Wine Fictions

 Working with wine has multiple facettes which not all of them are positive, but the final balance is definitely a positive one. One of my favourite ones is the possibility that you are given not only to know new wines but to know the people behind them. If during wine fairs that can be a rather overwhelming experience, there are also times that I have the privilege to know the producers a bit more personally. That is exactly what happened last week, where I had the pleasure to meet Steven Schmidt and his wines.  From the seven different Rieslings that I tried (from bone dry to botrytis) this Kabinett was the one that  fulfilled me in a way that many wines have not managed before.  Allied to the typical fruity notes of peach and ripe apples, the wine has an intensive and profound smokiness which confers a rather exotic and seductive touch. Also impressive was the lively minerality which helped the wine to keep its freshness to a level that you do not feel like stop d...

"Give me a flagon of red wine, a book of verses, a loaf of bread, and a little idleness. If with such store I might sit by thy dear side in some lonely place, I should deem myself happier than a king in his kingdom." Al-Khayyam Today I have decided to start this post the other way round as I often do, by first offering a quote. The reason why is to reveal one of my main inspirations when I think about wine and literature. Omar Al-Khayyam was a Persian poet who has dedicated most of his works to wine. The different perspectives that his poetry offers to the pleasure of drinking it have been a changing point on my perception of the experience of wine drinking.  Rather surprising was my experience in Iran, where wine is exclusively drunk by Christians during prayer (at least officially), where Al-Khayyam is still referred as one of their main poets. When I have asked about the potential conflict between the elegy of wine and a regime which sanctions all the ones who drink al...

Once I have started reviewing German wines in my last post, we head now a bit north from Rheinessen to the world famous Mosel region. From all the grapes that you can have, Riesling is probably one of the ones which better expresses the terroir where it is set.  Playing with this characteristic, you often have pure minerality allied with nicely harmonized citrus taste in the wines produced. This Schlossbergkeller (The hill castle cellar) is not an exception: I would dare to say that it is a pure translation of its unique terroir reflecting the fact that the grapes were coming from the higher part of the hill, which gifts the visitors with quite an impressive view over the Mosel valley. This almost excessive minerality allied with a good general presence of green lemon and some herbs makes it one of my favourite tastes to face the summer and to pair perfectly with seafood. This may well be one of the reasons why more and more Portuguese producers have been i...