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Auberon Waugh
The white burgundy which I trailed last time — Bonhomme's 1983 Macon Vire —is still not available, having been held up by the cold weather which delayed bot- tling. I hope to offer it next month if the ecstatic noises I have been hearing seem to be justified in the price. Meanwhile, I urge people to press on with last month's Macon Villages 1983 from Delaunay for which a mounting chorus of praise from punters confirms my own judgment that it is a first-class wine and a stupendous bargain.
Cold weather has also destroyed large stretches of vineyard along the Rhine and Mosel. Taken in conjunction with a poor vintage in 1984, this seems to offer a good opportunity for the Spectator's first ever German wine offer from the excellent vintage of 1983, coupled with golden oldies from the classic year of 1976, which must soon be going to disappear from the market. Peter Hallgarten, whose claim to be among the best, if not the best, importer from Germany would not be challenged by anybody, has opened his store of estate- bottled German wines to us at prices which can only make one gasp and rub one's eyes when comparing them to the prices of similar wines on any wine merchant's list. As a further act of philanthropy, Mr Hallgarten has agreed to hold these pre- Budget prices throughout the offer in the event of a Budget increase, while reim- bursing punters if the Budget reduces duty.
My own problem with German wines is
that they require a vocabulary and what the Sunday Times used to call a range of expertise which I quite simply lack. On many occasions I have been given a Ger- man wine which seemed particularly good, but whenever I have asked for its name I have been met by such a torrent of unpleasant Teutonic noises that I have tended to switch my attention elsewhere. Wheatcroft is a noted offender in this matter. But I must admit that the riesling grape at its best can perform wonders and these suggestions should be of use to those who, like me, have never previously been able to identify the best German wines except by taste. All, of course, are QmP, which means that the sugar is natural. Two are Kabinett, the lightest one, one is a Spatlese, and three are Auslesen, the last level before German wines become hopelessly expensive. Four are pure ries- ling, one is a riesling cross called Faberrebe which I found particularly delicious and there is a curious, sweet Gewfirtz Auslese which I put in for variety.
The first, called Mainzer Domherr Kabinett 1983, is exactly as one remembers one's first taste of hock — light, fruity, with exactly the right balance of acid to make it ideal as an aperitif, to be drunk over a serious game of croquet, or with fish. On a blind tasting, it was put in front of many more expensive Kabinett, and when the price of £2.67 was revealed it had the whole panel raving. An extraordinarily high quality wine at this price.
The Wiltinger Scharsberg Kabinett 1983 (2), from the Mosel, also found the panel unanimous. Like all the best Mosel, this wine is infinitely refreshing. Any Spectator readers who are still old-fashioned enough to smoke pot will find this is easily the best and most soothing wine to drink with it. One panellist found a distinct taste of lilies
of the valley, another of orange flower, and a third found some carnation on the nose — none was under the influence of cannabis, so far as I know. I found it a beautifully clean and honest wine, fresh as a daisy at the start and slightly longer in the finish than the preceding hock.
Back to the Rhine for a Spatlese (3), also at £3 the bottle, which provoked the first hint of disagreement in the panel. I found a good botrytis smell — rare in a Spatlese — and a bit more acid in the mouth than I was expecting. Others found a hint of clover and no smell. One, mysteriously, claimed it had a 'bitter after-taste like barbed wire'. Returning afterwards, I decided it was a perfectly high-class wine and given away at the price, possibly less well-balanced than the two Kabinett, but also aiming consider- ably higher. Now for the 1976 Auslesen. The first (4) comes from a famous experimental wine institute owned by the state of Rheinland- Pfalz where many new grape crossings are tried out under exemplary conditions. Ican only say I found it a delicious sweet wine, with all the elegance and harmony of a classic riesling. Its initial impact has the concentration of a Beerenauslese, with only the hint of a waterish ending to prov.e it isn't. But even the waterish ending is delicious, and at £4.83 I feel it is a gift. The 1976 Gewiirztraminer Auslese (5) from Rosenberg at Nierstein is intensely sweet, easily the sweetest of the lot, some complained it was too sweet to allow the characteristic gewiirz taste of grass and sheep-droppings to come through. It is a very meaty wine with considerable back- bite which should make it good for drink- ing with cheese or after a dessert, if on few other occasions. I would recommend it for the confirmed German wine drinker seek- ing variety, rather than for the occasional German wine drinker seeking the rediscov- ery of old pleasures. Grandest of all, the 1976 Wiltinger KuPP Riesling Auslese (6) at £7 a bottle strikes me as being very close to the best which Germany can produce. I have tasted one or two ancient Eisweinen and Trockenbeere- nauslesen in my time but it seemed to Me that the original riesling characteristics of flower and fruit were lost in the over- powering botrytis taste which made theta little different from the semillon of Sauternes, old chenin blanc from the Loire or the furmint grape used in Hung'an Tokay. This Auslese from the Saar is riesling at its honeyed best, exactly what the grape should taste like: an excellent nose, delicious, smoky, lingering flavour. It never cloys. Age cannot wither nor custom stale its infinite variety.
My own tendency up to now has been not to keep German wine in my cellar, but to hold it above ground for drinking as and when the mood takes me. In the light of approaching shortages, I feel one might be well advised to lay down a few cases to remind one of what German wine could really taste like before the age of sugared
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up Euromuck.
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