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Alexander van Dülmen

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d´Arenberg, The Dead Arm, Shiraz, 2005

d´Arenberg, The Dead Arm, Shiraz, 2005, McLaren Vale, red-wine from Australia

6 points

“The Dead Arm” Shiraz is one flagship of Southern Australian winemaker d’Arenberg. Following the description of the vinery then “Dead Arm is a vine disease caused by the fungus Eutypa Lata that randomly affects vineyards all over the world. Often vines affected are severely pruned or replanted. d’Arenberg believes that this is a natural part of vineyard life. One half, or arm of the vine slowly becomes reduced to dead wood. That side may be lifeless and brittle, but the grapes on the other side display amazing intensity”.

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Holger Koch, Pinot Noir ***, 2010

Holger Koch, Pinot Noir *** Selection, Großes Gewächs, Red-wine from Germany

6 points

The variety of Pinot Noir or Spätburgunder as it is called in German is pretty huge. Within Germany I wouldn’t call the differences extreme as there is some kind of characteristics of German Spätburgunder due to weather conditions but also the tradition of winemaking. This said there are clear distinctions among wines from wine areas as Ahr, Pfalz, Wüttemberg or Baden. So far I haven’t written about the wine area of Baden, not only because I actually never have been there. My first German red-wines always came from this area; probably the best know vineyards are called Kaiserstuhl. Kaiserstuhl isn’t one hill but small mountains in the very southern west of Germany. The name was given because German King Otto III held a tribunal at Dec 22nd 994 close to Sasbach which is a smaller village at the bottom of the Kaiserstuhl. These mountains are volcanic genesis which explains the very special soil of this area. Aside of this, it is one of the warmest and mildest areas of Germany.

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Domaine de l´Horizon, Rouge, Vin de Pays des Cotes Catalanes, 2009

Domaine de l´Horizon, Rouge, Vin de Pays des Cotes Catalanes, 2009, Red wine from France

6,5 points

This is probably the only French wine which is sold more in Germany than in France. For example there are two wine stores in Berlin but only one in Paris where you can buy this delicious wine.

The reason is rather easy. Domaine de l´Horizon was initiated by German oenologist Thomas Treibert. Today it is owned by German wine trading family Christ and him. The vineyards according to their webpage are between 40 and even 100 years old. They produce a clear amount of wines: two white and red ones and one rosé.

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St. Andrea, Örökke, Egri Féher, 2008

St. Andrea, Örökke, Egri Feher, 2008, White-wine from Hungary

7 points

St. Andrea as I already wrote once is one of the most interesting and definite best wineries in Hungary.  It is located at the edge of Egerszalók which is a village in the heart of the Hungarian wine area Eger. The person behind of all is even a “doctor”. Dr. Lörincz György. Usually I do not believe too much in Hungarian white wines although there are of course some exceptions. Not really surprising that one of this exception is a wine of the vinery St. Andrea. The (success) story of St. Andrea is quite impressive: nowadays they husband nine vineyards and with 17 different sorts of vines.

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Joseph Drouhin, Laforet, Bourgogne, Pinot Noir, 2005

Joseph Drouhin, Laforet, Bourgogne, Pinot Noir, 2005, Red-wine from France

3 points

Even though after I opened it two days ago it didn’t become an exceptional experience drinking this Pinot Noir of Joseph Drouhin.

First of all it surprisingly young, fresh and very straight forward. Secondly it is really dry and without some extravagancies. I read somewhere that the wine is fruity, but I would disagree. Obvious fruity notes as raspberry and red currant but there isn’t anything too dominant. It’s likeable that the wine is light, negligible tannins but still – considering missing character – balanced. A little bit smoky and with some memories of leather, that what comes along as well.

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A.J. Adam, Hofberg Auslese, 2013

A.J. Adam, Dhroner Hofberg, Riesling Auslese, 2013, White-wine from Germany

7,5 points

„Deutscher Prädikatswein“ – what a German word! But if you, dear reader, see this and you are not a German wine expert then you can for sure expect best quality. This is top-level of German wines. Prädikatswein range from dry to intensely sweet, but unless it is specifically indicated that the wine is dry or off-dry as these wines always have noticeably mounts of residual sugar. As you have in some other countries other categorizations respectively classification. You could read much more about it at Wikipedia if you look for German wine classifications: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_wine_classification).

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Newton, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2012

Cabernet Sauvignon, Newton, 2012, Red-wine from USA

5 points

Out of three categories of vinery Newton there are two wines belong to the “red” line, which is actually the affordable one (or the lowest one). Probably Pinot Noir, Syrah, Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon are the most present red sorts of wine at California. In my point of view the most relevant is Cabernet Sauvignon. Napa County or any other Northern Californian wine area provides appropriate soil and weather conditions for all mentioned sorts of wine for sure, but if I consider how hot it can become in these areas I guess Cabernet Sauvignon is very appropriate.

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Norman Hardie, Pinot Noir Unfiltered, 2011

Norman Hardie, Pinot Noir Unfiltered, 2011, Wellington, Red-wine from Canada

4,5 points

Canada and red-wine? I would not mind if someone says this doesn’t work. And in those cases I tried reds from Canada before it was – let’s say it friendly – ambitious. Out of curiosity I recently bought two different Pinot Noir of Canadian winemaker Norman Hardie.

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Chateau Lestage, Listrac Médoc, 2009

Chateau Lestage, Listrac Médoc, 2009, Cru Bourgeois, Red-Wine from France

4,5 points

You can get two different wines from Chateau Lestage: a white and a red one. The red one is called Lestage, the female version seems to be the white one which is called nicely as Chateau Caroline.

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Cháteau Le Crock, Saint Estèphe, 2009

Cháteau Le Crock, Saint Estèphe, 2009, Grand Vin Bordeaux, Red-wine from France 

5 points 

This vintage is two years older than the same wine of 2011 I tried recently. I like to risk writing that I would prefer the younger one. To avoid any misunderstanding (!), the 2011 is perhaps less drinkable yet but 2009 is. Please find my review about the 2011 here: https://avdwineandfood.wordpress.com/2015/08/20/chateau-le-crock-saint-estephe-2011/.

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Cháteau Le Crock, Saint Estèphe, 2011

Cháteau Le Crock, Saint Estèphe, 2011, Grand Vin de Bordeaux, Red-wine from France

6 points

Crock’n Roll… Rolling Stones… perhaps my first Bordeaux which I would call stony. Introduced to me by Anne Cuvelier, a member of the impressive winemaker’s family Cuvelier who also own and run the famous vinery Leovillé Poyferré (https://avdwineandfood.wordpress.com/2015/02/20/chateau-leoville-poyferre-saint-julien-2007/ ) I had the chance to try the really exciting red of their Cháteau Le Crock which is located in St. Estèphe, probably for many a well know vinery village in the northern part of Medoc.

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Cháteau Latour-Martillac, Grand Cru Classé de Graves, Pessac-Léognan, 2011

Cháteau Latour-Martillac, Grand Cru Classé de Graves, Pessac-Léognan, 2011, Redwine from France

5,5 points

The wine area Graves is a part of Bordeaux although you would not recognize this if you wouldn’t know automatically about Graves or you turn the bottle and see the backside label.  I bought this bottle at a Casino or Intermarche kind of supermarket in the southern suburbs of Bordeaux. Although it wasn’t too cheap it demystifies the glamour and approach of a “Grand Cru Classé” wine from Bordeaux. The presentation of the wine at the supermarket board was unattractive, on the other hand, and this is likeable that so good wine is accessible to more or less everybody (you at least need to be in the suburbs of Bordeaux). So, why not to buy such wine in a supermarket! But why these wines are on sale if they are still so young? I simply doubt that anyone buys a wine at this store to take them home, store it appropriately and drink it only in some years or even in the best case in a decade.

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