Wine Returns to Weinheim
A handful of Weinheim visionaries are reshaping the future of German wine in the country's largest winegrowing region with lessons from the past.
July 2022
Dear Readers,
Welcome to the first summer edition of TRINK! Our stunning cover photo by multitalented contributor Nils Kevin Puls sets the tone: coloring outside the lines. When we consider the revolution playing out in wine across Alto Adige, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, it’s clear that free thinkers and risk takers are at the fore, even as they ground their innovations in cultures of the past.
Think that’s paradoxical?
Consider Schloss Gobelsburg’s Micheal Moosbrugger. Twenty-five years ago, he stepped into the hush of an ancient monastic winery to take on the seemingly impossible task of merging it into the evolving dynamic of contemporary Austrian wine. Correspondent David Schildknecht presents the first part of an extended conversation with Moosbrugger that reveals a world of insight into the man, the estate, and the wider wine world.
Nils Kevin Puls brings us all up to speed on Rotling: a retro pink that growers like Stefan Vetter and Matthias Warnung are reinventing to evade rules and add new dimensions to their vineyard expressions.
Over in Württemberg, still widely seen as a red-only region, insiders know it as the home of some of the greatest terroirs for Riesling anywhere. Valerie pulls back the curtain on where to start explorations of your own.
We also offer a trip with expert guide Ellen Wallace to Switzerland’s must-visit destination for lovers of rare Swiss wines. An ace wine-and-cheese pairing in which Ursula Heinzelmann finds an exceptional Alto Adige Gewürztraminer playing a surprisingly emotional role. Lessons one Baden grower discerned over years of probing the psychology of Germanic varieties, as told by new contributor Rainer Schäfer. And, with an eye as sharp as his pen, Christoph Raffelt’s account of the viticultural journey of Weinheim, and by extension, Rheinhessen, one of the most thrilling German regions today.
You’ll notice more articles in this volume are accessible to subscribers only. But we hate to leave anyone out. Please consider this your personal invitation to join our vibrant community of Patreon supporters. If you aren’t already a subscriber, now is the time. And to those who already are, you have our daily gratitude. TRINK is only possible because of you.
Happy reading!
Valerie Kathawala, New York
Paula Redes Sidore, Bad Honnef
A handful of Weinheim visionaries are reshaping the future of German wine in the country's largest winegrowing region with lessons from the past.
The sun blazes. The air shimmers. On the horizon four figures throw long shadows across the dry, crumbling ground. They are headed toward a city. Doors swing open. The four step from light into dark, their throats dusty and dry. Behind a deserted bar stands a man. He pushes four full glasses over to them. Out of the glasses sloshes a wine as red as the setting sun. If you aren’t thirsty by now, you should at least be hearing the melody of a harmonica. This is how the opening scene of a revival—the Rotling revival—could begin. The four men…...
Sparkling winemakers in Austria are embracing and eschewing the boundaries of new regulations in pursuit of a definitive Sekt style.
Two wine luminaries reflect on the complex and challenging process of taking Austrian vineyard classification from bill to law.
What do you do when you have world-class Riesling terroirs — including some of Germany’s highest, coolest vineyards, extraordinary old vines and massale selections, and a growing cadre of hyper-talented producers who bring imagination and dedication to it all — but the world still thinks of you as a place for, well, something else? This is the predicament of Württemberg’s growers. Over the past decade, they’ve made a strong argument that Riesling should be front and center when we consider the wines of this southwestern German region. Although not everyone believes a narrowed focus benefits Württemberg’s identity (the region’s top…...
Earth and sky. Airborne and grounded. The power and pleasure of reimagined wine and cheese from Cantina Tramin and Eggemoa Dairy.
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…...
The world of sparkling wines is changing for the better. The number of producers approaching this beverage in serious, artisanal, and creative ways continues to climb. “Grower Sekt” from Austria and Germany is very much en vogue. We are witnessing a tremendous push to quality. For a long time, “mass over class” was the motto, especially in Germany. But for a new generation, awareness of terroir and a trend toward reducing residual sugar are increasingly the focus. No stone has been left unturned in Austria, either. For several years, Austrian Sekt has been governed by a three-tiered quality pyramid: “Sekt…...
The lure of 007 and having bubbles at their fingertips in the Bollinger Suite pulls some people into Erlinsbach, in northern Switzerland, for a night or two of intrigue. Others fantasize about being lulled to sleep surrounded by gently aging (shhhh) vintage Burgundies in the Wine Cellar Suite. For the rest of us, it’s a simpler dream of a night that opens with great food and a hard-to-find bottle of a Swiss vintage wine. Albi von Felten was ahead of his time when he bought the Landhotel Hirschen from his parents 22 years ago. He and his wife Silvana are gratified to…...
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