This week we are talking about German Sekt. Sekt means sparkling wine in German and in our opinion you can never have too much Sekt in your life. As you know we love all sparkling wine, but Sekt is not the easiest to find. This is because Germans love their sparkling wine, so much that the annual (German) per capita consumption of about five liters (of sparkling wine) is the highest in the world. Most Sekt doesn’t leave the country; in fact as of 2011, of the 420 million liters of Sekt that was produced, Germans drank nearly 80% of it – this translates to almost 450 million bottles! Even with it’s short supply outside Germany, you can still find some fine examples that express their varietal and place.
In this week’s episode we discuss:
- Scope of Sekt wine and it’s production
- The rise of Sekt in Germany
- How to pick out a quality bottle of Sekt
- major grapes and flavors
- Pfalz wine region in Germany
The remains of our tasty wine recommendation for this week’s episode!
Wine Recommendations
Darting Weissburgunder Brut 2013 – priced around $28. This is made in the traditional method and you could tell because it was just slightly bready. This wine gave us a nose of apple, minerals and stone fruit and had fairly high acidity and a medium-light body. It’s fruit-forward; with flavors of apricot, unripe green pear, and golden apple. With the acidity, it’s tart up front and fades to a really pleasant round finish. We really loved the way each sip evolves on your palate! Not the most complex sparkler, but certainly enough to be enjoyable.
Von Buhl Riesling Brut 2013 – priced around $40. This wine is made from Riesling but doesn’t smell like Riesling with a light nose of sweet apples and bread. Almost high acidity but lighter in body with flavors of toast, green apple, pear and a bit floral so it’s delicious and tasty in fact we are bummed that we only brought one bottle. A little pricey but thought it was unique and worth the price (we have a hard time finding a champagne we like in this price point)
You can purchase this wine here
Sources:
- Wikipedia on sparkling wine
- Truly Fine Wine on Pfalz
- Wikipedia on Pfalz
- Germanwines.de on sparkling wines
- 10 Things you Need to Know about German Sekt
- Article on the Charmat method
We hope this episode has given you knowledge and confidence to pick up a bottle of sekt for your next special occasion or wine Wednesday! Have you tried Sekt before? Let us know your recommendations below in the comments or via social media. Cheers!