David M. Bueker wrote:Do you have any more details on Braun?
Unfortunately, not really. I had run into the name of Heinrich Braun before my visit up there, but hadn't really heard anything about the producer, besides their VDP membership. Had a very nice tasting experience with Uwe Lorenz, who I believe is their plant manager, or whatever the proper translation of
Betriebsleiter is. We had a great conversation with him, but it was mostly regarding my questions about the terroir around Nierstein, as it was my first foray into the Rheinhessen.
The info I did pick up, based on my limited German, is as follows. They focus on Trocken wines (mostly Kabinett with a few Spätlesen), including Riesling, Weiss- and Grauburgunder and Chardonnay (and I think Sylvaner as well). We tried the wines in their basic, Gutswein and Roter Hang quality levels, which were pretty competitively priced, all but one bottle were less than 10 euro. They also have a premium wine they produce more occassionally called
Summa Cum Laude--didn't experience that. Vineyards include Pettenthal, Oelberg and Hipping. My overall impression so far has been that the wines are pretty good everyday values--none of them are boring (subjective, but my primary concern at the price points for Braun) and, though they can be a bit rough and gritty, it's often in a challenging and interesting way for me, but definitely not polished. I really enjoyed the experience tasting with them and have generally enjoyed the wines--though I've found a lot more fruit in some than I recall from the tasting, probably as the mineral content in some made it harder for me to detect the fruit in others. I have a few left, so you'll probably see a couple more TN data points as I get to them . . .
