Karl-Heinz Datum

Matured by the Foehn – Jurançon

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© La Cave de Gan Jurançon
© La Cave de Gan Jurançon

Around 1,500 km separate the foothills of the Alps south of Munich and Jurançon in France, but despite this distance, both have a climatic similarity: the Foehn, a dry warm wind from the mountains, always blowing from the south. In wine-growing areas north of the Alps, in the autumn, the grapes intended for the production of a sweet wine can dry and rosinate in the vineyard on the vine, naturally concentrating the sugars. A well-known example of a sweet wine that benefits from the Foehn is a Flétri from Valais.

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Elysium Black Muscat – Californian Scent of Heaven

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Black Muscat: never heard of it – but maybe already eaten? Muscat Hamburg, as the grape is called in Great Britain, is used in many countries mainly as a table grape, because of its ability to survive long transport routes very well.

But there are also dry wines of Muscat Hamburg , such as in Eastern Europe or Württemberg. Dessert wines are also produced in Württemberg as well as in California, where exists more than 100 hectares of … Read more ...

E.T.s Ruster Icewine

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Rust is known for his outbreak, his storks and the legendary Blaufränkisch Mariental 1986 by Ernst Triebaumer, who was the winner in three of the most important world wide red wine competitions and so significantly contributed making the Blaufränkisch internationally known.

In Rust, wine is cultivated on different soils. There are crystalline rock, sediments of shell limestone, clay, gravel and also loess. The wines around Rust flourish in an climate, which is protected by the Leithagebirge west from … Read more ...

1963 Vin Doux Naturel – jewel of Puig-Parahÿ

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The Domaine Puig-Parahÿ is known for its Vin Doux Naturel (VDN). Nearly 50 vintages of Vin Doux Naturel, which are stored in Passa in the cellars of the Roussillon-based winery, are marketed. Many of these VDN date back to the last century. For Parker’s Wine Advocat, David Schildknecht had tasted just under a dozen of these VDN Rancios by Puig-Parahÿ from vintage vintages from 1875 to 1998 in 2009. They have been rated with 90 to 98 … Read more ...

Sweetness from Franconia – Silvaner Auslese

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In the autumn, there are many wine events – selection is necesssary. Sweet wines are rarely to be found on tasting lists – if there is one -, mostly the winemakers have only dry wines with them. I wanted to taste dry Silvaner at the presentation of wine from Franconia, which was announced with the brand Silvaner Heimat seit 1659 (Home of Silvaner since 1659) created this year.


Home of the Silvaner is not so wrong, because about 1,500 … Read more ...

Wagram’s minerality – Red Veltliner TBA

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North and south of the Danube lies the Austrian winegrowing area Wagram. In the larger northern part of the wine thrives mainly on loess and sandy gravel soils. As in all of Austria, the Gruner Veltliner with a cultivated area of ​​1,330 hectares is also here the number one. Yet there is no other austrian winegrowing area in which more of the almost similarly named variety Roter Veltliner is cultivated than in Wagram – 82 hectares. With Gruner Veltliner, … Read more ...

Chardonnay for lovers of Auslese

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Chardonnay is a very versatile variety, which is reflected in dry wines in a variety of wine styles. Usually dry wines are produced with this variety, but there are also sweet and noble sweet Chardonnay variants, especially in Germany and Austria. Two characteristics make Chardonnay a very well suited grape variety for sweet wines. On the one hand, the variety definitely has enough acidity to balance residual sugar, on the other hand, the berries’ shells are thin enough to facilitate … Read more ...

Feinherb showpiece – Molitor’s Zeltinger Himmelreich 2016

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There are four different grades of sweetness according to German and EU wine law: dry, semi-dry, semisweet and sweet, in addition, one also finds the term feinherb. A term probably only used in Germany, which should convey to the consumer that the wine has a fine, slightly herb note, even though or just because it is not dry.

In various wine lexica it can be read that a feinherb wine, such as a semi-dry one, has … Read more ...

Szamorodni èdes – the “small Ausbruch”

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Wineyards in Tokaj © Pecold – Fotolia.com

Szamorodni, a word of the Polish language means “as grown”, which means in this case, that for these wines, the grapes are harvested as they are currently on the vine, so not only the berries infested by noble rot are selected, as it is the case with the harvest for the Tokaji aszú. Whether the so-harvested bunch of grapes produce the dry Szaomordni száraz or the sweet Szamorodni édes depends largely on the percentage of grapes infested by Botrytis (noble rot), because those have a higher sugar content than ripe grapes. The main part of the harvested grapes

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