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“Big reds,” I have always said. “Barolo, Brunello, Barbaresco. White
wine’s for sissies,” I have always said. Appellation contrôllée chateau de
water. Then I had a mature white burgundy from one of those houses
that’s so big it has to be called a firm. Now it may not have won as many
Wine Speculator Advertiser’s Choice Awards as a fine Kendall-Jackson
Chardonnay, but it was pretty damn good—good enough to make me reexamine
my relationship with white wine going forward. It had a
complex and compelling aroma (that’s wine for we totally couldn’t figure
out what it smelled like). It had a color—yellow. And best of all, it
actually tasted good (it didn’t taste like a pineapple or a piece of wood).
Of course, the catch is white burgundy requires a cellar in order to
achieve its sublime age-brought potential. Unfortunately, it also requires
a buyer—one with, say, several large piles of cash lying around. You see,
white burgundy (cheaper to just call it WB) has to be expensive in order
to finance the French health care system. But this is not the case in
Germany, where health care is paid for by the government-run sausage
industry.
Yes, German wines have it all, from the off-dry (okay, very off-dry)
Kabinett to the sweet Auslese. There’s even a spätlese in between. And if
you’re looking for something to really notbeabletoafford, there’s always
the super-nec made from the victims of noble rot, Trockenbeerenauslese.
Say that five times and call me in the morning. But that was fun to say,
wasn’t it? You know the main reason you got into wine is because you
get to say things like Barbaresco, Ribera del Duero, Tierra del Fuego.
Has anyone ever actually been to Tierra del Fuego other than Michael
Palin? Think about it, the only reason you’ve even heard of it is because
people get a small thrill from saying it. And who could forget the dreaded
super-Tuscan. It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s overpriced. Or is it? But
doesn’t this wine just sound like it could make the pond and back faster
than you can say “my first oenologist”? Oh, she’s fast enough for you,
old man.
But any serious discussion about great wine names must include German
Rieslings. You can’t find one that doesn’t have a great name. No,
seriously. And they’re all real places, too! Show me a map with Silver
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