Rheingau Riesling

July 31, 2012

When traveling through Frankfurt, I always try to pick up a bottle of German wine on the airport. This time it was a ‘2011 Riesling Classic dry’ by the Kloster Eberbach winery in the Rheingau.

Little did I know at the time that I would be visiting this place during my holidays a few weeks later. In fact I would return to this wine region twice within two weeks time.

To say it in a nutshell, Kloster Eberbach is a fabulous place.

It used to be a Cistercian Monastry (by the way in my master thesis I wrote about Cistercian monastries and their farming enterprises which were quite modern as regards organization and management).

Grape production and wine-making have a long tradition in this place. Today it is owned and operated by the state of Hessia.

This is their “normal” Riesling wine brand, nothing fancy but just a solid German Riesling, the way I like it. The wine is crisp and fresh with great aromas and a good body.

I will tell you more about Kloster Eberbach soon,

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The art of blogging and wine from Caves Alianca Dao, Portugal

July 11, 2012

No blog entry for two weeks, goodness me. Why I am so busy? It seems this is a terible time. No time for my blog. Moroever, I am going on an extended trip to my hometown Trier, Germany (this time on vacation), where I have very ittle access to the internet. Therefore the prospects are grim. Please bear with me. I plan to continue my blog despite the odds.

Today I have a last entry before the blog-free seasons starts. The good news is that I will be visiting the Mosel and its tributaries. This also means that I will probably visit some wineries and taste some delicious wines. I should come back to Bangkok with many more stories to tell and share.

A beautiful dark red colour

Last night, we had with our meal a beautiful red. It was a ‘2009 Caves Alianca Dao Reserva’, a blend of various Portuguese grape varieties (the label says: Tinta Roriz, Alfrocheiro, Jaén, Touriga Nacional).

The Dao wine region is consistently producing outstanding wines. Ever since our holiday along the Douro river, I am a big fan of Portuguese wines.

Caves Alianca Dao Reserva

With 14% alcohol this wine is big and mighty. It is also very smooth with lots of forest fruit. There is some hint of vanilla (from the oak). The wine has a good mid-pallet weight and a long finish.

The back label of the Alianca Dao

In Europe the wine retails for about 7 Pounds.

We had this beautiful and delectable wine with very spicy green beans and a beef fillet. Woh, that meal was super delicious and the wine was just a perfect match. I wish we had more of it. Well.

Soon we will be at the shores of the Mosel river and ive into the tasting of Riesling. What a consolation.

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Dr. Loosen Riesling from the Mosel and spicy prawn pasta

June 24, 2012

While in transit at Frankfurt airport I picked up a bottle of German Riesling. I just could not help it.

The ‘2011 Dr Loosen Blue Slate Riesling Kabinett’ was just too tempting. i forcked out eleven EURO and the bottle was mine.

It only has 8% alcohol which is pretty low. This off-dry wine would go very well with spicy Asian food, I thought. And so it was.

In the end I had it with a spicy prawn pasta. What a wonderful sensation. This mineral driven semi-dry Riesling from my native and beloved Mosel river was the perfect match to the soft chillies used for the pasta.

The fine acidity with the remaining sweetness of the Riesling was mouth watering, refreshing and extremely pleasant on the palate. I was glad that I did not go for a bone dry wine but instead opted for a “Kabinett”. And I have to add that I usually avoid off-dry wines.

A salute to Dr Loosen and his fine wines from the Bernkastel region along the “Mittelmosel”.

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E. Guigal Estate, Côtes du Rhône, France

May 31, 2012

At a recent dinner function I had the opportunity to taste some wines by Etienne Guigal, the famous wine producer from Côtes du Rhône, founded in 1946 and today managed by the third generation. Marcel and his son Philippe are producing excellent wines.

In 1995 the estate acquired the famous Château d’Ampuis, which has become the headquarters of the Guigal Estate. The Guigal family owns vineyards in Condrieu (about 150 ha) and the Côte-Rôtie (230 ha). So this is not a small family business. In Condrieu the jewel of ths estate is “La Dorianne”, a Viognier. In the Côte-Rôtie area the Guigal Estate has several jewels, for instance “La Mouline”, “La Turque” and “La Landonne” among others.

2009 Côtes-du-Rhône White

The ‘2009 Côtes-du-Rhône White’ is a bled of 55% Viognier, 20% Roussanne, 10% Clairette, 10% Marsanne, 5% Bourboulenc with aromas of white peach and apricots. It was full and round, almost a bit fat.

To say it from the outset, I liked the red much better than the white. It might have to do with the food it was paired (I did not like the food) but somehow I did not find a way to this wine.

2009 Côtes-du-Rhône Red

The red was a different story. I would have served it a bit cooler but I just loved it. The ‘2009 Côtes-du-Rhône Red’ is a blend made from 45% Syrah, 52% Grenache, 3% Mourvèdre.

The intense aromas of red berries, the smoothness of the tannins and the long finish, are something I treasured in this wine. Again it did not match the food (chicken), but it reminded me of similar blends from Southern Australia which I like very much.

This is an elegant wine and I highly recommend it. It is an excellent specimen of a red blend the Côtes du Rhône has to offer.

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Boetzinger, wine from Baden, Germany

May 5, 2012

Boetziner wine co-operative

When I attended the party convention of the German Free Democratic Party (FDP) in Karlsruhe a couple of week ago, I was not so sure that I would have the time for some wine tasting. Alas, the Saturday night party of the FDP showed that there was no reason to worry.

Karlsruhe is located on the right side of the Rhine river in Baden, one of the smaller German wine regions in the South-west, just across the Rhine river from another famous German wine region: the Pfalz (Palatinate).

It goes without saying that wine from Baden was the choice of the organizers, and a good choice it was. One does not expect a “grand cru” to be served at such an occasion. After an excruciating day of debate and discussion the hundreds of party delegates just want to get on with their lives.

However, a decent drop of wine is very much appreciated. Two wines were on offer, a ‘2011 Boetzinger Pinot Gris, Kabinett dry’ and a ‘2011 Boetzinger Pinot Noir, Kabinett dry’, both in their dry variant.

Boetzinger is a wine co-operative, the oldest wine co-operative at the Kaiserstuhl in Baden. It has about 500 vintner members who produce first quality grapes.

We started with the white and followed through with the red, both wines were very pleasant, clean and crisp for easy drinking and dry: in short excellent specimen of their kind.

We drank lots. The waiters kept bringing the stuff. When we got up at about two o’clock in the morning we had a good fill.

And the next morning, you might ask? Well, just fine. The wine not only had a decent taste, it showed its quality also after a huge consumption.

From the Boetzinger website I found that the bottle of Pinot Gris costs only EURO 5.75 and the bottle of Pinot Noir is EURO 6.30, both very decent prices especially when you are dealing with the exorbitant wine prices here in Thailand.

Try the wines of Boetzinger.

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Sticks Pinot Noir and Cowboy food

March 18, 2012

Beautifully coloured Pinot Noir

The last thing I did at Melbourne Airport when we left for Thailand in early January this year, was to buy a bottle of ‘2010 Pinot Noir’ by Sticks Winery.

I knew the bottle would not last long. On a Saturday when we felt like rural folks, we had it with a hearty meal of cowboy food.

Sticks Winery and its vineyards are located just opposite the old homestead of the Sadlier family at the foot of the hill South-west of Yarra Glen, called Christmas Hill. My friend Steve Sadlier had set up most of the vineyards many years ago when the place was still known as Yarra Ridge Winery.

If I remember correctly, my first ever wine tasting in Australia was in the tasting room of this winery. The wines were presented by Meagan, who became Steve’s wife a couple of years later. Sticks was the first vineyard I walked through in Australia. Goodness me that’s now so many years ago, maybe 1991 or 1992.

The 2010 Pinot Noir by Sticks

I was not sure if the wine would go that well with rural tucker. After all Pinot Noir makes a delicate and refined wine, something subtle and gently textured. And Sticks Pinot Noir is exactly that with delicious fruit aromas from wild cherry with a bit of spice, long on the palate with a suppleness hard to imagine. Maybe ill suited to the food we were going to have, I thought.

However that may be, we were in for a dish by Jamie Oliver, one of my favourite chefs of modern cuisine. From his “America” book, we cooked the Mountain Meatballs (page 308).

Mountain Meatballs as interpreted by Margit Adam

These meatballs are spicy. Jamie Oliver made up the recipe, he says in the book. The true Rocky Mountain dish is made of “prairie oysters”, sheep or cattle balls. We followed Jamie more than the wild West tradition.

The melted cheese in the meatball is just wonderful creamy. I also love the slight coffee aromas. This dish is a ripper of bush tucker, as we would call it in Australia. We served it with rice. I could eat it for breakfast, I must say, with bread or potatoes.

Jamie suggests a wine from the Côtes du Rhône, most likely a Grenache, a Shiraz and/or a Mourvèdre. Next time we’ll have these meatballs, I will try that.

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Best Syrah in 2011 – 2008 Cornas by Thierry Allemand, Cornas, Northern Rhone

March 12, 2012

Human memory is anything but perfect. In fact it is one of the most fallible of human organs there is. In hindsight we clear out memories we do not like any more. We add and subtract from it, we construct stories which never happened in the first place; we make sense where there was none before. Our memory seems to possess an independent creativity that bears only a passing resemblance to actual events.

That’s why wine geeks keep tasting notes, isn’t it? But even if we do, aren’t we deceiving ourselves, mixing up things, are influenced by the circumstances, the sympathy we have for the people we tasted the wine with, the location and the situation when we finally write it down as in a blog entry?

We humans like a narrative. We love to connect the dots even if there is little connectivity, no correlation not to speak of causation in the first place.

Please join me while reminiscing about the past year. What was the best Syrah I drank in 2011?

Well, this is not an easy task. 365 days of wine-drinking gone bye, need to be scrutinised. Pages of tasting notes need to be mastered. I’ll make it short for you

Please allow me to take you to my “winner”. It’s a wine by Thierry Allemand from Cornas village, a small wine region in the Northern Rhone, northwest of Valence, the charming small French town at the Rhone river.

I guess you have heard about the vintener and wine-maker Thierry Allemand.

The best piece on the internet about Thierry Allemand, I found on http://www.wineterroir.com. Thierry Allemand is one of my favourite French wine-makers.

Here you can indulge yourself, see the man, learn about his vision, his vineyards and his wines.

The first Cornas by Thierry Allemand which was served to me was by my good friend Timo Mayer at his home in the Yarra Valley. It was the 1996 Syrah Reynard cuvee from Cornas. The wine tasted like burned rubber which is sometimes labelled as a fault. But I liked this funky wine. It was wonderful complex and full in the mouth, with thr right spicyness. One feels like in paradise while the wine slowly winds it way down the throat.

Timo Mayer presented me with the 2008 vintage of this wine (last Christmas while at his house). It is difficult to describe this awasome drop. In comparison with the 1996 vintage, I would call this wine “domesticated”.

It is not wild as the 1996 vintage. It caters to the more mainstream taste, of what Syrah should taste like. I was not disappointed, not at all. However, I prefer the funkyness of the older vintage.

How can I get access to this wine in Bangkok? Does anybody have an idea?

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Resfreshing bubbly produced by Di Giorgio Family Wines

March 9, 2012

Di Giorgio sparkling

One of the many refreshing bubblies we tasted during our Christmas holidays in Glenburn, was this bottle of Di Giorgio sparkling, a blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines. I had bought it in our local supermarket in Yea.

The bottle of sprakling on our kitchen table

Di Giorgio Family Wines is a family business celebrating in March its 10 anniversary. Some of the vineyards are located in Lucindale district of the limestone coast near Coonawarra, South Australia.

Stefano Di Giorgio migrated from Italy to Australia in 1952; with his wife Rita, he has four children. Apart from viticulture, the family holds interest in cattle, sheep, wool production and horticulture.

In 1989 the first vineyards were planted in Lucindale. Today, about 126 ha are under vines, and Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Shirz, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes are produced.

The holdings in Coonawarra covers almost 228 ha under vines. Apart from the varieties above, they also include some Cabernet Franc and Tempranillo.

From 1998 onwards the Di Giorgio’s decided to move from fruit growing to wine-making, and in 2002 they established their own winery. The enterprise is not small. I wish to congratulate them to their anniversary and wish them well for the future.

The sparkling Pinot Noir (85%) Chardonnay (15%) is a very fresh and refreshing wine. I loved the strawberry aromas and the spicyness. It is not completely dry but carries some hints of sweetness. The soft creaminess is lovely and gives it a very “homely” character.

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Yarra Valley: TarraWarra Estate and Museum of Art

March 8, 2012

One of the places we always wanted to visit is TarraWarra Estate and Museum of Art, which is one of the attractions in the Yarra Valley. Year after we year, we postponed our visit. We simply ran out of time.

Not so this year, that was at least our resolution for the Christmas holidays 2011-2012. My daughters were very keen that we kept our promise this time, and in the end, we did.

Unfortunately, I have no really good photo of the place. But rest assured, it is a very lovely place indeed. The Tarrawarra Estate and Museum of Art is a must see in the Yarra Valley.

We were lucky that the works of William Delafied Cook, a landscape painter from England, and his paintings of the Australian countryside, were on display. This was a faboulous exhibition and the three of us had a great time.

When we wanted to buy the catalogue, it was out of print but the lovely ladies behind the counter offered to send it to Bangkok. We were stunned. But just two weeks later, the catalogue arrived savely. What a great service.

The view from TarraWarra

The vineyards near the winery

My daughters Lucy and Charlotte

We had no time for a proper wine-tasting because we had to rush for a lunch appointment with our friend Steve Sadlier. Therefore, I just rushed in the cellar door and bought a bottle of ‘2009 TarraWarra Estate Pinot Noir’.

2009, the year of the great Victorian bush fires was a challenging year for win-makers in the region. Lot’s of grapes showed smoke taint, and were not useful for wine production. TarraWarra was no exception. That’s why this Pinot is a blend from different sources in Victoria.

But it turned out to be a good choice. The cherry and dark fruit aromas were very pleasant and so where the fine tannins. I regretted that we did not buy a second bottle which we could have enjoyed at home.

Charlotte with the Pinot Noir bottle

Address:
TarraWarra Estate
311 Healesville-Yarra Glen Road,
Yarra Glen 3777
Tel.: +61-3-5957-3510
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday 11 am to 5 pm
www.terrawarra.com.au

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GranMonte harvest festival 2012

March 4, 2012

GranMonte Vineyards in Khao Yai, Thailand

About two weeks ago, my family was invited by Khun Visooth, the owner of GranMonte Family Estate, to attend this years harvest festival at GranMonte vineyard in Khao Yai, Asoke Valley, Thailand.

The four of us had rented a car and drove up country for a day of fun, food, entertainment and excellent wines.

Rows of vines at GranMonte

The Adam family: Margit, Charlotte, Lucy and me

We were some of the first guests, and used the time to walk around the vineyards and inspect the cellar door. It was a big event, about 120 plus people were expected.

Chenin Blanc grapes

Chenin Blanc ready to be harvested

Syrah grapes

Beautiful bunches of Syrah

I did not take any pictures during the evening meal. We were just to busy enjoying ourselves. And my little camera is not good at night either. The following pictures were taken while we waited for the start of the harvest festival.

The terrace of the restaurant where dinner would be served later

The restaurant

The GranMonte cellar door

The award winning wines of GranMonte

The entrance to the winery

This is where the event started, the entrance to the winery. We had nibblies and various wines, including freshly fermented grape juice, which we call in German “Federweisser”.

Stainless steel tanks

What would wine be without oak.

Selected wines on oak barrel

Khun Visooth and his family thanking the guests

The party was just wonderful. We enjoyed the food and the free flow of wine. The band played nice music even with some songs from my youth.

One highlight of the evening was the release of the ‘2010 Cabernet Sauvignon-Syrah’, the award winning flagship wine of GranMonte. It was poured from 1 1/2 litre bottles. Delicious stuff.

Unfortunately, we had to leave the very same evening at about 10 in order to get back to Bangkok. I had to leave for the airport the next day at 5 h in the morning. The other guests slept in a nearby hotel and could enjoy a second day of play, wine and food.

We made the best of our time. I loved the music and the band as well as the volunteers singing and dancing. We left fully satisfied with a couple of boxes of GranMonte wine in the car.
Thanks Khun Visooth for inviting us.

If you holiday in Thailand you should set a day aside and organise a day trip to Khao Yai. The mountains are beautiful, the trip is pleasant and in the Asoke Valley a few wineries with restaurants are waiting for you; one of them GranMonte.

Address:
GranMonte Vineyard & Wines
52 Moo 9 Phayayen, Pakchong,
Nakornrachasima, Thailand 30320
Tel : +66-81-923-200-7 , +66-84-904-194-4
+66-81-900-828-2 , +66-80-661-755-5
http://www.granmonte.com/

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