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Wine Review: Heinz Eifel 2011 Spätlese, Mosel, Germany

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Friday wine. 

This wine was featured on our Wine Muse World Tour #WineMuse podcast show.

Heinz Eifel takes personal control over the whole wine making process: from grapevine to bottling. His daughter, Anne Eifel-Spohr has taken over the position of winemaker for the HEINZ EIFEL label. She has been active in the company since 2001 and continues the long family tradition started in 1640. I enjoyed speaking with winemaker Anne-Eifel Spohr on our #winemuse podcast. You can listen to the recorded podcast here.

Tasting Notes:

Color: Pale Gold
Nose: Mineral hit, steely, intense, pear, honey, cinnamon from sagebrush. Big like.
Palate: Honeyed pear, apricot, not heavy sweet, touch of sweet backed by great acidity, medium-heavy, nice weight and lovely flavors, spicy cinnamon, nice brace of acid back of cheeks. Luxurious fruit finish.

Day two: Lovely, still fresh, bright steely nose with cinnamon. Nice acid tingle under the tongue. Balanced. Flavors of gently ripe honeyed nectarine went down easy. Appealing light finish. If you are looking for a revitalizing white wine, this is it. Even with some bluesy jazz playing, I was uplifted by this wine. Wonderful Friday wine.


Thoughts: Good match with Beechers Cheese herbal curds, nice savory/sweet mix. A low alcohol, semi-sweet Riesling, perfect for summer meals. Day two it was a relaxed, delicious, refreshing wine. Pair with best friends, favorite kick-back music and good books. I also appreciate the label design. Bring a taste of Germany home. Recommended + Good Value.

Closure: Screw Cap
ABV: 8%
SRP: $14
Sample provided by Winesellers Ltd.

Spätlese (literal meaning: "late harvest"; plural form is Spätlesen) is a German wine term for a wine from fully ripe grapes, the lightest of the late harvest wines. Spätlese is a riper category than Kabinett in the Prädikatswein category of the German wine classification. Spätlese is below Auslese in terms of ripeness. The grapes are picked at least 7 days after normal harvest, so they are riper and have a higher must weight.

Spätlese works well with spicy fare, fruit dishes, lobster, scallops and fish, pork, BLT sandwiches and smoked meat.

Mosel is the most famous of Germany's 13 official wine regions – is also the third largest in terms of production. It follows the path of the Mosel river from its confluence with the Rhine river near Koblenz, upstream and south-west to Germany's border with Luxembourg and France. This region also includes the Saar and Ruwer tributaries, and was formerly known as Mosel-Saar-Ruwer until August 2007, when the name was officially shortened to Mosel.

Cheers!
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