An Awesome Red From...Germany? Lemberger Rocks!

Lemberger.

Is that a cheese that smells like dirty feet? Is it related to a hamburger? No and no. Lemberger (not Limberger, which is a cheese from the an area on the Belgian/German/Dutch border) is a red grape grown in the Württemberg area of Germany that is also called Blaufränkisch in Austria or Kékfrankos in Hungary.

Although I've had my share of German and Austrian wines, I have to admit that I've never had one that was 100% Lemberger/Blaufränkisch/Kékfrankos before. But when the nice folks at Valckenberg (a major German exporter) sent me this one as part of a big shipment that I'll be reviewing in the coming weeks (there's my disclosure, but I'll still be honest, as you already know), I was really excited to pop it open and see what it tasted like.

Most of us don't associate Germany with red wine, and for good reason. It's freaking cold in most parts of the country and red grapes need a little more sun to get pigment and flavor than whites. Stands to reason that red wouldn't be the grape of choice in most parts of this Central European nation.

That said, about a third of German vineyards are planted to red grapes like Spätburgunderr (said SHPATE-Burg-uhnduh) or Pinot Noir, Schwarzriesling (Pinot Meunier, as in the grape used in Champagne) and Central European grapes like Trollinger, Portugiesier, Dornfelder, and Lemberger. And in the Anbaugebiet (AHN-bow-guh-beet), or wine region, of Württemberg over 70% of the grapes are red.


This big region in Southern Germany is on the Neckar River and a lot of the vineyard land is on steep terraces that line the river and its tributaries. Most of the wine is made by co-op, with hundreds of growers who own about 2.5 acres all contributing.

As a personal note, I kind of like what I read about Württemberg... the region has the highest per capita wine drinking rate of any place in Germany. It seems like Stuttgart (the big city in this area) should go on the map for a place to have fun. Frankly you'd have to go there to see what they've got to offer -- to satisfy local demand, not a ton of the stuff is exported. I guess they conform well to the locavore movement!

My travel aspirations aside, I'll get back to the grape. Lemberger is a mixed bag. It's a dark skinned and can have good mouth-drying tannin and spice but it can also make light, wussy wine that's not that good. It's grown all over central Europe -- in the Burgenland region of Austria, where the wines are called Blaufränkisch and are pretty highly regarded, in the Czech Republic, in Slovenia, in Croatia, and in Hungary where it's a main component of the Egri Bikaver (aka, Bull's Blood, a blended wine that can be powerful or awful depending on the producer). In Germany, it was imported to Württemberg from Slovenia in the 19th century, from Lemberg (hence, the name).

Grafen Neipperg, owned by Valckenberg is one of a handful of wine estates in the region (since most of the wine comes from the big co-ops). The name translates to "Count of Neipperg," and rather than just a marketing gimmick, there is actually a Count and the dude is still involved in the business. He's from a long line -- the family has been growing vines for 750 years.

Grafen Neipperg producer bottles wines from one of three estates, and even uses a percentage of German oak (I know nothing about it, seems untested, but I'll go with it) from their own land. 60% of it is red. They are also a member of the prestigious VDP (Verband Deutscher Prädikats, or the 200 member association of all the best German wine producers. They use an eagle symbol on the bottle, so look for that next time you're shopping German!).

Whatever they're doing, they are doing right. This stuff was good. I love me a spicy wine and that's just what I got...


The Wine: Grafen Neipperg
The Grape: 100% Lemberger
Where it's from: Württemberg, Germany
Alcohol: 13%
Vintage: 2010
Price: $13.00

Color: This wine was so beautiful. It had a pink, rose color to it. Although it was pretty light, it had a real shine to it -- like it was smiling up at me. I lingered on the color for a while because it was so pretty (dorky, I know).

Smell: I LOVE the smell of this wine. It was like a spiced orange or apple cider drink. It reminded me of mulled wine with a spicy cinnamon stick in it (Renaissance Festival, anyone?). There was also a rose-like potpourri smell on the second whiff. Spice, flowers, and citrus -- homerun for my big schnoz.

Taste: My first impression: this wine is SASSY. It was like little electrodes on my tongue -- prickly and electric with spicy flavor. It was medium weight -- kind of filled up my mouth and coated my cheeks, but not too much. I liked the texture, and the flavors were good, albeit a little artificial-tasting. Manufactured candy came to mind -- like fake raspberry flavor or a candy apple Jolly Rancher. It had some great spiced cherry with black pepper and nutmeg notes to it too.

Pairing: I had this with Israeli couscous and vegetables with herbed goat cheese and it was great. Lighter pastas, appetizers that feature veggies (think spanikopita or mushroom tarts) would let the wine shine. I think it would be great with chicken, turkey, or pork with thyme or rosemary-based rubs would be ideal. Don't pair this with anything too heavy or you may overpower the spicy nuance, which is what makes this wine so delicious.

Drink or Down the Sink?: Drink. What a fabulous medium-bodied wine. In a world where it's hard to come by something on the lighter side that still has umph, this is a real gem. Seek it out and remember that brand is important in looking for Lemberger, so look for this wine or another VDP producer to make sure you're not getting the German equivalent of Franzia boxed wine! Readmore »»

The Dirty Dozen: tasting of the year?

Wine tastings aren't half as much fun as they seem from the outside. They're usually huge, overheated, crowded and full of dull wines. Or, at least, most of them are dull.

The Dirty Dozen tasting was only guilty of one of those crimes - it was ridiculously cramped due, apparently, to the fact that the ceiling of the room it had been booked to take place in at the English Speaking Union had collapsed so it was held in a conservatory at the side whose wooden floor creaked ominously as the several hundred members of the press and wine trade milled around it.

The wines, however, were just thrilling. I started with a selection to which each merchant had contributed 2 bottles and there wasn't a dud one among them.

So who are the (surely misnamed) Dirty Dozen? A group of wine merchants who specialise in artisanal producers including a fair number of organic, biodynamic and natural winemakers. They included some familiar ones to me - Aubert & Mascoli (hardcore natural), Burgundy specialists Flint Wines, Indigo Wines (largely Spain) , London-based Roberson, Bristol-based Vine Trail (very well sourced wines from France) and German specialist The WineBarn, so having a limited amount of time I concentrated on a few I wasn't so familiar with.

The highlight was fortyfive10° which imports Italian wines from family-owned domains, the idea being to deal with estates that have form when it comes to winemaking. The owner Massimiliano Jacobacci states that he looks for "wines that express the history of a region through traditional wine making techniques as opposed to the current trend for wines of immediate accessibility at the expense of complexity and longevity." Or, as he put it to me more simply "We don't do entry level wines. I don't like them and I don't want to sell them."

So their wines obviously don't come cheap but if you want to be blown away dig deep in your pockets and buy a bottle of the stunning Sodi di San Niccolo from Chianti producer Castellare di Castellina, a beautifully crafted blend of Sangioveto and Malvasia Nera and one of the most delicious reds I've tasted this year. (My tasting note says 'heaven'!) The vintage I tried was the 2005 which doesn't seem to be in the market but you can find the 2004 from a wine and events company called A Moveable Feast in which Jacobacci also seems to be involved.

They (fortyfive10°) also supply a number of high profile London restaurants including Chez Bruce, The Ledbury, Polpo, Roka and the River Café.

Anyway I suggest you get yourself on the mailing list of all these importers and make sure, if you're in the trade, that you get to The Dirty Dozen tasting next year. Which I hope will be in a larger room. Readmore »»

The Wine Window: Drink Before It Closes On What You're Saving

I've said it a bunch of times -- I'm not a collector of anything. I don't collect stamps or snowglobes or even shoes. I don't even collect wine. My "cellar" is limited to about 40 to 50 bottles of wine, all of which will be consumed at some point in the next few years and replaced with other stuff to enjoy. My philosophy: you can't take it with you, so you may as well enjoy it now. Plebian? Maybe. Gratifying? Oh, yes.

That said, the wine I have in my small selection I'm excited about. I'm saving the bottles to enjoy on a day that I feel like I want it...sometimes just because and sometimes for an occasion.

So when I turned 21 again for the (I'm not telling you the number) time, I thought it would be nice to pop open the bottle of 2004 Clarendon Hills Hickinbotham Grenache, a very well esteemed wine from a small, French-trained winemaker in Australia that in previous times I have nearly passed out from due to its ridiculous, over the top deliciousness. At about $65, it's not an everyday wine, but a good treat for a special day.

Let me try to explain my love for this wine, since my memories of it are vivid. After decanting it for hours, I remember it being full of lush raspberry and blackberry fruit, tobacco, and leather, with the texture of liquid velvet. It was one of the most unabashed, smooth, balanced yet massive (meaning lots of alcohol and flavor) wines I've ever had. I loved this wine. I dreamt about it. It was so far afield from the more subtle, earthy wines I usually love but it was so damn good. A guilty pleasure for me.

So I saved 2 bottles of the 2004. I kept thinking of opening them, but just never did. They were stored in good conditions, and I kept eyeing them but didn't go for it. Then, finally, the other night, we brought a bottle to the French restaurant, Atmosphere (great place with a great wine list if you're ever in Atlanta), where we were having dinner for the anniversary of my 21st birthday.

The waiter opened and decanted the wine as soon as we sat down. While waiting for this little flower to mix with oxygen and show its beauty to us, we ordered two excellent glasses of Piper-Heidsieck Brut Champagne (which tasted like olive ciabatta bread and was fabulous). MC Ice and I took sinful sniffs, so excited just for a whiff after about 2 years of abstaining from this treat.

But the sniff was our first clue. The rich berry notes, the dark mocha, the leather and the tobacco were gone. A very light raspberry with a strong burn from the 14.5% alcohol were the only discernible smells. With a wine like this, that I expect to be unabashed, this was a horrible sign. It was a shadow of the wine I remembered.

With a little bit of dread, I drank it. Oy. The taste was even more blah. This wine was so muted. All the bold beauty was gone. It was just hot alcohol with a little bit of fruit. We waited longer to see if anything would change. Nothing. It had passed its prime. The wine was finished. It was done. It just sucked. Thankfully the wine list at the restaurant was great, so we ordered a lovely Bordeaux from Pomerol that was tasty with MC Ice's hanger steak and my mushroom and eggplant dish.

Still, though I wondered -- was it just bottle variation or was this wine not so ageable? I decided to pop open the other bottle when we got home to see. It was equally blah. I even left it in a decanter overnight. Same deal. Nothing much had changed. A little more fruit but more like a $10 Cotes-du-Rhone.

This is a sad but a cautionary tale.

Even though this is small lot wine made from meticulously cared-for vines, the high alcohol, fruit-forward nature of this wine actually worked against it and killed its aging potential. I did a little poking around on the internet to see what others had said about it, and Cellar Tracker (a great site where people record their wine notes) had some great info. In 2010, the wine seemed to consistently rock, similar to how I remember it. In 2011, there was a lot of variation in people's experiences with it -- some said it was still great, some had the same experience I did. 

It's not a huge body of evidence, but my guess is that after 8 years, this wine is on the verge of falling apart and being over the hill. Some bottles are already dead, the rest is probably dying. It's fairly well documented (although some may argue) that high alcohol wines made with very ripe fruit tend to lose flavor and drinkability a lot sooner than those that have less fruit and more "backbone" -- or stuff like acid, tannin, and moderate alcohol, all of which are natural preservatives. Too much ripe fruit and not enough of the other stuff and you get a wine that's not built to last.

So what does all this mean? I'm writing as kind of a cautionary tale. If you have a great bottle that you're saving, think about drinking it, especially if what you liked about it was the rich fruit flavor. Wines are not stagnant. They change with time. If you buy the stuff to drink it and enjoy it, don't hold back. GO FOR IT! I'd hate to have what happened to me, happen to you. Not all wine gets better with age and if you miss the window for when it's great, you'll be disappointed. 

My new rule of thumb -- if I've got a fruity wine, I'm drinking within 5 years. I'll age the French, Italian and Spanish stuff, but the others I'm drinking and I'm not going to feel bad about it! Too much reward in drinking it and too much risk in saving it. 

What do you think? Leave a comment below or join the Facebook page, where there's sure to be a great discussion on the topic!

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Wine For Normal People Radio : Episode 26 Sparkling Wine -- More Than Just Champagne

No secret here...I'm a fan of the bubbles. I love a good sparkler with food and definitely don't think it's only for special occasions. So this week, we tackle it. We don't get too much into the winemaking aspects, more about what to drink and from where.

Here are the show notes...

This week, we explain why bringing on the Bub is always a good idea.

We start with a few shoutouts to awesome reviews on iTunes and fun comments on Facebook.

And we answer another listener question! We want you to Call us!!! Do you have a wine-related question for Elizabeth? Anything goes! Call 800-599-8478 (in the U.S.) or 1-415-226-9105 and dial extension 5 to leave your question for the Wine For Normal People Podcast, and we will play it on the show!

• Listener Question - from Saul (NY, USA)
• Main Topic - Sparkling Wine
  1. Quick Hit on How Sparkling Wine is Made (very brief)
  2. The Big One: Champagne
  3. Cremant (from Loire, Limoux, Alsace)
  4. Cava (Spanish Sparkler)
  5. Prosecco, Franciacorta
  6. Sparkling Wine from USA
  7. Rosé Champagne and Sweetness Levels

Please drop a comment below or on the Facebook Page.

Also, if you like the Podcast, please review us on iTunes and we'll give you a shout out!

Podcast Powered By Podbean

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Saint-Véran and Syrah

We had friends over last night who are beginning to take an interest in natural wine so pulled out a couple of good bottles for them.

First off a Saint-Véran La Barnaudière 2007 (above) from Arnaud Combier who we visited in Burgundy roughly this time last year. It has that lovely pure acidity and minerality you get in natural wine, not unlike a premier cru Chablis, despite being so much further south in the Maçonnais. We drank it with a pasta bake made with ceps we brought back from the Auvergne and it was perfect.

Then a 2009 Syrah Vin de Pays de l'Ardèche from Hervé Souhaut we picked up from Chais Christine Cannac in Bédarieux. Souhaut, a bit of a cult winemaker whose wines we've been meaning to try for some time, worked with Dard et Ribo but now makes his own wine at Domaine Romaneaux-Destezet in Arlebosc in the Ardèche.

Although just 12.19% (I love the ironic precision of that ABV) it was full of flavour with the violetty, smoky character that makes young syrah so seductive. And that syrah pepperiness of course.

Great bottles to convince someone why natural wine is worth drinking. And frankly, pure pleasure for us to drink too.

Both producers are stocked by Les Caves de Pyrène. Readmore »»

Loirette blonde: a natural beer

One of the many appealing things about the Auberge de Chassignolles, about which I've been raving recently, is the fact that they stock a really good beer, alongside their natural wines - the Loirette Blonde from Brasserie de la Pigeonelle in Touraine.



According to the label it's made from organic ingredients, unfiltered and unpasteurised without any additives although I see it does contain sugar.



That makes it taste quite sweet though not nearly as sweet as Leffe, say. And oddly the 75cl bottle isn't as rich as the 33cl one though there is some variation between bottles. (Yes, I tried a number of them.) There's also something of a wheat beer about it though it's made from malted barley.



Apparently it's the favourite beer of the Loire's natural winemakers which I suppose makes it a natural beer. Anyway, it's delicious - look out for it. Readmore »»