Riesling, Piesporter, Michelsbrg, Germany

Reisling is a grape varietal. Piesport is a town in Germany, so wine from there is Piesporter. Michelsberg is a region. You really need a vintner name. Also, you need to know if what you were drinking was Qualitatswein, Spatlese, Auslese, or other.

Sounds like you had some nice, but pretty generic Mosel-Saar-Ruwer wine. Watch for year and maker to really nail it down.

Ed Rasimus Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret) "When Thunder Rolled" Smithsonian Institution Press ISBN #1-58834-103-8

I've seen it in many places including Bev+more and high end food stores like Bel-air. However it is not held in high regard, usually seen with Zeller-Schwarz-Katz and Liebfraumilch on the shelf. Try looking for Piesporter Goldtropfchen or Domherr on the Net, more expensive but worth it. My copy of Hugh Johnson's Pocket Encyclopedia of Wine mentions that Michelsberg is mostly Muller-Thurgau and should be avoided. Rhinehold Haart makes very good if pricey wine.

Quite correct. To be exact: Michelsberg is the generic name for 35 vineyards of 6-7 villages including Piesport. The wine in your bottle could be a mix of anything, even up to 20% from other sources... The quality factor to look for is the designation for ripeness: Kabinett, Spatlese, Auslese, Beerenauslese or Trockenbeerenauslese in rising order (of sweetness). The next is grape variety: Riesling and almost nothing else (beware of bottles without a grape variety... :-) The next is vintner - very important. And then vineyard: Anything Piesporter which is not Michelsberg is better... (that will then be a single vineyard wine) Anders

Piesporter Rieslings (Mosel Saar Ruwer) can be very inexpensive. I'm sure there are premium producers, but the stuff I buy - Zimmermann Graeff, J. Kohl - is pretty cheap ($6-7 US). A little too sweet for my taste, but lots of "just plain folks" love it.

Dick