Wine Fictions

 I will start this post with a book recommendation: the German author Carsten Henn has recently published  Simply Wine  where he goes around 66 questions that you are often confronted with when handling with wine.  Even though it is quite centered in the German market and some of its specificities, this was a pleasant read, punctuated by humorous comments (who said Germans don`t have humour?) which had the plus of dismounting some of the most generalized myths around wine without getting into big polemics, such as his personal opinion about nature wines. Still only available in German, I do recommend a go if you are able to get it. What you should also get is the 2020 Silvaner GG by Rainer Sauer. Made out of on my favourite German grapes, this Silvaner shows not only the typical freshness and minerality that make it compete with the best Rieslings around, but also an accurate and perfectionist work in the cellar. Spontaneously fermented, reveals a tremendous complex...

 There are grapes which tend to be seen as not prestigious as others.  Müller-Thurgau is, somehow, one of them. Created by the Swiss Hermann Müller as a crossing between Riesling and Madeilene Royale, it is still associated with low quality half-dry wines which were tremendously popular in Germany during the 70s and 80s.  Even though a long time has passed since then, it is interesting to see how most customers politely deny my recommendation whenever I do it.  In fact, it is quite hard to sell it to people aged between 30 and 50 as it may recall some bad memories of wine they may have tried with their parents.  The most positive side of it is that younger generations do start having a different approach to it, specially due to its flexibility to match spicy dishes and more exotic cuisine.  And that's exactly where this Müller-Thurgau has shown a tremendous depth with elegant ripe apples, nutmeg and a slight smoky note which made it tremendously interesting...