Today brings the German 2005 offer of the estimable family firm of Tanners of Shrewsbury on the border between England and Wales and one of the firms that has always made a great effort with its German wine buying. They don’t just take all the obvious names or cream off the most famous wines of other specialist importers, they actually go and sniff around the vineyards themselves. What an admirable idea!
Here are the growers from whom they have made their selection:
Johann_Peter Reinert, Saar
Von Hövel, Saar
Karthäuserhof, Ruwer
Kurt Hain, Mosel
Max-Ferd Richter, Mosel
Dr Loosen, Mosel
Willi Schaefer, Mosel
Heribert (“Darling, let’s call him Heribert”) Kerpen, Mosel
Meulendorf, Mosel
Hermann Dönnhoff, Nahe
Peter Jakob Kühn, Rheingau
Domdechant Werner Michel, Rheingau
Johannes Leitz, Rheingau
Knipser, Pfalz (including four reds, one of them Syrah)
Bürklin-Wolf, Pfalz
Salwey, Baden
Lots of lovely wines here, from bone dry to TBA, and the prices look excellent. Don’t forget to consult my complete set of tasting notes on more than 400 German 2005s.
At the end of the leaflet they offer a whole starter cellar’s worth of wines, either 48 bottles of drier wines at £285 (average per bottle price £5.94), or 36 bottles of sweeter Mosels at £263 (average per bottle price £7.31) or, curiously, all 84 bottles at £550, £2 more than ordering the two ‘cellars’ separately!
Way back in the mists of time, I edited the first two editions of an annual called the Which? Wine Guide for Consumers’ Association. Tanners earned one of my very first Wine Merchant of the Year titles and I’m thrilled they are still doing such a good job.
Now, please excuse me while I go and order some wine.