The Faces behind my Columns

Angelina Lenz & Kilian Franzen of Weingut Franzen in Bremm/Mosel with their new creation, the 2011 'Der Sommer war sehr gross', or 'The Summer was very great', a quote from the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke

I get a lot of requests for more information and/or pictures to my weekly ‘Reiner Wein’, or pure wine, column in the sunday edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. These pictures are no substitute for the columns themselves, but at least they let you see the faces behind the wines I recommend. In the above instance the faces belong to a wonderful new dry Mosel Riesling with a pretty crazy name. The photos above and below go with the column which appeared in the issue of Sunday, March 18th.

Peter Gago, chief winemaker of Penfolds/Australia at the tasting of Penfolds Cabernet Sauvignon / Shiraz red wine blends in the Düsseldorf steak house Reef &Beef (courtesy Treasury Wine Estates).

The Penfolds tasting was so impressive not only because it was the German debut of the ultra-concentrated (and ultra-expensive) 2008 Bin 620, but also because it demonstrated how Australian Cabernet Sauvignon / Shiraz blends can age. The 1962 Bin 60A was still very much alive and good to drink!

Hats off to Jürgen Zipf of Weingut Zipf in Löwenstein/Württemberg at ProWein in Düsseldorf with his racy dry 2011 Rieslings.

Jürgen Zipf certainly isn’t the only German Jungwinzer, or young winegrower, who hit the bullseye in 2011, but his wines from the Löwenstein Mountains have an elegance which most wine drinkers in and outside Germany don’t associate with Württemberg. His 2011 Riesling “Inka” shared the honours in my columnin the March 11th issue with the 2011 Riesling “Aufwind” from the Hochbenn vineyard from Thomas Hensel (see below).

Alexandra Weiss took this picture of herself with Thomas Hensel of Weingut Hensel in Bad Dürkheim/Pfalz with my camera after I tasted Thomas's beautifuly balanced 2011 dry whites, but that's what the ProWein is for!