Let’s go
back, way back, back in 1916. We are looking over the shoulder of Dr. Georg
Scheu, who is breeding vines at the regional office of winegrowers in Alzey, in
the German wine region Palatinate. He is working as a viticulturalist, cultivating
seedlings of vitis vinifera, to create new noble grapes. Indeed he is already known
for the creation of many crossbred grape varieties. Somewhen in 1916 Georg
planted the seedling number 88 of a hybrid and this one should become his
heritage.
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| A Bocksbeutel of Scheurebe from Franconia |
This grape gathered
the best of both of its parents, the Riesling and the Bukettraube. Wines made
of this grape have a distinctive aroma (German: Bukett) of one of the parents
and the racy acidity of the other one. The new grape variety is named for his
discoverer Scheurebe (“rebe” means in German “vine”).
Today, one
hundred years later, the Scheurebe is under the Top 10 of the white grape
varieties in Germany. It also plays a role in Austria where it still is called
Sämling 88 (Seedling 88), because of the 88th seedling Georg Scheu
planted back then.
Scheurebe
is the German answer to the Sauvignon Blanc. Usually highly aromatic, dominated
by rich blackcurrant aromas supplemented with grapefruit, gooseberry and elderflower.
Well-made wines of the Scheurebe are full-bodied. Often they are produced semidry,
so they have some residual sugar, which compliments quite well the flavors.
The
Scheurebe, I had in my glass, was from the German wine region Franconia, you
could recognize this by the shape of the bottle, called Bocksbeutel. This one
is from a town called Sommerach on the Isle of Wine, a lovely piece of land
completely surrounded by the River Main.
Let’s praise
Georg Scheu for this great breeding 100 years ago!
Cheerio!
