Dear Cha-Wel-Dor-Sue:

A previous and delightful trip to Bordeaux, France (a red wine trip) with Vin Mattaroli's "Lovers of Wine" group prompted Pat and me to sign up for another wine venture, this time to discover the white wines of Alsace, France, and the Mosel and Rhine River areas of southeastern Germany.

Our group was small (14) and we traveled by bus to our various bases and to the many vineyards where we enjoyed "tastings". Most of our meals were "gourmet" and specially prepared for us with a careful selection of appropriate wines to accompany each course. Our traveling companions were all oenophiles who enjoyed analyzing the various constituents and characteristics of each wine and who made notes so that they could share them with their wine lovers at home. Most of us brought home a bottle or two of our favorites from those tastings.

Most of the group flew Icelandic Air to Luxembourg, where we all gathered together to board our bus, which drove us southeast through Metz, and Nancy, to Colmar in the Alsace Lorraine section of France. It was our headquarters for three days. Everyone enjoyed walking through Colmar's narrow streets with its colorful half-timbered houses, ancient churches, unique public buildings, and shops of all kinds. Frankly, Colmar appeared more German than French, and I presume this is due to the fact that a large part of its history occurred while it was occupied by the Germans.

Our first vineyard visited was the Maison Mure in Rouffach and our second to the Maison Charles Schleret in Tuckheim. In between, we visited the Wolfberger Distillery, famous for its distillates, or fruit brandies. These products are distillates of crushed fruits and are not identical with cordials or liquors, many of which are made by soaking fruits in alcohol.

Unlike our trip to France, where we visited many vineyards, we, on this occasion, spent virtually our entire mornings and afternoons tasting many more wines at one source and listening in detail to the proprietors discussing the special features and characteristics of each of their wines.

Alsace is noted for its seven varietal grapes and these may be summarized as follows:

1. Sylvaner

a light wine, fresh and fruity. Delightful with sea-food, fish and charcuterie.

2. Riesling

Alsace wine "par excellence", full of character, with a delicate bouquet and an exquisite fruitiness. It compliments the finest food and is superb with fish, shell-fish, sea-food and, of course, choucroute (sauerkraut).

3. Gewurtztraminer

elegant, full-bodied and well-balanced, it is a wine with a highly elegant bouquet, which has an appealing taste and smell.

4. Muscat d'Alsace

a dry wine, with a distinctive bouquet. It is a delicious aperitif and an incomparable wine for parties and receptions.

5. Pinot blanc or Klevner

a well-balanced, subtle yet lively wine. Can be served wherever white wine is called for.

6. Tokay Pinot gris

a heady, rich and full-bodied wine. It enhances all rich foods, particularly foie gras and juicy roast meats. It too is a high quality aperitif.

7. Pinot noir or Rose d'Alsace

a dry rose-wine, with a delicious fragrance. Charming and original.

 

On our second day, we spent half the morning at the Maison Sparr in Sigolsheim and the other half at the Maison Hugel in Riquewihr. Throughout this area, there are numerous wine states and each located in small picturesque medieval towns, all worthy of more lengthy visits. In the afternoon, we drove to Strasbourg for an afternoon on our own. Though we have been there twice, we have not as yet seen it at its best or to our complete satisfaction.

Mainz served as our second headquarters and this is an interesting city. Early in Mainz's history, it was an archbishopric and was the only part, apart from Rome, to be granted the name "Holy See" and Catholic priests ruled the city until 1792, when it became a republic. After a brief city tour, we were taken to the Gutenberg Museum, where movable metal type was first employed and the first bible was printed. The museum is extraordinary and contains a variety of all the earliest type of printing presses and is probably unequaled in the world in this regard. From Mainz, we visited the general area of the Rheingau and specifically the vineyards of Kloster Eberbach and Schloss Johannisberg, both well-known and famous. On our second day, we visited the Rheinhessen area and the wine estates of Guntrum in Nierstein and the Fritz Bastian Winery in Bacherach.

Between these visits, we enjoyed a two hour cruise on the Rhine from Bingen to St. Goar, and that evening, we enjoyed dinner at Rudesheim.

On our trip from Mainz to Trier, we stopped at the Kloster Machern for a tour of this winery and a delightful lunch. This site is an old abbey, beautifully restored, that today is the site of music concerts and art exhibits.

Trier is the oldest city in Germany and it is said antedates Rome by at least several hundred years. In 16 BC, Emperor Augustus established a city here called Treverorum after the Treveri, a Celtic people that inhabited this area. It has been successfully occupied by the Romans, Franks, French and Germans and today is a university city and cultural center. The Roman ruins, especially the imperial Baths, the Amphitheater, the Porta Nigre, or Black City Gate, and the Roman Bridge are all well-preserved. The Cathedral (Dom), Town Hall, Roman Basilica, and the Karl Marx House were all of special interest. Trier was selected as our home base in order for us to see and visit the many vineyards along the Mosel and Saar rivers. The slopes of each of these rivers are lined with vineyards, some with inclines of 60 degrees and almost impossible to ascend. Never have I seen such a dense concentration of wine plants and such picturesque old villages!

After our group departed for home from Luxembourg, Pat and I remained in Germany for another five more days, spending three days on the Mosel (Bern Castle, Cochem, and Koblenz), and our final two days in Frankfurt.

It has been said that a day without wine is like a day without the sun, and one man describing the merits of a famous Sauterne (Chateau d'Yquem, 1921) said that "You can place a glassful under the nose of a dead man, and he will revive immediately, with a smile on his face, drink down the luscious nectar and then lapse into an eternal sleep, filled with dreams of all that is pleasant." What a good reason for a Dionysian journey!

A few general and specific remarks about wine at this time may be of some interest to you. Wine, as everyone knows, results naturally when grape juice is permitted to ferment and the yeast in the skin of the grape converts the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide gas. All that is needed is for the skin of the grape to be broken and nature will do the rest providing normal temperatures prevail. Usually, under normal conditions, fermentation will go on until all the sugar is converted into alcohol or until the alcohol reaches 15 %, which overcomes the yeast and fermentation ceases. All wines would be colorless unless the skin is left in contact with the juice during fermentation (Roses - 3 days, Reds - 7 days on an average). There resides in all grapes an unresolved complex of principles: of acids and sugars, minerals and pigments, esters and aldehydes, and tannins, and these are responsible for the taste, aroma, bouquet, body and fullness of the wines. The great enemy of wine is oxygen and Louis Pasteur discovered this when asked by Napoleon 111 in 1863 to find out why wine went bad. He discovered that too much contact with air encourages the growth of vinegar bacteria, but also noted that a little oxygen encourages the maturation of wine. Robards "Book of Wine" notes "Without question, Germany is the greatest white wine-producing country in the world and the cultivation of the grape here is superior in terms of quality if not quantity. Skill, craftsmanship and perseverance contribute to the greatness of the wines of the Rhine, Mosel, Ruwar and Saar areas. The sweetness of the great Rhine and Mosel wines is entirely natural, much as the same sweetness exists in a ripe peach, and all of the good German wines are harvested late in the autumn, allowing the water in the grape to evaporate through the skin, leaving a concentrated nectar within the grape. Under ideal conditions, the grapes will contract a mold or fungus called "Botrytis Cinerea" or "Noble Rot". The mold digs into the skin without breaking it and thus contributes to the evaporation of the water and the grape."

The nomenclature, or terminology, used to describe German wines has always been confusing. In short, the quality of German wines relates to the degree of residual sugar or sweetness, and this is basically achieved by late harvesting. "Spatlese" refers to the late-picked grapes. "Auslese" means selected, late-picked bunches of grapes. "Beerenauslese" means each grape is harvested individually after it has begun to turn into a dried berry. "Trockenbeerenauslese" refers to wine made after the berries have shriveled and produced the most concentrated juice of all, often with the help of the "Noble Rot". "Eiswein" is made from grapes that have already frozen. It is interesting historically that a group of monks, years ago, were late in receiving their license to make wine and had to do so after the grapes were harvested very late and had already been infected with the "Noble Rot" and far from being disappointed with the results, they discovered, to their surprise, the extraordinary sweetness of their product.

At our initial meeting on our tour, we heard from the head of the German Wine Academy and we were shown a chart (see attached chart) indicating the various categories or classifications of German wines. As you can see, the lowest quality is that of Tafelwein, or Table wine, and this type of wine can be "Capitalized" or a wine to which sugar may be added. "Landwein" is a slightly better wine in quality and can also be capitalized. All wines above this level are "Qualitatswein", to which no sugar may be added. They must be produced from approved grape varieties and from government-approved areas and must attain 8.5% of alcohol. Those called "Kabinett" or wines worthy of being stored in a cabinet, are quality wines. The highest quality of wines are called "Qualitatswein Mit Pradikat", or with special attributes. This means that they contain at least 10% alcohol and contain increasing percentages of residual sugar, ascending from the level of "Spatlese" to "Trockenbeerenauslese". Sweet wines are not dry wines because they contain less acid. For my palate, a more harmonious wine is one with less acid and more sweetness. One often sees the words "Halb Trochen" on a wine label, and this means half-dry.

All German wines must list on its labels the name of the village, town, commune or regional area where it was produced, the vineyard within the town, if the wine is of an unusual quality, the name of the grape from which the wine was made and lastly, the year of its vintage.

Wine has been known virtually since the dawn of civilization and from its history, we can gather that its earliest uses were for medicinal purposes and ritual or sacramental uses. In Simon's book entitled "Wines of the World", the first paragraph of the introduction reads as follows: "Wine is as old as the thirst of man, not the physical thirst which man can so easily slake with water, as his horse and dog do, but the heaven-sent thirst for what will still our fears - that our mind be at peace; and stir our sense and sensibility - that we shall not ignore nor abuse God's good gifts - wine not the least of them."

According to Pickett's "Origines Europeene", wine-making was introduced by the Aryans in India, Egypt and Persia and scenes of grapes being picked and pressed are in the Tomb of PhtahHotep, who lived in Memphis some 4000 years BC. Among the laws of Hamarabi, who was King of Babylon in about 1790 BC, regulations are mentioned dealing with the marketing of wine. It was noted that if a Taverner "overcharged, sold bad wine for good, or allowed riotous conduct on his premises, and was convicted, penalties were not fines or prison, but the loss of limb or of life!''

The Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans cultivated vineyards and carried them northward across Gaul and into the valleys of the Rhine and Danube. At one time, the vineyards were so numerous throughout these areas and wine so abundant, that Domitian ordered all trans-Alpine vineyards to be destroyed! Today, wine is made all over the world where temperate climates prevail.

It might be noted at this point that French wines are labeled according to the area in which they are produced and each area has its own standards and regulations. In Bordeaux, where we were three years ago, the wines are roughly classified into three groups:

(A) AC or Appellations Controlees, which are guaranteed not only or origin but of a standard administered by the Institute National des Appellations d'Origin.

(B) BDQS, Vin Delimited de Qualite Supeieure.

(C) Vins de Pays (table or house wines).

The institute divides the vineyards into four classes or ranks:

1. Grand Crus, or first class.

2. Premier Crus, using the name of the commune or parish, and the name of the vineyard.

3. Appellation Communale.

4. The lowest rank, usually only named after the parish in which it is produced.

The wines produced in Burgundy, Beaume, Chablis, Cote de Rhone, etc., all have their own specific regulations for labeling.

It is interesting that here in the United States of America, wines are advertised as generic or varietal:

(A) Generic wines are wines named after the famous wines of the various European districts such as Chablis, Burgundy, Rhine, and Sauterne, etc.

(B) Varietal wines, which are named after the grape variety, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Riesling and Gewurztraminer, etc. To be called a varietal wine, at least 51% of the grapes must be of that variety.

Many of our popular wines are blended wines. An analogy occurs in Scotland, where there are far more blended scotches than there are single malts.

The wines of Spain, Portugal, Italy, Chile, Argentina, Australia, South Africa, etc., all have their own terminology. For instance, in Australia, it's "Claret" is really a red Bordeaux-like wine. Some day, it occurs to me, it would be ideal if a standardized labeling system could be developed, indicating the variety of grape or grapes used in the wine, the name of the country, village, commune or chateau from which it was produced, the year of the vintage, the degree of acidity (tannin) or dryness, the percentage of residual sugar (sweetness), the alcoholic content, the negotiant or blender, and the color (white, rose or red). in this manner, it would be far simpler for one to purchase a bottle of wine and know truly what they were buying.

Lastly, I should add that I was first introduced to wine as an acolyte, as I served in St. Peter's Church in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, during communion services (1924).

With love,

Dad

1996

Below is a wine chart I created: