This week there is, unusually, some evidence of order in my universe and I sense Dionysus at my shoulder. Earlier this week I watched Professor Brian Cox waxing lyrical on how all of creation is explicable by maths and how absolutely everything is inevitable. Well, perhaps, Brian, but I'm not convinced. In fact, I think there is something a little sinister about a softly spoken Manchunian pop star turned professional star gazer morphing into a philosopher on our TV screens and implying that there's no room, or need, in all that exists for anything but his god; physics (with a bit of chemistry thrown in).
It could be that my 1976 Chemistry (with Physics) GCE knowledge was, at that time, a little under-developed and is now a little out of date, especially when considered in the context of the unclassified grading that I achieved (one of three, now who's the academic?), but I can't see how science explains this. One year ago, on Week H (2013), I selected a white grape variety used to make a delicious sweet wine. On that same weekend I played my only 18 hole round of golf of the year. Well this year, without any intent on my part, both of those things have happened again. Maths? Physics? I don't think so, Brian. No, I think the spirit of Dionysus, god of wine and winemaking, fertility, theatre, religious ecstasy and, the clincher, ritual madness has carefully orchestrated events to lead me here. Although just like Brian, I can't say why.
Week H (2014) Darting Estate, Huxelrebe Beerenauslese, 2011. M&S £19 for 50cl.
This is a luscious, sweet dessert wine that is very high in residual sugar and low in alcohol. The bottle seems to be a little confused over exactly how low, as the front label claims 8% whereas the back is more modest at 7.5%
The flavours of this bright lemony-golden wine are intense and range from honeyed raisins to deep citrus orange oil and peaches. There is sufficient acidity to cut through the slightly syrupy feel and this is helped by gentle chilling.
The finish is long and reminds me of a tarte tatin, if that's not too pretentious.
This is the second time I have selected a wine from the Darting Estate. The first was a light dry Riesling (Week D (2013)) and very different from this. Both wines are rated under the German quality system as 'Qualitatswein mit Pradikat' (QmP) where the P gives an indication of the level of ripeness the grapes have achieved prior to harvest. The pradikat in this case is the word 'beerenauslese', which to be understood can be broken down into two parts. The second part (we'll come back to the first) 'auslese' is on its own a pradikat, or category, and means 'selected'. The auslese category of wines are those that have been picked later in the season and have reached a greater ripeness, have a higher sugar content and have been selected rather than picked along with the rest. These wines will usually be sweet. The first part 'beeren' means 'berries' or individual grapes and this time bunches or even individual berries have been selected very late in the season, usually because they have been affected by botryitis cinera or, as us non-Latin speakers know it, noble rot. This helps to explain why any beerenauslese is unlikley to be cheap.
The pradikats are applied to levels of grape ripeness across a number of varieties. This wine is made from the variety Huxelrebe and the fruit was grown in the Forster Schnepfenflug vineyard in the region of Pfalz.
The grape's name is another opportunity to deconstruct the German language. Sticking to a successful formula we will look at the second part of the name first. 'Rebe' translates to 'vine'. Simples. Huxel, on the other hand doesn't really translate to anything as it is the name of the man after whom this grape has been named.
Huxelrebe is a grape variety created in 1927 by Dr Georg Scheu, the director of grape breeding (no. really) at Alzey. This begs the question why is this new rebe (vine) not known as Scheurebe? There is an obvious answer. Any director of grape breeding worthy of the title will probably have bred successfully more that once. Georg already had an eponymous grape, so the honour this time was bestowed upon the man responsible for this new variety's cultivation and popularistaion, Fritz Huxel. The crossing itself was between Chasselas, popular in Switzerland, and Courtiller Musque, itself a crossing developed in the Loire valley near Saumur.
This particular bottle was shared with a Swiss friend, who knew the correct way to pronounce some of those long German words on the bottle, The One, who asked if we could buy some more for Christmas, and her mother who gave the final verdict: 'delicious'.
Oh, and the golf? Kind of you to ask. I'm still rubbish, but I scored very nearly four times as many points as last year and didn't have to buy more new clubs.
It could be that my 1976 Chemistry (with Physics) GCE knowledge was, at that time, a little under-developed and is now a little out of date, especially when considered in the context of the unclassified grading that I achieved (one of three, now who's the academic?), but I can't see how science explains this. One year ago, on Week H (2013), I selected a white grape variety used to make a delicious sweet wine. On that same weekend I played my only 18 hole round of golf of the year. Well this year, without any intent on my part, both of those things have happened again. Maths? Physics? I don't think so, Brian. No, I think the spirit of Dionysus, god of wine and winemaking, fertility, theatre, religious ecstasy and, the clincher, ritual madness has carefully orchestrated events to lead me here. Although just like Brian, I can't say why.
Week H (2014) Darting Estate, Huxelrebe Beerenauslese, 2011. M&S £19 for 50cl.This is a luscious, sweet dessert wine that is very high in residual sugar and low in alcohol. The bottle seems to be a little confused over exactly how low, as the front label claims 8% whereas the back is more modest at 7.5%
The flavours of this bright lemony-golden wine are intense and range from honeyed raisins to deep citrus orange oil and peaches. There is sufficient acidity to cut through the slightly syrupy feel and this is helped by gentle chilling.
The finish is long and reminds me of a tarte tatin, if that's not too pretentious.
This is the second time I have selected a wine from the Darting Estate. The first was a light dry Riesling (Week D (2013)) and very different from this. Both wines are rated under the German quality system as 'Qualitatswein mit Pradikat' (QmP) where the P gives an indication of the level of ripeness the grapes have achieved prior to harvest. The pradikat in this case is the word 'beerenauslese', which to be understood can be broken down into two parts. The second part (we'll come back to the first) 'auslese' is on its own a pradikat, or category, and means 'selected'. The auslese category of wines are those that have been picked later in the season and have reached a greater ripeness, have a higher sugar content and have been selected rather than picked along with the rest. These wines will usually be sweet. The first part 'beeren' means 'berries' or individual grapes and this time bunches or even individual berries have been selected very late in the season, usually because they have been affected by botryitis cinera or, as us non-Latin speakers know it, noble rot. This helps to explain why any beerenauslese is unlikley to be cheap.
The pradikats are applied to levels of grape ripeness across a number of varieties. This wine is made from the variety Huxelrebe and the fruit was grown in the Forster Schnepfenflug vineyard in the region of Pfalz.
The grape's name is another opportunity to deconstruct the German language. Sticking to a successful formula we will look at the second part of the name first. 'Rebe' translates to 'vine'. Simples. Huxel, on the other hand doesn't really translate to anything as it is the name of the man after whom this grape has been named.
Huxelrebe is a grape variety created in 1927 by Dr Georg Scheu, the director of grape breeding (no. really) at Alzey. This begs the question why is this new rebe (vine) not known as Scheurebe? There is an obvious answer. Any director of grape breeding worthy of the title will probably have bred successfully more that once. Georg already had an eponymous grape, so the honour this time was bestowed upon the man responsible for this new variety's cultivation and popularistaion, Fritz Huxel. The crossing itself was between Chasselas, popular in Switzerland, and Courtiller Musque, itself a crossing developed in the Loire valley near Saumur.
This particular bottle was shared with a Swiss friend, who knew the correct way to pronounce some of those long German words on the bottle, The One, who asked if we could buy some more for Christmas, and her mother who gave the final verdict: 'delicious'.
Oh, and the golf? Kind of you to ask. I'm still rubbish, but I scored very nearly four times as many points as last year and didn't have to buy more new clubs.
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