German Whites

I’m getting fonder and fonder of German wines and I started with a high level of affection. Every time I visit Germany I am more impressed by the wines. The main push in the direction of high quality in Germany is towards dry, or trocken, wines but it seems that there are very few trocken wines in the UK, which is a pity, but not the end of the world.

I know you lot think that you don’t like medium dry white wines – I know you think they’re uncool. I’m not suggesting Liebfraumilch or anything under a fiver, but have a go, just once, at a white German wine. Wait for a warm day, perhaps a weekend, when you’ve been in the garden, and open a bottle early in the evening as an aperitif. Alcohol is sensible, at between 10 and 12%vol and the slight sweetness is balanced by pretty high acidity, so your mouth is refreshed and you feel fabulously alive, but not drunk. You probably haven’t even noticed German whites in the supermarket, but Waitrose sell fifteen of them, ranging from trocken up to rich, tangy and bewitching pudding wines.

The reason that we don’t see many German wines isn’t just because people like you don’t think you like them; it’s that the Germans don’t want to sell them to us. During my recent trip, nearly every winery we visited had sold out of wine. Several had three or four months every year when they don’t have any wine to sell. Added to that, America has suddenly cottoned on to German Riesling and is grabbing all they can get. In the US it sells for much higher prices, so it’s easy to see why we don’t get much.

My panel arrived with few hopes, but were pleasantly surprised. Lingenfelder Riesling 2005 is £6.49 from Oddbins and is a delicious wine. It smells of lime pith and despite the fact that the panel “don’t like sweet wines” has quite a lot of residual sugar, which they marked very highly. It would be hard not to notice the excellent balance and long, tangy aftertaste, which reminded Alex of lime flavoured fruit gums.

Kendermanns Dry Riesling 2005 is a ridiculous £4.99 from Waitrose. I accidentally forgot to drink a bottle of this wine until it was about 4 years old and it had evolved beautifully into something complex and savoury. It doesn’t smell very much when young but the taste is so tart, dry and refreshing that you want to drink more. The taste reminded Alex of fresh kiwi. Naked Grape Riesling 2005, which is £5.99 from Waitrose and Booths is also dry, but tastes like fresh peach, without being perfumed at all.

Schloss Johannisberger Riesling Kabinett 2005 is a good notch up in terms of quality and so is £11.99 from Tesco. I hope enough people buy it so they can continue to stock it, because it is absolutely delicious. The smell is richly tropical and the taste is also rich and more typical of the sweeter style of German Riesling. Tesco Finest Steillage Riesling at £5.99 is tangy, fresh and dry and Devil’s Rock is like a dry version of fresh pineapple juice.

German Whites

© Copyright 2007 Mel Jones