Ask a German about their favorite domestic vacation spots and Bodensee — aka Lake Constance — routinely sits near the top of the list. The country’s largest lake offers plenty of water and winter sports, proximity to Switzerland and Austria, the island of Mainau, and the Reichenau peninsula with its medieval history and churches. Then ask about dream winegrowing destinations, and watch Bodensee slip way, way down the list. With a reputation for simple wines that do little more than embody lake life, it is no wonder that in recent times Bodensee has struggled to be taken seriously. But a small group of young…
Christoph Raffelt is one of an exciting new vanguard of voices when it comes to German wine. And voices is not a euphemism here, as it is indeed his voice together with his stellar cast of winemakers and guests that come together on his monthly podcast Originalverkorkt.de; while his words appear in his online magazine of the same name. He's been on the road since 2016 with Büro für Wein & Kommunikation as a freelance journalist, copywriter and all-round wordsmith. His work has appeared in such esteemed publications as Meiningers, Weinwirtschaft, Weinwelt, Sommelier, Champagne-Magazin and Schluck.
The intimate wine bar from Holger Schwedler, the size of a Texas walk-in closet, sat off a quiet pedestrian alley not far from the famous curative hot spring of Wiesbaden, the Kochbrunnen. Too small for a kitchen, the wine bar encouraged patrons to bring their own vittles, which, like the guests, included a variety...
The Jewish State was proclaimed in 1948; the Federal Republic of Germany founded a year later. There was a pregnant pause when many wondered if West Germany would acknowledge the past. In 1951, Chancellor Konrad Adenauer acknowledged Germany’s “unspeakable crimes toward Jewish people.” The spell of silence was broken, and Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and Adenauer began the long, painful, still unfinished journey toward healing. In the decades since, the people of Germany and Israel have followed their lead, with financial and cultural exchanges that each serve as a profound demonstration of human transcendence. It’s clear we have much…...
For a Jewish baby boomer like me, the Holocaust was always part of my DNA. Yet, I was not the child of survivors. My Polish grandparents were safely in the United States by the 1920s. The family they left behind were mostly killed. In yeshiva, where I spent a dozen years splitting my curriculum between religious and secular studies, we were frequently subjected to footage of emaciated bodies, piled up for burning or disposal. Teachers didn’t hide the numbers tattooed on their arms. But the personal horror stories my cousins told of Polish concentration camps and ghettos were the images…...
Confession time: Which wine and food pairings make your eyes roll faster than a teenager’s? Champagne and strawberries? Pizza and Lambrusco? Muscadet and oysters? In southern Germany, Silvaner and white asparagus are regional marketing 101. Silvaner has been praised and prized as a pairing for the spring stalk to such an extent that grocers will double their inventories of cheap Silvaner and stack it by the case in the vegetable section. And while the fastest way to get a screenful of Internet ill-will slung in your direction is to suggest the pairing to a German wine group, it is true…...
Home is where the vines grow. We’ve all heard variations on that theme. But just how far can that idea be taken? WeinGoutte offers one answer. This portable micro-estate — whose first vintage sold out in a blink — is the brainchild of husband-and-wife team Christoph Müller and Emily Campeau. The concept goes beyond negociant but stops well short of flying winemaker. It also presents an entirely new model for a footloose generation’s interpretation of the relationship between vintner and site. Campeau, a fierce lover of food and wine (and a vivid writer on both), is originally from Québec. Her experiences in…...
When I arranged to meet H.O. Spanier of Weingut Battenfeld Spanier, one of Germany’s leading growers, in the Zellertal, he wrote to me: “Zellertal is probably one of Germany’s most dynamic regions. I began investing in its most limestone-rich sites 30 years ago.” Since then, interest in the Zellertal has built gradually. But in the past few years, that interest has exploded. Spanier has played a major role in this, as has the world-renowned father-son winemaking duo Klaus Peter and Felix Keller of Weingut Keller. Both estates are now significantly invested in Zellertal vineyards. There was no question their moves…...
