A wine tasting at the airline lounge of Lufthansa

December 4, 2010

The two wines of my sample

The only consolation for an “economy-class-only-frequent-traveller” is the use of the airline lounges. Although Beijing does not offer wine, Shanghai does even if one has to drink the fermented grape juice from paper cups.

My favourite airline lounge is the Lufthansa Lounge at Berlin Tegel Airport, but the one in Frankfurt is also acceptable.

If time permits I usually conduct a private tasting. That’s what I did last time.

The white was a ‘2009 Hugl Gruener Veltliner’, very fresh, spicy and very pleasant. Weingut Hugl, a family-owned wine business, is located in Ketzelsdorf-Poysdorf, a part of Austria they call the northern “Weinviertel”. Martin Hugl and his wife Sylvia are young and enthusiastic vintners. About 70% of their production is Gruener Veltliner.

The red I tasted was a Rioja Barbaro, a bit oaky but still with lots of fruit and very round. Overall a pleasant experience and the highlight of my trip.

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Dr Mayer Riesling – fine wine from the Remstal, Germany

December 1, 2010

‘2009 Dr. Mayer Riesling’, Remstal, Wuerttemberg, Germany

We were lucky that Timo Mayer, vintner and wine-maker of the Mayer Vineyard in the Yarra Valley, Victoria, carried with him a bottle of the ‘2009 Dr. Mayer Riesling’ with him when he dropped by recently here in Bangkok.

Timo came back from a wine making and wine selling visit to Germany where he had also made his ‘2009 Dr. Mayer Riesling’ from fruit sourced from his native Remstal (to be precise from a village called Grossheppach) in Wuerttemberg.

The dry Riesling has 12.5% alcohol

The wine is under a glass enclosure which gives it a very elegant appearance. It’s a beautiful dry Riesling, elegant and fruity with a good structure and a long and intensive finish, in short a treasure of a wine.

Mussels and clams with chorizo sausage

We saved the bottle for a special occasion, and surprise, surprise, the occasion should arrive very, very soon: a beautiful tropical Saturday afternoon lent itself for a delicious meal consisting of mussels, clams with chorizo sausages. This is a yummy dish and ideal light lunch.

The bad news is, one cannot buy this wine in Germany, the motherland of Riesling wines.

The good news is one can buy it from Timo Mayer in the Yarra Valley and the outlets carrying his wines in Victoria.

Timo got only about a pallet, so you have to be quick. Better rush.

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