DO YOU SPEAK GERMAN?

Few days ago I went to Munich.

I knew that Bavaria was not a wine producing area but I was expecting to taste some great and somehow underrated German wines.

I tried learning German at school, but never managed to get into it.

Learning about wines, I found the German wines classification even more blur that the language.

First we have the table wines divided into:

·      Deutscher tafelwein= this is the lowest qualification. The wine must come from one of the four designated regions

·      Landwein= equivalent of French “vin de pays”, there are 17 specified areas of productions. The wines must be dry or semi sweet.

But it gets more complicated for the quality wines.

·      Qualitatswein bestimmter anbaugebeit (QbA)= wines generally undergo chaptalisation[i] coming from one of the 13 anbaugebiete (designated quality region)

·      Qualitatswein mit Pradikat (QmP) = Wine with special attributes. The grapes must come from a single anbaugebeit and from a single bereich (a district within a quality region consisting in several communes).

These wines are also classified according to their styles:

o  Kabinett= most delicate and crisp wines

o  Spatlese= “late harvest”; little sweetness and more body than the previous

o  Auslese= wine made from individually selected extra-ripe bunches of grapes

o  Beerenauslese= rare and expensive wines made from individually selected grapes ideally suffering from noble rot[ii]

o  Eiswein= “ice wines”; grapes picked frozen so the water is removed during pressing leaving an hyper sweet juice for fermentation

o  Trockenbeerenauslese= wine produce in minute quantities only on the finest vintage from grapes so affected by noble rot that they have shrivelled to tiny raisins.

Landing in the city of Oktoberfest with a massive headache after revising my knowledge of German wines (as tiny as a grapes picked to produce a trockenbeerenauslese wine) i didn’t expect regretting travelling without painkiller as my headache became worst in front of the underground ticket machine.

The classification of the tickets is as complex as the classification of the wines.

Single tickets cost 2.20 euros for zone 1; 4.40 for zone 2; 6.60 for zone 3; 8.80 for zone 4.

So far, I got it. But it becomes confusing next.

Steifenkarte (strip card) is divided into 10 sections; you will need to stamp 2 sections per zones you travel trough.

Only one section need to be stamped for children aged 6-14 for any distance

15 to 20 years old stamp only one section per zone.

Kurztrecke ticket should be use for short journey (up to 4 stops) or alternatively you can stamp one section of the Steifenkarte.

One day tickets Tageskarte or 3 days  (3-tageskarte) are available in 2 forms: for a single person or for a group up to five people. Nevertheless 2 children aged 6 to 14 counts for 1 person.

Weekly or monthly Isacard allow any number of the holder’s children plus three other children to travel free.

Children under age of 6 travel free. You are entitled to carry one dog free of charge and a child fare must be paid for any other dog.

But this does not apply for animals in basket or carriers.

Should I carry on?

I spent 40 minutes in front of the machine trying to figure out which tickets was the best for me and dreaming about my first glass of the finest German Riesling.

I was disappointed to find out that in Munich all the place where I have been were selling only bad landswein or Italian and French wines.

Munich is definitely a beer city.

They have a lot of “beer garden”, sort of pub with impressive beer lists.

Well, so beer it was all along these days.

Anyway, I had a lovely time, met lovely people in a lovely city (the architecture is mixed: you can find building in the classic, gothic and baroque style) nothing to regret, or maybe one thing: Everyone speaks English!

For me trying to speak the language aboard (at least the basic: hello, thank you, I don’t speak German, goodbye…) is a mark of respect and part of the trip.

But everyone was straight away speaking in English to me!

Convenient I must admit but disappointed once again.

So, do you speak German? Because I definitely don’t!

Michael Monte

Sommelier

The star and garter

www.facebook.com/starandgarterwinetastings

[i]Addition of sugar to grape must during fermentation to increase the alcohol content of the final wine

[ii]A parasitic fungus (Botrytis cinerea) that attacks ripe grapes and causes an increase in their sugar content. Certain wines, such as the French Sauternes and the Hungarian Tokay, are produced from such grapes.