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Pacific Rim had the great honor to represent North American Riesling at the Riesling Fellowship event hosted at the German Embassy in London this week. We were the only North American winery to attend along with some of the greatest German Riesling producers (Georg Breuer, Wittmann, Rebholz, Loosen, Selbach-Oster, Egon Muller, JJ Prum, Robert Weil, Donnhoff) and along a few other producers from select countries (Rabl for Austria, Trimbach for Alsace, Pewsey Vale for Australia, Conor Sur for South America, Pegasus Bay for New Zealand). The attendance was very small (55 attendees) and quite impressive (head of wineries attending, press, sommelier, embassy guests…). The event was very organized (you are at the German embassy after all, what should you expect?) with a tasting, a talk about global warming and its impact on Riesling and a dinner.

The tasting was very interesting with 32 wines (we brought along our Wallula Vineyard and Wallula Vineyard Biodynamic). The wines that resonated the most to me that evening were:

• 2003 Cono Sur Vision Bio Bio Valley (Chile) - My first Chilean Riesling, and very very delicious
• 2007 Terra Montosa, Weingut Georg Breuer (Rheingau) - Very nice dryish style
• 2007 Auslese Zeltinger Schlossberg, Weingut Selbach Oster (Mosel) - Zingy and young
• 1997 Spatlese, Kiedrich Grafenberg, Weingut Robert Weil (Rheingau) - Sweet, acid, aged, one of the best wines that night
• 1997 Auslese. Erdener Treppchen, Weingut Dr Loosen (Mosel) - Sl Botrytis, aristocratic, nice
• 1997 Auslese Goldkapsel, Scharzerhof, Weingut Egon Muller (Mosel) - Stole the show, amazing wine

Our wines fared very very well in this company and I had several people come to me to congratulate us on our wines.

After the tasting, we went through a good presentation from Professor Schultz (University of Geisenheim). Seems like the Germans are quite happy about global warming as it is making their wines superb every year. Sounds also like we need to buy some land in Southern England and in Canada folks…

Dinner was very polite with a few speeches. I really loved the voice of the German Ambassador (Herr Boomgaarden, what a great name for an ambassador!) as it was contrasting perfectly with the delicate Riesling we had with dinner. Talking about dinner, can someone give me the recipe for this insane crepinette of veal with tarragon and mushroom? I could not stop eating that dish and had three servings (I stopped because I thought I was getting a bit overboard…). Best of all, the choice of beer or coffee after dinner - very very civilized (I took the beer of course).

Thank you Wines of Germany and the wine institute and of course Herr and Frau Boomgaarden for the evening. It was quite special.

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I had time today to swing by the British Museum in London to pay respect to the famous print from Sensei Okusai and one of its most famous piece: “In The Hollow of a Wave off the Coast at Kanagawa“ , a part of his great “36 views of Mount FuJi (I guess he had somewhat of an obsession with the divine volcano). Below are the pictures I took from the piece:

Like many before us, this extraordinary work of art has always been an inspiration for our team and this is why we display our interpretation of it as a tribute on our Chenin Blanc label - Of course on the label Mount Fuji is erupting with a cloud of cherry blossom. We have also used the beautiful wave pattern to create a cameo on our single vineyard package to illustrate the power of the Missoula floods

If you want to know more about the art on our labels, I invite you to browse through our site. You can follow the link to look at the Chenin Blanc.

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If you happen to be looking for a great gastronomique stop in London, I invite you to go to the Ambassade de l’Ile in Kensington. The restaurant is the sister of l’Auberge de l’Ile in Lyon (hence the connection with me since this is where I was born). The place is very nice and the food was top notch for the price. Count on spending some money still (may be 100 pounds/person) but really the food is worth every penny of it.

Link to the web site of L’Ambassade de l’ile: http://www.aubergedelile.com/

With Riesling’s explosion onto the wine scene, this hedonistic but intellectual wine is getting a boost from a timely, concise and extremely comprehensive guide: “Riesling Rules.”

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The San Francisco Chronicle reviews the 2006 Pacific Rim Dry Riesling, 2007 Pacific Rim Wallula VIneyard Riesling Biodynamic and the 2007 Pacific Rim Sweet Riesling.

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