Wine Fictions

 Last Tuesday I was at a wine fair promoted by one of the biggest German wine importers at one of the premium hotels in Hamburg. With a strong focus on gastronomy and small shops it was quite a mixed public, quite different in many ways to the habitués of masterclasses. Besides the tremendous offer, there was a couple of episodes which are still living inside me and that I would like to share.  The first one, I was at a South African stand and a man behind me pushed me and screamed to the person behind the stand that he wanted to try the Shyraz. I have quickly shared with him that he should try the amazing Pinotage before the Shyraz as it was surprisingly light and fruit driven. As an answer I got a lecture on how he was working for more than 50 years in the wine business and that there was nothing I could teach him about it. I have smiled and moved away. On another stand I have asked the person responsible for it if the Ribera del Duero that I was trying was a single graped T...

One of my absolute favourite stories around wine is the origin of the super Tuscans as I often puzzle customers at the shop by showing the price difference between a Chianti which obviously holds the DOCG stamp and a super Tuscan which does not have it. At a wine fair I once heard that German customers love stamps on wines. DOC, Organic, Demeter, Parker points, golden medal at the Berlin, Brussels, Paris Fair, you name it. Even though I often have a problem on generalizing people's behaviours,  this time I am forced to agree. I do not know how many times customers ask me whether a certain wine is organically certified. Whether it has won any prize or how many points it has scored by any relevant critic. When coming to Italian wines, I am often confronted with two major questions: what do I think about Maroni's point system; and does the wine have a DOCG certificate. About the first I am not going to make any comments for now and the DOCG seems to have a bigger quality value to ...

 More than any other time, Christmas is a time for special wines.   As many other people I have carefully thought about which wines to open in these special days. Always keeping in mind what I would be cooking I ended up choosing a welcome present I have got from my chief when I have started working at Andronaco.  Described by him as the best Italian wine in the market, I have decided to open it and prove whether he was right or not. Having a rather late harvest, it is quite fascinating to feel how both Sangiovese and Malvasia Nera reveal such a tremendous density revealing fascinating ripe cherries taste along with tobacco notes and a somehow blood depth. After having decanted for about an hour it was amazing to feel how the tannins got softer to a pleasant and full bodied experience.  I also recommend a reading of their technical sheet as it offers quite some interesting details not only on the wine facts but also how the whole making process was made. I have ...

  Before start reading this post, I would like to invite you to a have a look at this cartoon by Posy Simmonds which I came across while reading her Literary World. I have recently came across an article about the price a German citizen, who drinks an average of 20 liters of wine per year, pays   for a liter of wine: 3,64€   This same study also indicates that every second bottle of wine is bought at a so-called discounter (Lidl, Aldi, Netto, Penny) being Aldi the biggest wine retailer in Germany. This raises quite some earnest concerns to the ones working in the wine sector in Germany. The fast growing of online business has also represented, for many small businesses, quite a hard blow on their income and has even led to the closure of quite some.  That is the case of a small family business close to me. With a bit more than 100 years on the wine business, the Weinhaus Reimer in Wandsbek Markt will be closing doors till the end of this year. I know it is quite an ...