Is All German Wine Sweet? - Pinkies Up Ep. 2 (Recorded Live on Zoom)

SPEAKER_04 0:01

Welcome to Pinkies Up, a series where we answer questions normal wine drinkers like Bridget have about wine. I'm Nick, and I'm here to answer these questions in a way that makes sense, whether you drink your wine with your Pinky Up or you drink it in a solo cup. Let's see what's going on this month.

SPEAKER_05 0:18

Welcome everybody to a very special edition of Pinkies Up. If you have not joined us yet on Pinkies Up, it is our special wine series that we do. We try and answer questions regular people like me have about wine. So we could think of no better way to celebrate our second Pinkies Up than with Oktoberfest. We like to dress up on Pinkies Up. If you caught our episode last month, we had really great hats on. This month we're dressed up to Cheers Oktoberfest. So we are trying German and Austrian wines and answering the question: are all German wines sweet? And I mean, like, are they all painfully sweet?

SPEAKER_04 0:51

What do you mean, painfully sweet?

SPEAKER_05 0:53

A little bit of sugar never hurt anybody. If you have followed along at all, you know I like a good cab. I like a good red wine, and I do not like sweet white wines. So I am not excited about this one.

SPEAKER_04 1:06

So this episode, I pick six wines from Austria and Germany because we're going to include all of the German-speaking peoples of the world. We should have got something from T Rolld anyway. We should have, what am I thinking? Uh, we're dressed up. You can see Bridget has her durndal, her lovely uh flower wedding. I have, I was asked to show if this really is a real lederhosen. Uh yes. He's been practicing that. Uh that's about as high as I can jump without this thing falling off. So we're in the spirit and we're gonna get started with a little sect.

SPEAKER_05 1:37

Yes. This one is funny. Nick sent me, no, I think he called me over to the wine section in the store. Oh, I did.

SPEAKER_04 1:42

I think we're like a little boy.

SPEAKER_05 1:44

You need to come look at this box. And the box just says, I love, or no, I want sect. S-E-K-T. So we didn't have time to make special t-shirts. That is what we were going to wear for today's episode, but instead you've got this on.

SPEAKER_04 1:58

So sect is the Austrian German word for sparkling wine. Uh prose to everybody. Uh whoops.

SPEAKER_05 2:06

We're doing great already. So you can see we've upgraded and we have real glasses, which is something we don't always have here on Pinky's Up because we use teacups sometimes. Uh, we do have this fancy dump bucket, so please don't judge us. If you need a dump bucket of your own, feel free to use a solo cup.

SPEAKER_04 2:22

We also have snacks and water. Please remember to hydrate yourselves and snack. It's good. So our first wine is the ziggade. Ziggity ziggity. Blanc de Blanc, which is, first of all, just a fun name. All these German words are super fun, I think. Right? And we're gonna put up a little some fun facts, if you will, about the ziggade. Uh can I drink mine? Yes, okay, okay. I feel like I have to do that. I'm gonna share my three fun facts. Uh, it's Austrian sparkling wine made entirely of Chardonnay. It's family owned and operated, which I like. You'll see a lot of these places have a lot of history to them, um family owned, operated. And it has this lovely. I'm not actually let's go all the way up to the camera. Oh, and this is special treatment. That was a great battle shot right there. This lovely portrait on it by Gustav Klimt, uh, a late 19th-century Austrian painter of a lady, Adele something, and it was stolen by the Nazis. And after a long court battle, it's now in New York on display. And you should Google this. It's like the lady in gold, and it's just, I don't know why it's on the label. I couldn't figure that one out. Well, all the websites in German, and my German's not that great. Google Translate? I tried, it's in habit. So, yeah. So, what do you think of this? Okay, Bridget, you're a bubbles.

SPEAKER_05 3:48

I love this. Yeah, a bubble, a bubble snob. So, my two lovely sisters have joined on our wine tasting tonight. Hi, sisters. Um, and we all love bubbles. So I wish you guys had this exact wine, but one of you is in Washington. Um, this is great. And like, you know, we're gonna start off by saying it's not painfully sweet. Um, 100% Chardonnay makes sense that it wouldn't be too sweet.

SPEAKER_04 4:10

I I love it. I think the interesting thing about this compared to like a French sparkly wine that's 100% Chardonnay is it's really got a lot of like salinity to it.

SPEAKER_05 4:18

Uh yes.

SPEAKER_04 4:20

That's what I was gonna say. No, because there's like that little like bit of kind of salinity thing on the end.

SPEAKER_05 4:24

It feels like I don't know how to properly explain that. You know, it feels smooth for bubbles, and there's no like um we discussed this in last month's Pinky Zip. There's nothing that makes me go, you know, nothing that makes me make that face, which is my favorite, which we learned was tannins. So we are learning things on Pinky Zup. This one's great. If you guys um have this wine, give us a thumbs up in the chat window if you liked it, maybe a thumbs down if you don't like it.

unknown 4:52

Ooh, good.

SPEAKER_05 4:53

Can you do a thumbs down? We've got how is it carbonated now?

SPEAKER_04 4:56

So great question. This is a traditional method, sparkling wine. Uh so there's two ways of making sparkling wine. One is to make a still wine. Well, you always make a still wine first. The traditional method or champagne method is you then do a second fermentation of the bottle. You fill the bottle about to here, add some wine that has sugar left in it, and start carbonating that, uh, start fermenting that again, which creates carbon dioxide and the bubbles. Um, so this one has traditional method, and how they do that um is they actually that's called the dosage. They add um Austrian sweet wine in, like a local sweet wine. Okay. Um and then carbonate that. So that also, in France, they usually will use like Chardonnay still. Sure. But this one they use a local sweet wine to get the force carbonation in there.

SPEAKER_05 5:40

So family and local, loving it already. Um, can you send a bottle to Washington as I next?

SPEAKER_04 5:45

It is extraordinarily illegal to ship wine in Wisconsin, unfortunately. Shoot. We're we're not as good of lobbyists as the Nature Conservancy. Uh, we're trying to get it illegal to ship wine, but uh we're not doing great. Not going great. All right, second bottle. Um this one a lot of people picked up to go home.

SPEAKER_05 6:06

Yeah, thank you to guys who stopped in the store and picked up your wine.

SPEAKER_04 6:09

And I think the reason why is because it we market this a lot as like if you like Sauvignon Blanc, but you don't want like super grapefruity, something nice crisp, Bruner Beltliner is a great bottle.

SPEAKER_05 6:23

So, you guys, my my knowledge of German wines, um, my husband's grandpa used to really like them. So he passed away years ago, but he used to drink Gurstraminer? Gewürstraminer, if that's what you call it. And it was just like sugar water.

unknown 6:39

But it, you know.

SPEAKER_05 6:40

So we dry Gewürztraminer. I mean, whatever one we had, we always drank with Grandpa Dennis, and it was lovely and great for the story, but I was always like Well, this is Gunnar Weltliner.

SPEAKER_04 6:50

Okay, Gunner Veltliner. So it's just a nice, fresh, very food-friendly one. It actually pairs with asparagus, which is hard to do. And this winery has been in operation since 1452 as a way to make money for a local hospital. So they still uh it's like a co-op in like a natural park. What? And they uh give the money to the local hospital, which is really pretty cool.

SPEAKER_05 7:16

So they just donate a portion of it. Wait, why why was that the choice of the well?

SPEAKER_04 7:20

It's like you know how the monks would uh start brewing beer to uh do the upkeep of being a monk? Pray and things. Same idea. It's the same thing. Okay, they had grapevines, so oh, you guys had it with the pork schnitzel? That seems like a good pairing. Nice. Yeah, so much acidity goes great with that. And it's all sustainably grown grapes.

SPEAKER_05 7:42

Okay, so very important. If you're cooking German meals this week, uh pork schnitzel, I mean, I'm guessing the cells are telling us how good it is. It sounds delicious to me, so I would pair it with pork schnitzel. Good pairing.

SPEAKER_04 7:52

Uh heck yeah, good pairing. You want something a little acidity and crisp with all that. I mean, I like the crunch crunch.

SPEAKER_05 7:58

It feels like um I don't mean this to sound as offensive as it's going to sound, but it feels like a little watery.

SPEAKER_04 8:05

Um like it is, you know, it's lower alcohol, it's only like 12%. Oh watery wine. There we go. There we go. Bridget wants the higher American style of it's very good. It's very good.

SPEAKER_05 8:19

It's one of those that you're like, this is so easy to drink because it tastes watery but delicious.

SPEAKER_04 8:25

I like it. One of the things to remember is that it's continental climate in Europe, so it doesn't get as hot, especially in Austria. Like we think of summers here are 90 degrees, or out west where it gets significantly hotter and you can really ripen grapes. Like Red Mountain in Washington, where some of my favorite cabernet comes from, it's like 120 in the middle of the day in July and August. So, you know, you can really ripen grapes. Not in Austria, it doesn't get that hot. Global warming is helping them, but you are gonna have uh more alcohol, a little riper for it.

SPEAKER_05 8:55

Buttery, Missy, what do you think about butter Chardonnay? You use the word butter, uh buttery, and Nick and I fight about butter Chardonnay regularly. Let us know if that's one you like.

SPEAKER_04 9:06

Well executed.

SPEAKER_05 9:07

This is off topic, so this is just a side note.

SPEAKER_04 9:09

Yes, smoke taint is not gonna help.

SPEAKER_05 9:11

So you guys we do have a guest on here, which is my sister Britney, and she lives in Washington. So we are learning a lot about what's happening out there with the many levels of smoke over the past month or so. So that's the smoke comments we keep making.

SPEAKER_04 9:26

All right, so next we are gonna do Riesling. And Riesling is one of the most yes, exactly. This is my face. This is how I feel about it. Yes. But Rieslin is one of the most versatile grapes you can make in the world. You can do anything wine-wise, from bone-dry, zero residual sugar to extraordinarily sweet uh dessert wines. You can do anything with it. You can do uh roses if you have a little bit of skin tack. It's more of an orange wine than a rose. You can do sparkling wine. I've had sparkling rieslings that are pretty good, not great. Uh you could do the, but this one, Dr. Herman, it is a moderately sweet. I don't go all the way bone dry because I didn't want to make you super happy.

SPEAKER_05 10:12

I didn't want to be like Nick and I have spent, you know, a lot of time talking about wines and Asian, I love Asian food, and I'm always like, I never know what wine to drink with it. And Nick always suggests Riesling. So this is a like discussion we have often about how there's many different kinds of Riesling, and I'm trying to trust him.

SPEAKER_04 10:28

So this one's medium dry, it's not super sweet. Still got a little bit of sugar in there, tropical fruit, still enough acidity, another family winery. Okay, that's lovely. It is. I see that people would probably like it a lot. Would you like this with spicy Thai food?

SPEAKER_05 10:51

No, I don't like it because it's sweet. It's like ice cream is. Okay, ooh, Diane, thank you for backing me up on the butter shard. Okay. Jill is saying, you guys, um, in case you haven't seen it, talking about the uh in Berlin that exclusively sold Rieslings, I need to go there. So maybe when I'm allowed to travel again.

SPEAKER_04 11:19

Um I hear Berlin has a great club scene. I'm very interested in that.

SPEAKER_05 11:22

I do need to try more dry Rieslings, I guess. I just get scared by the name, which is partially why we're doing something like this. So I'm impressed you call it Riesling and not Riceling.

SPEAKER_04 11:32

Most people that want to dismiss it just say, oh, that riceling. I don't like that. Yeah, this is I don't I don't like this one. Have some cheese, have a little bit of cheese. We have two cheeses tonight. We have German cheeses, we have the Basels, Bavarian smoked cheese. This is a smoked cheese that is uh a monk thing too. And then the Almerlander Buderkassa.

SPEAKER_05 11:55

So these are and salted rye rolls from Simple Bakery and Market. Um yeah, so I don't know. This one not only is it a uh way too sweet for me, um, but it's still got a it's got like a little funny taste to me. Like, I don't know, I'm just not a fan. I don't know what else to tell you.

SPEAKER_04 12:14

You just don't like any residual sweetness.

SPEAKER_05 12:16

No. Wow. It sticks in my throat. Like, yeah, it is it like my mouth feels coated with sugar now.

unknown 12:23

All right.

SPEAKER_04 12:24

Better wash it out with a roll and some water. Let's let's actually get the text. Okay, let's get the text. So let's look. So that one had 48.2 grams a liter of residual sugar. And we're gonna go all the way up to 70 grams a liter with this one. Yeah, this is the one I've been worried about. You all probably have had a blue bottle recently. Yeah, and that's a marketing plug. Yes, relax. Same company makes this. Yeah. This one is their Auslase, though. So in German wine, Auslasa. Oh, let's get the slide up. Let's get the slide up. Hey Bruce, thanks for having my back, man. Let's get the slide up. Cheers. All right, slide, slide, share screen.

SPEAKER_05 13:10

There's a lot of technology happening. Nick has to do all the work over here. I just have to drink the sweet wine.

SPEAKER_04 13:14

All right. So Auslasa, it means selected harvest. So this is an even later harvest than late harvest recently. So that means lots of sugar in the grapes. Very nervous. But also a lot of acidity because you need a lot of acidity to balance it. You think about, you know, just adding a splash of lemon juice to whatever you're cooking. Same thing as your wine. All right, Bridget.

SPEAKER_05 13:37

Wait, what is the acidity supposed to do?

SPEAKER_04 13:40

It it balances off the sweetness.

SPEAKER_05 13:42

Yeah, but it doesn't. Okay. Oh, God. It's sweet. It's sweet. But actually, I like it better than the one we just had.

SPEAKER_04 13:52

Yeah, because you go with the like higher sweetness levels, the ripeness levels, Auslasa, or trock and bear and auslasa. Uh, we have cabinet, spate laser, auslasa, chalk and bear, or trock and bear and auslasa if you want to get into that.

SPEAKER_05 14:06

Okay. Anyway. He's really excited about the German words that we get to say all during Brattoberfest at country me.

SPEAKER_04 14:12

But the other thing that's really fun about this is this wine will age. Uh, it's not meant to age, but with all the sugar and acidity in it, it will age really well. So if you are someone that likes to hold on to wines and see how they evolve, this gets so much better because, like, that nectarine type of fruit flavor you got. Yeah. It comes out so much more with age.

SPEAKER_05 14:32

I mean, so I knew going into this, obviously, that this was going to be the sweetest. Well, I hope this is the sweetest one. It's the sweetest one. Um, but the note about the lemon, I think, I don't know if that was a preconceived notion because you said that that there was lemon in here to help cut the sweetness, but I taste that. Um, it's not as bad as the cheap version of this that I've had. It's much better. Um, because that was probably when I was 21. Well, I didn't know I would never buy this. So the moral of the story is this is still really sweet. I feel like I want to drink it on ice, so the ice would water it down. Good suggestion.

SPEAKER_04 15:10

Fun thing, this is uh my favorite like wine in the world. It's called JJ Prume. And if you look at it, it's a 2008. We drink Riesling at about 10 years old in our house. That's when we think it starts to get good. So if you want to start a cellar with affordable wines that will last, this gets good for like 30 years.

SPEAKER_05 15:29

Wait, what year was the Riesling we just drank?

SPEAKER_04 15:31

This one was like a 18, I think. Probably 17.

SPEAKER_05 15:33

So, what would happen to it if we waited 10 years?

SPEAKER_04 15:37

It's actually non-venta, actually, it can't be non-vintage because it's also. Hey, move on. What would happen? It's 2018, yeah. So what you would see is the like sucrosey sugar flavor would fade away. Okay. Because the acidity works its way into that, and you would just taste more of the fruit flavors. So the lemon, the peach, the apricot, and it would be like more of a dried preserved fruit. Okay, better than like, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 16:02

So we should wait 10 years to drink our Riesling people.

SPEAKER_04 16:06

This is what I'm learning. It's not that expensive. So it's a great way to do a great way to do a thing.

SPEAKER_05 16:11

So, all right, we are Diane and Bruce. Did you guys try that one too? Okay. I need I need Bruce to back me up here, okay?

SPEAKER_04 16:20

We're uh going to feel free to unmute yourselves, or I can ask you to unmute yourself if if you would like some assistance. And let's hear what you're thinking thus far about the wines and what you want to know.

SPEAKER_05 16:36

And the cell household. I want to know if you're cooking any other great German meals with these wines.

SPEAKER_02 16:42

Boom.

SPEAKER_07 16:42

You can unmute. So, thank you for calling us out on that. Um, last week we made the Polish sausage stew. Oh my god, it was so good. Um, I'm sure we just drank beer. We just drank stads. You know, that's what we did. Still a good choice. It was, yeah. Because I'm I should have looked at the wine and I should have like grabbed one of them, but um, we didn't. We just drank beer.

SPEAKER_08 17:14

I mean we had the pork chops in it.

SPEAKER_07 17:17

Oh yeah, that was out of my that was out of my other cookbook. What it was an instapot, it was an Insta-pot pork chop thing, it was really, really good. But anyway, um also sounds good. So we've been, yeah, we've been totally digging this whole German style cooking.

SPEAKER_05 17:36

Are you guys normally um uh Oktoberfest beer drinkers since you brought it up? Uh we are beer drinkers. Beer drinkers and wine drinkers. Oktoberfest beer is my all-time favorite beer.

SPEAKER_07 17:46

Oktoberfest, I I hands down, it is our favorite. Um these wines are very sweet. I will I don't know if you guys have been noticing, but we've been pouring our glasses into his life.

SPEAKER_02 18:03

Sharing is caring.

SPEAKER_07 18:05

I didn't know that Riesling can sit on your shelf for 10. I never even thought that. Super Bowl ageable wine. That's that's really good to hear. I mean, now we've opened it, it's not gonna sit down. It's also an affordable wine. So um, yeah, I'm looking forward to hopefully cooking some more um German style uh recipes.

SPEAKER_05 18:31

So great. Oh, well, thanks for sharing that with us. I have not cooked a lot of German food lately, unfortunately. So I'm glad someone else is. That's too bad.

SPEAKER_04 18:42

We eat a lot of brats, though, you know. A lot of brats. Bruce, you thought it was too sweet?

SPEAKER_06 18:49

I thought it was too sweet.

SPEAKER_05 18:51

Yeah, man. With you. So, Bruce, do you normally like sweet wines or no?

SPEAKER_03 18:55

I'm typically a red wine drinker. Um Pino Noirs, I like Zimpandels.

SPEAKER_04 19:00

Okay. Well, we have stuff for you coming up.

SPEAKER_02 19:04

Yes. I was just gonna promote your linguicia, Nick.

SPEAKER_04 19:08

I think I appreciate that. Our Brazilian style linguicia, great with the German wines. Let's just bring people together.

SPEAKER_02 19:14

Well, I think it would go with that sweet stuff.

SPEAKER_04 19:17

I agree. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you're right, because it's spicy. All right. Lemon red pepper zest goes great with uh the Riesling.

SPEAKER_05 19:25

Is lemon a generally like Riesling flavor often found in Riesling?

SPEAKER_04 19:30

Especially in like cooler climate, higher acidity ones, you'll get like kind of that Meyer lemon type of more lemon, less sugar. All right, we're gonna pull a bone-dry one next time. Great. Bone-dry one enamel off your teeth.

SPEAKER_05 19:45

Asian food and dry Riesling tasting, and that's made for me. And Britney, I know, would like that, and I'm guessing Shannon would.

SPEAKER_03 19:55

I tried everything once. You tried what? I said I'll try anything once.

SPEAKER_05 20:01

Yeah, I mean, I'm with you. Clearly, I'm trying this blue bottle twice. This was the good one. This was the upgraded version of the clongly sweet wine.

SPEAKER_07 20:09

Well, I think this is my game because then I get to finish the bottle.

SPEAKER_05 20:14

Smart household right there.

SPEAKER_04 20:18

Teamwork makes the dream work.

SPEAKER_05 20:20

Jill, are you normally a sweet wine drinker?

SPEAKER_00 20:26

Absolutely not.

SPEAKER_05 20:27

Okay, I didn't think so, but I was just checking in.

SPEAKER_00 20:30

And I'm actually don't like white wine unless it's bubbly at all. But I will I will say now that we're unmuted that um I was on a food tour in Berlin and the guy said, Oh, we're gonna take you to a Riesling shop. And my friend and I, also red wine and a beer drinker, we looked at each other just horrified. Um, but we tasted like uh, I don't know, six Rieslings in the shop, and it was a very, you know, a little tiny hole in the wall. It was a very cool place. But anyway, the I have to say the dry Riesling was really good.

SPEAKER_05 21:04

Okay. I need we've we've talked about it like in excess, and I still haven't been trying dry riesling. It's just really try the dry.

SPEAKER_04 21:26

All right. Anyone else got any other uh comments before we move on to the reds, or are we all excited to move on to the reds?

SPEAKER_05 21:33

Uh reds, reds, reds. All right. Thank you guys for chiming in there. Brittany, I see your glass of red wine. Can't wait to have my own.

SPEAKER_04 21:45

This one is exciting. Paul Ox, Lust It Lieben. Uh means it lie bust in life.

SPEAKER_05 21:52

Um, I mean, I do like the names of these German wines. Whatever, people buy wine for names and labels when they don't. Know any better.

SPEAKER_04 22:00

So this is a fun blend of three different grapes: Zweigeld, Saint-Laurent, and Blau Frankish. Yes, those grapes. Yes, those grapes. Sometimes you will see them as single varietals, but a lot of time in Austria they do blend them. And that's because cold climate, they don't always ripen. So they would do field blends where if you have three different things planted together, odds are one of them will be ripe. So it's kind of an old farmer trick. Not so not so in on this one. Who has it?

SPEAKER_05 22:31

Does anyone actually have this bottle with them? Diane, you do? And the cells? Okay. Can you guys put some uh comments here and tell me what you think about this wine? I don't want to speak here and be mean, but it's it's a red wine, so I like it better. But I don't like the flavor of it.

SPEAKER_04 22:50

Um it's a little foxy, you know. It's got some like Yeah, it tastes like the dirt it was grown in. Oh. It is a biodynamically produced wine, which is cool because they plant by lunar cycles. Oh and they do some really crazy things like taking a bull's horn, filling it with manure, and burying it in the ground at the first planting to bring good luck to the planting. You cannot make this crap up. Come on. Google biodynamics. It's insanity. However, there are some very good things because biodynamics is concerned about soil health. And a lot of what um a lot of what the things do to encourage good soil health are very important. Very aromatic.

SPEAKER_05 23:33

Yeah, I don't know what the you know this is very good, chilled again. Last month, maybe, maybe it needs to be chilled. And I'm not generally like a um I'm not generally a chilled red wine person, but I think that might help. It just it has like a potent flavor to me. When often that's not the case.

SPEAKER_04 23:50

It's also why I like it. I think it's fun, it's very unique.

SPEAKER_05 23:55

Brittany has the best garden of anyone you've ever seen, and she also plants according to the moon. So maybe this winery is onto something.

SPEAKER_04 24:01

Drip irrigation, lunar planting. Are you debitor certified?

SPEAKER_05 24:06

Like okay, so and I apologize, I'm just going with the cell family because I'm not sure whose comment this is. But so do you guys like this wine in general? Red wine drinkers, I would say specifically, because I am a red wine drinker and it needs a couple, you gotta have some food with it.

SPEAKER_06 24:24

Okay, yeah, food, absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 24:25

Maybe that's my cheese and rye roll. That's a good price. Cheese and rye roll.

SPEAKER_03 24:29

You couldn't sit down and drink a bottle of it. You'd have to have something with it.

SPEAKER_05 24:33

Yeah. So this isn't your come home from work, had a stressful day, glass of wine.

SPEAKER_02 24:39

Glass of Pinot. You can finish the whole bottle.

SPEAKER_05 24:41

That's a Pinot. Good advice.

SPEAKER_04 24:43

But honestly, it's important. It's important to remember that like these grapes have not made it out of Austria for a reason.

SPEAKER_05 24:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:50

They're not the easiest drinking, they're not the most appealing to everyone.

SPEAKER_05 24:54

Yeah, it's interesting. I wouldn't I wouldn't think it's appealing to everyone.

SPEAKER_04 25:01

Well, I like it. It's unique, it's different. It's unique, it's different. That's true. Bridget doesn't like it. I don't love it. You know what this tasting did prove? Is there a red wine that Bridget doesn't like? Yeah, that one.

SPEAKER_05 25:12

I mean, I would drink it, but I would actually rather have number one or two before that one again. Really? They weren't that sweet.

SPEAKER_04 25:22

Fair enough. All right, so let's move on to the last one. And this is the Villa Wolf Pinot Noir.

SPEAKER_05 25:32

I think I'm gonna like this one.

SPEAKER_04 25:33

Or one of my fun facts. As they call it in Germany, Schmat Burgunder.

SPEAKER_05 25:39

Yes. One time I worked from home, you know, often Nick called me when Brocktoberfest was starting just so he could say some of the German words of the recipes we were working on.

SPEAKER_04 25:48

Well, it's a lot of fun to say these words out loud.

SPEAKER_05 25:51

Often we talk via Slack or text message or email, but this one was a fun.

SPEAKER_04 25:56

I think I maybe even FaceTimed you to make you watch my face. It was really important.

SPEAKER_05 26:02

Oh, Diane, that's a good recommendation.

SPEAKER_04 26:06

Um Brittany, you have to yell them. German is a very angry language.

SPEAKER_05 26:11

Yeah, but our recording studio is in a location in which we can only be kind of loud. Because I have a child sleeping over it. Next kid sleeps above us.

SPEAKER_04 26:21

All right, so Villa Wolf, Pinot Noir, or Spat Burgender, as we would call it in the fatherland. I am German.

SPEAKER_05 26:29

Great. This is great. Bruce, this is the whole bottle that I'm allowed to finish.

SPEAKER_04 26:33

You can finish it. Let's let's bring up the fun facts.

SPEAKER_05 26:36

I mean, this is not a bridget wine still, but it's the most frigid of the group. Yeah, it's very light. I prefer heavier bodies.

SPEAKER_04 26:42

15% alcohol, again, not frigid-friendly. Uh but yeah, sustainably grown, warmer area of Germany because Pinot Noir needs a little bit warmer climate than white wine. The falls. An easy drinker, that's why. Not me, Falls, the Falls. Uh so yeah, it's just a nice but Germany makes some really nice Pinot Noir now.

SPEAKER_05 27:03

Okay, yeah, that's new, right?

SPEAKER_04 27:05

Relatively how new. Like the last 10 years. It really is related to climate change and better vitriculture. They used to grow a grape called Dornfelder, was their primary red grape. Okay. Do not drink Dornfelder. It is worse than the Austrian grapes. It's terrible. I would not do that to you, Bridget. Oh, good, good. That would be another one that you do not like.

SPEAKER_05 27:27

No, thank you for not doing that. Um, yeah, so generally we joke a lot also about Pinot, um, because it it it used to be my favorite wine, I think, when I was like new to wine drinking, because it's again not as full-bodied. It's really refreshing. And I'm generally like a full body. Yeah, so this is just like easy. I think anyone would like this. I don't know. Anyone on the call, everyone drinking this wine on the call, do you like it? Thumbs up or clap on your Zoom. Good, good. Cheers to you all. This was a good one to end with. Yeah. Okay, I'm proud of this one. Thanks.

SPEAKER_04 27:56

I'm proud of you choosing it. Let's get your takeaways first and let's open it up. What do you think of the German Austrian wines?

SPEAKER_05 28:04

Did you learn new things? I did. I I had a feeling going into this that Nick was set to prove me wrong that not all German wines were sweet. But I did before we planned this episode, I was like, no, we're not tasting German wines because I will throw up if I have to drink more than one of them. They're so sweet. So this was really great for me. Um, besides these two in the okay, no, the three. I don't love those three. Um, but numbers one, two, and six, I would drink again. I would even maybe drink three again if you, you know, made me.

SPEAKER_04 28:31

The Austrian sparkly wine, the Kremstall Gruner Veltliner. Yep. The Dr. Herman kind of sort of sweet, maybe with some Asian food. Yep.

SPEAKER_05 28:39

And then definitely you don't want those again, but I think that's right. Yeah, so definit I'm just no, actually, you wouldn't do it. This one was better, we would do the sweeter one. Yep. Yeah, so which which was interesting. I'm just chose a sweeter one over a not as sweet. I just didn't like the I mean the flavor. I don't know what else to, you know.

SPEAKER_04 28:55

So uh stay tuned for our Riesling tasting.

SPEAKER_05 28:58

Look. I'm sick that day. If anyone would like to sub in, you are welcome to. Um anyway, I thought it was really great. And to answer the question, are all German wines sweet? No. The answer is no.

SPEAKER_04 29:14

They're harder to find, but they're getting more um more readily available. Cool thing about Austrian wines, most of it's under screw top, and they all have the Austrian flag on the screw top. So very easy to identify. Right. It's a great example of branding. We think of pure Michigan as being really good at the branding with the Tim Allen. You're driving along the lake, and there's a dog. Pure Michigan. Uh, but you know, Austria, they're even better at it. They put their flag on the wine. So yeah. So good job, Austria. So look for that. Will any of these work their way into your normal drinking rotation?

SPEAKER_05 29:50

Well, I like this Pinot for just like um when you're having people over that you don't know if they're like wine people. Like this is easy. I think you can put ice cubes on this one too. Okay, but no. Yes, you could. I don't want to. Well, you could. This one was just like maybe it would be helpful. This one is great for people. I do get nervous when like I know a lot of my friends well enough to know what kind of wine they want, but if you're having new people over or in a world in which you are going to a dinner party at a new place, that's a great one to bring because I think everyone would drink it. Um, also the sparkling wine. I was really yummy, wasn't it? Yeah, and it was just different from all the sparkling wine that I drank. That was just a really good one. So I'm gonna deliver some of that to Shannon's house because I know she loves it. So anyway, yeah, that was really, really great. Not gonna buy the sweet ones, sorry, but um glad I learned about them.

SPEAKER_04 30:39

All right, let's open it up to all of you that joined us. Yeah, I want to hear what what was the favorite? What's the takeaway from the night? Let's have a big what we learned here.

SPEAKER_05 30:49

Are you gonna call on people, Nick, or are we gonna let people uh battle it out? Battle it out. Don't be polite, guys.

SPEAKER_02 31:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_07 31:05

Oh, Diane's trying to talk, but we I can't hear her.

SPEAKER_02 31:09

Diane is still muted.

SPEAKER_07 31:11

Is she muted? No, I think she's there you go, Diane.

SPEAKER_06 31:15

And take Annie out. She was barking at us, and I oh wait till hopefully he comes back.

SPEAKER_05 31:21

Yeah, I like Bruce's wine opinions here.

SPEAKER_07 31:25

Good one. Well, I know for us that we really like the sparkling. We just said that we need to add that to our you know, Diane knows we have room in our wine room, so we need to fill it. That would be a good one to put in there. So, and um the Pinot. We like the Pinot.

SPEAKER_03 31:42

I guess not everybody likes the Pinot. Really? At all.

SPEAKER_04 31:48

But you can stick with the sweet one. How full is a glass of Riesling?

SPEAKER_07 31:51

How full is the um I'm getting through it.

SPEAKER_02 31:54

It was almost full, and I'm um under halfway now.

SPEAKER_07 31:58

Yeah. And that was this one, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_02 32:00

Yeah, it was the super sweet Riesling.

SPEAKER_07 32:01

This was the blue one.

SPEAKER_02 32:02

Yep.

SPEAKER_07 32:03

But now that we know that we can put the Riesling on the shelf, that's that's a huge. That's huge for the rest of us here. I still won't touch it. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 32:12

I mean, I'm with you, man.

SPEAKER_03 32:15

Riesling they would like is Brunendorf. Um, never heard that one. Grunhauser Riesling is very good. We'll we'll send you a picture of it because I've ordered it from several places around here. We go to Dusseldorf and we get it everywhere, here, nowhere.

SPEAKER_07 32:32

Yeah, you can't find it.

SPEAKER_05 32:33

Sounds like something. Sounds like a challenge for me.

SPEAKER_02 32:38

Challenge baby Grunhauser.

SPEAKER_05 32:40

We'll we'll send you a picture of that. Were you uh it sounds like since you like the sweet wines, did did you ever have the Gerwirtschaminer that I mentioned earlier with my um grandpa Dennis?

SPEAKER_08 32:51

I have not.

SPEAKER_05 32:52

Okay, I wonder if that's like I literally know not. I was very young when like I mean, I was probably newly early 20s, like so. I don't know, is that like readily available?

SPEAKER_04 33:02

Good wine shops. We have a bottle. Uh we used to have a couple more, but people don't buy a ton of it. Yeah, you can find some in Washington from Washington uh cooler climates.

SPEAKER_01 33:11

A case of Girtschrominer from Saint Michel here in the in Woodenville. Oh, they make sense. On my 23rd birthday. Yeah, early.

SPEAKER_04 33:26

We actually have a French one from Alsace, which was part of Germany for a long time, and then we had to give it back to the French. Um and then uh Germany, and that's kind of where you'll find it. Also a little bit of Italy in like uh Tyrol. So again, part of Italy that used to be Austria, which used to be Germany.

SPEAKER_05 33:44

So we'll have to do a follow-up and see if people speak German. See if Nick has gotten that wine for you, not Glenchemin or the other.

SPEAKER_04 33:50

We'll have to find it. We'll have to find it. We can find it. I'm sure we can find it. Okay, great recap from your household. Shannon, I want to know. You're you're the twin here. Was there anything that made you go, what is Bridget talking about?

SPEAKER_06 34:08

Yeah. No, none of this is a surprise.

SPEAKER_05 34:11

This is exactly what I knew would happen.

unknown 34:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 34:14

And I mean, I think our opinions are pretty close to the same on wine, probably slightly less. I mean, I haven't been drinking that much wine lately since I'm in the baby days. Shannon has a new baby, so not a lot of people. Your opinions are the same.

SPEAKER_05 34:27

I drink far more than what she is drinking, is what she's saying. Um, but the sparkling wine, Shannon, I uh should have delivered that to you before tonight. I apologize. Yeah. I will deliver some to you after so you can hear what the because it sounds like that's a crowd favorite.

SPEAKER_04 34:44

So I think Bruce had a really good point earlier in this too, and you chatted some food pairing suggestions. These European wines are generally lower in alcohol, higher in acidity, and made to go with food a lot more than American wines. Yeah, that's a really good point. We all have this idea in America of like these huge Napa cabernes that are just overly extracted alcoholic messes.

SPEAKER_05 35:06

That I like, is that what you're saying?

SPEAKER_04 35:08

And they will overwhelm food, but these are definitely made to be on the table with food, like our beautiful cheese and simple salted rye rolls. If you haven't ever had a simple salted rye roll, you need to come to Lake Studio Country Meets right now and buy some because they're really good. They're so good. They could do with more salt though. Always more salt.

SPEAKER_05 35:27

Um, I do think that's interesting. I don't remember, I wish I remembered like the meal, but I distinctly remember having wine. Like the first time I I realized that wine could complement food, you know. I because again, I started drinking wine when I didn't know anything about wine. And at some point I learned before you even, Nick, I started learning more things about wine. And I and I know that's so silly to this group. We understand that wine complements food, but I do think it's a good thing to note with these wines that even more, because like not that our rye roll is isn't as delicious as a pork schnitzel, but I bet that wine would have been better with the pork schnitzel. So that's a really good point. Oh, yeah, Nick, you're down, man. Yeah, we can't see you. Darn it. We've lost you guys. Oh no, we've lost Nick and what fun is that? It's like we're just listening to the podcast. All right, let's check. Oh, well, he's gonna go check. We do have a uh, you know, we are looking at our computers to see you all, but we actually have a camera set up in front of us. Well, anyway, okay, so Brittany, you probably don't have any of these wines out in Washington. You didn't get to Lake Shiva Country meets to purchase yours. I did.

SPEAKER_01 36:39

Yeah. Did you miss it? I did not. So I'm just drinking my Columbia Valley Red Blend.

SPEAKER_05 36:45

Oh, good. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 36:46

That's a good call. One of these days we'll do a Washington themed one. Just for you. This is our dream. And I think we're gonna wrap up for the podcast. Thank you all for joining us. We'll uh hang out a little bit afterwards, see if anybody else has any questions. But uh, we're gonna wrap this up for the podcast. Thank you, everybody, for listening. Thank you, especially the people who joined in to be a part of this live.

SPEAKER_05 37:11

And you guys heard it earlier, but we answered the question that not all German wines are painfully sweet. So get out and try some German and Austrian wines. We sampled six very good options today and learned that they pair really great with food.

SPEAKER_04 37:24

So we have all the information on what the wines were in the show notes and on our website, dinnerplusdrinks.com. And of course, you can follow us on social media.

SPEAKER_05 37:33

We highly suggest watching this one on YouTube because we are dressed like ding dongs. So thanks so much. You can find us at Dinner Plus Drinks Podcast, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.