In an effort to enable us to open the next German wine, as I can’t open it until I write about the last one, I’m writing this post! It’s really hot today, so I’m going to make this somewhat brief as the laptop is hot and I’m wearing shorts, an unfortunate combination.



This time I had another spätlese, wine made from grapes of the same ripeness as the last one, however, this time it was from the Rheingau. Some Rheingaunian trivia: this area is also along the Rhine river, as is Mosel, in an area where the river stops flowing northward and instead flows westward for about 30 kilometers (that’s about 18.6 miles). Most of the vines are located along the right bank of this stretch up the south-facing slopes of the Taunus mountain range.

The vineyards here make up only about 3% of the total acreage in all of Germany, yet the wines from some producers here are internationally known. Riesling truly is king here, making up nearly 80% of the wines here. Apparently there’s also a good deal of pinot noir, although after the atrocious cold climate pinot noir from Canada we had a couple years ago I’m afraid to try another. Obviously Germany and Canada are different places, but that wine was so awful it has turned me off from all pinot noirs grown in areas that also produce icewine.

Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy this spätlese as much as the Mosel representation, which is particularly unfortunate given that this one was $35.99 and the other $18.99. It was a great wine, don’t get me wrong, but had less acid and more body. The Mosel spätlese was still refreshing despite the residual sugar, but this one coated your throat with its sugar.

It had some teeny, tiny bubbles floating in the light yellow color of the wine. There was a powerful butterscotch and honey aroma, with a hint of flowers. Definitely a sweeter wine with a medium body. Had that slight effervescence, which unfortunately doesn’t last to day 2-- or 3. It was heavy enough that it was hard to drink a lot, thus taking us 3 nights to finish the whole bottle, although I still wouldn’t classify this as a dessert wine.