The Booklovers' Guide to Wine

by Patrick Alexander

  Sicily: The first vineyards in Sicily were planted by Mycenaean Greeks 3,500 years ago, and they have been in full production ever since. Unfortunately, like the wines of Puglia, Sicilian vines were prolific producers but not highly valued, and were used mainly for adding body and color to the more expensive wines further north.

  The exception has always been the sweet wines from the city of Marsala in the far western tip of Sicily. In 1773, an Englishman John Woodhouse decided that the regular local wine could be transformed using in perpetuum techniques (similar to the solera system used to make Sherry in Spain). The addition of alcohol would not only fortify the wine, but also help it survive the sea journey back to England as was already being done by the English with Sherry and Port. It was an instant success with the British, and other entrepreneurs soon hurried out to exploit the wine’s popularity. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the English domination of Marsala-making was brought to an end by the arrival of Vincenzo Florio, one of Italy’s first tycoons, who bought up much of the land around Marsala as well as Woodhouse’s company. Florio and Pellegrino remain the leading producers of Marsala today, and their products sell all over the world.

  A delightful alternative to Marsala are the Passito di Pantelleria dessert wines from the tiny, wind-swept island of Pantelleria, off the southern coast of Sicily. According to legend, Apollo was finally seduced by the goddess Tanit when she served him a cup of Pantelleria wine. Like Recioto and Amarone of Northeast Italy, the Passito di Pantelleria grapes are picked early and allowed to dry in the fierce Sicilian sun, thus concentrating the sugars before fermentation. This appassimento process results in very sweet wines which are high in alcohol.

  Just as with Puglia, consumers began to discover the wines of Sicily at the turn of the twenty-first century. The Nero D’Avola grape in particular has achieved the same sort of international fame as Puglia’s Primitivo. Both varietals are rich, fruit-forward, and full-bodied reds, with a dark-ruby color. The Nero D’Avola in particular thrives in the very hot and arid climate of Southern Sicily, almost within sight of the African coast. Sicily is definitely a region worth watching.

  IGT: Indicazione Geografica Tipica is the lowest wine classification in Italy, and merely specifies the origin of the grape, much like the American AGA or the Australian AGIs. There are about 120 IGT regions in Italy, and many are in the south, in Puglia and Sicily.

  Many young winegrowers, wishing to free themselves from the traditions and regulations of more established DOC regions, prefer to seek the IGT classification so they can experiment with different varietals and different viticultural techniques. Consequently, many young growers are moving to Sicily and Puglia, and interesting but competitively-priced wines are already emerging from these regions. For similar reasons, we are seeing the same thing happening in France’s Languedoc-Roussillon region, and Spain’s adjoining Penedès region.

  When Chianti makers during the late 1980s first started adding Cabernet Sauvignon to make the Super Tuscans, they were forbidden from using the Chianti DOCG, and had to label their wines with the IGT classification. The young garagistes in Puglia are using the IGT label with pride.

  Germany

  Germany produces the most northerly wines in the world. It lies further from the Equator than any other wine-producing region, and is therefore most lacking in sunshine. As a result, most German vineyards are planted on the steep, south-facing slopes of river valleys to maximize the angle of the direct sunlight. Furthermore, lacking sunshine, most German wines are white and low in alcohol. German wines are also noticeably sweeter than other wines, partly because chaptalization (the adding of sugar) is permitted, and partly as a reflection of the national taste. Germans on the whole prefer to drink beer with their meals and to drink wine by itself, and compared to their French neighbors, they prefer their wine to be sweeter.

  At their best, German wines include some of the most expensive and sought-after white wines in the world. Rieslings from the Rhine and from the Moselle can combine a uniquely delicate balance of a velvety sweetness with a sharp refreshing acidity which few other wines can match. Unfortunately, and certainly since the Second World War, the vast bulk of German wine has been undistinguished, if not downright awful. The reasons for this are partly historical and partly administrative or political.

  History: Although the Romans planted vineyards along the northern boundary of their Empire, little is known about German wine till the Middle Ages, when the Benedictine and later the Cistercian monasteries brought winemaking to an art form.

  Known by the English as “Rhenish,” the sweet white wines were stored and aged in massive oak barrels, or tuns, holding as much as fifty thousand gallons in the Cistercian monasteries along the Rhine and Moselle river valleys. By 1500 AD, these Rhenish wines were much in-demand in all the courts of Europe—including the French. After the discovery of noble rot and late-harvest (Spatlese) wines in 1775, these sweet white wines became some of the most expensive in the world.

  Unfortunately, the devastation of the Thirty Years War of the seventeenth century damaged much of the German wine infrastructure, and this was further harmed in the 1800s after Napoleon secularized the remaining vineyards belonging to the monasteries. The final blow to the German wine culture came with the wars of the twentieth century, which devastated the whole country. During the allied occupation following World War II, the winegrowers were influenced by the unsophisticated taste of the occupying English and American soldiers, and so sweet, bulk wines such as Blue Nun and Liebfraumilch became the norm in Germany, thus, unfairly, harming the reputation of German wine.

  Classification: Further damage to the reputation of German wine is due to the continuing political administration of German wine laws and labeling regulations, which are not only complex, but also confusing and unhelpful to the consumer. As the English writer, Kingsly Amis, famously observed, “A German wine label is one of the things that life is too short for.”

  Geographic Classification: German geographic classification is the complete opposite of the French concept of terroir. While the French narrow-down in search of the smallest plot of land to display its own unique characteristics, the Germans lump together a whole group of neighboring plots into a single vineyard that is called an Einzellagen. While an appellation in Burgundy can be as small as two acres, the very smallest Einzellagen permitted under German law is five hectares (12.5 acres—or 8.5 American football fields). Back in the 1960s, there were thirty thousand individual vineyards in Germany, but in 1971, in order to “avoid confusion,” these were reduced to 2,600 by raising the minimum size to five hectares. The new laws of 1994 made the situation even worse by including the “Grosslage,” which is the collection of Einzellagens in a village or commune onto the label. The average consumer has no way of telling if the name on the label is from a single vineyard—Einzellagen—or from a large group of vineyards—a Grosslage. Because of political pressure from co-ops and large bottlers of inferior wines, the laws regulating German wine labels can be deliberately misleading and make it difficult to know exactly where a specific wine comes from.

  At first glance, the German system resembles the French system, descending from a general region such as Burgundy, to a more defined region such as Côtes-de-Beaune, to an actual village such as Chassagne-Montrachet, and finally to the individual vineyard of Montrachet Grand Cru. The Germans appear to have a similar system:

  The Anbaugebeite describes the whole region, such as Mosel-Saar-Ruwer

  The Bereich is a subregion such as Mosel

  The Grosslage is a group of vineyards in the same village or commune, such as Piesporter

  The Einzellagen is the individual vineyard, which has a minimum size of five hectares.

  Unfortunately, it is seldom clear from the label whether the name of the wine refers to the Einzellagen or the Grosslage. In other words, the system is tilted towards the producers of inferior wines, who wish to
benefit from the confusion with the names and reputations of superior wines.

  For example, the best wines in the Mosel village of Piesporter come from the very steep, granite slopes facing south behind the village of which the two best einzellagen are called Goldtropfchen and Schubertslay, both of which are responsible for the excellent international reputation of Piesporter wines. However, all the bland, inferior wines grown within the Piesporter Grosselage are also sold with the Piesporter name on the label. Without knowing the names, it’s impossible for the average consumer to differentiate between an Einzellage (e.g., Piesporter Goldtröpfchen) and a Grosslage (e.g., Piesporter Michelsberg). As can be imagined, the vines grown on the steep granite slopes above the village produce small quantities of a crisp, robust Riesling, while the vines grown in the flat alluvial fields in the bend of the river below the village (which could be excellent for strawberries, tulips, or roses) produce vast quantities of sweet, flabby juice completely lacking in taste or character. Both wines, however, enjoy the Piesporter classification on the label.

  Matters are not helped by the German habit of also including the name of the large geographic region, the Anbaugebeite, on all the labels. Thus, a bottle of wine from the town of Piesporter will also be labeled with the Anbaugebeite “Mosel/Saar/Ruwer.”

  Prädikatswein

  All German wines of high quality are known as Prädikatswein, which translates as “quality wine with specific attributes,” and they are graded at the time of harvest into the following categories, depending on their sweetness level. Because Germany has such a cold climate for growing vines and so little sunlight to ripen them, the emphasis understandably has always been on the sweetness of the grape when it was picked, rather than the location where it was picked.

  Kabinett - literally “cabinet,” meaning wine of reserve quality to be kept in the vintner’s cabinet or wine-rack; fully ripened light wines from the main harvest, typically semi-sweet with crisp acidity, but can be dry if designated so.

  Spätlese - meaning “late harvest;” typically semi-sweet, often (but not always) sweeter and fruitier than Kabinett. The grapes are picked at least seven days after normal harvest, so they are riper. While waiting to pick the grapes carries a risk of the crop being ruined by rain, in warm years and from good sites much of the harvest can reach Spätlese level. Spätlese can be a relatively full-bodied dry wine if designated so. While Spätlese means late harvest, the wine is not as sweet as a dessert wine, which the term “late harvest” usually implies in the USA.

  Auslese - meaning “select harvest;” made from very ripe, hand-selected bunches, typically semi-sweet or sweet, sometimes with some noble rot character. Sometimes Auslese is also made into a powerful dry wine. Auslese is the Prädikatswein, which covers the widest range of wine styles, and can even be a dessert wine.

  Beerenauslese - meaning “select berry harvest;” made from overripe grapes individually selected from bunches and often affected by noble rot, making rich, sweet dessert wine.

  Eiswein -meaning “ice-wine;” made from grapes that have been naturally frozen on the vine. Making a very concentrated wine, they must reach at least the same level of sugar content in the freshly pressed juice as a Beerenauslese. The most classic Eiswein style is to use only grapes that are not affected by noble rot. Until the 1980s, the Eiswein designation was used in conjunction with another Prädikatswein (which indicated the ripeness level of the grapes before they had frozen), but is now considered a Prädikatswein of its own. These wines are similar to the ice wines produced in Northern New York State, Michigan, and Southern Canada—brought to the New World by German immigrants.

  Trockenbeerenauslese (TBA) - meaning “select dry berry harvest” or “dry berry selection;” made from selected overripe shriveled grapes often affected by noble rot, making extremely rich, sweet wines. “Trocken,” in this phrase, refers to the grapes being dried on the vine rather than the resulting wine being a dry style. TBA wines are extremely rare and expensive, much sweeter even than Bordeaux’s Sauternes wines, but with a much lower alcohol content.

  As with most things German, this all appears logical and well-organized, and the consumer should, by reading the label, have a clear idea of what style of wine to expect from the bottle. However, the difference between a Spätlese and an Auslese, for example, is established at the time of harvest—before the wine has been fermented and bottled. Depending on the winemaking process or the preference of the individual winemaker, the Auslese can actually end up to be a drier wine than the Spätlese. This is rather like selecting the correct bus to return home from the NYC Grand Central Bus Terminal based on the direction it is facing.

  V.D.P.: The Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter (the Association of German Prädikat Wine Estates, abbreviated VDP), is a group of some two hundred quality-oriented German vintners who are committed to terroir-driven viticulture at the highest level. Recognizing the various deficiencies in the German Wine laws, as previously described, this group of winegrowers have established and enforce their own much stricter and terroir-focused standards. All their approved wines carry the VDP logo on the neck of the bottle. More information can be found on the group’s website at www.vdp.de/en/home/

  German varietals

  Riesling is the most-planted grape varietal and is used for the production of all the top-quality German wines. Because of its high acidity, top-quality Rieslings can age for hundreds of years. The town hall in Bremen contains barrels of Riesling dating back to 1653, and the Wurzburg Burgerspital has one remaining Steinwein bottle of the 1540 vintage. Even today, if you have the money, it is possible to buy a bottle of Bremen’s 1727 Rudesheimer Apostelwein.

  Because it needs over four months of sun in order to ripen, a poor growing season can negate a whole harvest. In the small river valleys of the Saar and the Ruwer leading into the Moselle, they enjoy a decent harvest of Riesling only three out of every ten years.

  Muller Thurgau is the second most-planted German varietal. It is easier to grow than Riesling, with a much shorter growing season, but is bland and neutral in taste. Along with Sylvaner, it is the main grape in the production of Blue Nun and Liebfraumilch.

  Sylvaner: Once this was Germany’s most planted grape, but since the 1960s, has been replaced either by Riesling for quality or by Muller Thurgau for quantity.

  Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir): Because of its northern location and lack of sunshine, there is little red wine produced in Germany. Most red wine is made from the Spätburgunder grape, which, as the name suggests, is similar to the red wines from Burgundy—like a Pinot Noir.

  German wine regions

  The main German wine regions were initially planted by the Romans, and are almost all planted on the south facing riverbanks of the Rhine or its tributaries.

  Rheingau: This has been a classic German wine-producing region throughout the Middle Ages. Located in the center of Rheingau, where the river Main joins the Rhine, the small town of Hochheim has historically been the center of the wine trade and was the first German village to exclusively plant Riesling vines. The English word Hock, a generic term for Rhine wine, is derived from Hochheim, as are the distinctive tall, brown bottles, also called hock bottles, by the English. The best vineyards are located on the steep granite slopes on the north side of the Rhine, facing south across the wide river, so that in addition to the direct sun on the plants, sunlight is also reflected off the surface of the river, reaching up into the lower clusters of grapes.

  The heart of the Rheingau is the village of Johannisberg, about twenty-five miles west of Hochheim, which produces fruity and spicy Rieslings in vineyards first planted by Charlemagne in the eighth century. It was at Schloss Johanisberg in 1775 that the concept of Spätlese, or late harvest wine, was first discovered and eventually codified. However, once again the single good-quality Einzellagen in the village has given its name to whole Grosslage of indifferent producers, thus diluting the quality
and value of the name.

  Nahe: This is a small tributary of the Rhine with vineyards on south-facing slopes. These wines are valued as being especially “clean” and “grapey.”’

  Pfalz (Palentine): Pfalz lies due north and is almost a continuation of Alsace in France, and almost identical in terms of soil, climate, and varietals. However, the wines from Pflaz are always markedly sweeter than the equivalent wines from Alsace. The only difference between the wines of Alsace and Pfalz is one of national taste and preference; otherwise, they could be almost identical. Lots of young experimental wineries have started to relocate to this region.

  Rheinhessen: A large bulk-winegrowing area north of Pfalz growing mainly Muller Thurgau or Sylvaner grapes. Much of it is sold as Liebfraumilch or Blue Nun. The village of Nierstein produces great whites—but, as always, the Grosslage name has been abused by overuse.

  Baden & Wurtenburg: With a warmer southern German climate, Baden & Wurtenburg produces mainly dry (Troken) wines which go better with food than most German wines. Ninety percent is grown by co-ops and sold to négociants, like the conglomerate Badisher Winzerkeller.

  Franken: A very unique area, different from the rest of Germany. The region is well-known for its mainly Sylvaner grapes to make Burgundy-style whites. These wines, which have been compared with the great Burgundies, are very dry and age well—a vintage from 1540 was drunk in 1960 and was very well-received.