FEINHERB: THE SUMMER ELIXIR TO STAVE AWAY THE HEAT
While the unending onslaught of German labelling terms can appear belabouring, there's a brilliance to the madness. If you look up a technical definition of feinherb, it will prove unrewarding. It might read "delicate sweetness", but this loose translation less than delicately abandons the beauty of the term. Feinherb is the kinky German safe word that helps the winemaker escape from their prison of legal labelling jargon. Unlike with Halbtrocken, which is legally defined by law as a wine with less than 18g/L of residual sugar, with Feinherb, the winemaker is entirely in a state of lawless artistic levity. Or in another sense, the winemaker can allow nature to make its own decisions about when to be done fermenting without regard to what the label needs to say. The term is akin to the cheeky English suffix -ish, as the wines are "Dry-ish". Occasionally the term may follow Kabinett or Spätlese in order to indicate they are slightly drier than one might expect for the style, or Spätlese-ish.
Enter Wiesler-Künstler, or Wei-Kü as the trade lovingly calls them, an estate that has revived the historic Grand Cru sites of Traben-Trarbach. This is downriver from the famous sites of Urzig, Zeltingen, Graach, etc. We could tell you that this is the next Willi Schaefer, but I am afraid that ship has sailed. The wines are already very difficult to get any quantity on. What I can tell you is that this delicate, beautiful citrus blossom Riesling Feinherb from Wei-Kü is as light, bright, and tender as a butterfly kiss and it will be gone before you know it. At a dry-ish 9% ABV, this is the perfect BBQ aperitivo.
