A number of years ago I discussed a fantastic wine exploration– Coenobium, a natural white made by Cistercian nuns in Laslo, Italy. I made use of to see it in red wine stores sometimes (and also grab it when I did), primarily in San Francisco, as soon as at Corti Brothers in Cavity. Apparently it acquired great deals of fans for many years– it got a lot more costly as well as also more challenging to discover. I miss it.
Concerning 750 years back, another team of wine-loving Cistercian nuns saw their mom monastery in Burgundy. The religious women took cuttings from the vines there as well as returned with them to their very own abbey, in what is currently the Baden region of Germany. Today, the old abbey has become Nägelsförst Estate, famous for its rieslings. Creeping plants still expand in the granite as well as volcanic dirt on the really forested hilltop where the religious women grown. Their contemporary sis still live close by.
At Vintage Berkeley I discovered a bottle of the 2016 Nägelsförst village-level (one action up from the estate level) Baden Riesling, which the folks at Vintage Berkeley state is the gewurztraminer their own staff members acquired one of the most of in 2015. And they’re in good company– A glass of wine Lover made it an “Editor’s Choice” and also provided it 92 points, and it’s your house red wine of the superb importer Rudi Wiest. I determined why at the very initial sip.
Though totally dry, this riesling just bursts onto the taste with brilliant citrus and serious minerals. Lemon on the (actual) rocks. We consumed it with sauteed greens (from Fiddlers Green), fresh baked sourdough, sardines, and a salad of cucumbers, red onion and also fresh tomatoes (all from Lloyd’s Produce). Various cheeses, as well. I worried that the strong bitter environment-friendlies would certainly overwhelm the red wine, however that pure, fresh, delicious fruit-and-mineral just maintained insisting itself, albeit somewhat in different ways with every sip– and also every bite. I desire extra. If you do not think you like riesling, try this appeal; at $19 a container it’s an incredible value.
A number of centuries before that nun-filled road trip to Wine red, a group of Cistercian monks established the Zwettl abbey in the Kamptal area of Austria. The monks grew wineries promptly, wineries that have actually been worked constantly because. Over the centuries, the monks took care of the operation themselves, yet in 1995 they gave it over to Eva and also Michael Moosbrugger, though the monks still take part in the project.
Under the Moosbruggers’ assistance, the estate, Schloss Göbelsburg, with its ancient and immaculate wineries, has come to be a leader in the area and also gathered lots of honors, including, in 2019, incorporation in A glass of wine & & State of minds’ top 100 vineyards in the world. Michael has, several times, been called Wine maker of the Year.
Göbelsburg Cistercien Rosé is a big fave of Amy Grabish (as in The Pip White Wine Bar in Dixon). And it is certainly a best rosé for the season– dry, of course, with sharp strawberry and also lemon notes. A sophisticated and minerally mix of three Kamptal grapes– zwiegelt, pinot noir, and Sankt Laurent– it’s lively and also eminently food-friendly. It’s a true friend to all the wonderful vegetables at the farmers market right now (and with the training of Covid restrictions, we can once more pick out our own.)
Having actually much appreciated two suppers gone along with by this rosé, I was delighted to see the Cistercien Grüner Veltlinger on the Co-op racks. As well as I chose it warranted an unique supper. I seared an item of fresh wild-caught king salmon and also served it with a chilly farro-and-vegetable salad. Perfect.
Lush pear and also lemon dominate below, but there are charming natural notes, as well, and a touch of salt to make it even more interesting– as well as fish-friendly. “Well,” I said when we finished the last declines,” I believe that’s the most effective grüner I have actually ever had.” White wine Lover seems to concur with me– they provided it 91 points.
Grüner veltlinger, incidentally, is, like the grapes in the rosé, native to Austria, their most widely planted white. I’ve had a lot of mediocre ones and a number of exceptional ones (like the Biokult, also at the Co-op), however this is one of the most elegant as well as layered of them.
So, what’s with Cistercians? An offshoot– or reform– of the Benedictine order, Cistercians began in 1098. Disturbed by the enhancing wide range as well as laxity of the Benedictines, they broke short, swearing to live simply as well as lightly upon the land. There are numerous Cistercian abbeys in the UNITED STATE, a number of in The golden state, including the wine-making New Clairvaux in Tehama Area, which I have actually covered previously.
The Zwettl monks– and I make sure these other monks and also religious women as well– see themselves as making “unadorned,” terroir-driven white wines in the spirit of simplicity supported by their founder, Bernard de Clairveaux. While I’m a thoroughly expired Catholic, I continue to really feel a kinship with the Cistercians for the simplicity of their lives and for their long background having a tendency wineries as well as delighting in the fruits thereof.
“Qui bon vin boit, Dieu voit” is an old Cistercian stating that embodies my very own a glass of wine approach. That consumes alcohol great red wine, sees God. Not literally, of course, unless you consume alcohol quite a great deal of it, but definitely the pleasure as well as fellowship of sharing a great container provides us a look of The Divine.
— Susana Leonardi is a Davis resident; reach her at [email protected] Talk about this column at www.davisenterprise.com.