Spätburgunder - The Big Secret

Just joined the Forum..so Hi to all wine lovers...

I have lived in Germany for over 30 years...but only recently have I been 'converted'...
My great love is or more...was...Pinot Noir from Burgundy..
and so to the reason for posting..Spätburgunder from Germany..
On recent visits to the Mosel and Baden.. I have been drinking some wonderful stuff
http://barrys-wine.blogspot.com/

and since then have been searching for more and more goodies...
However checking the net generally..and looking for Blogs etc..with information..I found..internationally...very little.. and very few people who have tried them..
Reason of course..is that the wines used to be light, pale, summer quaffing types..not worth exporting...but since the great 2003 Vintage things have changed...
So..to my question..do any Spätburgunder wines find their way to other parts of the world...?...
Or will they remain the big secret?..maybe I shouldn't bang the drum TOO loudly...
Decanter Magazine..quote 'Open your mind..German Pinot Noir is the lastest revelation..good value, great fruit'

Hear from you

Barry

German Pinot Noir..good value

If only that were the case for the wines imported to the US..

But I agree, some fun sipping wines can be found in Germany for less than 10euros.

Welcome to the forum Barry. Lots of good folks here so life gets more interesting for you! I am up here in Alberta, no choice whatsoever so guess still a big secret!

[David M. Bueker]

The cheapest enjoyable spätburgunder I have ever had in the USA cost nearly $50.

Welcome to WLDG, Barry, it will be great to have you here as part of the conversation.

This might be a matter of personal taste, but I wouldn't say I have been blown away by the quality-price ratio for German spätburgunders. Prices come in the highest for my German wine purchases (averaging about 14 euro) yet with the worst batting average (with a couple of nice wines but a lot of laggards and underperformers). My vote for the most-deserving lesser-heralded QPR German varietal would be weissburgunder--my purchases there average less than 10 euro and nearly every wine has been very good to phenomenal.

Ahhh, my caveats--I'm new to German wines and have only visited a few producers over a short time (so I'll certainly keep my mind open to spätburgunders and particularly to any recommendations you may have). And I may have a bias toward 'uniqueness'--mainly that pinot blanc was a grape that I was bored with until I enjoyed the exciting (for me) ways it is made in Germany as well as Alto Adige, whereas many of Germany's European neighbors seem to do pinot noir so well, I might be less inclined to appreciate Germany's contribution. But, again, I'll try to keep an open mind. And I'll look forward to your future posts!

This might be a matter of personal taste, but I wouldn't say I have been blown away by the quality-price ratio for German spätburgunders. Prices come in the highest for my German wine purchases (averaging about 14 euro)

I don't know if you've run across this already, but I found the Sasbach Winzergenossenschaft Rote Halde Spätburgunder to be very delicious and worth drinking.

Gesche's parents buy it by the case, and I think it is approximately 6 euros a bottle, so very easy to open for crowds and drink with ease, although enough interest to keep people like me happy as well. I wouldn't go out of my way to visit them or anything, but if you see it on a restaurant list you might enjoy it.

Hi Barry, Welcome to the forum, we are always happy to have another PLW (pinot loving wino) among us. I probably could count on the fingers of one hand the number of German pinots I have sampled. Not many are available to me here, and when they are, they are above $20 and are usually well above. My thinking based on my experience is I can buy better pinots from a lot of places for that money and enjoy them more. Having said that though, I haven't had one in recent vintages so I will have to look around again. Again welcome to the forum

Yeah, I agree. Maybe it's the global warming. Had a couple of bottles in Frankfurt recently and was delightfully surprised. And Decanter won a couple of points in my book for having recognized the emergence, too.

I found the Sasbach Winzergenossenschaft Rote Halde Spätburgunder to be very delicious and worth drinking.

I have not run into it yet, thanks for the tip. I'll keep an eye open for it . . . the price is certainly right.

...I think it is approximately 6 euros a bottle, so very easy to open for crowds and drink with ease, although enough interest to keep people like me happy as well...

That is where I think the strenght of German Spätburgunder would lie, but unfortunately, almost all producers seem determined to harvest overripe fruit and drench it in oack to prove they can ruin their fruit just as well as anyone out there.

Peter

To be honest...the wines I have been tasting have been between 20-30 Euros...that's $ 25 - $ 40 (the wines I drink for 10 Euros usually come from Spain..but that's another topic)

Examples of Spätburgunders I have drank...all getting points between 16.5 to 18+(I use the 20 points system..Parker Points 90-95)

Baden:
Karl H Johner Blauer Spätburgunder SJ 2003
Salwey Spätburgunder Spätlese Trocken***Oberrotweiler Kirchberg 2003
R & C Schneider Spätburgunder'R' Barrique Trocken 2003
Ziereisen Jaspis Pinot Noir Alte Reben 2004 Baden Germany

Rheinland Pfalz:
Knipser Großkarlbacher Burgweg Spätburgunder Auslese Trocken 2003

plus a few 2004 & 2005...all well worth the 'higher' price...
and..more to the point...difficult to get the same quaility for that money in Burgundy(just about pay for the cork in a Romanee Conti)

Regards

Barry

To be honest...the wines I have been tasting have been between 20-30 Euros...that's $ 25 - $ 40

Ahhh, okay, that clarifies things. I am a bit of a bottom feeder . . .

One of the spätburgunders I was impressed by, however was the 2004 Salwey Oberrotweiler Kirchberg Baden/Kaiserstuhl Spätburgunder “RS” Trocken, and I did like Salwey's stuff overall, so that's at least useful for purposes of calibration.

On a trip to Germany a few weeks ago I tasted several Spat's and also have had some from the 03 vintage on previous trips to Europe that I thought were very good. Of course it took a German friend of mine to turn me onto these wines. However, I have only been able to find reasonably priced Spat's in Germany. I have never really seen them here in the US