It was a sunny June afternoon in 2011, and I was pulling into Weingut Wagner-Stempel’s resplendent courtyard for the first time. My future friend, Oliver Müller, was busy pouring wine samples to a number of guests who enjoyed their sips under the merciful shade of a 300-year-old chestnut tree. I introduced myself and I’ll never forget the bewildered expression on Oliver’s face when I told him that I had come from Canada in search of Riesling.
Rüdesheim Awakens
It seems that I'm the first human to stir. Disoriented by jetlag and fuelled by excitement, I give up on sleep long before the day dawns. After the final nocturnal trains, there's a depth of silence when one can hear the vines exhaling as they, too, enjoy the stillness. Before long, gleeful birdsong begins to pierce the expiring darkness. I tie my shoes and leave the hotel by the side door.
Schätzel - Mad Scientist Trocken
One of the most exciting things about tasting through any wine region is hearing about different grower’s tactics to overcome challenges and usher beautiful wines into being. Despite the potentially enormous variation of strategies voiced, each proffered as if any other pursuit would result in abject failure, one can taste countless collections of compelling and delicious wines. However, nobody else that I know who's achieving such high levels of quality with Riesling is doing so through such idiosyncratic methods as Kai Schätzel.
2020 German Riesling: The Drinkle Report
One thing that humans the world over have learned in the last 18 months is that instead of getting excited about upcoming events, we should always be preparing our hearts for potential shattering. And yet, is that a reason to stop making plans? Perhaps it is. But encouraged by my wife who had noticed certain, um, irregularities in my personality, I booked flights to Germany with the intention of simply spending time alone in the most inspiring nature that I know of. That being said, I have friends in German wine country who I felt obligated to notify about my plans. Bit by bit, the schedule of my short trip became absolutely packed with visits to winegrowers, interspersed with Covid-19 tests. In other words, it became a trip consisting of immeasurably stimulating and fulfilling work—and Covid-19 tests. But I never allowed myself to believe that it was actually going to happen until I saw Frankfurt airport in the rearview mirror of my rental car.
Metrovino's German Riesling Manifesto
German Riesling is absolutely unprecedented in its versatility, and no other style of wine is great in so many different ways. Riesling succeeds on a vast continuum of sweetness, ranging from bone-dry to lusciously sweet, and every single step in between. And along each point of this continuum, perhaps excepting the very sweetest, one will find slim, willowy wines as well as those of great weight and richness, and all that lies betwixt. This is to say that any given vintage in Germany will produce wines that range from 6-14% alcohol, covering everything from gossamer delicacy to raw power.
Introducing Schätzel Riesling
Early on in my wine career, I was briefly employed by a regrettably commercial wine agency who was in the process of purging their portfolio of interesting wine. Commissioned with the task of liquidating a few lingering cases of 2005 Gunderloch Nackenheim Rothenberg Riesling Auslese, I naturally took advantage of the situation to pull the cork on a bottle. This precipitated a veritable revelation; the wine didn't just solidify my love for German wine, it turned me into a lifelong Riesling lunatic. Thus, one of my pivotal Riesling epiphanies was catalyzed by a bottle from the Rheinhessen's Rheinfront, or Roter Hang (Red Slope).
2018 Germany: The Drinkle Report
The interweb is already cluttered with the relevant meteorological data and qualitative assessments of seasoned experts regarding Germany’s 2018 vintage. But as I’m humbly commissioned with the noble task of purchasing Metrovino’s German wine (which some years I responsibly keep under 50 selections), and having just spent two intensive weeks tasting with some of the country’s top producers, my opinion as to what you can look forward to might be relevant. You already know my directive - as a human Riesling solera, I order the wines that I personally want to drink... it’s just a bonus when our palates overlap and you buy a few bottles too!
High Flavour in Wine
We’re very happy with the success that we’re having with German Riesling, but our work is far from over. With more and more countries and regions exporting quality wine made from a multiplicity of grape varieties, today’s wine consumer has a luxury of choice that would have bewildered previous generations.
On Punk Rock Parking Lots
The Vitality of German Riesling
If you aren’t already a disciple of German Riesling, now is the time to open up your heart to one of the most rewarding wines on the planet. I’m not talking about respecting German Riesling, I’m talking about drinking it. There’s a big difference, and with the imminent arrival of vast quantities of wine from the enormously appealing 2015 vintage (and the simultaneous softening of the sometimes pointy 2014s), there’s never been a better time to integrate German Riesling into your life.
