Monday, November 22, 2010

Wine Guides and Claudia

I'm still wine-less...and what better way to 'suffer' than to, purely by coincidence, receive three wine-guides within 2 days.
How can one compare....
A Carrot dangled in front of a donkey comes to mind....or...back in my youth (gotta say that or the wife will kill me)....it would have been Claudia Cardinale in the bed...and the door is locked. No doubt readers will have their 'own' comparison.

The Falstaff is the first time I have had it in my hands....dedicated of course to Austrian Wines. Marks are....as the whole world does(except me) ..out of 100.
I am now searching wine merchants for the goodies.

The other two are German Wine Guides. The Gault Millau is now mine for the third year running....and is pretty essential. There are only wine notes on the very top wines...the rest are given points...and is recommended even if you can't read German.
The other I get to read when I visit our holiday haunt...but I decided this year to buy it as well. Eichemann is the author...and the difference to the GM is that all the wines have wine-notes. Now...this is commended...but as most bloggers and wine-writers know...you can only say so much about a wine. Therefore there are repeated descriptions. Eichelmann tends to mark slightly less than it's competitor. Both mark properties with grapes and stars...5 being the top....and both use the 100 point system.


On first check I did notice some variation between the two....for wines and properties I know.
Carl Schneider(Weil am Rhein) in Baden is rated poorly in Eichelmann but highly in GM.
Michel(Achkarren) also in Baden...is given 3 grapes in GM but 5 Stars in Eichelmann.
Whether there are 'politics' involved...or just personal taste...I cannot say. No doubt there are many more differences.
One I knew about before purchasing.. My recent 'find' in the Pfalz...Pfleger...is in Eichelmann with 4 Stars...but is nowhere in GM. Herr Pfleger made some comment when I visited him...but as to the reason...big secret.
Weingut Hollerith in Hambach is in neither...surely a 'fauxpas'.

So...as I wait for the green light to sip again...I will plough my way through all volumes...and think of Claudia!

2 comments:

Alex said...

You must be really thirsty by now! :P Cheers

David said...

Hi! I just discovered the site and enjoyed going through it! Lots of interesting information. I must say you are really brave wandering around by yourself! I’ll visit you again soon!