In an effort to enable us to open the next German wine, as I can’t open it until I write about the last one, I’m writing this post! It’s really hot today, so I’m going to make this somewhat brief as the laptop is hot and I’m wearing shorts, an unfortunate combination.



This time I had another spätlese, wine made from grapes of the same ripeness as the last one, however, this time it was from the Rheingau. Some Rheingaunian trivia: this area is also along the Rhine river, as is Mosel, in an area where the river stops flowing northward and instead flows westward for about 30 kilometers (that’s about 18.6 miles). Most of the vines are located along the right bank of this stretch up the south-facing slopes of the Taunus mountain range.

The vineyards here make up only about 3% of the total acreage in all of Germany, yet the wines from some producers here are internationally known. Riesling truly is king here, making up nearly 80% of the wines here. Apparently there’s also a good deal of pinot noir, although after the atrocious cold climate pinot noir from Canada we had a couple years ago I’m afraid to try another. Obviously Germany and Canada are different places, but that wine was so awful it has turned me off from all pinot noirs grown in areas that also produce icewine.

Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy this spätlese as much as the Mosel representation, which is particularly unfortunate given that this one was $35.99 and the other $18.99. It was a great wine, don’t get me wrong, but had less acid and more body. The Mosel spätlese was still refreshing despite the residual sugar, but this one coated your throat with its sugar.

It had some teeny, tiny bubbles floating in the light yellow color of the wine. There was a powerful butterscotch and honey aroma, with a hint of flowers. Definitely a sweeter wine with a medium body. Had that slight effervescence, which unfortunately doesn’t last to day 2-- or 3. It was heavy enough that it was hard to drink a lot, thus taking us 3 nights to finish the whole bottle, although I still wouldn’t classify this as a dessert wine.

After my last post I decided that despite my crazy busy schedule I could certainly handle writing one blog post per week. So, the next week I dutifully opened the next German riesling, jotted down my tasting notes and then proceeded to be so busy, and subsequently tired, that I have failed to write the post for the last three weeks. So much for good intentions.

In the meantime Connor has started Kindergarten and my one part time job has shrunk to make way for part time job #2, not to mention the bazillion volunteer posts at the elementary school that I signed up for; I can’t help but want to. (On a side note, I signed up to help pass out hot lunches brought in by the school lunch vendor. Each time I work I get Connor one free, locally-sourced, organic lunch custom made from a menu larger than at many restaurants-- but I realized the other day that I have volunteered to be the Lunch Lady.) Never fear, there’s a wine for that!

But first, my promised lesson on German wine regions, or Anbaugebiete in German. Many of the wines I picked up for this chapter of Give Me Grapes are from Mosel. That had me thinking that it must be the largest wine producing region in Germany. And I was thinking wrong. That would be the Rheinhessen. Its not even second! Mosel was until recently called Mosel-Saar-Ruwer. It runs along the rivers Moselle, Saar and Ruwer. Nearly 60% of the grapes grown here are riesling. (It comes in third in wine production, by the way)

Other wine regions of note are Pfalz (the warmest in Germany) and Rheingau (with a large concentration of top-producers). There are, in all fairness, nine other regions, but I’d never heard of them so clearly they aren’t important. Or perhaps, just lower in production and more rarely imported to the US. Strangely enough, the only region of these four that I don’t have a wine from is the Rheinhessen- K&L didn’t carry too many of them. Maybe those wines are so good they keep them all for themselves?


You’ll notice that most of the regions are clustered around a river (a recurring theme in European wine), the Rhine River, as well as its tributaries such as those named above. Germany is not a warm place, so it’s best to grow grapes near the water so that the sun reflecting off the water helps warm the vines and ripen the grapes.

My Mosel riesling for this post was a Spätlese, which you’ll remember means “late harvest”. I was expecting this to be a dessert wine, but was pleased that is was nothing of the sort. In fact, having just had the Kabinett the week before, which theoretically should have less residual sugar, I thought this wine was lighter and less sweet. It had a bit of effervescence, and I just love that in a slightly sweet wine. It was practically clear in color and upon first pour the little bubbles were visible. It smelled distinctly of riesling, and its heavy honeyed perfume really made me think it was going to be a heavy, sweet wine. But with those light bubbles and a little acidity, the slight sweetness was well balanced and the body was lighter than I was expecting. I wrote on my notes in all-caps: YUM!.