At the October meeting, John McNeil hosted a tasting of German wines and tried to unravel some of the mysteries of German wine labels. (Check out the wine label in the Gallery) ...
Using a selection of eight white and red German wines, John attempted to demystify what is often a confusing topic. Using the label from a bottle of Kreuznacher Kronenberg Riesling Kabinett 2008, John pointed out the wealth of information that is to be found on a label and went on to describe the four different German wine quality categories: Deutscher Tafelwein, Deutscher Landwein, Qualitätswein bestimmter Anbaugebiete (QbA) and Prädikatswein, formerly Qualitätswein mit Prädikat (QmP). Each of the quality categories is determined by the level of ripeness that the grapes have achieved by the time they are harvested and Prädikatswein is further divided into one of a number of levels of ripeness namely: Kabinett, Spätlese, Auslese, Beerenauselese, Eiswein or Trockenbeerenauslese. If a winemaker has made a dry or semi-dry wine, this may be indicated by the term Trocken or Halbtocken.
The wines tasted ranged from a dry Sekt to a rich, sweet Beerenauslese dessert wine and members were surprised to find that some of the red wines sampled contained a little residual sweetness - not to everyone's taste and this led to a few comments along the lines that "Germany still has a little work to do on its red wines". The wines tasted were:
• Deinhard Lila Riesling Sekt Trocken NV
• Deinhard Riesling QbA 2009
• Hallgarten Blue Kreuznacher Kronenberg Riesling Kabinett QmP 2009
• Grafenkrone Oppenheimer Krotenbrunnen Spatlese QmP 2008
• Anselmann Dornfelder QbA 2009
• Villa Wolf Pinot Noir QbA 2008
• Anselmann Dornfelder Classic Trocken 2008
• Deinhard Beerenauslese 2005/06
