The five best Riesling wines of 2010

February 18, 2011

Riesling the queen of white wine

Well, let’s be clear from the outset: this is not the result of an orderly wine tasting. I am reminiscing about the most remarkable Rieslings I drank in 2010. The five wines below are the ones I selected, and I call them “my best Rieslings in 2010 – the Man from the Mosel selection”.

As you might know, any recall from memory about events past is a tricky and challenging thing. I also do not have the opportunity to drink these wines parallel to each other (what a shame). But here is my top five list:

1. ‘2009 Dhron Hofberg Riesling GG’, by Grans-Fassian Estate, Leiwen, Mosel.

This is a marvellous Riesling. The 2009 vintage was great. Grans-Fassian is a top Riesling producer from the Mosel. With 95 Parker points the Dhron Hofberg Riesling is just divine. I could not believe my luck when I casually strolled into the cellar door and picked up these treasures.

2. ‘2008 Schieferterrassen Riesling’ by Heymann-Loewenstein, Winningen, Mosel.

Weingut Heymann-Loewenstein is another of the great Riesling producers from the Mosel. The wines are made in a different style from the mainstream. They show great character and have funk. Only on April 30, 2011 the 2009 vintage will be released. I am very excited and cannot wait to taste the 2009 Riesling.

3. ‘2008 Monzinger Halenberg Riesling trocken’ by Emrich-Schoenleber, Monzingen, Nahe

The wines made from fruit grown at Monziger Halenberg are among the best Riesling wines in Germany. The Nahe is the region where my maternal grandfather started to introduce me to wine when I was just a boy. Ever since I love this very diverse region.

Monzingen is a small village next to Martinstein where I spent time with my grand parents. I walked all the different hills and slopes in the vicinity. Emrich-Schoenleber is one of the top producers at the Nahe, a lovely family too where father and son make the wine together.

4. ‘2009 Riesling Leiwen Laurentiuslay GG’ by St. Urbanshof, Leiwen, Mosel

Another wonderful wine from the Mosel. Weingut St. Urbans Hof is located in Leiwen, Mosel. Recently we had a bottle of this Riesling with Sunday lunch. Goodness me what a treat that was. I had only one bottle with me when I came back from Germany in November. The good news is: I will be in Trier in mid March and guess what…..

5. ‘Dr. Mayer Riesling Kabinett trocken’ by Timo Mayer, (Yarra Valley), Remstal, Wuerttemberg

Timo Mayer is an Australian boutique wine maker of the Yarra Valley and a native of Grossheppach, Remstal. He made this wine while travelling in Europe. The grapes come from his brother and the family vineyard. The 2009 vintage was ideal for making this wine. Timo shipped about 60 cases back to Australia. We were so lucky to have access to a few bottles.

You might say, all these wines are German Rieslings, did you not drink others? Well, I did. I tried quite a few Australian ones but that’s usually not my cup of tea. But I am undeterred. My to to list (to drink list) is long.

I admit that I also love Riesling from the Alsace, France. Though they are creamer, heavy, earthy.

I also love Riesling from Rheingau und Rheinhessen, in fact there are so many good German Rieslings it is very difficult to say which one to drink first.

Please let me know what your best Riesling was in 2010.

8 Comments | wine, wineries | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by themanfrommoselriver

3rd International Symposium on Tropical Wine

February 13, 2011

I am very excited. Recently, I was invited to the above event. From November 14 to 16, 2011 the Rajamangala University of Technology Lanna (RMUTL) in Chiang Mai, Thailand will host the 3rd International Symposium on Tropical Wine.

It will be the most significant gathering of wine experts, scientists, vintners and wine drinkers here in tropical Asia. Thailand is maybe the best developed producer of new latitude wines. Although the Thai wine industry enjoys some protection from outside competition, it’s technological progress is remarkable, many of it’s wines are outstanding.

Wineries such as GranMonte Family Vineyard and PB-Valley Khaoyai Winery have become household names. Many new latitude wines have won major awards at international wine competitions. Chiang Mai and it’s surroundings will be a wonderful location for the event.

Needless to say there is a facebook group to promote the event. I suggest you better join this exciting group to always be up to date about the progress we make.

See you in Chiang Mai in November.

Leave a Comment » | wine, wine regions | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by themanfrommoselriver

St. Urbans-Hof Estate in Leiwen, Mosel

February 9, 2011

Flat vineyards around the St. Urbanshof winery in Leiwen

There are not only steep slopes and stony vineyards along the Mosel but also flat bits, as in the picture above which shows the vineyards around the winery of St. Urbans-Hof in Leiwen, Mosel.

St. Urbans-Hof Oekonomierat Nic. Weiss Estate is member in the prestigeous VDP, the association of the top wineries in Germany. I visited the cellar door on a bleak November morning last year.

The winery

The entrance to the estate

Cellar door

Cellar door

Cellar door

My purchase

Wine box with label

2009 Laurentiuslay Riesling GG St. Urbans-Hof

The tasting of German “grand cru” (GG=grosses Gewaechs) Riesling wines by the German wine magazine “Weinwelt” awarded 91 points to the ‘2009 Leiwen Laurentiuslay Riesling GG’ by St. Urbans-Hof. I bought a couple of bottles, one of which I openend with a meal of game prepared by my friend Heinz. The wine is a wonderful specimen of Mosel Riesling and shows all the marvelleous characteristics they posses.

My conclusion is that any visitor to the Mosel river should visit the wine village of Leiwen, and – ergo – the fantastic wineries and vineyards to taste these georgeous Riesling wines.

Address:
Weingut St. Urbans-Hof
Urbanusstraße 16
D-54340 Leiwen/Mosel
Tel.: +49 65 07 / 93 77-0
Fax: +49 65 07 / 93 77-30
www.urbans-hof.de

5 Comments | vineyards, wine, wine regions, wineries | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by themanfrommoselriver

We remember

February 8, 2011

Two years to the day after the horror of the Victorian bushfires, people in Melbourne as well as the communities ravaged by the blaze are remembering the losses and honoring the dead. 173 people lost their lives on Black Saturday making them the deadliest fires in Australian history. In Kinglake just a couple of kilometers southwest from our farm in Glenburn 42 people were killed.

If you drive through the area today you might not any longer notice the devastation. Nature has reclaimed it’s “green colour” and the vegetation seems to be unscarred. Only on some stretches along the Melba Highway one can still witness the scars the fires have left behind.

The scars in peoples hearts and minds, however, do not heal that quickly. They are still there. It is important to remember. The floods in Queensland and the bush fires around Perth may also remind us of the dangers and how quickly our “normality” can turn into mayhem.

Time of reflection. I admire the people who have rebuilt their lives and moved on after such calamity. I guess one never really recovers from the loss of close family members, women and children and husbands perished in the fires.

I wonder how many people in our community have now better emergency plans in place. How many are really prepared for the next calamity?

We were lucky. Only a meter from the backside of our shed (in the photo below) was the fire stopped. Where there is green grass now, the soil was charred and blackend. We are forever thankful that the shed was saved.

Our shed – it looks so peaceful

Leave a Comment » | general | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by themanfrommoselriver

Di Vino – wine bar in Thonglor, Bangkok

February 7, 2011

The entry of di Vino wine bar in Thonglor

If you walk through the Thonglor-Ekkamai neighbourhood in Bangkok you might come to the conclusions that wine bars are like mushrooms, sprouting everywhere.

A good place to hang out, enjoy a glass of wine and have some Italian cuisine, is di Vino, a small and cosy wine bar in Thonglor, Bangkok. The play on words is funny too, is it “divine” or “of wine”? Both I suggest.

Roberto, the manager-owner, is a very sociable guy and a pleasure to talk to. He loves quality in wine and food and he is also a good cook. For my wife he made a fegato dish (liver), very difficult to make indeed, which was just superb. And he offers some great wine choices.

For instance the ‘2003 Il Lemos Negroamaro’ by Leone di Castris. The wine is not displayed on the website of Leone de Castris any more. You will fnid there only younger vintages. But the company has a wide selection of different wines on offer.

Leone de Castris was established in 1925 and the winery was the first in Italy which bottled rose wines. Many of its products are made from indigeneous grape varieties such as Negroamara, Primitivo and Aleatico.

2003 Il Lemos by Leone de Castris

This Negroamaro from Puglia produced in the Salento region, the heel of Italy, is just wonderful. It is a very earthy wine, rustic in character. Often it is blended with the highly scented Malvasia Negra as in the case of Salice Salentino. The grape produces some of the best wines of southern Italy.

Roberto has still some bottles left of the 2003 vintage, but you have to hurry to taste it before it is gone.

Address:
Di Vino
Penny’s Balcony, Thong Lo Soi 55,
Sukhumvit Road, Watthana, Bangkok, 10110

1 Comment | food, wine, wine bars | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by themanfrommoselriver

Chinese New Year – Bring the rabbit on

February 6, 2011

I took a time out from blogging. While just watching from the sidelines I had a record number of visitors to my entry on the Johanna Budwig diet which I wrote as tribute to my friend, the late Peter Ryan. But since then, I had declining numbers of visitors to my blog. Well, let’s resume.

Every Chinese New Year we have a family at a Chinese restaurant in our neighbourhood Thonglor called Royal Kitchen.

The restaurant is just a side street away from where we live.

Happy New Year and good wishes from the Adam family

So what did we eat? Well, it was bit of a mix. We started with some dumplings, had lots of prawns, some tofu, a steamed fish and some sweet and sour soup.

Fried dumplings

Prawns in orange

Prawns Shanghai style

Sichuan style tofu

Hmm, was delicious on rice

Sea bass steamed sorry, I came to late for the photo

Sweet and sour soup

Needless to say that the meal was delicious and we had a great time on the first day of the year of the rabbit.

PS: We drank beer and we did not eat rabbit, honestly.

Address:
Royal Kitchen Restaurant
912/6 Sukhumvit 55, Bangkok, Thailand 10110
Tel.: +66-2391 9634, and 2714 8548
e-mail: info@royalkitchengroup.com
www.Royalkitchengroup.com

Leave a Comment » | culture, food, Restaurant Review | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by themanfrommoselriver

Grand Cru from the Mosel: 2009 Dhron Hofberg Riesling GG by Grans-Fassian

January 30, 2011

Beautiful fish

Pomfret, or Bawal Putih, as we call it in Indonesia, is a wonderful fish; in fact it is one of my favourites. I also love “fish-Sundays” which always lends itself to a beautiful white wine. Mind you, I also drink red wine with fish, but if I have some Riesling in my fridge….

Pomfret

With the chilli-garlic-ginger sauce, the pomfret was just wonderful.

From the outset, I was clear about the wine. Well, actually our wine fridge is quite empty. But from my last trip to Germany in November last year, I brought with me two bottles of precious liquid: Riesling wines from my beloved Mosel river.

You might guess it, yes. I opened a bottle of ‘2009 Dhron Hofberg GG Riesling’ by Grans-Fassian Estate in Leiwen, Mosel. This grand cru (or Grosses Gewaechs as the German call it) is just wonderful.

2009 Dhroner Hofberg Riesling GG by Grans-Fassian Estate

Wine tastings last year by Weinwelt, a German wine magazine, awarded it with 95 Parker points. The wine is luscious and complex, with beautiful peach and citrus aromas. It has the minerality of the Mosel Riesling. The fine acids and the balance of the wine are just mind blowing.

Wine prices in Bangkok are astronomical. For a 5 EURO wine in Germany one has to fork out about 20-30 EURO here. You can have the Dhron Hofberg Riesling for a price below 20 EURO from the cellar door. The trip is worth it. Leiwen is a treasure trove for wine lovers and Riesling geeks.

I wrote about the Grans-Fassian Estate in an earlier blog entry. The winery is also member in the prestigious VDP (the Association of German Quality Wine Estates).

Cheers and “zum Wohl”

Address:
Weingut Grans-Fassian
Römerstraße 28
54340 Leiwen, Mosel
Tel.: +49-6507-3170
Fax: +49-6507-8167
E-Mail: weingut@grans-fassian.de
Openng hours: Mon. to Fri.
8.00-12.00 und 13.30-16.30 h
www.grans-fassian.de

3 Comments | food, wine, wine regions, wineries | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by themanfrommoselriver

My bench at Two Hills Vineyard

January 29, 2011

Since quite some time I was contemplating about a garden bench but never found the time to build one. During the last holidays at the vineyard I finally succeeded. It was one of these summer projects of a paper pusher.

I learned a lot. First, I should have made a drawing of my bench before starting to work on it. Second, there is room for change even if you have no or an unclear plan. Third, I am not very clever. Fourth, I still succeeded and will make a better one next time, promise (maybe with a back rest).

And here it is: my bench, a very simple one, but good enough for resting a few minutes and enjoying a glass of wine.

The first bench I ever made

That’s the view you’ll could have while sitting on the bench

It attracts the first visitor: Thank’s Michael for sitting on my bench and for the photo.

2 Comments | vineyards | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by themanfrommoselriver

Four Buckets – Sevenhill Cellars, Clare Valley

January 28, 2011

2007 Four Buckets Shiraz, Touriga, Grenache

On a cools summers’ night, red wine is my wine of choice. We had bought half a dozen of reds offered by Sevenhill Cellars through the Family and Friends Wine scheme (we had bought white wines too).

The stylish 2007 blend of Shiraz, Touriga and Grenache called “Four Buckets” is a very nice wine. It goes with and without food. We had it after dinner to enrich our evening when we were sitting in front of our shed enjoying the sunset.

Dark red colour

The blend is rich and luscious. Lots of red berries, full bodied with a good structure and a long finish. We loved the wine. It made our evening. Look out for it. You might download the order form from the internet and send it to the winery.

Leave a Comment » | vineyards, wine, wine regions, wineries | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by themanfrommoselriver

Summer wine: Rosé from Nolan Vineyard, Yarra Valley

January 27, 2011

2009 Nolan Pinot Rosé

Rosé is always a nice wine for the hot summers days. We had the chance to taste the ‘2009 Pinot Rosé‘ from Nolan Vineyard, near Badger Creek in Healesville, Yarra Valley.

John and Myrtle Nolan are passionate about their wines. With 2 ha under vines Nolan Vineyard is a so called boutique vineyard. The site at the bottom of the valley is very cold. The vineyard is non-irrigated.

Back label

The wine has a salamon-pink colour. It is a luscious wine with strawberry aromas and a hint of lemon and honey. It is a truly refreshing drink, enjoyed with or withour food.

Address:
Nolan Vineyard
217 Badger Creek Rd,
Healesville VIC 3777
Tel.: +61-3-5962 3435

Leave a Comment » | vineyards, wine, wine regions, wineries | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by themanfrommoselriver

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »