the baggage into the van and woosh were off on the Autobahn heading toward the Rheinhessen for the first tasting. Germany is the only country still without a speed limit on the highway.   The Renault 4 cylinder fires away. It’s about 9 AM German time.

As we drive, I make some small talk and say, “wow, there’s snow on the ground, is this normal?" Derek replies, “We haven’t seen snow here in years.” I reply, “so I guess the eiswein will be great this year.” “Oh, no,” Derek quips, “It’s too cold to make eiswein.” Hmm, I think to myself. Eiswein = Ice wine and it’s too cold. “So Derek, what do you mean too cold and first snow in years?” Derek explains this is the coldest weather Germany has seen in almost 30 years. At this temperature the grapes are like rocks and can’t be squeezed. It actually has to be warmer to make eiswein. I am quickly surveying my suitcase clothing in my head. Jacket, hat, gloves, socks, long underwear.... I hope I will be covered...literally!

Our first stop is in Oppenheim with the young, dynamic rock-star winemaker, Frank Heyden of Dr. Heyden vineyards. These wines are a favorite of ours and Frank has recently taken over the winemaking from his father to completely re-invent the estate. His passion, enthusiasm and energy are boundless and we truly appreciate all that he is doing to make changes. Not too long ago the Rheinhessen region was a dying wine region. The old wine producers were stuck in their ways and the wines were decent, but not stand-outs. Then along comes the new guard, people like Frank, and suddenly the Rheinhessen is the talk of Germany. Frank has traveled the world to see how other regions make wine. He brings back ideas, concepts and new techniques to improve the family wines and takes the wines in new directions. Very exciting stuff, and he always has that sort of devilish grin when I ask questions like, “you aren’t planning on making a sekt (German “champagne”) too are you Frank?” And he disappears into the winery only to come skipping back with a bottle of Brut Prestige Riesling Sekt which is dry, fizzy and simply fantastic to drink. And I was only joking.  And Frank is younger than me.  I hate when that happens.

Frank takes me through no less than 13 wines before lunch. I taste current vintages, and tank samples of 2008 not yet in the bottle. His Dornfelder (red wine) is a blockbuster! I have never had such powerful, intense and beautiful Dornfelder, or German red wine for that matter.  This stuff is deep reddish, purple in the glass and I immediately think of zinfandel sans high alcohol or oak. Spicy, peppery, juicy and totally dry, Frank has that grin and explains for years Dornfelder was the bulk, grocery red, junk wine produced by many large wineries. It’s the sort of “white zin” of Germany (my words, not his).  But Frank sees potential after visiting Burgundy and Romanée-Conti, and how they train the vines on single canes.  So Frank being Frank comes back to Germany to take a vine that normally produces 200+ hl/ha of juice and crops it down to 85 hl/ha or less. [A vineyard will boast about taking less fruit, but higher quality fruit from their vines. The amount of fruit the vines are producing is measured in how many hectoliters of juice per every hectare (2.47 acres) is pressed. The lower the volume of juice, the lower the yield and theoretically the higher the quality] And that’s just one example of his innovation.

Frank is also a serious red wine maker and makes outstanding Pinot Noir; the new 2006 Pinot is marvelous.   The price is holding thanks to the Euro weakening so we hope to have some 2006 in Wine Authorities soon.  We have sold two shipments of his 2005 in our first year of business.  The 2008 rosé is this tank sample state is very pale and almost whitish-pink. Frank says that Blanc de Noir (white wine from a red grape) is fashionable in Germany right now, and what do I think about keeping the wine light?  I love the flavor and aromas, but explain that we have a tough enough time teaching that not all pink wine is sweet and we stock the dry pink ones.  Now you want me to sell a white Pinot Noir blend to people?  And in about 2 minutes we all agree to make the wine pink like last year. Frank will be bottling the 2008 rosé for us in two weeks. Expect to see it late spring at Wine Authorities. And the morning carries on to whites until we have to break for lunch.

Frank’s mom is very kind to us and has prepared a deliciously sweet/savory/spicy carrot and hot pepper soup, perfect with Riesling. We move on to locally farm raised and smoked trout which Frank ordered and they smoked for us the day before, along with a variety of German sausages/cold cuts. We sit in the family dining room with a giant bay window looking lieterally out his backyard at the famous Sacktrager and Kreuz vineyards.  Frank likes to mountain bike through them.  I have to pinch myself as I am eating lunch with Bono, er I mean Frank, and his mom and Derek while looking at Red Rocks Stadium, err I mean, at his backyard.  And this is why I suffer through these things...

It’s around 1:30 PM and we have to head to Ockfen to visit Karen Fischer at Dr. Fischer’s Estate. The jet lag is setting in and my head is bobbing like a bobble-Seth doll.  To be continued...  - Salamanzar

Germany & Austria Part I

January 6, 2009 13:41 - Crucial first part of the trip to Germany and Austria has been accomplished. I had my first meal at The Varsity in downtown Atlanta. Key planning put me into Atlanta with a four hour layover before flying out to Frankfurt, plenty of time to grab lunch. A 20 minutes ride on the MARTA train from the airport to the North Avenue stop put me within a 3 minute walk to The Varsity, the worlds largest drive-in. If you haven’t been, they have been family owned since 1928 and the place covers two acres of land.   On a Georgia football day, they serve 30,000 customers and over two miles of hotdogs,  300 gallons of chili, 5,000 fried pies and they are the worlds largest Coca-Cola outlet.

I already knew what I wanted as I approached the shiny stainless steel counter tops. The row of red paper boat-hat cashiers were waiting for customers as they filed in. When a cashier has a pause with no line in front of them, they start to yell out the signature “what’ll ya have? what’ll ya have?” That’s your cue to jump up and shout your order. I went with the combo deal of: chili cheese dog, chili cheese burger, F.O. (don’t call it a frosted orange), fries, and hot fried apple pie.
About three minutes later, I took my red tray back to an open table, gathered plenty of napkins and sat down with the bountiful goodness. These are actually small portions and I can see why someone with a bigger appetite would order two or three burgers at a time. They are only slightly larger than a “slider” which is about two bites. I grabbed the gynormous squeeze bottle of ketchup on the table and slathered the fries before digging in. The Varisty experience was enriching and girthening.

The burger was not a thick and juicy medium rare, but more of wafer thin disc on a soft bun with the heavily cumin laden chili. The hot dog was all beef, but one of the skinny weenies on a soft bun with chili and a slice of american cheese. The FO was a tall cup of orange creamsicle which had to thaw enough before I could consume and the fries were luke warm and a few of them a little under done. None-the-less, don’t get me wrong I loved it and just being there goes a long way. The apple pie was a miniature calzone of gooey apple filling with a chunk or two of apple and very oily from the deep frying experience, but it went down easily and happily. As I sat and let the FO thaw to a slush I decided I had to go back for a side of onion rings and these were fantastic. Large rings, very thin tempura like batter and now I felt complete. The rings were the final piece leaving me happy and fond of my Varsity experience as I rode MARTA back to the airport. Now onto Frankfurt... To be continued. - Salamanzar