My focus on "really popular small local wineries" received a very interesting affirmation of the quality of the wines that I've found all over Europe when Weingut Ziereisen in Baden was included in the 2022 list of Wine & Spirits "Top 100 Wineries." Only four wineries in Germany were included in this year's list and the other three were Donnhoff, Selbach-Oster, and Robert Weil.
I am very gratified for such recognition and very proud of the great team of Hanspeter and Edel Ziereisen for creating such incredibly expressive and authentic wines but I have some interesting thoughts about having a glass of the 2018 Schulen Blauer Spatburgunder (Pinot Noir!) tonight from a bottle that I corovined with a client yesterday. The wine was also very well received at the Wine & Spirits Top 100 tasting event in San Francisco on Thursday night this week (along with the delightful 2019 "Heugumber" Gutedel, known as Chasselas elsewhere) but in an industry of wines that are designed to dazzle on the first sip, I am incredibly impressed by the understated elegance and profundity of the 2018 Schulen.
If you were tasting the wine in an expensively built and designed to impress tasting room of a Napa Valley winery, you may not notice what an amazing wine this is on your first sip (the one intended to get you to join the wine club!). But, on the second sip, your level of intrigue is stimulated and after the third sip you definitely want to pour more in your glass. This experience in my opinion is what wine should be about: made to be enjoyed, instead of "designed to impress."
With my overall focus on very food friendly wines it was also spectacular tonight with what was a relatively simple and German inspired dinner of "Kartoffeln Salat und Fleisch" which was a German Potato Salad accented by some seared shaved beef. The wine complemented the food and the food complemented the wine - what could be better? #ziereisen