The beginning of a Wine Journey: Bottle Number 1:

On the WLTV Forums http://tv.winelibrary.com/forum someone posted an interesting link about the Wine Century Club. Basically put, it is an exclusive wine drinking club in which it's members have tasted wines made from 100 different grapes. I thought this was a great idea and really epitomized what Gary Vaynerchuk of WLTV is trying to do, which is get people to try different wines, different grapes, from different countries. As many as you can, for as long as God puts breath into your body.

I figured, why not take it a step further? How about sampling wines from every state in the Union? Or from 50 different countries around the world? Every single Italian, Spanish and French province? Or 50 different white grapes?

It was an intriguing idea, and last night I decided to start on this quest, from square one, which means all wines previously tasted have no bearing on this quest or the list that ensues. It's not THAT much of a loss, really. Because most of the odd grapes I've had I intend to have again [Zweigelt comes to mind].

So without further ado, I bring you wine number 1:

2006 Weinhaus Lang Kreuznacher Kronenberg Spatlese.

The thing about German wines, is that the labels are difficult, if not impossible, for the newbie wine drinker to decipher. [In fact, the producer, Weinhaus Lang, was added after research, see below.] Is there a grape in there somewhere? What's the producer's name? Hell, I thought it was a riesling until I looked at the back of the label!! In fact, I decided to do some research here and include information on the producer and such, and I found out I wrote down the area and classification of the wine but not the producer!! Through my google searching and extensive research I've found out that the wine I was drinking was produced by Weinhaus Lang. *changes his remaining bottles in CellarTracker*

At any rate, Kreuznach is an area in the southwest of Germany, located in the Rheinland-Pfalz state, and Kronenberg is the subregion in which the grapes were grown [Nahe Valley, to be even more specific]. Spatlese describes when the grapes were harvested, in this case about a week after full ripening, producing a more intense flavor [as opposed to Kabinett, which is right when they are ripe].

The grapes included are 60% muller-thurgau and 40% silvaner, two grapes I had never heard of. Silvaner is the older grape of the two, muller-thurgau having been created through a crossing of Riesling and Madeleine Royal. Some trivia for you, Silvaner was the dominant grape in Germany until the 1970s when muller-thurgau overtook it. And later on THAT changed when people thought it was a lower quality grape [not unlike what happened to merlot in this country], when it was obviously overtaken by riesling.

Here are my tasting notes: Sort of a gasoline smell which I could be imagining. Sweet, like dried apricots which I have subsequently discovered are in the official notes of the distributor, producing a self-satisfying pat on the back that my palate is better than I thought. Drinkers of sweeter rieslings will like this wine I think. It is different, though, and in my opinion worth the $12 or so I ended up paying for it, and worth having 4 bottles of it from 4 Seasons Wine.


At any rate, there you have it. Wine Count: 1. Grape Count: 2. Country Count: 1. Here is a pic of the Nahe Valley, I think. My journey has begun. I wonder if I'll finish it.