Markus Molitor’s Auslese*** from 2005

Markus Molitor shows how the consistent implementation of quality standards can become a story of success. Since taking over his father’s winery in 1984, he has constantly expanded it, as he has consistently pursued the goal he formulated of building on the golden days of Riesling from the Mosel with wines that are extremely typical of the location and can be stored.

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Diel’s inspiring Riesling Kabinett


I wanted to get quinces from Hans. But of course Hans had a few wines up his sleeve to taste, including a Riesling Kabinett 2021 from Schlossgut Diel. I knew the winery from the dry wines, as it produces Große Gewächse from the three adjacent Große Lagen Pittermännchen, Goldloch and Burgberg. Despite their proximity, these large layers have very different soils. From the ferrous clay soils of the Burgberg interspersed with quartzite to the gold hole on gravelly primary rock soils to the Pittermännchen, where the grapes thrive on weathered slate above Rotliegend.

The winery also produces dry wines from its other sites, but the  noble sweet wines … Read more ...

Racy late harvest from the Saar

The Hofgut Falkenstein, or a Riesling Spätlese from the winery, has already been the subject of this blog, nevertheless here are the most important points about the winery: Erich Weber and his son Johannes are responsible for the winery. Both studied viticulture in Geisenheim and it seems that they have a very similar view of Riesling vines and whose wines. Their philosophy seems to be characterized on the one hand by renunciation: no fertilisers, fungicides, herbicides and pesticides in the vineyard, no pure culture yeasts,

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Taut Auslese from the red shale


Red shale (Rotliegendes) © Wein vom Roten Hang e.V.

The Rheinhessen wine-growing region comprises 3 areas, 24 major sites and 432 individual sites, at least that is how it can be read in Wikipedia, not a word about the fact that some of the best and most well-known wine sites in Germany can be found there. In any case the Roter Hang has to be named, which is

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Fruity Rieslaner Auslese from the Haardter Herzog

Viticulture near Maikammer © tomkevicius Pixabay

The winery has been family-owned since 1744, the year the Müller-Catoir winery was founded – now in the ninth generation. The VDP- winery (Association of German Prädikatsweingüter) owns 25 hectares, all locations in the Mittelhaardt, in Haardt are the locations Bürgergarten, Herrenletten, Herzog and Mandelring, in Gimmeldingen, Almond Garden and Schlössel. The vines grow on loess, clay or red sandstone, which can also be found in the Haardter Herzog.

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Scheurebe TBA from the steep slope specialist


Wine landscape near Durbach © erge Pixabay

The Ortenau is known to many because of the local Riesling clone, called Klingelberger. Also in Durbach, north of Offenburg, many locations are planted with it, including at the local Durbach winegrowers’ cooperative, from which the wine tasted today comes, a 2013 Trockenbeerenauslese from the Scheurebe from the Steinberg location. A grape variety which can be

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Gewürztraminer Auslese – Orange By Nature?


The warning, “Careful! The Zwölberich Orange by Nature Gewürztraminer Auslese noble sweet is not a typical white wine, but a so-called Orange Wine” first made me aware of the wine I tasted. The additional note “fermented on the mash” did the rest: my curiosity about what a sweet wine of an aromatic variety is like after this mash fermentation was aroused.

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