Germany Beyond Riesling

Hi there!

Just browsing around I noticed that most of the German wine threads are heavily focused on Riesling. Would be good to have a thread dedicated to everything else from Spätburgunder to the Pinots and from Frankonian Silvaner to Cabernet Dorsa!

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And I also had a question - which one of these would go best with a Sauerbraten? Mainly thinking about ranking them by acidity and body… but I haven’t tried any!

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Joni, I did create one - the German Gazette - but it can be a bit slow on there. If you search for it, it should be there somewhere! I’ll see if I can dig it out!

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Damn, I didn’t dig far enough :rofl:

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From memory - the Johner is probably the lighter of the bunch. The Künstler next and then the Bercher. They will each be lovely with Sauerbraten, but Bercher would have been my choice :slightly_smiling_face:

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Reigniting this thread ….
Anyone tried this:

https://www.thewinesociety.com/product/spatburgunder-js-ahr-jean-stodden-2019

I’m a little put off by the description tbh … :woman_shrugging:

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Not surprised. Tastes like cyanide isn’t really a huge selling point!

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Stodden is very highly regarded from the Ahr valley -my regular supplier in Germany says that his Spätburgunder wine almost has a Burgundian quality about it.

I’m sat on 2 bottles of this in the cellar, but I’ve put it in the drink 5-10 years section based of what I was told and think 2029 might also be a bit too soon.

However, I am willing to listen to anyone who has tried it!

Yes, highly regarded and the JS is meant to be one of the best bottlings. That said, I’ve had two of the more humble offerings and it has been one of the Spätburgunders I’ve liked the least.

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Has that just been added didn’t see it yesterday ….I’m sure there was only two SBs other day
Which of the cheaper offerings to go for

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A quick check on Vivino says that this is a big step up from the JS “entry levels” - it seems right up my street though.

Might have to dig out a bottle over the weekend and see what it’s all about!

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Please do dig a bottle! I do find German wines improve a lot one or two rungs up the ladder, particularly Pinot/ Spatburgunder.

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Kolsch. But I see that is not an option.

I have only had the Kunstler, however can absolutely confirm it is a lovely wine - I would not go for anything more expensive because Sauerbraten is fairly rustic?

It depends how much vinegar & wine have gone into the dish - and the residual acidity once cooked ?

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Yes, rhe Künstler was delicious!

It’s the “from an exceptionally hot vintage” which raises my eyebrows …. Is that code for “stewed AF” ? :sweat_smile::sweat_smile:

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For the most part I’ve been under the impression that the unpopularity of cyanide is down to side-effects rather than taste. Still, not sure I can remember eating either a cherry pip or cyanide…

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Given the possible consequences of chewing and swallowing a cherry pip, it does rather beg the question of how the writer of the description knew the taste.

Still, I’m often fascinated how wine experts know the taste and smell of many hundreds of different fruits, vegetables, plants, farmyard items and other inanimate objects, in order to apply them to descriptions and reviews. My own personal database is far more limited, cyanide is but a distant dream…

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In what we laughably refer to as our “almond orchard” at our small house in the campo in Spain, a number of the trees bear both bitter almond and sweet almond fruit.

Harvesting the almonds and tasting the odd few while doing this usually means biting into a bitter almond kernel or two, as it is nearly impossible for the untrained eye to tell them apart. But once you start chewing and releasing the cyanide-containing compounds, the difference in taste between sweet and bitter almonds is quite marked. I actually prefer the bitter taste, but of course you can’t eat too many of them :blush:.

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