Connect with us

News

Germany’s new generation of winegrowers

Published

on

Germany’s new generation of winegrowers

There is currently a rather touching, to me anyway, ad campaign being run by the VDP, the association of elite wine producers in Germany.

It consists of an Instagram blitz and about 20 digital posters in German cities, each depicting a young(ish) winegrower, with a quote from each of them explaining why they have chosen their career.

Typically, they have taken over relatively small enterprises from their parents and are doing the hard work in the vineyard and cellar themselves. Julian Huber of the famous Bernhard Huber estate in Baden producing Germanic answers to red and white burgundy is disarmingly modest: “I probably wouldn’t have been good for anything else.”

Eleventh-generation grower Peter Jakob Kühn in the Rheingau was famously a pioneer of organic viticulture there, back in the early 1990s. His son Peter Bernhard Kühn waxes philosophical with his contribution: “I learn, love and hate, am king and servant, find freedom and connection.” Kai Schätzel in Rheinhessen is working in the family estate for the most altruistic of reasons: “I believe that good agriculture can save the world.”

It would be misleading, however, to suggest that only the sons inherit the earth at German family wine estates. Despite having three older brothers, it is Catharina Mauritz who has taken over the Domdechant Werner estate in the Rheingau from her father, Franz Michel. Katharina Prüm long ago succeeded her father, Manfred, at the famous JJ Prüm estate in the Mosel, making wines that are noticeably fruitier and more approachable in their youth. Upstream in the Saar valley Dorothee Zilliken has taken over the reins from her father, Hanno. She and her husband, Philipp, are deliberately making wines that are even lighter, and perceptibly drier, than those of the previous generation.

Advertisement

The campaign may be partly in response to the labour shortage affecting wine production in Germany, as throughout the wine world. But according to the VDP, aware that there are many easier jobs than winegrowing, it is “a political message designed to generate enthusiasm and empowerment among nature, culture and craft lovers”. It reflects today’s spirit of co-operation among VDP members, something I was assured on a recent visit there was not that common a generation or two ago.

Part of what I love about winegrowing is that its appeal is strong enough to persuade young, well-travelled, well-educated people to adopt a physically demanding outdoor profession in which they are pitted against a more powerful, increasingly unpredictable force: nature. Winegrowing is an art, a craft and nowadays has to be a science too.

Younger generations of vintners not only routinely attend top wine schools but also intern at some of the world’s finest wine estates, where they soak up the latest practicalities of grape-growing and winemaking.

Wine writer and retired producer Armin Diel of Schlossgut Diel in the Nahe told me that his 2001 Christmas present to his daughter Caroline, now in charge of the estate with her French husband, Sylvain Taurisson-Diel, was a handwritten letter presented on a silver plate from Aubert de Villaine of Burgundy’s most famous estate Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, inviting her to intern during the 2002 harvest.

Nature can be a cruel adversary. At this year’s Weinbörse wine fair in Mainz, where almost 1,700 of the latest releases were shown by the great majority of the VDP’s 200 members, many of the producers were still reeling from especially savage frosts a few days earlier. The Zillikens reckon to have lost up to 70 per cent of their potential 2024 crop, so many buds were turned to ice on the vine.

Advertisement

In the nearby Ruwer valley, the famous vineyards of the Maximin Grünhaus estate were also badly hit. But Maximin von Schubert, who has taken over from his father, Carl von Schubert, and continues the estate’s diversification into red wine production thanks to some rather lovely Pinot Noir plant material imported from Burgundy, has taken out a form of frost insurance. He has deliberately bought land round about the original estate vineyards with different expositions and elevations, thereby reducing the likelihood of their all being frosted at the same time.

If there were a stylistic generalisation to be made about the wines of the current generation of VDP members, it is that they seem to be following German consumer taste in making drier and drier wines. Sweetness in German wine is all too readily associated with the darkest days of the industry in the 1970s and early 1980s in the wake of the 1971 German Wine Law that promoted sweetness above all else, including true quality.

It has taken years of discussion, largely on the part of the VDP, to evolve a system that prizes geography and balance above the Kabinett, Spätlese and Auslese categories defined by residual sugar levels. Today there is also a labelling system more like Burgundy’s in which the most admired wines, and the ones likely to benefit from the finest grapes, are those from the most specific locations: single-vineyard wines.

Caroline Diel, for instance, is now making wines that are bone dry and distinctly chewy in youth so that she has completely changed the estate’s release timetable. Today’s Schlossgut Diel wines enjoy much longer ageing in bottle before being put on the market. Unlike most other producers in Mainz she had no 2023 whites to show and even her 2022s were still tightly textured.

The same phenomenon is evident in the wines being made by Sebastian Fürst, son of Paul of the Rudolf Fürst estate in Franken. Paul was a pioneer of fine Pinot Noir, called Spätburgunder in Germany. Sebastian, who joined him in 2007, is typical of his generation, having studied viticulture and oenology at Geisenheim university and having worked in wineries in Burgundy, Alsace, Spain, South Africa and other top addresses in Germany. His 2022 Spätburgunders are particularly youthful, yet clearly very promising.

Advertisement

Sebastian Fürst also displays the environmental awareness of his generation, a phenomenon vigorously promoted within the VDP by Johannes Hasselbach, who worked in finance before coming back to his family’s Gunderloch estate in Rheinhessen. On his watch there seems to be new energy and polish to the wines from their famous vineyards on the Rhine.

Like so many of his contemporaries, Hasselbach treasures the flavours that result from the yeasts naturally present in the vineyard and winery above those that result from specially cultured yeasts that have been bought in.

Jan Eymael came back to Weingut Pfeffingen in the Pfalz from interning at Château Smith Haut Lafitte in Bordeaux with his wife, Karin, and realised he really liked the smell of their blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon in the fermentation vat. As a result he developed a new, much more opulent style for the white they make from their mature Scheurebe vines.

As a result of all these outside influences, German wine may be more varied than it was in the 1970s sugar-water era, but it is so much better.

Favourite recent releases of wines tasted in Mainz

In the UK, Howard Ripley will be offering wines shown in Mainz next month. The Germans see 1Gs as their Premiers Crus and GGs as their Grands Crus.

Advertisement

Rieslings

  • Peter Lauer, Ayler Kupp Auslese #10 2023 Mosel (7.8%)

  • Maximin Grünhauser, Abtsberg Spätlese 2023 Mosel (7.5%)

  • Fritz Haag, Brauneberger Juffer Kabinett 2023 Mosel (8%)

  • Dr Bürklin-Wolf, Wachenheimer Böhlig 1G 2023 Pfalz (12.5%)

  • Dr Bürklin-Wolf, Wachenheimer Rechbächel 1G 2023 Pfalz (12.5%)

Reds

  • Meyer-Näkel, Dernauer Blauschiefer Spätburgunder 2022 Ahr (13%)

  • A Christmann, Königsbacher Ölberg Spätburgunder 1G 2022 Pfalz (13%)

  • Jean Stodden, Recher Herrenberg Frühburgunder GG 2021 Ahr (12.5%)

  • Jean Stodden, Bad Neuenahrer Sonnenberg Spätburgunder GG 2021 Ahr (13%)

  • Dr Heger, Achkarrer Schlossberg Spätburgunder GG 2020 (13.5%)

Tasting notes, scores and suggested drink dates on Purple Pages of JancisRobinson.com. International stockists on Wine-searcher.com

Follow @FTMag to find out about our latest stories first and subscribe to our podcast Life and Art wherever you listen

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

News

Trump Says Israel and Lebanon Agree to Extend Cease-Fire by Three Weeks

Published

on

Trump Says Israel and Lebanon Agree to Extend Cease-Fire by Three Weeks

President Trump announced a three-week extension of a cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon that had been set to expire in a few days, after hosting a meeting between Israeli and Lebanese diplomats at the White House on Thursday.

Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group that has been attacking Israel from southern Lebanon, did not have representatives at the meeting and did not immediately comment on the announcement. The prime minister of Israel and the president of Lebanon also did not comment.

A successful peace agreement would hinge upon Hezbollah halting attacks, which Lebanon’s government has little power to enforce because it does not control the militia. Lebanon’s military has mostly stayed out of the fighting and is not at war with Israel.

The cease-fire, which was scheduled to end on April 26, would last until May 17 if it takes effect as Mr. Trump described it. Before the cease-fire was brokered last week, nearly 2,300 people were killed in Lebanon and 13 in Israel. Since then, the number of Israeli airstrikes and Hezbollah attacks have been dramatically reduced, though the two sides have continued exchanging fire.

The Lebanese Ambassador to the United States, Nada Hamadeh, credited Mr. Trump for extending the cease-fire, saying that “with your help and support, we can make Lebanon great again.” Mr. Trump replied, “I like that phrase, it’s a good phrase.”

Advertisement

Asked about the potential of a lasting peace agreement between Israel and Lebanon, Mr. Trump said that “I think there’s a great chance. They are friends about the same things and they are enemies on the same things.”

But Lebanon and Israel have periodically been at war since Israel’s founding in 1948. Israel has invaded Lebanon for the fifth time since 1978, incursions that have destabilized the country and the delicate balance of power between Muslim, Christian and Druze communities.

In the hours before the president’s announcement on social media, Israel and Hezbollah were trading attacks in southern Lebanon, testing the existing cease-fire.

Mr. Trump said the meeting at the White House had been attended by high-ranking U.S. officials, including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the U.S. ambassadors to Israel and Lebanon.

Earlier on Thursday, an Israeli strike near the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh killed three people, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. Hezbollah claimed three separate attacks on Israeli troops who are occupying southern Lebanon, though none were wounded or killed.

Advertisement

Hezbollah set off the latest round of fighting last month by attacking Israel soon after the start of the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign in Iran. Israel responded to Hezbollah’s attacks by launching airstrikes across Lebanon and widening a ground invasion of the country’s south.

Continue Reading

News

U.S. soldier charged with suspected Polymarket insider trading over Maduro raid

Published

on

U.S. soldier charged with suspected Polymarket insider trading over Maduro raid

Smoke rises from Port of La Guaira in Venezuela on Jan. 3, 2026 after U.S. forces seized the country’s president, Nicolas Maduro and his wife.

Jesus Vargas/Getty Images


hide caption

toggle caption

Advertisement

Jesus Vargas/Getty Images

Federal prosecutors on Thursday unsealed an indictment against a U.S. Army soldier, accusing him of using his insider knowledge of the clandestine military operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January to reap more than $400,000 in profits on the popular prediction market site Polymarket.

The Justice Department says Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, who was stationed at Fort Bragg, in North Carolina, was part of the team that planned and carried out the predawn raid in Caracas earlier this year that resulted in the apprehension of Maduro.

The Department of Justice and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed the actions against Van Dyke, the first time U.S. officials have leveled criminal charges against someone over prediction market wagers.

Advertisement

According to the indictment, Van Dyke now faces counts of wire fraud, commodities fraud, misusing non-public government information and other charges.

Trading under numerous usernames including “Burdensome-Mix,” Van Dyke allegedly traded about $32,000 on the arrest of Maduro, resulting in profits exceeding $400,000.

“Prediction markets are not a haven for using misappropriated confidential or classified information for personal gain,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton for the Southern District of New York. “Those entrusted to safeguard our nation’s secrets have a duty to protect them and our armed service members, and not to use that information for personal financial gain.”

Van Dyke’s defense lawyer is not yet publicly known. Polymarket did not return a request for comment.

The charges against Van Dyke come at a sensitive time for the prediction market industry, which has been growing exponentially, despite calls in Washington and among state leaders for the sites to be reined in.

Advertisement

Van Dyke is the first to be charged in the U.S. for suspected Polymarket insider trading, but Israeli authorities in February arrested several people and charged two on suspicion of using classified information to place bets about military operations in Iran on Polymarket.

Continue Reading

News

Senate Adopts GOP Budget, Laying the Groundwork to Fund ICE and Reopen DHS

Published

on

Senate Adopts GOP Budget, Laying the Groundwork to Fund ICE and Reopen DHS

The Senate early Thursday morning adopted a Republican budget blueprint that would pave the way for a $70 billion increase for immigration enforcement and the eventual reopening of the Department of Homeland Security.

Republicans pushed through the plan on a nearly party-line vote of 50 to 48. It came after an overnight marathon of rapid-fire votes, known as a vote-a-rama, in which the G.O.P. beat back a series of Democratic proposals aimed at addressing the high cost of health care, housing, food and energy. The debate put the two parties’ dueling messages on vivid display six months before the midterm elections.

Republicans, who are using the budget plan to lay the groundwork to eventually push through a filibuster-proof bill providing a multiyear funding stream for President Trump’s immigration crackdown, used the all-night session to highlight their hard-line stance on border security, seeking to portray Democrats as unwilling to safeguard the country.

Democrats tried and failed to add a series of changes aimed at addressing cost-of-living issues, seizing the opportunity to hammer Republicans as out of touch with and unwilling to act on the concerns of everyday Americans.

Here’s what to know about the budget plan and the nocturnal ritual senators engaged in before adopting it.

Advertisement

The budget blueprint is a crucial piece of Republicans’ plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security and end a shutdown that has lasted for more than two months. After Democrats refused to fund immigration enforcement without new restrictions on agents’ tactics and conduct, the G.O.P. struck a deal with them to pass a spending bill that would fund everything but ICE and the Border Patrol. Republicans said they would fund those agencies through a special budget bill that Democrats could not block.

“We can fix this with Republican votes, and we will,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and the Budget Committee chairman. “Every Democrat has opposed money for the Border Patrol and ICE at a time of great peril.”

In resorting to a new budget blueprint, Republicans laid the groundwork to deny Democrats a chance to stop the immigration enforcement funding. But they also submitted themselves to a vote-a-rama, in which any senator can propose unlimited changes to such a measure before it is adopted.

The budget measure now goes to the House, which must adopt it before lawmakers in both chambers can draft the legislation funding immigration enforcement. That bill will provide yet another opportunity for a vote-a-rama even closer to the November election.

Democrats took to the floor to criticize Republicans for supercharging funding for federal immigration enforcement rather than moving legislation that would address Americans’ concerns over affordability.

Advertisement

“This is what Republicans are fighting for,” said Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the Democratic leader. “To maintain two unchecked rogue agencies that are dreaded in all corners of this country instead of reducing your health care costs, your housing costs, your grocery costs, your gas costs.”

Democrats offered a host of amendments along those lines, all of which were defeated by Republicans — and that was the point. The proposals were meant to put the G.O.P. in a tough political spot, showcasing their opposition to helping Americans afford high living costs. Fewer than a handful of G.O.P. senators crossed party lines to support them.

The G.O.P. thwarted an effort by Mr. Schumer to require that the budget measure lower out-of-pocket health care costs for Americans. Two Republicans who are up for re-election this year, Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, voted with Democrats, but the proposal was still defeated.

Republicans also squelched a move by Senator Ben Ray Lujan, Democrat of New Mexico, to create a fund that would lower grocery costs and reverse cuts to food aid programs that Republicans enacted last year. Ms. Collins and Mr. Sullivan again joined Democrats.

Also defeated by the G.O.P.: a proposal by Senator John Hickenlooper, Democrat of Colorado, to address rising consumer prices brought on by Mr. Trump’s tariffs and the war in Iran; one by Senator Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, to require the budget measure to address rising electricity prices, and another by Mr. Markey to create a fund to bring down housing costs.

Advertisement

Senator Jon Ossoff, a Democrat who is up for re-election in Georgia, also sought to add language requiring the budget plan to address health insurance companies denying or delaying access to care, but that, too was blocked by Republicans.

While Republicans had fewer proposals for changes to their own budget plan, they also sought to offer measures that would underscore their aggressive stance on immigration enforcement and dare Democrats to vote against them.

Mr. Graham offered an amendment to allocate funds toward a deficit-neutral reserve fund relating to the apprehension and deportation of adult immigrants convicted of rape, murder, or sexual abuse of a minor after illegally entering the United States. It passed unanimously.

Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, sought to bar Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood, which provides abortion and other services, and criticized the organization for providing transgender care to minors. Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, also attempted to tack on the G.O.P. voter identification bill, known as the SAVE America Act. Both proposals were blocked when Democrats, joined by a few Republicans, voted to strike them as unrelated to the budget plan.

The Republicans who crossed party lines to oppose their own party’s proposals for new voting requirements were Ms. Collins along with Senators Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.

Advertisement

Ms. Collins and Ms. Murkowski also opposed the effort to block payments to Planned Parenthood.

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending