If you’ve been in the wine world for a while, you have experienced the Chardonnay craze, the Merlot madness, and the Pinot Noir obsession ignited by a certain popular film. Perhaps you have come to love Sauvignon Blanc so intimately you can easily tell a New Zealand SB from its French Loire Valley cousin. If so, let me ask you this: have you tried a Riesling lately?
I’m not talking about a California Riesling or an Australian Riesling. I am referring to a Riesling from its native Germany. Here, in the cold climate with its glistening river, steep hills, and soils, you will find a true Riesling. If you are new to Riesling, you may think that all Rieslings are the same – especially if they are from a single country. If so, you will be amazed to discover that Riesling is one of the most versatile grapes in the world, and it takes its finest and most diverse expression in Germany.
Towards that end, the German Wine Institute and Wines of Germany USA have created a campaign to bring Riesling wine to the world’s attention. The campaign, Destination Riesling, consists of full-page color advertisements in top wine and food magazine like Food & Wine, Riesling tasting events in major cities conducted by celebrities such as Aldo Sohm, whom the World Sommelier Association declared “Best Sommelier in the World” 2008, and trips for top international media to visit producers in Germany and spread the good word.
So on a chill September morning, myself and four media colleagues found ourselves in the warm tasting room of Weingut Strub. Now, in Germany, “weingut” is the word for winemaker. Another honorarium is “Docktor” which, to my understanding, is the term used for anyone who has been to university (though in our travels we met a few with actual doctorates).
Winemaker Walter Strub is the latest in a long line of Strubs who have produced wine from red clay and other vineyards in Germany’s Rheinhessen region since 1710. Many Americans will be astonished to learn that he and his family actually live in that same exact ancestral house (with renovations, of course), though I am told living in ancient family estates is quite common in Germany.
Walter Strub assumed proprietorship of the estate in 1985, after receiving a degree in oenology from Germany’s famed viticultural institute in Geisenheim. He served apprenticeships in Baden and the Rheinhessen, and to get foreign experience spent three months in the Napa Valley. As is the case in many of the wineries I’ve seen in Germany – and elsewhere - the entire Strub family is involved in the operation, including his charming wife Margit who treated everyone with a warm smile and a delicious spread of quiche, cheese, and other nibbles. Their three children Sebastian, Johannes, and Juliane are involved as well.
The Rheinhessen is the largest German wine growing region, historically justifiably famous for its excellent Riesling wine. That is, until the 1971 wine laws “equalized” vineyards so that the “Grand Cru” vineyards would legally have no more weight than flat, fertile land (this type of vineyard is bad for wine, as the vines need to struggle for nutrients to bear good fruit). As a result of this dark period, many Rheinhessen wineries stopped concentrating on quality and produced mass-market sweet wines such as Blue Nun and Liebfraumilch which gave German wine, temporarily, a bad name.
In the last several years, Riesling is experiencing a Renaissance in the Rheinhessen, with quality producers like Walter Strub, who produces wine in Nierstein, the most famous village in Rheinhessen with twenty-two individual sites. The oldest site, Niersteiner Glock, has been documented since 742.
Weingut Strub has 18 hectares (44 acres) of vineyard, with 10% steep slopes, 40% gentle slopes, and 50% flatlands. The soil types are sandstone, loess, and loam, along with the famous red clay. The grape varieties include 60% Riesling, 15% Silvaner, 20% Muller-Thurgau, and 5% other varieties such as Spatburgunder (what we call Pinot Noir) and Scheurebe. The cellars are ancient, vaulted, and built between 1600 and 1900. The best sites include Rehbach, Pettenthal, Auflangen, Orbel, Olberg, Spielgelberg, Paterberg, Brickchen, Findling, and Rosenberg.
Average annual production is 100,000 litres, with 30% dry (trocken), 30% off-dry (also called halbtrocken), and 40% a new classification called “classical.” 30% of the wines are exported, mostly to the UK and USA. According to Strub, the best-selling wines is Niersteiner Bruckchen Riesling Kabinett, with 10% alcohol, and 48.0 grams of residual sugar. While this seems like a lot of sugar, the wine has such racy acidity and is so crisp it simply tastes refreshing.
Strub is a Terry Theise Estate Selection for USA importer Michael Skurnik Wines (516-677-9300). Contact Kevin Pike (kbpike@skurnikwines.com).
Visits are by appointment. Please see information below.
Weingut Strub
Contact: Margit Strub, Walter Strub
Rheinstr. 42, 55283 Nierstein
P.O.Box 1207, 55280 Niersten
Phone: +49 (0) 6133-5649, Fax: +49 (0) 6133-5501
info@strub-nierstein.de
Strub Vineyards
www.strub-nierstein.de
For additional information:
* German Wine Institute www.deutscheweine.de
* Wines of Germany www.germanwineusa.com
