We all know, I am a bit of a Riesling Fan... and fortunately I also have some friends who truly enjoy Riesling as well! So I grabbed a few girls after a day at the office and we were off to Roy Thomson Hall for an evening of wine, food and Riesling Joy!! I couldn't think of a better way to spend a Tuesday night than at German Wine Fair - and what a fantastic time we had!Everywhere we looked there were bottles of Riesling and Pinot Noir (there was definitely more Riesling than Pinot). Funky round bottles and big tall bottles all filled with wine for us to taste and think about whether we liked it or not. It was like a dream come true for any Riesling lover. I was in Heaven. Natalie, Laura and I took to the floor with our wine glasses in hand and in much anticipation of finding some new wines that we would love. And we certainly did.
If you don’t already know Germany is famous for their Rieslings. They make them sweet and dry and when the 
weather gets cold enough they can even make Icewine. They are one of the other areas in the world, other than Ontario that can get cold enough to make it.
weather gets cold enough they can even make Icewine. They are one of the other areas in the world, other than Ontario that can get cold enough to make it.As it turned out, I could barely pronounce any of the vineyard names (it was a good thing Laura is of German descent as she turned out to be the language teacher for the evening) so I had to find other ways to remember the wines, including what the label looked like and how friendly the person behind the booth was with regards to talking to us about the wines. We found some great wine teachers who served us wine and taugh us about every Germany! We tried some sweet Rieslings – including one of my favourites the Relax Riesling – which helped us Relax into the evening - as well as some of the dryer ones as well.
One varietal we tried was called Silvaner - which had a taste that was a cross between a Gruner Veltliner (Austria), a Riesling and a Sauvignon Blanc. I loved it and will definitely be buying some of it the next time I am at the LCBO. We were pleasantly surprised by the Black Tower Wines. They had a really cool bottle, had an enjoyable and easy drinking taste. To boot they were very,
very affordable. One of the wines we tried from Black Tower was called Rivaner (which is a cross between Riesling and Silvaner). It was a white wine in a black bottle and we really enjoyed it! We also found out that Black Tower is Germany's most exported wine.
I also learned that due to the fact that the majority of German vines are planted on a slope mechanical harvesting doesn’t happen very often – if at all. Most of the grapes are harvested and sorted by hand. We were even told that they go as far as to sort through all the berries individually to find the best single berries for that perfect bottle of Riesling. Now this sounds like my type of wine!
One varietal we tried was called Silvaner - which had a taste that was a cross between a Gruner Veltliner (Austria), a Riesling and a Sauvignon Blanc. I loved it and will definitely be buying some of it the next time I am at the LCBO. We were pleasantly surprised by the Black Tower Wines. They had a really cool bottle, had an enjoyable and easy drinking taste. To boot they were very,
very affordable. One of the wines we tried from Black Tower was called Rivaner (which is a cross between Riesling and Silvaner). It was a white wine in a black bottle and we really enjoyed it! We also found out that Black Tower is Germany's most exported wine.I also learned that due to the fact that the majority of German vines are planted on a slope mechanical harvesting doesn’t happen very often – if at all. Most of the grapes are harvested and sorted by hand. We were even told that they go as far as to sort through all the berries individually to find the best single berries for that perfect bottle of Riesling. Now this sounds like my type of wine!
Here is a little German Wine 101 (thanks Wiki):
- Germany has about 252,000 acres of vineyard
- Riesling is the benchmark grape of Germany
- The total wine production is usually 1.2 billion bottles, which places Germany as the eighth largest wine-producing country in the world
- Red wine has always been hard to produce in the German climateHowever recently there has been greatly increased demand and darker, richer red wines (often oak aged) are produced from grapes such as Dornfelder (a German red grape variety) and Spätburgunder (the German name for pinot noir)
- Schloss Johannisberg is a winery in the Rheingau wine-growing region in Germany, that has been making wine for over 900 years
- At one point the Church controlled most of the major vineyards in Germany
The Different classifications of German Wine - that we learned about last night are (and this is also for my reference):
- Kabinett wines are made from grapes picked several days after the QbA grapes are picked. These are the first picked grapes of the Prädikat level.
- Spätlese wines ("late harvest") are made from grapes harvested 12-14 days after the Kabinett grapes are picked.
- Auslese wines ("select harvest") are made from grapes that have been hand-selected out from the other grapes. These grapes are late-harvest and have a high sugar content.
- Beerenauslese wines ("berry selection") are made from grapes that have been left on the vine longer than the Auslese grapes. These grapes develop the fungus Botrytis, which removes the moisture from the grape. Thus these wines are very sweet and make good dessert wines.
- Trockenbeerenauslese wines ("dry berries selection") are extremely sweet, concentrated and usually quite expensive wines. The grapes used for Trockenbeerenauslese have reached an even more raisin-like state than those used for Beerenauslese.
So there you have a little recap of the German Wine Fair plus a little bit about German Wine 101. I would love to be able to make it to Germany, it seems the perfect wine adventure for a Riesling (& Pinot Noir) lover!
I am still learning everything about the different wine regions of the world, but the wine fair was a great introduction and I will definitely be drinking more German Wines!
Cheers,
Ange
For more information on German Wines Visit any of the websites below:
