I have no idea why people don't love re-sling, especially German re-sling as much as I do. So refreshing. Hello, hello, hello, hello, welcome back to Exotic Wine Travel, the show that helps you drink adventurously so you can expand your palate and expand your mind. I am your host, Matthew Horkey. It's a hot summer day here in Dalmatia Croatia. But what a better way to chill yourself, down, refresh yourself than a glass of well-made re-sling, a great that I love very much, but I just don't understand what people don't love it as much as I do. There are a lot of real obvious reasons that we're going to get into all that, but last year we spent two months in Germany, which is visiting producers, tasting wines, got to taste some of the wines from some of the greatest German producers, got to see all the vineyards from a lot of the wine regions, and it was a magical trip. You know, I don't understand if you want small production, tradition, beautiful vineyards, re-sling, especially German re-sling has all of that. You know, when I think of steep slope vineyards a lot of the times I think of Italy, hillside vineyards in Italy, but in Germany, since it's a little bit of a cooler climate, all the vineyard sites have to be precisely positioned, and some of these vineyards are incredibly steep. I remember walking up some of them and just losing my breath everywhere from, and don't just think of the mosa, which has super steep vineyards. Their steep vineyards in the Rhine Hessen, Wartemburg, the Naha has really, really steep slopes as well, and also the Rhine Gell. Re-slinges are refreshing, high-ass grape that can be found, you know, planted many different parts of the world. And the other countries that you think of when you associate re-sling, you associate with re-slinges, Germany, of course, Austria, you think of also a little bit in South Africa, Australia, and Washington State in the USA. But that's planted really all over the world, including this producer I found recently. This is a Czech re-sling from Moravia, Donutus, re-sling 2019. You know, a funny story about this re-sling. This re-sling helped to meet break some preconceptions of people, people. These producers were actually, the owners of this vineyard were actually on holiday in Croatia, and they messaged me and wanted to meet up, see if I wanted to taste their wine. And it's so funny, a few days earlier, some Croatian people were complaining, saying, you know, people from Central Eastern Europe, they're coming here to Croatia, they're packing their car with food, their own wines from different countries. They don't want to try local stuff. And I was thinking, why are they bringing their own wines to enjoy, why are they bringing them into a wine country? When I met them, they were the nicest people. And they told me, oh, we just brought these re-slings along, our own wine to give us a gift, but we haven't even opened a wine yet. We're too busy exploring all the local wines, visiting all local producers. That's why you've got to get past preconceptions. So this is often considered, especially by critics, as the king of wine grapes, the greatest grape in the world. But why don't people enjoy it? There are a couple of reasons. I don't like re-sling because I don't like sweet wines. Yes, there are plenty of sweet re-slings available on the market. However, we're thinking, you know, blue-none, kind of bottom shelf, real low end table wines. If you're watching the show, you're drinking some finer wines, some better wines. Most of the top-quality producers in Germany know it's difficult to sell sweet re-sling. It's difficult to make great sweet re-sling. And most of the production is centered on dry re-sling. On a side note, some of the sweet re-slings, the re-slings with terms that are confusing for people, oh, slicey, spat-lasey, baranoshlasey, truckin' baranoshlasey. Ice wine, these sweet re-slings are some of the greatest wines in the world. So don't make this excuse. There are plenty of dry re-slings and they're incredibly exciting wines. Re-slings a bit too sour for me. This one is a valid point. To like dry re-sling, you have to be an acid freak. You know, sometimes acidity wines with too high acidity can be too sharp, too sour for people. And more kind of casual wine drinkers don't really like that. So I appreciate that. But people like me, you know, I was sucking on lemons, drinking lemonade as a kid. So that's why I'm probably hooked on dry re-sling. German wine labels are impossible to understand. This points valid to the labels are incredibly confusing. But luckily, luckily, the new system by the VDP, the VDP is a group of quality-minded producers. I think they're about up to 196 members. That group contains most of the best producers in Germany. I say most because there are a lot of good producers that are not in the VDP. Anyways, they organize their dry wines off the Burgundian system. So at the bottom, you're going to have Gutswine or just maybe the house wine, the house style. Next up, I forget about Orch's wine, which is a village level wine, if you're thinking about Burgundy. Next up is Urstelaga, premier crew, better vineyards, better fruit. And the top level is Grosyschevaks, which is Grand Crew wines. While collectors really love Grosyschevaks. And I think some of those wines are incredible and very age worthy. The best values are in the Urstelaga and the Orch's wine category. Like this baby from... I have this from Gute Hermannsburg. This is the Van Volk in 2019 from Schloss Beckerheim. So it's a Schloss Beckerheimer from Schloss Beckerheim. This is an Orch's wine from 2019. And the cool thing about the VDP, a lot of times you'll see Gutswine or Orch's wine as you can see it right here. I'll flash that up on the screen. A lot of times with great producers, this is just my opinion. You'll see similar flavors. But just as you go up the pyramid, you'll have more concentration, more structure, more length. Like some of the Grosyschevaks wines are designed to be aged. So what if I'm a drink right now? Head down to Urstelaga or Orch's wine. That's what I always do. So why is it that I actually love German reasling? You know, there's a big misconception about reasling should have petrol notes. And Germans see that as a fault, though petrol notes should come with age. A lot of times that's means that the grapes are sombre. So a lot of people are quite shocked when they taste fresh reaslings. They don't get petrol notes. Instead you get just amazing aromas of white flour, lemon, pineapple, white peach type notes. I always get a little bit of white pepper in them as well. These wines have incredible acidity, tension, length. It's like a bunch of electricity in your mouth. Ooh, I really like it. Good, good, good stuff. And if you're just getting into recently, especially German reasling here in Luck because the last three ventages 2017, 18 and 19 have all been outstanding ventages in Germany. So cheers to that. I hope you drink a little bit more reasling. As the weather stays warm, I sure as heck I'm going to be enjoying. Cheers. Hello, thanks for watching. Yeah, you made it to the end. Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel, click the bell so you know when new videos are out. If you like content like this, check out our Patreon page where you get some behind the scenes exclusive content. Thanks for watching. Cheers. Cheers.