Carl Ehrhard Old School Riesling Fine & Dry

Tasting Notes Carl Ehrhard Old School Riesling Fein & Herb

Refreshing aroma of pineapple, lemon, green apple, and fresh green fruit. The taste is powerful and features typical apple acidity, some stone fruit, spring blossom, and an exceptionally beautiful balance. Clear color with a green hue. Crisp Riesling with high drinkability.

Wine & Food Pairing

Perfect as an aperitif! But also excellent to combine with light dishes such as grilled seafood, salads with citrus dressing, or white meat. This wine also perfectly complements Asian dishes, such as sushi or spicy Thai curries. A perfect companion for a carefree dinner!

to quench the heat or thirst. For example, on a sunny terrace or during a relaxed drink. In terms of dishes, it's delicious with fish dishes, a Wiener Schnitzel with a good squeeze of lemon, or a sauerkraut dish with sausage. Also ideal with cheese fondue, raclette, or an overripe brie.

Additional Information

Carl Ehrhard embodies the new generation of German winemakers, who are betting everything on dry wines from classic grape varieties. In Ehrhard's case, this is primarily Riesling. The vineyards of Weingut Carl Ehrhard are located on the Rüdesheimer Berg, one of the best plots on this mountain and automatically a Riesling stronghold par excellence.

The vineyards have an ideal location on the rolling slopes, sheltered from the cold northern winds by the Taunus Mountains. The wide Rhine acts as a heat regulator for the south-facing vineyards. He vinifies his Rieslings in a predominantly dry style – 'trocken' or 'feinherb' (slightly less dry) – with a focus on table consumption. Besides Riesling, he also produces an interesting Spätburgunder, the German version of Pinot Noir. After Riesling, this is the most planted grape in the Rheingau.

Below is a contribution from Joost Overhoff, who visited Carl Ehrhard and kindly granted permission to publish this article on my website. Thank you for that!

WEINGUT CARL EHRHARD

Taken from the website

www.cacciucco.nl

In Rieslingland

GERMAN WINE IMPRESSIONS

‘When in Europe, drink European wine’.

That is my stainless steel rule, which I have included under A in THE ABC OF WINE BUYING. It is an environmental crime to transport products that consist almost entirely of water across half or the entire globe. (Not to mention water itself).
The closer, the better. Spitzenkandidat = Germany, homeland of one of the most delightful delicacies there is: Riesling.

We are in the Rheingau, a Riesling mecca. Here, the Good Lord was kind enough to put a bend in the Rhine, so that the slopes face directly south. A few years ago, during our bike trip from Tuscany to the Netherlands, we looked out over it from the other side of the Rhine. We sat with a view of Germany's most famous vineyards at a campsite, drinking beer. They had no drinkable wine. The perfect variant of Tantalus' torment.
This time, we cross the mighty river and meet a winemaker-and-experience-in-one. He looks big and strong and he laughs a lot, Carl Ehrhard, winemaker in Rüdesheim. But if you look closer, you see that the difficult side of life has not passed him by either. You don't have to wait long to discover how.

Carl, now in his late fifties, is a winemaker's son. But father and son never got along. For two years, the son sought his fortune far away, in South Africa. In Germany, he took on a grueling job, also a slippery slope, heading for a burnout.
Then he came to a screeching halt. He took over his father's business and decided to do everything differently. His new motto:

Back to the Future

From now on, he will take his time for everything and he will also give his wines time. He only starts selling his Rieslings two years after the harvest.
In an earlier phase, the winery had moved with the times: vinifying in stainless steel, everything temperature-controlled. New, sleek labels… And then came Carl's turnaround: 'Stop! Halt! Back'.
Carl bought wooden barrels and even an old-fashioned wine press, one from his grandmother's time.
He now only uses his steel tanks for intermediate storage. He vinifies in wood again, but not like before. He doesn't just want to 'go back', he wants to 'go back to the future'. Carl believes that his wooden barrels are good for the micro-oxidation of his wines. He definitely does not want woody wines. So all his wood is old. And in it, he keeps his wines 'sur lie' for up to thirteen months, in the good company of the yeast lees.

He almost went along with a new near-trend: vinifying in large earthenware amphorae, as they did long ago in ancient regions like Georgia. He had already ordered them when he realized he was doing it for the hype. Stop! Again.

He only wants to go back if it makes sense. However, he has brought back the old labels. And it works. After a period when such things were considered old-fashioned, young people now see it as a sign that something special is happening here, that behind that label there is no wine that is interchangeable with the high-tech wines that taste roughly the same, no matter where they come from.
And climate change? Yes, it's a problem, but not that bad yet. It used to be a problem to get Riesling grapes fully ripe. That was then compensated by 'The sun in a bag'. Read: sugar. That is no longer necessary. And if it gets too warm, you can regulate it to a certain extent by pruning methods. Whereas before you would prune to give your grapes maximum sunlight, nowadays you give them more shade. For as long as it lasts.

We are sitting outside and Carl, barefoot, presents an impressive line of Rieslings to our palates. As is common in the Pfalz, he owns many small plots of vineyard in different locations. And with several of them, he makes wines that come exclusively from one so-called 'Urstück'. The differences are striking. In one, he sees an easy woman, another is introverted and complex.
A woman approaches with a rollator. It is Ehrhard's wife. The fact that she is walking again is considered a miracle. After a mountain bike accident, she was completely paralyzed and had been told that she would probably remain so. That also helped to put life in perspective and to limit oneself to the essentials.
To that essence of life belongs… Riesling. According to Carl, it is the greatest white wine there is, if made well.
He beams. 'If you've had a good Sauternes after a copious meal, you think: 'And now to bed'. But after a good Riesling Auslese, you exclaim:

‘WHERE is the dance floor?!’

Weingut Carl Ehrhard
(works organically)

© Joost Overhoff