German Wine Round-Up: Two Rheingau Rieslings and An Unusal Pinot Gris from Baden

A quick roundup of wines I'd been sitting on from the Wines of Germany press program (in fairness they were in the basement wine cubby and we did some painting and stuff down there so they got temporarily lost but not forgotten. "Sitting on" is not really accurate. The point is, I've rediscovered them and here they are). 

Three really unique wines, but sadly only one that I loved.

Two Rheingau Rieslings...

Rheingau is one of the top sub regions of Germany for Riesling. Nearly 80% of the vineyards are planted with the grape, so this region is pretty single-minded. It’s far north and cold, and they'd never be able to grow grapes, but for a little quirk in the flow of the Rhine River. Inexplicably, it takes a jog from its northerly flow for 30 kilometers and flows west. This shift makes a nice southern-facing slope for grapevines, which keeps them toasty warm (relatively speaking, we're still in Germany, so it's cool). Insulating the grapes even more -- the Taunus Mountains to the north, which deflect all the nasty polar winds. 

Rheingau or “Rhine district,” represents only 3% of vineyard area but packs a punch reputation-wise. The region is obsessed with letting the world know that not all wineries are created equal. And no one is more obsessed with that idea than Schloss Schönborn, who created the Verband Deutscher Prädikats-und Qualitätsweingüter (VDP), the association of quality wine estates in Germany. 

This winery is one of Germany's largest and oldest -- it's been around since at least the 1300s. The wine below is from the very famous Marcobrunn site and it's a rich, full, powerful Riesling. I've had the pleasure of drinking quite a few wines from Schloss Schönborn and I can say that I've never tasted anything but excellence from these guys, so they practice what they preach in terms of quality. Here's the wine to prove it:

The Wine: 2010 Schloss Schönborn Erbacher Marcobrunn Riesling Kabinett (Kabinett = ripe grapes, usually lightly sweet)

Where it's from: The Marcobrunn vineyard in the Rheingau

Alcohol: 10%

The Price: $25

Color: A light yellow, with a shiny, glycerin quality to it.


Smell: Very bright fruit -- lemon, green apple, and peach with very distinct mineral and honey aromas too.

Taste: Even better than the smell, this was like green apple, flowers, honey, and lemon tea. It had a biscuit or bread quality to it and was full and creamy like lemon curd or marmalade. The wine was lightly sweet with very high acid, that gave it great balance.

Drink or sink? Drink. It's a steal for $25. Delicious and fabulous with Chinese!!


And another one from Rheingau that's much less exciting....

The Wine: 2011 G.H. von Mumm 50˚ Riesling Trocken (dry)
Alcohol: 12%
Price: $13


Color: A very pale yellow-green, it looked like it was made from not-so-ripe grapes (which is what you'd expect at the 50˚ line where grapes often don't ripen).


Smell: Tons of mineral -- like a mountain stream. Light peach, lime, with mint. Honestly, if you know what this is, it reminded me a little of Fruit Stripe gum. 

Taste: Very, very acidic -- like sucking on a lemon with little else there. It reminded me of raw lime juice with some apple on the finish. The acid was so high and not at all balanced by body or fruit.It was jarring. I tried it with Indian food and it was so tart it clashed with the warm spice flavors of the food. 

Drink or sink? Sink. It was tart to the point of sour. I love acid, but there's no balance in this wine for me. That's ok in a lime, not in a wine. I couldn't finish it in one night and it was, admittedly, better and less tart after it was open for a day but that's not a trait a good Riesling should have. I won't be trying this again!

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Baden

Although Baden is Germany's third largest wine region, you've probably never even heard of because most of the stuff never makes it out of the country. 

It's a shame because the area actually mixes it up a bit in terms of grapes -- Riesling takes a back seat to Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, and Pinot Blanc, some of which is rumored to be kind of awesome. 

Baden is very long, stretching 250 miles north to south. It's warm too. Protected by the Black Forest and Vosges Mountains to the west, which also border Alsace, France farther west, Baden experiences more sun and warmth. That means it can produce wines that are lower in acid, higher in alcohol and feel richer and fuller. Since I'm a total Alsace junkie, I'd love to have more wines from this area because they're alleged to be similar, but given that they hoard most of it for domestic consumption, it looks like I'll have to head to Germany to get it! Not such a raw deal, but a high cost of entry for sure.

Then again, if most of it tastes like this stuff, I may be ok drinking Alsace Pinot Gris and German Riesling and calling it a day...

The Wine: 2009 Weingut Heger Pinot Gris QbA, Trocken (dry)
Where it's from: Baden, Germany
Alcohol: 13%
Price: $25

Color: Dark Brass, this wine may be the darkest unsweet white I've ever seen. It had a little spritz.

Smell: The wine smelled great to me -- like honey, lemons, and like petrichor, which is the smell on pavement just after it starts raining. 


Taste: Yikes! The first thing I noticed: it was a rough on the texture -- it burned the the back of my tongue and chafed my cheeks. Although the wine wasn't sweet, it tasted like sweet things: honeysuckle, peach gummy rings, birthday cake, and honey. Kind of delicious, but not very wine-like to me.

Drink or sink? As a wine on its own, I'd sink it. The wine was far better with cheese because the fat mitigated the harsh texture. Without food, the wine was unpalatable for me, which is a tough sell. Food can improve a wine, but it shouldn't be nasty alone!

So there you have it. Some great, some ok, some not ok. Germany is so multifaceted and I feel so lucky to be able to explore it and share it with you through the Wines of Germany program!

Have you had any of these wines or anything similar? Share your thoughts below!