Franken Casks the First Stone
Silvaner aged in shell limestone casks: quintessential expression of terroir, steinwein 2.0, or a flight of foolishness?
Silvaner aged in shell limestone casks: quintessential expression of terroir, steinwein 2.0, or a flight of foolishness?
Matthias Neske has done a lot of things. He has worked for the government, in research, in tourism, has done UN projects in Asia, holds a PhD in Geography - and then there's wine.
Now he works full time as a freelancer in the wine business. He has been publishing on his blog Chez Matze for over ten years. He is also co-author of the Falstaff Wine Guide Germany, and writes for retailers and growers. Matthias is passionate about individuality, nature, diversity and dry humor.
Much has been made of an increase in German wine exports last year. Dr. Karl Storchmann reports that the data are open to interpretation.
It’s hard to believe now, but Germany was once a divided country, and the East was a strange microcosm of icons of that era: Sandmännchen, Jungpioniere, and FKK-Kultur. Not to forget its sparkling ambassador, Rotkäppchensekt. Also hard to believe: a destination for wine fans has now arisen in the area between Chemnitz and Cottbus, Magdeburg and Dresden. And yet, from Berlin, the trip takes you almost 200 kilometers to the south, past Dessau and Lutherstadt Wittenberg, to a place whose name sounds to German ears disturbingly close to “Lauch” (leek). Laucha an der Unstrut has roughly 3,200 inhabitants, a bell museum, and one…...
The future of the Mosel Apollo butterfly and its habitat of the Mosel terraces are endangered. Can a solution be found that allows both to continue to coexist?
Not long ago, in my merchant days, I scored a few cases of mature Mosel wines from a grower I didn’t know. It wasn’t much wine, the prices were attractive, and I was able to eke out a few bottles for my cellar, which can never have too many ready-to-drink Rieslings. They were 1982s and 1985s. I had a wine friend over and opened one of the bottles to begin the evening’s festivities. “Oh I do like old Riesling,” my friend said, “And isn’t it amazing how well even a Kabinett can age?” “It is indeed,” I said. “But this isn’t a…...
A handful of Weinheim visionaries are reshaping the future of German wine in the country's largest winegrowing region with lessons from the past.
There’s no end to writings about how wine affects people. It begets relaxation and well-being, of course, but also stimulating discussion. The right bottle can be just the spark needed to light up a dull evening. But can certain wines channel our moods and perceptions — our very psychology — in different ways? This question was often posed by Wolf-Dietrich Salwey, a vintner who passed away in a car accident in 2011. Known for his unconventional character, Salwey routinely invited neighbors, colleagues, and friends to his estate in Oberrotweil in the Kaiserstuhl to explore the influence of specific grape varieties…...
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