Just a day after that VDP wine auction for the Rheingau region, I returned to Kloster Eberbach for the big public presentation of 2010 Great Growth wines of all VDP member estates. Since I missed previous opportunities to taste these wines, I was more than happy to attend this brilliant event.

The 2010 vintage didn’t have an easy start as numerous media already condemned it as a sour (white) wine vintage at a time when harvest wasn’t even fully brought in. And it’s true that for many of the estate’s basic Rieslings, qualities are rather heterogenous. For the Great Growths however, I read more and more opinons that are highly praising this new vintage, even putting it above last year’s great success. Read the rest of this entry »

On tuesday, Martin of Berlinkitchen offered me to join him and Arthurs Tochter for a visit at Weingut Wagner-Stempel in Rheinhessen. A tempting offer I couldn’t resist.

Daniel Wagner is a very down-to-earth man and, if that word exists, also a selfmade-winemaker. He took over the parental estate in the 1990′s and converted it from a mainly agricultural estate with wheat and sugar beets to a high quality winery. Of course they did also make wine before, but Daniel was the one in the family who made it a priority and the main focus of the estate.

And today, only some 20 years later, he’s one of the shooting stars of the VDP, which he joined in 2004. But he’s still that down-to-earth family man. A man who made us a warm-hearted welcome when we arrived for the first time on his estate. He offered us a tour of his vineyards in his old VW bus, let us have lunch with his family and the team and gave us a thorough taste of his wine collection while telling his story. Read the rest of this entry »