German Wine; Magnum

Dec 05, 2004 22 Replies

I found some other bottle sizes in the Containers and Measures section of Lichine's Encyclopedia, 3'rd ed., 1981.

Alsace: 360 and 720 ml; Beaujolais: 'Pot' 500 ml; Bordeaux: Marie-Jeanne - 2.50 L; Port: Tappit Hen - 2.27 L; Sherry: 378.6, 757.5 ml; U.S.: tenth - 378.6 ml; U.S.: fifth - 757.2 ml; U.S.: magnum - 1.51 L

Lichine gives the following note:

"NOTE: Basic metric capacities, and in some cases ounces, upon which most figures in this table are based, are those fixed by law. Actual contents will almost always vary because of differences in corking space."

Lichine also gives both U.S. and British ounces in this table as well as both U.S. and British volumes in gallon-quart-pint-ounce format.

The word ounce may cause some confusion for those who have only used metric measures. First, there are ounces used to measure weight and fluid ounces to measure volume. Then there are both U.S. and British versions of each of these that are somewhat different.

The two German wines offered in 500 ml format that I mentioned are:

Forster Kirchensück Riesling Auslese 2002, Eugen Müller - 500 ml.

Rüdesheimer Burg Rottland Riesling Auslese 2002, Josef Leitz.

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While my experience with aged Rieslings in minimal, I have enjoyed several 10+ year old Kabinett and Spatlese wines. I am still learning abotu what I like, but I wouldnt have thought twice about putting one down for a decade before touching it.

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Prices have not risen for 2003 Spätlese/Auslese qualities from these "garden" wineries (and you find some very good ones at this level) Going price for good Auslese will be 10-20 Euros, Spätleses 6-15Euros.

When you talk of 10 years storage - that is for sweet wine. Trocken almost never goes beyond 3-5 years, halbtrocken 5-8 years at the most.

10 years for a good Spätlese is quite feasible and certainly so for an Auslese, but beware: The wine changes - and if you love the wonderful fruity floral honeyed sweetness with zippy acidity you'll be disappointed over a 10 year old one. Petrol, gasoline, mango, lichees may not be to your liking... especially when most of the lively acid is gone :-) There certainly is a limit, I've had a 37 year old Mosel that was D.O.A - more dead than a dodo. Others from minor vintners have been definitely unimpressive at 10 or 15 years of age. But, that may just be me... Anders

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