Mosel

Leave No Beautiful Riesling Behind!

Leave No Beautiful Riesling Behind!

Nobody lacks self-discipline like us at Metrovino. We make valiant attempts at restraint, but you’d never know it given the fact that we import 80+ disparate German Riesling labels each vintage. Despite its amorphous parameters, every year we encounter phenomenal wines in our travels that don’t fit neatly into our bloated “portfolio”. When a brief encounter with such a wine makes clear that a future without it would be impoverished, empty and meaningless, we import said wine for reasons of emotion — regardless of its lack of glass-pour potential at restaurants or inherent appeal to trophy hunters.

A Very Good Breakfast

A Very Good Breakfast

This past April, winegrower Andreas Adam and I made a short drive to the village of Leiwen for dinner. Upon leaving the main road, I noticed a building alongside the Mosel river that conjured several memories for me. "Has that hotel and restaurant closed down?” I asked. After all, Andreas was the one who had recommended it to me so many years ago. He lamented that their doors were indeed permanently closed, and over dinner I recounted the following memory. 

2021 German Riesling - The Drinkle Report

2021 German Riesling - The Drinkle Report

The best wines have such astounding, breathtaking clarity that one could take effortless inventory of these qualities in a relaxed and unhurried way, and the terroir-transparency of 2021 is often striking. In general, these are wines that encompass the beauty of early mornings.

A Midsummer's Nightmare

A Midsummer's Nightmare

Summer sleep is a rare phenomenon. And even when its reticence abates, its utility is questionable. How unfairly weighted the seasons are when the same one offers us the most tantalizing mornings, the most sublime evenings, the sultriest afternoons and the most gravid nights. The audacity of the cliché, I'll sleep when I'm dead, could be agreeably rationalized by the proposal, I'll sleep in the winter, one taking full advantage of summer’s potential in the meantime.

Morning as an Innervating Tonic

Morning as an  Innervating Tonic

I begin writing this just before 5 a.m. It's a beautiful time of day when the few humans stirring might be particularly dedicated partiers, inordinately early risers, or just nocturnal. Excepting those whose vocations summon them involuntarily from their cozy beds, these hours are for the curious and the pensive. The world breathes differently in the early morning, sharing tranquil secrets with those who wish to discover them.

2018 Germany: The Drinkle Report

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!

Single Vine Wines

Single Vine Wines

One of the most beautiful things about wine is that it can (and should) be representative of its place of origin. The most rewarding wines are bottled stories of a hallowed setting in a particular growing season and the most articulate grapes can reliably communicate subtle variations in soil-type, aspect, altitude and mesoclimate.