Stuart Pigott's Planet Wine

Berlin Riesling Diary: Day 17 – NO, this Blog Posting is NOT About Dentistry, it’s All About the 25th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall

Posted on November 10, 2014 by Stuart

While the rest of Berlin was watching 7,000 balloons ascend poetically from the the line of the former Berlin Wall I was pulling my mouth open as far as I could for Gerhard Gneist, my dentist (pictured above in his Berlin-Wittenau surgery) to see the gaping hole left when a chunk of one of my dead teeth fell out a couple of hours earlier. Yes, bizarre as it may sound, we were celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall, at least we were about to do so at the Kurpfalz Weinstuben in Berlin-Wilmersdorf, just off the Ku’damm (West Berlin’s main drag).

Gerhard and I go back a long way, in fact just a few days short of the twenty years that Berlin has been my base. At that point it was very difficult to find any dentist in the city willing to take on new patients and Gerhard was the only one I could get an appointment with. The timing for that first appointment was all wrong, because I had to go for my first appointment with him straight after a pretty serious wine tasting. As I sat down in the big white chair and he peered into my mouth I was sure he would smell alcohol. Then he asked me, “do you by any chance drink a lot of…tea, because there’s a brown stain on your teeth.” I explained to him that he was spot-on about that, but that he might also be able to smell the alcohol from the wine tasting. He admitted that he couldn’t, but was more of a beer drinker, which was logical since he comes from the beer city of Hamburg.

After that Gerhard did a lot of root canal treatment on me – I can still see all those needles going deep into my jaw! – that left me with the dead teeth. In return, I introduced him to German Riesling and the wine world, beer lost much of its appeal to him and bit by bit he built up a pretty serious wine cellar. Unfortunately, one of those dead teeth collapsed punctually for the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which was much less poetic than all those balloons. But as I said, NO, this blog is NOT about Dentistry, it’s about wine, so back to that celebration…

A dozen friends and I gathered in the Kurpfalz Weinstuben (one of the city’s best wine bars) last night to drink a string of wines from the 1989 vintage and a handful of other bottles that seemed desperately in need of having their corks removed by force. We only had one red, but thanks to the generosity of the Kurpfalz’s ruler Rainer Schultz, pictured above, it was 1989 Château Mouton Rothschild, one of the richest and most meaty wines of that vintage in Bordeaux. It also smelt like an entire pack of Hells Angels dressed in leathers; an aroma that will either turn you on or completely turn you off. “Thank you Rainer! That’s a beautiful wine!” exclaimed Vuk Karadzic, the Berlin photo-artist. “No, you’re the beauties!” Rainer retorted with great conviction.

From there we proceeded to the lighter Rieslings, of which the 1989 Wallufer Walkenberg Riesling Spätlese from J.B. Becker in the Rheingau was definitely the group’s favorite. It’s now almost dry and remarkably vigorous in flavor with dried apricot (the dark ones, not the bright orange stuff) and quince bread character. The trio of Riesling Auslese that followed were anything but light, but they made me completely forget my damned tooth. It was hard to believe that the 1989 Saarburger Rausch Riesling Auslese from Zilliken on the Saar was only the 8th best wine this producer made that year so amazingly fresh and floral did it smell, but the number 8 printed in bold type on the label left me in no doubt about that fact. “The wine is so wild, but so very elegant,” was the fitting comment of Frank Krüger from the Berlin wine merchant Wein & Glas. When it was young the intensity and brilliance of the 1989 Maximin Grünhäuser Herrenberg Riesling Auslese Nr. 137 were almost too breathtaking, but a quarter of a century of aging have turned those qualities into something super-fine and super-erotic. It was hard to believe that the 1989 Scharzhofberger Riesling Auslese Gold Cap from Egon Müller could top that, but it did with its supernatural concentration of dried fruit aromas and a balance which turned that awesome power into something mere humans like us can savor and swoon about. The photo above shows Roy Metzdorf (right) of the Weinstein wine bar with that bottle.

Of course, the real world doesn’t go away when you open and share bottles of that kind, although sometimes, like last night, it feels as if it does for an hour or two. Today I had to fly down to Vienna and back to commentate a tasting of Blaufränkisch reds from the Eisenberg appellation in Burgenland, which was seriously exhausting day. Worse follows tomorrow though, because I have to go to Gerhard’s surgery for the second time during this stay in Berlin in order to get that tooth patched up, but as I said, NO, this blog is NOT about dentistry, it’s about the 25th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall.

PS When I visited Gerhard Gneist for the treatment of that tooth I found out that it was actually still alive and I was therefore lucky not to have experienced some severe pain.

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Berlin Riesling Diary: Day 11 – Flowering Wine & Cheese Landscapes in and around Berlin

Posted on November 4, 2014 by Stuart

It’s a couple of years since I’d seen Sabine Denell of the Capriolenhof farm close to Fürstenberg about an hour’s drive north of Berlin, but it felt like we picked up our conversation where it left off just a day or two ago. At the Capriolenhof she and Hans-Peter Dill produce some of the best goats milk cheese in Germany and the world. My favorite is called Blühende Landschaften, or flowering landscapes, a quote from a famous speech by Helmut Kohl during the German reunification process. That’s what he promised the East Germans, but a quick comparison of the contemporary unemployment rates and average incomes in the East and West of Germany shows that on the macro-economic level the landscapes of the East failed to blossom. This wonderfully creamy and delicately flavored brick-shaped goat cheese topped with a sprig of lavender is therefore both a completely unexpected realization of Kohl’s promise in miniature (180 goats is tiny compared with the human population of Germany’s East) and an ironic comment upon the hollowness of that promise.

An important reason for the wonderful texture and flavors of the Capriolenhof cheeses the pair produce here is the 250 acres of heathland on which the goats graze. This landscape would lose it’s heather and the flora and fauna associated with it (it would turn into forest) if the goats didn’t graze it, so they perform an important ecological role. It was great to hear that their company has blossomed since our last contact, and to take home some cheese and find that it was even better than I remembered it. If anyone doubts that the Berlin area could have its own “terroir”, that is a taste of the place, then they should taste this amazing cheese.

That meeting took place at the third ‘Cheese Berlin’ fair in the Markthalle Neun, a late 19th century covered market that has become a focus for the rapidly developing regional food culture of Berlin. Although extremely spacious the place was packed out from the moment that doors opened at 11am on Sunday, and the crowd was dominated by young people. I had to choose a slightly quieter corner and then wait for a slightly quieter moment to get the shot above, which gives a good ides of the atmosphere. The exhibitors ranged from local producers like the Carpiolenhof to Berlin cheese merchants like Kippenbergs and Maitre Philippe & Filles, but there was also a strong international presence thanks primarily to Neal’s Yard in London. For more information see:

www.markthalleneun.de

www.ursulaheinzelmann.de

What made Sunday such a special day is that the ‘Weinbund’ association of Berlin wine merchants also held their annual public event jet around the corner, so that many people moved from one event to the other. This event really brought home how the city now has a string of the best wine merchants in the country. Here too, I think you can speak of a flowering landscape, and this too is a well-kept Berlin secret, at least outside Germany.

At the ‘Weinbund’s event I bumped into winemaker Jens Heinemeyer of Geisenheim in the Rheingau, pictured above. I’ve been following Jens’ progress for more than a quarter of a century and during this time he’s developed into one of Germany’s top producers of Pinot Noir red wines. This fact is not widely appreciated, also because Jens’ career didn’t develop in a neat linear fashion. Recently he created his own solo-label, Weingut Solveigs, having previously been part of the Johanninger team (a small group of winemakers marketing under one label). Jens doesn’t like the taste of new oak and he’s obsessed with the taste of good Pinot Noir. His most important winemaking tools are hygiene and patience. He takes the latter much more seriously than most of his colleagues, and the youngest wine he was showing was a 2009! His top wine is the ‘Present’ Pinot Noir from a single block of ancient vines in the Höllenberg site of Assmannshausen. The not very special 2006 vintage tasted very special indeed to me and you can still buy it from Paasburg’s in Berlin for Euro 35, which is moderate for top quality Pinot Noir at peak maturity.

Sadly, there’s too little time for me to tell you about all the winemakers, but I was very impressed by the wines shown by Matthias Adams of von Racknitz of Odernheim in the Nahe, Kurt Angerer of Langenfeld in the Kamtal/Austria, Florain Fauth of Seehof in Westhofen in Rheinhessen and Anthony Hammond of the eponymous estate in Oestrich in the Rheingau. More on them another time!

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Berlin Riesling Diary: Day 9 – Why I Will Continue to Shoot from the Hip

Posted on November 2, 2014 by Stuart

I humbly apologize for the enormous gap sine the last posting, but when I arrived in Berlin from Israel I was suffering from a viral infection that didn’t want to go away. In spite of this there was a very long “to do” list, not least preparing for moving STUART PIGOTT RIESLING GLOBAL’s across the city yesterday. Thankfully, that went very well and this blog is now up and functioning in its new Berlin home. Here is the much delayed story on journalistic ethics that I promised my twitter followers a few days back. It’s theme is the liberty of the freelance journalist to shoot from the hip that I consider essential if really good writing is to be the goal (which it certainly is for me).

What is the right way for freelance journalists to work, behave, live? In recent years this was a question I don’t think much about, because many years ago I figured out what seemed right to me. However, an exchange on twitter the other day dragged me by the scruff of the neck back to this question. I decided that freelance wine journalists don’t need to be saints, but we do need to straight with our readers and to be fair to the winemakers who’s products we write about.

One obvious objection to this is, that although it sounds good this statement isn’t even close to being a clearly laid out code of practice. Principals, however strongly held, are always vaguer and more abstract than a written book of rules. But would an industry-wide code of practice really function in the rough and tumble of freelance journalism? I’m very skeptical about that for a bunch of reasons. The truth is that, with or without rules the world in which freelance journalists operate would continue to put good intentions and lofty principals to a severe test. It’s about as far removed as you can get from the lives of people with 9 to 5 jobs and regular paychecks, as long they follow the rules. Sometimes it’s closer to navigating uncharted waters with a coastline as confusing as Norway’s, and I mean that in the moral sense too.

Nobody does that for many years without making a few compromises – I know I made some small ones that I hoped weren’t harmful (more about that below) – and a code of practice wouldn’t change that fundamentally. Actually, I fear that it would only encourage weak-willed journalists who sell stories and their souls for short-term profit to become more clandestine about their unsavory activities. The most important thing as a writer is to stick to your core values (and to write great stories, of course), and to my mind this is better than doing everything by the book, because that so easily gets reduced to going through the motions. Sure, the situation is different for major news publications that need books of rules to discourage corruption amongst their employees, but that’s one reason I remain a freelance journalist, in order to shoot from the hip.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m also completely convinced that readers are right to expect journalists to report what actually happened rather than make up their stories, or, worse still, dress up advertising as objective reporting. Most of us recoil from things that pretend to be something they’re not and rightly so. Modern history is full of that stuff. Any intelligent person ought to realize that although one end of this wedge is thin, it quickly becomes a lot thicker as you get farther down. If the subject is wine, merchant banking, football or the US President, the moral question remains the same.

In the front of my 2014 diary I wrote two quotes from Georg Orwell, the first of which describes most crucial issue I confront in my work everyday. “Journalism is printing what someone else doesn’t want printed. Everything else is Public Relations”. Without the willingness to write things some people don’t want to see printed criticism becomes a hollow word. The second Orwell quote is about what happens to journalism when it loses touch with those core values and becomes subservient to unscrupulous people. “Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable.”

That is also the reason why a freelance journalist needs to have a considerable freedom of action, including sometimes doing the “wrong” thing. I loath and despise organized press trips on which all expenses are covered, not only because they encourage journalists to have a good time at someone else’s expense (that’s why we in the biz call them Junkets), but more importantly because they encourage the participating journalists to go home and all right the same lame tame story. However, a couple of the best stories I ever wrote were the result of my breaking my normal rule and going on press trips. Of course, I went on them with an attitude that was anything but devoted. One of those stories, so far untold in writing, will form the first chapter of my next book (codename WAM).

My impression is that those freelance wine journalists who have a reputation for moral straightness and independence of opinion rarely get bugged by the purveyors of wine products trying to more or less subtly buy their praise. Over the years you not only get a reputation, but also build up something like an aura. My aura sometimes make readers too reverential towards me, which bugs me, but it also frightens off those people with a lot of wine to sell who would be willing to pay to have me puff their products, and I’m extremely glad it has that effect. Hard to believe?

It has been suggested that the real solution would be if we all wine journalists and critics pay for the wine we taste, or declare the fact every time we didn’t. Sure, if the wine is, for example, Château Lafite Rothschild, that sip could be worth a significant amount of money, but mostly it lands in the spit bucket. Not only am I against the rigidity of this proposed rule and the creeping Moral Correctness that lurks behind it (MC is as bad as PC), but no media outlet that I know of would be willing to finance these costs. That would mean that my colleagues and I would have to finance it out of our own pockets, and in turn that would immediately and dramatically influence which wines we tasted. Sometimes wine producers refused to let me taste their products, so I went out and bought them to do that, but no way could I afford to do that for every wine I taste.

This leads me to the simple and painful truth that freelance wine journalists are rarely well paid. None of the publications I work for pays any of my research expenses and this blog earns me zero income. Perhaps it sounds like I’m complaining in order to gain your sympathy, but all I’m doing is introducing you to the economic realities of wine journalism, in case you’re not familiar with them. Let me give you an example. I just returned from two weeks of wine tasting in Israel, which cost me more than $3,000. That figure is so high because of the price of airline tickets to Israel, but also because no wine producer provided me with accommodation or invited me to a meal in a restaurant (although one wine merchant did, to say thanks for a favor I did for him). I will make a substantial loss on the article that I was commissioned to write about Israeli wine.

One of my core values is, that if a subject strikes me as being really important, then I must research it without regard to cost and effort, but no way could I afford to do apply that principle to every single article, column and blog posting I write. You can be sure though, that I will tell you if anything made me feel someone was trying to pushing me into writing something they wanted to see printed. And after 30 years as a journalist I’m all to familiar with how subtle and gentle that pushing can be. It comes with the territory through which I ride every day.

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WEINHIER – Die Neue Pfalz heisst auch Schwedhelm von Frank Ebbinghaus

Posted on October 25, 2014 by Stuart

Für viele deutsche Winzer war der Jahrgang 2013 eine der größten Herausforderungen der letzten Jahre. Für einen nicht: Stephan Schwedhelm, Jahrgang 1979, der gemeinsam mit seinem Bruder Georg (links abgebildet) seit ein paar Jahren den elterlichen 17 Hektar-Betrieb in Zell/Pfalz führt, hat ausgerechnet in diesem schwierigen Jahr an der Qualitätsschraube gedreht. Mir waren die Weine bei der Berliner GG-Premiere Anfang September stark aufgefallen. Das Weingut Klosterhof Schwedhelm ist (noch) kein VDP-Mitglied, durfte sich aber als eines der „Pfälzer Spitzentalente“ des VDP in Berlin präsentieren. Beeindruckt hat mich, mit welcher Leichtigkeit und Selbstverständlichkeit hier Weine gelangen, wo manche GG von VDP-Spitzenerzeuger doch noch hart mit sich rangen.

Und wirklich: Ein schwieriges Jahr war es für die Schwedhelms eigentlich nicht. Der Ertrag lag nur minimal unter dem Durchschnitt „normaler“ Jahre. Die Säure ist zwar etwas höher, aber perfekt integriert. Die Weine schmecken richtig reif. Was bedeutet: Mineralische Finesse bei moderaten 12,5% Alk. entsprechen dem Stilwillen der Erzeuger. Pfälzer Barock ist hier unerwünscht.

Von den Eltern hat man einen breiten Rebsortenspiegel geerbt. Ein paar Jahre brauchte es, bis die Brüder herausfanden, welcher Weinberg für welche Rebsorte am besten geeignet ist. Riesling und Burgundersorten rücken ins Zentrum. Denn mag auch das schöne Zellertal ein wenig abseits der Wertschätzung vieler Weinfans liegen, die Schwedhelms sind vom großen Potential ihrer Weinberge sehr überzeugt. „Das Zellertal hat einzigartige Böden,“ erklärt Georg, der für Marketing und die Bücher zuständig ist, während Stephan über Weinberge und Keller herrscht, „Südhänge mit Kalk und Ton, bis 35 Prozent Steigung, schön windig – ein wenig wie im Burgund“.

Und wirklich: Alle Weine, die ich probierte, sind stark durch den Kalkboden geprägt. Er gibt ihnen Eleganz, Finesse und diesen unverwechselbaren Kalkstein-Geschmack, eine ganz feine, fast kreidige Aromatik, in der immer wieder gelbe Früchte, Ingwer und Quitte schmeckbar sind – sehr apart. Und sehr lecker. Die Weine lassen sich prima trinken – keine mineralischen Monster, die ob ihres kompromisslosen Stils nur ehrfürchtig bestaunt werden können.

Richtig gut gefällt mir der 2013 Weißburgunder trocken Karlspfad Erste Lage. Die Trauben stammen aus einer massiven, mit Mergel durchsetzten Kalkterrasse des Zeller Kreuzbergs. 2013 erbrachte diese Parzelle perfekt gereifte und sehr gesunde Trauben. Und so entschloss man sich, diesen Weißburgunder, von dem ein Viertel des Mostes im Tonneau ausgebaut wurde, erstmals als Lagenwein mit höherem Qualitätsanspruch zu vermarkten. Der Wein duftet nach reifen Melonen, Birnen, Quitten und Kalksteinmineralität, ja, er stinkt sogar ein bisschen. Am Gaumen wirkt er kühl, mineralisch, elegant, die hohe Säure (immerhin rund neun Gramm/Liter) ist sehr gut integriert. Zugleich wirkt der Wein sehr reif, gelbe Früchte, etwas Süße kommt durch, am zweiten Tag auch Birne, zerlassene Butter, etwas Vanille, aber alles bleibt auf der frischen mineralischen Seite.

Sehr verschlossen ist der 2013 Zeller Kreuzberg Riesling trocken Erste Lage Wotanfels, der einer Parzelle unter einer acht Meter hohen, bizarren Kalkfelsformation entstammt. Der Wein wirkt sehr schlank (12 % Alk.), gibt nach einigem Glasschwenken etwas süße und leicht rauchige Exotik preis, am zweiten Tag lassen sich rote Früchte erahnen. Sehr interessant, braucht aber noch Flaschenreife.

Spitzenwein ist der 2013 Zeller Schwarzer Herrgott Riesling trocken Große Lage. Er entstammt einem mehr als 60 Hektar großen Weinberg, dessen größter Teil auf rheinhessischem Gebiet liegt. Dort erzeugt das Weingut Battenfeld-Spanier (Hohen-Sülzen/Rheinhessen) das Mölsheimer Zellerweg Am Schwarzen Herrgott Riesling GG – einen trockenen Spitzenriesling von einigem Renommee.

Ich habe beide Weine parallel verkostet. Das ist natürlich unfair, schließlich kostet das berühmte GG dreimal so viel und sein Erzeuger ist viel erfahrener. Doch nur der Vergleich mit einem Spitzengewächs kann die Maßstäbe für das Qualitätsstreben eines jungen Betriebes liefern und zugleich die bereits erreichte Güte der Weine richtig einordnen helfen.

Die GG von Battenfeld-Spanier habe ich in den letzten Jahren ab und zu verkostet, sie haben mich stets beeindruckt, getrunken habe ich sie jedoch bisher nie. Das wird sich ändern. Denn das 2013 Riesling Schwarzer Herrgott GG hat mich schwer begeistert. Ein sehr komplexer, feiner, fast femininer Riesling, der auf einzigartige Weise Aromen von Crème brûlée und Tahiti-Vanille (ohne jede Süße und Schwere) mit Melone, Apfelsine und dann vor allem mit saftigem weißen Pfirsich ohne Kitsch und Schwere verbindet, wozu Mineralität und Säure beitragen – ein verführerischer Schleiertanz, der sich da am Gaumen abspielt.

Und der Schwarze Herrgott von Schwedhelm? Er glänzt – um eine Paradoxie zu bemühen – im Schatten seines übermächtigen Konkurrenten. An dessen dramatische Sinnlichkeit reicht er nicht heran, doch beweist er genug Klasse, um sich neben dem GG zu behaupten. Mit einer klaren mineralischen Nase, die nach reifem Apfel, Vanille, Kalk und Ingwer duftet, mit viel Zug, großer Säurefrische, reifen Apfelaromen, die am zweiten Tag von herrlich frischem, reifen Weinbergspfirsich abgelöst werden. Der feine Kalkstein ist immer präsent und auch am achten Tag zeigt das letzte Glas kaum Ermüdungserscheinungen. Ein herrlicher Wein, der gerade mal zwölf Euro ab Hof kostet.

Das Weingut Klosterhof Schwedhelm gehört zu den vielen jungen Betrieben in Deutschland, die nach einem Generationswechsel erfolgreich zu neuen Ufern aufbrechen. Die Schwedhelms haben die Umstellung auf ökologische Bewirtschaftung abgeschlossen, aber dogmatisch sind sie nicht, sondern feilen mit wachem Blick an ihrer Weinqualität. Sie wissen, dass sie noch nicht da sind, wo sie hinwollen. Aber sie sind fest entschlossen, ihre Ziele zu erreichen. Von Familientraditionen lassen sie sich nicht fesseln. Gerade haben sie das Elternhaus abgerissen, um eine moderne Vinothek zu errichten (die Mutter nahm’s gelassen). Abbruch auch hier, der ein Aufbruch ist.

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Berlin Riesling Diary: Day 0 – My Suitcase was Lost on the Way to Berlin from Israel, But I’ve still got a “Suitcase” of Dreams of Israel!

Posted on October 24, 2014 by Stuart

I only just got back to Germany after leaving Israel early this morning and am still a bit ragged from two flights and a long express train journey, the whole procedure made greatly more stressful by the fact that Pegasus Airlines lost my suitcase somewhere between Tel Aviv and Cologne. However, I’ve still got a “suitcase” of dreams of Israel with me on my computer. By that I mean a collection images of things and places that surprised so much they stopped me in my tracks, as well as those things I expected to find there like the palm and citrus trees, vineyards and olive groves, the beaches, mountains and between them the ancient ruins. You can look all the latter up on the internet and find many better photographs of them than I took during the last weeks, so there’s no point in showing you many of them (I’m making just a single exception below). I’m also leaving out all the things that I’ve already shown you in the blog postings headed “Israel Riesling Diary ” during the last two weeks. Instead, I decided to concentrate on the surprising Israel, because it normally gets so little attention in the West. Hence the following gallery of images, that I snapped up and when they suddenly grabbed me. Above and below are the sole wine images I have to offer in this category, and the contrast between them strikes me as saying something important about Israeli wine.

As this image, taken in the cellars of one of Israel’s large Kosher wineries (all of Israel’s large wineries are Kosher) shows, the wine industry is one of many places place where the nation’s twin obsessions with profits and prophets meet.

Often Israel is many things at once that seem contradictory at first glance. I began wondering if – in the non-spatial sense – Israel is actually infinite. However, sometimes it was the simple things, like a plate of bread and salt, which touched me most.

History may not be everywhere in Israel as is sometimes claimed, but you certainly keep bumping into it, and repeated collisions with it drove home how what you see is always like a half-eaten slice of layer cake.

The contemporary reality of Israel is much more difficult to decipher than the past, because it isn’t divided up into neat portions (e.g. Roman, Crusader, Ottoman), and every time you think you’re beginning to make sense of it it knocks you off balance yet again.

Of course, you can’t avoid the military situation if you spend two weeks traveling around the country as I did. One side of this was talking to and hearing about young Israelis who served during the nation’s recent war with Hamas in Gaza, and the other was what I saw myself. Israel’s military strength struck me as being much greater than many of its older people realize, but the psychological price of its wars on its youth is also much greater than they usually acknowledge.

Profound as they are, Israel’s conflicts tend to be over-emphacized by the international media, because they tend to ignore the peaceful coexistence of Arabs and Jews in many parts of the country. Experiencing that made me wonder if a federal Israel with autonomous Arab provinces might not be the best solution. Of course, this would require the laying down of arms and increased cooperation on the basis of mutual interest.

I hope that in an elliptical way this gallery and my picture captions give an idea of how wonderfully disorientating my experiences of Israel were, because a few images couldn’t do justice to the rich human diversity (Jewish, Arab and other) of the place.

One experience could never be captured in this way, also because photography is forbidden at Yad Vashem, the Memorial Museum to the victims of the Holocaust. The enormity of the historical fact and its continuing reverberations in our world also make that impossible. I felt an enormous sense of loss for the six million Jewish people murdered by a coalition of German Nazis and their brutal cohorts of many other nationalities. (Yad Vashem makes it easier to grasp these basic and terrible facts than any other Holocaust exhibit I’ve seen). I also came away with a much clearer impression of the indifference of the Allies who said some fine words when it suited their purposes, but always had a good reason not to actually do anything about this terrible crime. That makes, “learning from history,” an obligation rather than just a good idea.

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Israel Riesling Diary: Day 13 – “That’s Israel !”

Posted on October 23, 2014 by Stuart

Sometimes when I’m on the road visiting winemakers, tasting their wines and trying to make sense of the world into which those people and products fit I feel like an anthropologist. Every good anthropologist will tell you that in order to try and understand a foreign culture you need not only to be continuously observant and as aware as possible of the fact that other people see the world differently from yourself (and therefore act differently), but that you also need at least one good informant. An informant is a member of that foreign culture you’re studying, but she or he must be able to communicate easily with you. The help of such a person enormously increases the degree to which you can make sense of what you observe and avoid twisting it to fit in with your own way of seeing the world. Donna Gershowitz of Even Yehuda, a short drive north of Tel Aviv, was my Israel informant although she would probably say that all she did was play the tour guide for a few days.

Donna was indeed an excellent tour guide and spent quite a few days introducing me to various parts of Tel Aviv, the centre of contemporary Israel that is sometimes referred to by Israelis as “Sin City” and even “Sodom and Gomorrah”, and a number of important historical sites ranging from the Roman to the Crusader periods. Of course, neither of these sides of the country is sealed off from the other, there was some important history (roughly the half century prior to the foundation of Israel in 1948) in the Tel Aviv area, and those ancient sites were surrounded by contemporary Israel, in the foundation myth of which they play an important role. Even when she wasn’t intending to do so, Donna’s comments told me a great deal about the way this small but complex country and its extremely diverse people tick.

“That’s Israel!” she would say when something surprising (to me) or frustrating (for us) happened, and rather quickly I found myself saying those words alternately in wonder and annoyance. She also put me right on a couple of things that I failed to understand, because this is my first time here and “discovering” a country as vibrant and dynamic as this generates a certain euphoria that blinds you to certain negative things. For example, although I didn’t miss the arrogance of some Israelis (particularly men in the 30-50 age group), I failed to pick up on the cynical side of some Israelis.

Donna, who is a lawyer and emigrated to Israel from New York many years ago, also likes wine and took the role of driver for a bunch of my appointments with the leading Israeli winemakers. She found this experience much more interesting than she expected, and it opened her eyes to just how many-sided the wine industry is, even in Israel with its mere 5,500 hectares / 13,600 acres of vineyards. Although more a red wine drinker, during those days she figured out that there is a type of dry white wine that suits her very well (aromatic but not loud, medium-bodied with crisp acidity). I hope that in a small way I was able to give something back to her in this. How I can properly say thank you for her hospitality during much of my visit is another matter. That will take some thinking out. I’ll begin working on that during the plane and train to Berlin tomorrow, when I also hope to post a final episode of this Israel Riesling Diary.

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WEINHIER – Jancis Robinsons neue Riesling-Skepsis von Stuart Pigott

Posted on October 22, 2014 by Stuart

In Ontario/Kanada ist Riesling dabei Chardonnay zu überholen und Qualitäts-Weißweintraube Nummer eins zu werden!

Jancis Robinson ist für mich die beste Weinkritikerin der Welt. Nicht weniger als ich, aber doch viel länger, hat sie unermüdlich die Besonderheiten und Vorzüge des Rieslings angepriesen. Den Glauben an die Erfolgschancen von Rieslings hat sie aber offenbar inzwischen verloren. So zumindest schreibt sie es auf www.JancisRobinson.com . Sie kommt zu folgendem Schluss: „…Mehr und mehr wird mir klar, dass Riesling eine zu ausgeprägte Persönlichkeit hat, um genug Konsumenten, die eine globalen Zugkraft garantieren. Das Problem ist, dass im Gegensatz zu Chardonnay und Pinot Grigio, Riesling einen zu eindringlichen Geschmack hat.“ Und weiter: „Wenn ich die internationalen Verkaufszahlen anschaue, muss ich sagen, dass nur die Weintrinker in Norwegen die Vorzüge des Rieslings wirklich verstehen.“

Mein Kommentar dazu in englischer Sprache hat für ein gewisses Aufsehen in Amerika gesorgt, weshalb wir jetzt eine deutschsprachige Fassung davon bringen. Die folgenden Zeilen sind keine vollständige Antwort auf die Thesen von Jancis Robinson – das würde viel mehr Platz und eine Menge statistischer Analyse nverlangen. Vielehr will ich zeigen, dass man die gegenwärtige Situation ganz anders sehen kann. Aus meiner Sicht gibt es sehr wohl den PLANET RIESLING. Unter diesem Titel erscheint bald im Tre Torri Verlag die deutschsprachige Fassung meines Buchs BEST WHITE WINE ON EARTH – The Riesling Story.

Hier meine Antwort auf Jancis Robinsons Frage „Riesling – wird er je richtig erfolgreich werden?“

Schon der Titel zeigt, dass sie die Chancen unserer Lieblingsrebsorte sehr skeptisch beurteilt, ein Eindruck, der durch den Text vollständig bestätigt wird. Zufällig habe auch ich in den letzten Wochen viel darüber nachgedacht, warum Riesling in bestimmten Märkten nicht besser läuft. Deshalb kam dieser Anstoß gerade recht, um meine Gedanken dazu mal aufzuschreiben.

Riesling scheint mir sehr vielseitig zu sein – in Bezug auf seine Geschmacksvielfalt, die von federleicht bis tonnenschwer, von knochentrocken bis honigsüß reicht und jede denkbare Kombination dieser Charakteristiken einschließt. Und diese Vielfalt differenziert sich weiter, in Abhängigkeit von den verschiedenen Menschen, die an den verschiedensten Orten der Welt Riesling produzieren oder konsumieren.

Schauen wir auf die Produktionsseite: Die Statistiken über die Anbauflächen erzählen in jeder Weinbauregion und -nation, in der Riesling eine bedeutende Rolle spielt, ihre ganz eigene Geschichte.

In Australien beispielsweise ist die Rieslinganbaufläche im vergangenen halben Jahrhundert bemerkenswert stabil geblieben, trotz des Wandels bei Image, Marketing, und Stilistik, den die australische Weinindustrie in den letzten Jahrzehnten mit enormen Fluktuationen nach unten wie nach oben vollzogen hat. Dabei blieb „knochentrocken“ die vorherrschende Geschmacksrichtung dieser Rebsorte. Riesling scheint ein so unverrückbarer Bestandteil der australischen Landschaft wie der Uluru (aka Ayers Rock). Kein anders Land auf dem Planeten Wein bestätigt dieses Modell. In keinem anderen Land auf dem Planten Wein liegen die Dinge so klar.

Vollständig anders ist die Situation in Amerika. Dort geriet der Riesling in den 70er und 80er Jahre gegenüber Rebsorten wie Chardonnay oder Merlot, deren Popularitätswerte wie Anbauflächen dramatisch wuchsen, weit ins Hintertreffen. Doch seit der Jahrtausendwende gewann Riesling weitgehend unterhalb des dem öffentlichen Radars wieder kräftig dazu. Dazu bedurfte es dreier Zutaten: ein dramatisch verbessertes winemaking, das Aufkommen vinophiler grass root Interessen (auch außerhalb der coolen West- oder Ostküsten-Metropolen) sowie ein gesunder Schuss Guerilla-Marketing. In dieser Geschichte steckt jedenfalls alles drin über amerikanischen Innovationsgeist.

Gewiss, es gibt globale Trends in Sachen Weinkonsum. Aber wenn exakt dieselben Weine rund um den Globus getrunken werden, dann werden sie doch auf sehr unterschiedliche Weise in unterschiedlichen Kulturen konsumiert. Was auch bedeutet, dass dieselben Weine für diese sehr heterogene Gruppe von Weingenießern sehr unterschiedliches bedeutet.

Deshalb zweifle ich an Jancis Robinsons Schlussfolgerung, nach der die weltweite Riesling-Blase (die es ohnehin nur in einigen Regionen gab) geplatzt sei, weil (wie sie schreibt) Riesling eine zu starke Persönlichkeit habe, um auf genug Konsumenten zu wirken, damit diese Rebsorte eine globale Zugkraft entfalten könne. Zwar stimmt es, dass Riesling zuletzt nicht in jedem Markt gewachsen und mancherorts aufgrund wechselnder Moden und Vorlieben sogar ein bisschen zurückgefallen ist. Aber selbst an solchen Orten ist es nicht schwer, zumindest Elemente des weltweiten Riesling-Netzwerks zu finden, wie man im Planet. Und genau darum wie um die Weine der besten Weißwein-Rebsorten auf Erden geht es in diesem Blog und in meinem Buch PLANET RIESLING.

Globalisierung im Sinne von globalem Handel geht auf die Zeit von vor 450 Jahren zurück (lesen Sie dazu Charles C. Manns Buch: 1493. Uncovering the New World Columbus created. Verlag Knopf , New York 2011). Aber erst die technischen Möglichkeiten des elektronischen Zeitalter haben die Bedeutung des Begriffs „sehr schnell“ dramatisch verändert. Doch selbst im 21. Jahrhundert ist Wein ein schwerfälliges Transportgut. Schon allein deshalb ist es bemerkenswert, dass Wein Teil der Social Media-Popkultur wurde. Noch außergewöhnlicher ist der Umstand, dass Riesling hier besonders erfolgreich ist, obwohl er nicht mal ein Prozent der weltweiten Rebfläche ausmacht. Im Vergleich dazu ist Cabernet Sauvignon kein auffälliges Phänomen im Bereich Social Media. Vielmehr ist es so, dass das Image dieser Weine in rigide hierarchische Strukturen eingesperrt ist, und deshalb im Netz kaum virale Aufregung zu verbreiten vermag. Ich bin sicher, dass die Nicht-Existenz einer globalen Community von Cabernet-Erzeugern (anders als bei Pinot Noir oder Riesling) , die hohen Preise für viele dieser Weine und das elitäre Gehabe um sie diesen Effekt verstärken.

Genau deshalb ist Riesling mit seinen vielfältigen Genussmöglichkeiten und stilistische Interpretationen so hervorragend geeignet, um die verschiedensten Menschen an den unterschiedlichsten Orten miteinander zu verbinden. Die Tatsache, dass seine Preise grundsätzlich moderat sind und sich seine Erzeuger weltweit frei und offen austauschen, verstärkt den Eindruck, dass Riesling ein demokratischer Wein ist.

Nur ältere Konsumenten, für die Riesling süß und langweilig schmeckt, sowie jüngere, statusorientierte Weintrinker, die ihre Prägungen von der älteren Generation beziehen (weil sie sich, wie ich vermute, in ihren Urteilen sicher fühlen will) scheinen komplett unfähig, einen neuen Zugang zu Riesling oder eine positive Interpretation dieser Rebsorte zu finden. Und in diesem Punkt hat Jancis Robinson recht: Sie selbst wie auch andere Weinautoren haben nur einen äußerst geringen Einfluss auf diese tiefsitzenden Vorurteile.

Warum aber klammern sich diese Konsumenten an eine derart altmodische Vorstellung von Riesling? Ich glaube, es liegt daran, dass viele dieser überwiegend männlichen Konsumenten in einer machohaften Art an ihren Überzeugungen festhalten; das heißt, sie trachten danach, den sehr bestimmenden Eindruck zu erwecken, über Wein absolut Bescheid zu wissen. Statt „Wissen“ verbreiten sie aber eine Vorstellung Wein, die aus einer vergangenen Weinwelt (meist die des späten 20. Jahrhunderts) stammt, sehr an damals herrschende Geschmacksnormen angepasst ist, wonach erst Chardonnay und dann die „großen“ Rotweine dominierten. Je mehr Parker-Punkte, desto klarer das Urteil, obwohl sich die Weinmoden und -stile seither in sehr unterschiedliche Richtungen entwickelt haben (z.B. in Richtung Eleganz, mehr geschmacklich trockene Weißweine und weniger tieffarbige Rotweine). In Anlehnung an den kanadischen Medientheoretiker Marshall MacLuhan könnte man sagen: Die meisten von uns betrachten die Welt am liebsten wohlig durch den Rückspiegel als durch die Frontscheibe.

Fazit: Je mehr sich ein Individuum, eine Gruppe oder eine Kultur für den Geschmack von Wein öffnet (und zulässt, was der spezifische Charakter eines Weins mit einem anstellt), desto größer ist die Neigung zu Riesling. Je mehr Weinkonsumenten aber bestimmt sind von Status-Vorstellungen und einem klar definierten äußeren Erscheinungsbild, desto härter der Kampf, den diese Weine ausfechten müssen, um sich durchzusetzen und in extremen Fällen läuft das auf die Besteigung der Eiger-Nordwand hinaus. So lautet Pigotts Gesetz der Status-Weine.

Vielleicht liegt hier der Grund, dass sich Riesling in Norwegen so gut durchgesetzt hat, wie auch Jancis betont. Es lohnt jedenfalls, einen genaueren Blick auf Norwegen zu werfen. In dem von den Vereinten Nation erstellten Human Development Index 2014 nimmt Norwegen den ersten Platz ein – verglichen mit 5. Platz für Amerika und dem 14. für Großbritannien. Die Economist Intelligence Unit erstellt alle zwei Jahre einen Demokratie-Index, und da belegt Norwegen für das Jahr 2012 ebenfalls Patz eins (Großbritannien ist 16., die USA sind 21.). In dem Ranking der Pressefreiheit, das die Organisation Reporter ohne Grenzen erstellt, rangiert Norwegen auf Platz drei (Großbritannien ist 33., die USA sind 46.). Als ich 2007 Norwegen bereiste, fand ich bestimmt nicht alles dort toll, aber das Klima der Offenheit von so vielen Menschen hat mich sehr beeindruckt. Das ist genau die Luft, die Riesling zum Atmen braucht und in der er aufblüht.

Nur am Rande möchte ich bemerken, dass keiner der weltweit führenden Riesling-Erzeuger je Probleme hat, jedes Jahr ausverkauft zu sein,. Ich muss schon ziemlich hinterher sein, um Weine direkt bei deutschen Winzern wie Helmut Dönnhoff in Oberhausen (Nahe) und Klaus-Peter Keller in Flörsheim-Dalsheim (Rheinhessen) zu kaufen, bei ihrem australischen Kollegen Jeffrey Grosset, Clare Valley oder bei Hermann J. Wiemer, Finger Lakes (Upstate New York).

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Israel Riesling Diary: Day 12 – The not so Narrow Road to the Far North

Posted on October 22, 2014 by Stuart

Yesterday I took the not so narrow road to the Far North of Israel, that is to the hill country of Upper Galilee very close to the border with Lebanon, but before I got there I stopped at Yair Teboulle’s Domaine Netofa in Lower Galilee. His vineyards, pictured above, are situated close to Mount Tavor (in the background of the picture) and they are planted with what he calls “hot climate” grape varieties, which mostly means our friends GSM (Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre), GM originating in the Spanish Mediterranean and S coming from the French Mediterranean. The reason for this strategy is the fact that Lower Galilee is significantly warmer than Upper Galilee where most of the best Israeli Cabernet Sauvignons grow.

The rich, yet delicately spicy and velvety Domaine Natofa reds from the 2012 vintage suggest this was a very smart move by Yair (on the left in the picture below) and that vineyard manager Shahar Marmor (on the right) is already expertly cultivating these varieties for high quality in the 12 hectares of vineyards. Certainly, the vineyards looked impeccable and everything Shahar told me fitted what I saw. Considering the youth of the vines (the first were planted in 2006), and that he hasn’t been there since the beginning, this is a major achievement. Why am I going on about vineyard cultivation at such length? Well, wherever you are on Planet Wine there’s no possibility of making great wines without great grapes and to get them you need near-perfect vineyard cultivation, which is usually a great deal of work. More about these wines after my big article about Israeli wines appears in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in a couple of weeks.

This morning I made my way onward and “upward” (i.e. northwards) to Ramot Naftaly winery in the village of the same name. Their red wines are quite powerful, like most Israeli reds, but you can taste the cool mountain air in them too. They have made quite a name for themselves here in Israel with their Barbera and to a lesser degree with their Malbec and Petit Verdot. The Barbera has a natural acidity that I wouldn’t instinctively associate with this warm climate, the Malbec was moderate in alcohol for this variety (which so easily climbs over 15%) yet tasted properly ripe, and the Petit Verdot managed to combine great concentration of black fruits with an uplifting freshness. They’re model examples of modern Upper Galilee reds without any trace of exaggeration (e.g. too much ripeness, alcohol, tannin, oak). The picture below shows the pressing of one of their 2014 red wines, and this does seem to be at least a very good vintage.

In my glass as I write this is the 2012 ‘Shoresh’ red wine cuvée from Tzora in the Judean Hills, and if after reading all of the above you doubt that Israeli red wines can taste dry and subtle, then you need to experience this masterpiece from winemaker Eran Pick. This is no showstopper, much less a blockbuster, but during the last decade Israeli winemakers were often too obsessed with making wines like that to attract attention, gain recognition and to sell their wines for prices that turned a profit. The best winemakers here have now dumped those goals in the trashcan and are seeking a distinctively Israeli kind of beauty like that of the ‘Shoresh’, rather than working a standardized, off-the-peg style that could just as easily have been achieved in a dozen other places around Planet Wine. Now we are starting to taste Israel!

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Israel Riesling Diary: Day 11 – The Impossibility of Defining the Genius of Israeli Wine

Posted on October 21, 2014 by Stuart

I feel sure that, in spite of having tasted a slew of Israeli wines and met many Israeli winemakers since I arrived, I’m still a long way from having an overview of what is happening here, but there’s one thing that I’m already sure of, and that’s the impossibility of defining the genius of Israeli wine today with any kind of simple formula or definition. Something remarkable has happened here since the turn of the century, just as it did in Germany, but the (socio-cultural) context is utterly different and, of course, the winemaking conditions are too. The latter make one type of wine – genuinely light white wines – very difficult to produce, but apart from that this there are clearly enormous possibilities here and they are being explored in an ambitious and serious way. The result is an enormous range of interesting and exciting wines, some of which lie well outside what the description “Mediterranean wines” would lead you to expect.

Sure some Israeli red wines are massive, have plenty of alcohol and are seriously tannic, but during tastings I rarely felt that the wines had been overly-extracted. Instead, I encountered the normal range of wine styles and differences that variations in the growing conditions were responsible for (our old friend “terroir”). The truth is that red wines made by Eran Goldwasser at Yatir Winery, to take a prominent example, lie at the massive and tannic end of the scale because of the landscape in which they are grown. The photograph below was taken just a few miles away from the Yatir forest where those vineyards are situated. In this desert environment the summer days are hot, but temperatures plummet at night. Irrigation is essential for wine growing, but must be carefully judged, and great care must be taken that the grapes aren’t picked overripe. Eran Goldwasser has mastered this difficult discipline and his wines have a herbal freshness, and even the most concentrated of them still taste invigorating.

Then there are the elegant, dry reds from Flam winery that are clearly inspired by modern Tuscan red wines. That was particularly apparent in the ‘Classico’ red that had the red cherry aroma I associate with Chianti Classico, although the wine is mostly made from Cabernet Sauvignon (entirely from vineyards in the Judean Hills). Even the top red wine made by Golan Flam, the 2009 ‘Noble’ (mostly from Galilee), is not dominated by black fruit aromas and lacks any trace of inky density, remaining light on its feet. That really is a huge contrast to Yatir, although both wineries are largely using the same grape varieties.

Golan Flam is a thinker, and reminded me an architect or a mathematician. Assaf Paz of Vitkin winery, just a short drive from where I’m staying to the north of Tel Aviv is more like a rock star or a DJ, and it makes complete sense that his wines strike out in many directions that are unconventional for Israel. One of his best wines is the Old Vine Carignan, which is herbal and fruity, warm and mellow, yet weighs in at a moderate (in the Israeli context) alcoholic content of 13.5%. He’s not only obsessed by Mediterranean varieties like this, but also with making crisp and refreshing dry whites that have the maximum aroma intensity. One of those wines is Israel’s best dry Riesling, from the same vineyard as the sweet Sphera Riesling described in my previous posting. 2014 looks to be an excellent vintage for this wine, but also for Assaf’s Columbard dry white, which is packed with exotic aromas of a kind I never experienced in this “inferior” French variety before. The photo of Assaf below shows him in a quiet moment. I wish I could have captured the rock star-DJ Assaf in full flow, but maybe this page wouldn’t have been wide enough to accommodate that expansive personality.

Not every wine from all the winemakers I’ve described in my many postings from Israel has been optimized yet, but they are all on their way in that direction and this incompleteness and that dynamic make the nation and its winemakers irresistible to me. You can be sure that I will continue to follow this subject during the years to come. Israel has bitten me in the best possible way. Of course, this isn’t a nation without problems, and the long term future of this part of the Middle East is endangered by the conflicts between Israel and many of the Arab countries around it (Israel also has some serious internal conflicts). That is something I cannot ignore, but first I’m tasting the wines, talking to the winemakers and absorbing all the impressions of Israel that I can without falling into the trap of making hasty and simplistic judgments of this complex situation.

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Israel Riesling Diary: Day 10 – Revelation in Tel Aviv

Posted on October 20, 2014 by Stuart

Many apologies for the long radio silence, which was not planned. Unfortunately there were internet problems at my hotels in Jerusalem and on the Dead Sea. Then I got back to this internet paradise in Even Yehuda too late last night to put this posting online.

During my ten days in Israel there have been many surprises, the great majority of which were positive or at least amusing, and there were also some unexpected Israel Riesling Moments (IRMs). However, none of these came close to the moment of revelation yesterday in the Tel Aviv restaurant Hashulhan at the global Riesling tasting organized by Eldad Levy of Boutique de Champagnes. I always enjoy sharing good and great Riesling with a group of interested wine drinkers, but this was just one aspect of the evening. The 2013 Riesling which winemaker Doron Rav Hon, pictured above, brought with him from his Sphera winery was nothing short of mind-blowing and third Ultimate IRM made my entire trip to Israel worth while.

If you had told me before I tasted this wine that it would be possible to produce a delicately aromatic Riesling with enormous freshness and a Mosel-like balance of juicy sweetness and racy acidity in the Mediterranean climate of Israel I would have told you that this must be completely impossible. However, Doron Rav Hon has succeeded in doing exactly this by finding a really cool site, precise use of irrigation water to encourage aroma formation, and picking early enough to have a ton of natural acidity. This wine, which is the first vintage of Riesling, from his all white wine winery (in Israel!), has notes of floral and dripping leaves, which for me are amongst the most noble Riesling aromas. It is so delicate and filigree in flavor, the balance of sweetness, acidity and those great aromatics so expertly judged that I guessed its alcoholic content to be 10% or below, although it is actually 13%. I can’t wait to taste his other white wines. A star is born!