White France tasting in "Vins&Cognac"

 After four years that I've been working in the wine trading company, it's difficult to count the number of the tastings that have organized or visited. Wine fairs, with their endless kaleidoscope of wine brands, visits and presentations of the winemakers, trips to the wineries. Over the years I have tried hundreds of wines, thousands of times used the word "tannin", "full bodied", "nice balance of acidity", "long finish", "palate".

Its rapidly increasing popularity over the last years and its status of the «luxury» segment at the same time, made it incredibly fashionable to be keen in wines. Suddenly everyone who had some knowledge about the wines, started to consider themselves celebrities (I'm not an exclusion, unfortunately). So, it took me some time to understand the simple truth: whatever in the wine industry your role is (winemaker, marketing manager,  journalist or blogger), you never stop to learn when it goes about wine. 

Why am I writing all this? Ah, yes, it’s because of the last week’s White France wine tasting in a lovely area of Monbijouplatz at the «Vins & Cognac" boutique. Sean, its owner, has been living in France for many years and his theoretical knowledge, supported by practical experience, made this tasting very lively and exciting. 

Here are its main points:

 
1. For those who didn’t know, Bergerac is not only the name of a novel’s character, but also a name of the wine region located on the South West of France. Wonderful region, which has been fated to compete with the Great and Powerful Bordeaux (just to make things more clear, to compete with Bordeaux when it goes about wine, is pretty much the same as for an motor car constructing company to surpass Mercedes or for  a tailor to emulate the success of Dior). It happened because the Bordeaux wine region boundaries were delimitated in the XX century, establishing the new limits on the Gironde department borders. And since the wine merchants in that area after the change of administrative borders, were focused on selling the wines under the official brand of Bordeaux, it’s been a tough time for Bergerac winemakers.

 
The regulated grape varieties - Semillon, Sauvignon Blan, Muscadet are allowed to be blended with Ugni Blanc and Chenin, producing dry white wine with a nice body, complex flavor and a long, pleasant finish. 

The wine we have started with, Chateau Tourmentine Bergerac Passionnement (50% Semillon/50% Sauvignon) expressed perfectly the main terroir characteristics of its region, opening with the complex aromas, fruity and nicely balanced palate and capturing with a long pleasant aftertaste. This wine should be drunk as an aperitif (which we did) otherwise it could match perfectly to salads and fish.

2. The next tasting destination was Champagne. Honestly, there is so much being told and retold about Champagne, that, it makes no sense to describe it – everyone has tasted this wine at least once in his life, and the name of the area it originates from, is known even by those who deal with wine on the daily basis as much as the average person deals with astrophysics. As for our tasting sample, it was Charles Lafitte Brut Millesime 1999. The wine opened with soft floral aromas (acacia, privet and passionflower), a bit harsh at first on the palate, with the time in a glass it softened, evolving honey notes of acacia, getting more round and complex. The aftertaste was long, clear, revealing well “pronounced” dried fruits’ notes. 

One fact about Champagne (or better to say its attribute) that perhaps never occurred to you... The well-known "mushroom" shaped champagne cork was not specially produced for the sparkling wines format. The standard cork is being used for all wines (no matter still or sparkling), but the pressure in the bottle with sparkling wine causes the formation of the cork "cap" over the bottle’s neck.

 
3. From Burgundy to the Loire Valley, to Domaine Bideau and their wine - Giraud Grand Mortier Gobin Cru 2012. Loire Valley with its 300 castles is one of the French main treasures (please forgive me for banality). 

Four Muscadet appellations are producing the same name grape variety, also known as Melon de Bourgogne. It gives light, fresh, dry wines, varying from the walnut to peach or, even, sometimes honey shades. This wine’s quite neutral flavor accentuates perfectly the taste of seafood and slakes your thirst. Our wine proceeded from Muscadet de Sevre-et-Main appellation (the central area that produces the largest number of quality wines). Giraud Grand Mortier Gobin Cru 2012 hunts you with the white fruits and notes of lime, good balance of acidity, moderate body and mineral palate - a great wine to enjoy with a seafood.

4. Alsace - another region that we moved to after a short break. Oh, those breaks, they are so tricky... When there is a break and the glasses are full with wine, people start losing their interest to sorting out the notes, finding the aroma peculiarities and searching for mineral hints in their glasses, preferring a relaxed chat to other people in the room. And here is the crucial moment to test yourself on the dictatorship skills, cutting of the democracy in the room, saying strictly and loudly "Everybody sit down" or "All rise!” (especially, if there are no chairs in the room), “We are starting the next wine” ... But Sean was nothing of the dictator, so we continued talking relaxed, alternately rushing to the table with snacks and sipping our delicious Gewurztraminer for some time :). 

So, back to Alsace ... The vineyards of Alsace have been changing their jurisdiction many times going from the French governance under German and back to French. No wonder that German grape varieties like Risling and Gewurztraminer are coexisting here with the French Pinot Gris and Muscat. In our case, the Alsace wine was presented by Gewurztraminer 2012 by Willy Gisselbrecht. It was a nice, light wine with a traditional flavor of exotic fruits, rose petals and spices, easy drinking thanks to its light and fresh flavor that matches so well with foie gras or blue cheeses. 

5. Well, what kind of tasting of French white wines without a sample from Burgundy? There is no such tasting. Quite predictably the “star” of our program came from this region, it was - Domain Alain Guyard Marsannay "Les Etales" 2012. Crispy fresh, mineral, perfectly balanced - a fine example of the high-style Burgundy (and, surprisingly, the example of the low price), and there is nothing to add to that.

6. The last tasting sample was by Domaine Sarda - Malet Muscat de Rivsaltes 2011. The town of Rivesaltes (which literally means "high banks") gave its name to the natural sweet wines area of ​​production, which was once confined to its outskirts, and now includes a significant part of the Roussillon. Produced here sweet wines are soft, nervous and creamy. This rich sweet (not less than 100 g / l) wine full of ripe grapes aromas is made out ​​of of Muscat and Muscat of Alexandria grape varieties. During the aging process it acquires notes of honey and candied fruit (especially apricots) aromas. 

Well, hopefully you enjoyed reading it as much as we enjoyed tasting. Special thanks to Sean for organizing it!

Saturdays in Berlin

Last Saturday’s gay parade in Berlin has gathered the entire city – some were willing to participate, others were enjoying the spectacular show.  Having found some pictures from the event in my news feed in the evening, when the parade was over, I was a bit disappointed to have missed another Berlin’s way of artistic self-expression; a response of the civil society to some totalitarian states and political heavyweights (no names, no poking fingers into certain politicians…). 

On the other hand, one can’t be in two different places at the same time anyway and my day was already scheduled with another important “event”. Saturday is our traditional market visit day, our FISH day e basta; a day, when we head to Kollwitzstraße to treat ourselves with the grilled mackerel and the most delicious, of all that I ate in Germany, potato salads. 

One of my first Saturdays in Berlin, having come to the market, I spent at least 5 minutes choosing one out of four, apparently different, but identically looking raw fishes to be grilled. The German names of the fish didn’t tell me anything, so it took me a while to decide. It was, indeed, one of those "awkward moments" when you do understand that it doesn’t go about buying a house for the lifetime, but just a fish choosing for a lunch meal, and yet, you can’t make a choice. Since then, the market brunch is mandatory in our Saturday program, and it takes me just a second to order a perfectly tasty grilled mackerel with potato salad.

The Kollwitzstraße Market is open on Thursdays and Saturdays, but the Saturday’s assortment range is always wider, and besides the “must have” household’s products, such as fresh meat, fish, vegetables, you can buy here such ESSENTIALS as: cocoa beans, 20 different types of mustard (with rosemary, with orange, chili, etc.), sesame seeds, walnut oil, handmade lavender soap, orange tree and nice clay pots, and lots of other important stuffJ.

When the weather is nice, people come here to the taste the food, talking to the sellers, wondering around and this pleasant bustle brings much of excitement in the lazy Saturday’s mood. 

But there are Saturdays (as the last one) when the sun comes out for 5 minutes, just enough time to lure out of your home (naively wearing summer shorts and sunglasses), and then hides behind the clouds, leaving you with an endless cold drizzling rain. Then your major excitement is to make the short runs from one tree to another, hiding under their crowns; as for the long conversations, like “What do you have in that green jar?” with the sales people, they lose all the attraction for both sides. In days like this, even the sellers’ dogs give you the accusative look from under their counters, as if to say, "Guys, go home, I want to go home too").  So, you have nothing, but to obey... dogs, never give bad advices :).

About the city

I never thought of Berlin as a capital, able to offer you many attractions, your average restaurant goer a great range of tasty options, your experienced traveler many new cultural discoveries, an average foreigner a new home. I imagined restaurants and bars to look like traditional German breweries in the Düsseldorf’s downtown touristic area: huge dark and noisy windowless rooms, looking rather like decorations to the Hollywood movies about dwarfs, than a nice option to consider for having the dinner at. Perhaps, I thought, there is a couple of good restaurants serving German, authentic Japanese and (who would doubt, that it could be found even on the deserted island), tolerable Italian cuisine. As for the wine, the forecasts were quite gloomy... Well, Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Sylvaner are ruling in this part of the world, there is no surprise in that, but as for “red” Italy, France or New World (particularly the wines of the last category) I didn’t hope much for. There was a common opinion, which I followed, that the city is eclectic and plain, one can hardly find a couple of sites, worth seeing or beautiful Kietz, able to impress. That was a picture of Berlin, drawn by my poor imagination. However, experience is the only teacher, and now I'm so ashamed of my previous judgments.

To begin with, this city is very diverse. Like the color variations on the chameleon’s body, the aesthetics of the city, its character, mode of expression and its “face”, changes from one area to another, regardless of the very conditional and no longer applicable in political meaning, but still usable in the conversation, territorial division into "East" and "West". There are many tourists here, however it is nothing to compare to other capitals or popular cities, such as Venice, Florence, Paris or Barcelona, ​​where the multilingual wave covers you, hitting with such strength, that even understanding the meaning of what is being said, your brain simply refuses to identify the language during first couple of seconds.

To me, one of the first amazing Berlin’s features is its ability to destroy stereotypes about itself, to demolish common complaining that "Berlin is boring”, “Berlin is Soviet” etc. Of course, there are still streets and squares that amaze you with the "beautiful" samples of Soviet architecture and yes, perhaps a street in the Wittenbergplatz area would be more interesting for an average Berlin realtor than the street close to Alexanderplatz in terms of its financial attractiveness. But it is also true to say that if you forget the names of the streets and rely on the spectrum of your own feelings, you’d be surprised, easily taking the "Eastern" part of the city for the "Western" and vice versa.

Prenzlauer Berg is one of those, as Eastern as could be, parts of Berlin, turns to be a mixture of New York’s Greenwich Village hipster style, the Florence’s relaxed atmosphere and the gastronomic chic of Paris along with the splendid architecture and a charming intellectual aesthetic of the last century’s 30^s. Here, in a relatively small area, more than 6 000 restaurants and bars are being “settled” compactly.

Some are expensive, some are cheap, some are tasteful, some are less, but the abundance of the options (Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian and Singaporean, Italian, French, Spanish, African, Irish, Russian, Greek, German) is stunning; it’s like to travel around the world, without leaving your home. Besides that, most of them have beautiful summer terraces, making you feel like a kid in a toy store, so difficult it is to make a choice where to seat and to pick one out of dozens. 

 The second feature of Berlin is its relaxed atmosphere of total hedonism. On my opinion, it possesses a feminine energy - soft, flowing, relaxed, so confident and slightly indifferent the city is. However, this “indifference”, doesn’t proceed out of arrogance, but is the natural result of the inner focus; other / others are unimportant in this case, they are only a part of the general play, the crowd scene, if you wish, not more. If Berlin wasn’t a city, but a person, I’d say that he would be a Zen Buddhist with certain features of Bertram Wooster, a literature character that enjoys his pleasant and blithe life. Nobody rushes here, except, perhaps, the bicyclists, more numerous than in Paris, they tear by you at a full speed, like the skiers on the mountain on a lovely, sunny day.

Berlin's wines' portfolio is impressive and focused on the authentic grape varieties, which gives you a chance to taste a huge range, comparing vintages and styles and to enjoy your favorite afterwards for the reasonable money. There is no lack in Italian, French or Spanish wines (some vintages of the Iconic Super Tuscany seem to be found here easier that in Italy). As for New World (Chile, California, Australia) the situation is different, they are not as much appreciated as the wines out of Europe. The reasons for that are easy to understand, but still it's a pity.  

 Berlin is fascinated by Eco trend and this passion is transmitted to newcomers. Bio is everything and everywhere: vegetables, fruits, cheeses, yogurts, meat and wine. Even if you've never thought before about the necessity of Bio purchases or about the Eco trend in general, here you will start doing it for sure, start spending your weekends in numerous parks, start buying organic food, riding bike and sorting/recycling your garbage.

 Speaking of parks, park for the Berliner is not the same as park for a Parisian, for a Roman or for a Kiever, for the Berliner Park is a second home. No, I don’t mean that people here have no place to sleep at night or are being kicked out of their houses regularly, I just mean that any park is the relax area, and as Berliners do not like to strain much at work, but they love nature, sports, music and grilled meat, parks for them are irreplaceable. So, here is the great variety of them, but, of course, some are more popular than others, for example, Tiergarten. Tiergarten looks like a forest in the heart of the city, close to the Philharmonic and other tourist attractions of West Berlin. Huge, dark, this endless green territory, with ponds, reminded me the Central Park, however, I suppose, such analogies occur to everyone.

 Mauerpark. Mauerpark on Sundays welcomes you to make a journey “back to the 60s”. At every 10 meters distance (well, maybe I'm exaggerating, let’s say, every 50) there is someone singing in "James Blunt”, “The Beatles”, “Pinkfloyd” styles . Mentioning the 60s, I don’t mean the music of that epoch, although, there is such as well of course, rather referring to a hippie atmosphere of those times. In front of each "mini stage" there is an audience, lying on the grass, sitting on the mats, with beer or coffee, with kids, with pets, with bicycles. The big flea market, where one can buy everything: from old vinyl records to vintage suitcases is also located here. The sales people, wearing sometimes just the underwear or the barefoot buyers, don’t shock anyone here. When the season starts, one big stage is being set here for karaoke, transforming thus the entire park (or its biggest part) into a platform for a rock concert.

Monbijoupark. Monbijoupark, on my opinion, is one of the most beautiful. Located near the Friedrichstrasse and Berlin Dom, it leads to the museum island. There are many restaurants and bars, both on its territory and outside – on the square and on the surrounding streets, so you can sit comfortably on a chaise longue enjoying your cocktail and admiring the nature and the beautiful architect forms of the museum buildings. Yet, the “economy version” of lying on the grass next to the water channel that separates the park from the Museum Island, listening to the music of the street violinists and the bells of the Cathedral, gives you a great joy as well. Dozing, you still hear the touristic boats passing by with their somnolent rumbling “Berrrrrrrrrrlin, Berrrrrrrrrrrlin” :).

I find it to be one of the most romantic cities in the world, but let's be objective - it is one of the most romantic cities in the world :)