Germany

I just spent 3 days in Frankfurt Germany with my distributor to participate in the 15th Rheingau Gourmet & Weinfestival.
I attended a gala dinner for 82 people who paid 250 Euros for an excellent meal prepared by Hans-Stephan Steinhauer (2 Michelin stars, 19 points by Gault et Millau), paired with wines from Balthasar Ress, who was kind enough to be my translator for he speaks perfect French (his wife is French), and Jakob Jung.

Tasting of Valandraud White N°1 2007, Valandraud red 1999 and 1998 and Virginie de Valandraud 2006. The wines showed well and the moderator, August F. Winkler, journalist, was a great speaker as he captivated the audience telling my story, the wines and was even able to make everyone laugh with his humor – translated for me by Marcus and Mr. Ress.

The next day at 4pm, a paid tasting event was organized for 40 people in a place in the area where 10 vintages of Valandraud were presented, from 2001 to 2009 still in the barrel – Rémi Dalmasso sent the samples a week before. Of course, 2001 and 2003 as well as 2005, where well received. It is obvious that a new style appears since 2007: more finesse in the grain of the tannins, riper fruit, with flavors of sweet cherries, never our wines tasted so good, and I can say the same about Bordeaux as a whole. Precise date for the harvest and better sorting to select the best fruits have helped us create wines tasting closer to ripe grapes. And, as opposed to the certainties of pathetic Cassandras, clinging to their privileges of so-called connoisseurs of Bordeaux elegance and defenders of statement like “before it was better”, no it is not true, today is much better and as in love, not as good as tomorrow.
Also, whenever I attend these sorts of tastings, it seems obvious to me to point out to those wine lovers who pay a lot of money to drink my wine that it is not so expensive (especially compared to the 10 most expensive wines in Bordeaux) and they may judge for themselves instead of listening to the mountains of crap in Mondovino, or read the comments of some English or French journalists torn by anti-Parkerism, Americanism, even Bettane, Burtschy and others like Quarin and write ”all the wines taste the same”!!! “The globalization of taste destroys our culture”!!

In their place, I would reevaluate their palate, nose, eyes followed by an exorcism with Michel Rolland as a sorcerer. The task is probably impossible, as there are so much politics in these comments that seem innovative, beneficial, and which, in fact, are simply… false.