Die Prowein: Verkostungszonen, Weindiagramme, Expertisen, Hallen, Hallen, Hallen voll mit Wein. Der Overkill an Eindrücken. Aber es hat viel Spaß gemacht. Ein paar wenige gemischte Eindrücke habe ich hier gesammelt: Read the rest of this entry »

I was looking forward to this comparison for a few months now. A bottle of 2005 Côte-Rôtie Brune et Blonde by Guigal was lying in my cellar for longer. A few months ago, as I discovered a Greek wine shop in Frankfurt, I stumbled upon this other bottle, a 2007 Syrah named Evangelo by Domaine Gerovassiliou. The shop owner explained that this wine is supposed to represent a Greek kind of Côte Rôtie, as it is made exactly with the same methods and even uses 8% ( double the amount compared to the Guigal!) of the white grape Viognier within the wine – a common thing in the Northern Rhône to stabilize color, add acidity and flavor to the wine. And as both wines even are in the same high price class (around 40 Euro), I thought this could only be an interesting showdown. Read the rest of this entry »

Wieder mal sind einige Monate des sporadischen und unorganisierten Probierens vorüber gegangen, und so wurde es wirklich mal wieder Zeit für eine schöne, ausgedehnte Weinprobe mit viel Gelegenheit zum direkten Vergleich. Da trifft es sich gut, dass Weinliebhaber Oskar eine fröhliche Weinrunde zur spanischen Weinprobe in den Gewölbekeller des Alten Hofs in Wallau geladen hat. Im Gepäck hatte Oskar eine große Vielfalt an Flaschen, so dass die Probe einer Entdeckungsreise quer durch die spanische Weinlandschaft glich. Highlights gab es dabei nicht zu wenige, doch ich will jetzt nicht zu viel verraten. Als Bewertungssystem habe ich mich für das einfache aber praktische -,+ und ++ entschieden wobei – für “unter den Erwartungen”, + für “gut, entspricht den Erwartungen” und ++ für “sehr gut, deutlich über den Erwartungen” steht. Hier sind meine Notizen: Read the rest of this entry »

Many laugh about Chinese wine culture, often bringing up the example of fine wine being mixed with Coke, but during my 7 days in Shanghai I did see no such thing. On the contrary, Shanghai even has a nice little wine scene, with a panoply of shops (many with the so loved Lafite wines as crown of their selection) and also a few very cosy wine bars. Two times we visited Le Bistro du Dr. Wine, a hip wine bar with bistro flair on Fumin road, it charmed us with its stylish yet unpretentious ambiance and an appealing wine list.
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After the white wines, now on to the reds of our Paris blind tasting: Read the rest of this entry »

Finally I’m back home after 2 weeks of agitated travelling, and I have lots of stories to tell from my trip to Shanghai, and some more from my subsequent getaway to Paris. But let’s start time-incoherent with a blind-tasting that kicked off my weekend in Paris. I was a guest at my friend Didier’s home and, as usual, we couldn’t meet without popping a few corks. We each added a couple of bottles to this tasting and they were served to us mixed and blind by Didier’s wonderful wife Mizuki, who has developed a hand for pouring the right bottles. Of course, I mostly brought German wines, as I also know Didier has a weakness for these (one among a few) and they’re rather hard to get in France. Here’s the first half of the tasting, dedicated to the white wines.

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