From: Pfalz, Germany
Varietal: Riesling
Taste: The 2022 Brand Riesling Trocken presents a floral and citrus aroma with hints of stone fruits, green apples, and herbal nuances. In the glass, expect vibrant peach and citric fruit notes. Its palate offers a refreshing citrus punch, leading to a crisp, floral experience that culminates in a dry, balanced, and clean finish. This wine's elegant and fruity character, combined with its great acidity, provides a balanced, captivating, and refreshing structure. The fact that it's available in a liter bottle adds to its outstanding value.
Pairing: Enjoy it with a roast pork sandwich accompanied by fried potatoes or with sushi delicacies. It's an excellent match for antipasti, egg dishes like quiche, and seafood including oysters, crab, and clams (check out the recipe below). The wine shines when paired with dishes rich in onions, butter, and bacon, accentuating the flavors of fatty and salty foods such as goose, roasted pork, and fried chicken. It also complements Mexican, Thai, and Chinese cuisine, even the non-spicy variants. For pizza aficionados, Flammekueche or tarte flambée, laden with crème fraîche, onions, bacon, and sometimes potatoes, is an excellent choice. Additionally, Riesling pairs well with sausages, sauerkraut, and even hotdogs. Reflecting its origin, it harmonizes with foods from the Pfalz, highlighting potatoes, onions, leeks, sauerkraut, and a variety of wursts primarily made of pork.
Fragrant Thai-Style Clams in Coconut Broth
By David Tanis
About. “The brothers Brand, Daniel and Jonas, have quickly brought attention to the far northern Pfalz, this cool-climate, limestone-rich, yet otherwise overlooked region. The “famous” Pfalz, the Mittelhaardt region, is a good 45-minutes south. Here, however, in the north, in the Brand brother’s village of Bockenheim, well, things are a bit quieter; the historic and gilded estates of the south, with their tended gardens and bustling tourism, give way to a quieter, more gritty, working agricultural feel in the north. For the Brand’s wines, well, first there are the liters – these are the wines that immediately made both John and I look at each other with eyebrows a-raised, sharing that look of delight when something stands apart because of its internal, brightness, purity and zzziiiinnnnng. They still fascinate and delight; there are few better deals in wine.” — Vom Boden
Founded in 1891, the Brand winery has been producing wine in the Pfalz for five generations. Their vineyards are located on limestone-rich soils around the village of Bockenheim, in the northern part of the region, along the border of the Rheinhessen. Daniel and Jonas' father, Jürgen, always farmed their vines responsibly, but when his children took over, they immediately transitioned to organic viticulture, gaining certification in 2017.
The Brothers Brand also utilize biodynamic treatments, always experimenting to discover which practices work best in their vines. All of their wines are made with little, if any, added sulfites. They grow Riesling, Weissburgunder, Müller-Thurgau, Silvaner and Chardonnay for white wines, and Pinot Noir, Dornfelder, Portugieser, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Mitos for the reds. From these grapes, Daniel and Jonas also make a range of Pet-Nat and zero-sulfur-added wines.
The Brand brother's Riesling Trocken is from the estate's young vines grown on soils of limestone, loess and loam around the village of Bockenheimer.
