It's week 5 of my Wines of the World class. Tonight found me and my fellow students traipsing through the cool-climate vineyards of Austria and Germany. With 17 wines being poured again this session, I had some exploring to do. After allowing myself a brief, internal titter in reminiscing about the Austrian wine industry's diethylene glycol scandal of 1985, I immersed myself in the task at hand. It's a tough job but somebody's got to do it!
Even though these two countries more or less share the same language, I found the wines of Austria and Germany to be quite different, at least that is what seemed to be the case in the sampling of Teutonic wines being offered. You don't have to be conversant in the lingo to understand German weins although one particular German word did keep popping into my mind. Not surprisingly, that word was zucker.
Overall, the German wines displayed just a tad too much sweetness for my palate. I did however enjoy a Mönchhof 2009 Spätlese Riesling which showed a perspicaciously finessed balance of sugar and acid. My favourite wine of the evening turned out to be Austrian, a Laurenz 2011 Grüner Veltliner which was clean and fresh with a subtle white peachy-spiciness. And it was dry.
Overall, the German wines displayed just a tad too much sweetness for my palate. I did however enjoy a Mönchhof 2009 Spätlese Riesling which showed a perspicaciously finessed balance of sugar and acid. My favourite wine of the evening turned out to be Austrian, a Laurenz 2011 Grüner Veltliner which was clean and fresh with a subtle white peachy-spiciness. And it was dry.
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