Wine: Klenert Cuvée Weiß

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This is the third wine in the online wine tasting with David Klenert. The wine's name translates simply as White Cuvée, which is admittedly a very generic title. For those who don't know, a cuvée (the same word in German and English) is a wine that's made from a mix of different types of grapes. Maybe the word is uncommon in English, because it's the default. What I mean is, there's no legal requirement for a wine to be declared as a cuvée. Most French wines are cuvées, but they're not declared as such. Most German wines are made from single grapes, so the exceptions are clearly marked.

In Germany there's prejudice against cuvées. There's also prejudice against French wines, which is no coincidence. It's thought that the leftover grapes are thrown into a vat and the random resulting mixture is called a cuvée. Maybe that's how amateur vintners work, i.e. a farmer who has a few dozen grapevines and makes wine for himself, but a serious vintner like David Klenert does it differently. He creates the cuvée at the beginning of the year's wine production, not the end. He has a vision of what his cuvée should taste like, so he mixes the grapes accordingly, paying attention to the strengths and weaknesses of individual grapes. His goal was to make a wine that's "leicht, frisch, früchtig, süffig" (light, fresh, fruity and pleasant).

He's succeeded in his goal with this year's cuvée, which is a mixture of Riesling, Grauburgunder and Scheurebe. What he's created is a wine that, in my opinion, has a typical Baden taste. It's a pleasant wine, fruitier than the Riesling. It's not a wine that I would choose to drink if there are Württemberg wines available.

One thing I'd like to emphasise is that there's no consistency with cuvées. This year's cuvée might taste completely different to last year's cuvée, depending on the whim of the vintner.