Riesling | Moore Brothers Wine Company

Archive for riesling

weingut freiherr von heddesdorff

By greg

Thursday, January 20th, 2011

Our earliest contact in Germany came by way of Thomas Hähn, a young German who worked with Dave when he was at WineAccess, the company that developed and hosts our e-commerce web sites. Thomas’ sister Irmy is married to Andreas von Canal (shown in photo), proprietor and winemaker at Weingut Freiherr von Heddesdorff in the village of Winningen near Koblenz, where the lower Mosel joins the Rhine.

Weingut von Heddesdorff is in the first rank of producers in the district (and one of the oldest – the winery has operated continuously since 1424), and in addition to supplying Moore Brothers with distinctive, creamy textured, mostly dry Rieslings, Andreas and Irmy have generously housed, fed, and encouraged us with information leading to some of our favorite producers in other regions.

Posted by Greg Moore

Categories : germany, our winegrowers, riesling

Tags : learning, our winegrowers

riesling on the tasting table

By greg

Thursday, January 20th, 2011

I do encounter it less frequently these days, but all of us who man the tasting table at Moore Brothers (especially when we have visiting producers from Alsace and Germany) still hear it often enough: “I’ll pass on the Riesling. I only like dry wine.”

Of course, the likelihood is that the Riesling in question is drier than most California Chardonnays, but that’s not the point. We all prefer sweet ripe fruit to sour green fruit. Probably eat ice cream, too. In fact, we all like sweet things. We’re primates, aren’t we?

“I’ll pass on the Riesling. I only like dry wine.”

Now I’m only a huckster, but believe it or not genuine wine authorities like Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson are happy to proclaim their opinion that Riesling is the king of grapes; more noble, in fact, than Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, or Chardonnay.

Here’s why:
Riesling describes in detail – eloquently – exactly where it grows, provided it’s happy where it grows. It’s like a sensitive FM tuner that finds the “frequency” of each unique location, and amplifies it. So a wine made from Riesling grown in the Rheingau could never be mistaken for a wine from Alsace or Lake Seneca.

Pinot Noir alone is as sensitive to its environment. So it’s no coincidence that Pinot Noir and Riesling were selected by the monks, who were the stewards of viticulture in the Rheinland and Burgundy through the centuries between the fall of Rome and the French Revolution.

And because even very ripe Riesling retains high levels of acidity, both dry and sweet wines can be made. And sweet wines made from Riesling are never stupid sweet like cotton candy at a baseball game. They’re sweet like ripe fruit. In fact, the really distinguishing characteristic of Riesling isn’t sweetness. It’s acidity.

And Riesling gives some of the longest-lived natural wines, which can evolve over decades in a cool cellar, developing aromatics and flavors that can barely be inferred in the young wine.

All that explains why British aristocrats of the early twentieth century routinely paid more for fine German Rieslings than for classified growth Bordeaux. They recognized among them some of the finest wines in the world.

Remember, there are only two kinds of wine in the world: good wine, and the other kind. We’ll only offer good wine for you to taste, so don’t let a bad experience you may have had with a terrible wine that happened to be sweet (or white, or red or whatever) deter you from trying everything on the tasting table at Moore Brothers. We only have good wine, not “the other kind.”

Posted by Greg Moore

Categories : learning, riesling

Tags : learning, our stores, riesling

hérzu at fuji

By David Moore

Thursday, January 20th, 2011

Wow. Susan and I had the most outrageous raw fish ever at Matt Ito’s (photo above) Fuji in Haddonfield.

I know it’s not nice to “rub it in,” but unbelievable as it may seem to our New York clientele, the Philadelphia suburbs of South Jersey have the best freakin’ sushi on the East Coast.

We took the perfectly preserved remnants of a bottle of Sergio’s Langhe Bianco Riesling Hérzu and it was absolutely stunning!

Next time you’re “out for sushi,” either at Fuji or Sagami, pick a bottle of Hérzu – it’s bangin’ with raw fish.

Posted by David Moore

Categories : byob, dinner with susan, food with wine, piemonte, riesling

Tags : byob, dinner with susan, food with wine, learning

peter jakob kühn

By greg

Tuesday, January 18th, 2011

The Romans planted vines in the Rheingau on slopes where the snow first melted in the spring, and the first recorded Spätlese was a Rheingau Riesling. But for almost fifty years, the region has stagnated, with the large, traditional estates consistently issuing unworthy, mediocre wines.

The Rheingau renaissance began in the 1980's, with producers like Robert Weil and Bernhard Breuer. In the 1990's another half-dozen small family producers joined them, with Peter Jakob Kühn heading the list of the very best. Peter farms biodynamically, without the labor saving benefit of herbicides, and ferments his Reislings on the natural, ambient yeast.

Though a very traditional winemaker, he is fearless in his willingness to adopt new methods when they are shown to yield better results. For example, after much of his 1999 harvest was spoiled by tainted corks, Peter Jakob Kühn joined the ranks of other courageous producers around the world, unhesitatingly adopting stainless steel caps and Stelvin caps in place of corks, even for his most expensive wines.

In 1991, Peter won the prestigious Feinschmecker award for the best dry Riesling in Germany. In March 2002, the Deutsches Weininstitut selected his Oestricher Doosberg Riesling Spätlese trocken 2000 to represent Germany at the European Wine Council Annual Gala Dinner held at Le Cirque in New York. The only source in America was Moore Brothers, so we sent three cases for the event.

Posted by Greg Moore

Categories : germany, our winegrowers, riesling

Tags : germany, learning, our winegrowers, riesling

rheingau riesling trocken weingut peter jakob kühn

By David Moore

Tuesday, January 18th, 2011

The Rhine turns westward just past Mainz, flowing along a 30-kilometer stretch of warm, southerly exposed vineyards that have been a center of German wine production since Roman times. It was in the Rheingau that Riesling’s potential was first realized and developed, through an unprecedented collaboration between the church, the nobility, and the peasants. Peter and Angela Kühn, at their 12-hectare estate outside of Oestrich, honor this tradition with finely honed Riesling of the first order. Their “Rheingau” trocken, redolent of lime and spice, fills the palate with rich flavors buoyed by brilliant acidity.

region

Regional History
Viticulture in Germany is mentioned by the Stoic philosopher Posidonius of Rhodes (135-51 BC), who wrote, “…the {Germans} drink a lot of undiluted wine…” It’s known that the Romans first planted many of Germany’s finest vineyard sites. With the rise of the early Christian church, the vine had been intimately intertwined with religious and secular history. Charlemagne supported winemaking directly with vine planting projects and indirectly, by his support and encouragement of monastic orders. By the late 18th century, it was the Church who was responsible for quality controls such as laws against the adulteration of wines, replacement of lesser-known varietals with the noble Riesling grape, and the custom of distinguishing certain vineyard sites as being superior. The Rheingau has a long – standing reputation (famous for being famous) as the finest wine producing region in Germany. The small village of Oestrich (in the heart of the region) holds two of the most esteemed vineyards, Doosberg and Lenchen. The micro-climate is tempered by the Rhein River, and the soil is more calcereous (reminiscent of Burgundy) than that found in other famous Riesling Vineyards.

Regional Foods
The lighter German wines are excellent with classic regional dishes such as wiener schnitzel, spaetzle (noodles) in butter or delicate cream sauce & kudlen (dumplings). The heavier Spätlese & dry or off-dry Auslese wines are excellent with fish (including sushi & sashimi), poultry, and other white meat dishes. German wines pair particularly well with reduction sauces having an edge of caramelization and the addition of cream or crème fraiche. German wines are naturally well suited to cut through the edge of sweetness and fat from these elegant sauces. In contrast, garlic-laden, tomato-based sauces and olive-oil preparations combat the delicate aromas and texture of most German wines.

Categories : germany, riesling, tasting notes

Tags : learning, riesling, tasting notes

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Archive for riesling

weingut freiherr von heddesdorff

riesling on the tasting table

hérzu at fuji

peter jakob kühn

rheingau riesling trocken weingut peter jakob kühn