Epokale: A New Gewürtztraminer for the Ages
Digging deep with six vintages of the mine-aged iconic Gewürtztraminer Epokale from Cantina Tramin.
Digging deep with six vintages of the mine-aged iconic Gewürtztraminer Epokale from Cantina Tramin.
In addition to being an award-winning writer, artist and critic, Meg Maker occupies the artistic space at the intersection of nature and culture. She travels extensively to taste with producers, hear their stories, and see first-hand their motivations, to witness what links them to their land. Wine is food, but it's also a way into story. Meg is a Certified Specialist of Wine and member of the Circle of Wine Writers. Her writings have appeared in trade and lifestyle publications such as Pix, Art of Eating, Meininger’s Wine Business International, Serious Eats, Beverage Media, and in her own publication, Terroir Review. She lives in New Hampshire and is happiest when in the garden or the kitchen.
For the longest time, Sekt was a dirty word. It stood for bottles of inexpensive, easy fizz with obnoxious plastic corks to be found on the street, next to the debris of spent fireworks, on New Year’s Day. Leftovers from high jinks and cheap thrills the night before. But that was then. Today, Sekt’s star is once again on the rise. We cannot even say that it is returning to its former glory because the story of German Sekt today is unprecedented and, quite literally, effervescent. It was the 20th century that destroyed with consummate efficiency what was once so promising, so frivolous,…...
What does Alsace’s new red cru signal for Pinot Noir?
The dark wit of Berlin. Dangerously low water levels in the Rhine River. Black bread. Germany does trocken like few others. And then there’s the wine. Despite its reputation as the land of Blue Nun, more than 60 percent of the wines made in Germany are dry. And within that 60 percent, there are discernible levels of dry, drier, and driest. So dry, in fact, that there’s a strangely specific word for it. (Of course there’s a word. It’s Germany. There’s always a word.) Furztrocken. Fart Dry. Literally. As difficult to grasp as I find a term like feinherb, it’s Kinderspiel when compared to furztrocken. Then again, mindset…...
This is a story for the wine romantics among us who dream of bygone varieties, who hunker down to listen to the old stone terraces telling stories of yesteryear, of those with a weak spot for growers and wines committed to character. It is in this world of nostalgia and nerds that this story is set. Enter Ulrich “Uli” Martin, a viticulturist from Gundheim in Rheinhessen. “Such a reliable companion!” he says. “Honest, direct, and amiable. You sense it immediately.” This high praise, however, is not aimed at his best friend, at least not in the traditional sense. Rather, at a grape…...
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10 sparkling secrets of the sekt generation.
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