<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Terry Theise]]></title><description><![CDATA[The web home of Terry Theise, world expert and guru on wine, in particular Austrian, and German wines and champagne.]]></description><link>https://www.terrytheise.com/blog</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Mon, 14 Sep 2026 18:11:50 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.terrytheise.com/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[WRESTLING WITH 2024 – HEXAMER VERSION]]></title><description><![CDATA[They asked what to send, told me there was neither Sauvignon Blanc nor Scheurebe in the ’24 vintage, which made it simpler. I responded to emphasize the dry and feinherb wines, and fill the rest of the case with whatever they were happiest with.   I know there’s some derision about “tweezer-food” (but how else do you handle microgreens among other things) because it’s somehow supposed to be twee and bougie, but I enjoy precision and clarity, and I enjoy Hexamer the way I enjoy Nigl or...]]></description><link>https://www.terrytheise.com/post/wrestling-with-2024-hexamer-version</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a9ec04efb6ec7c0e4e59115</guid><pubDate>Mon, 07 Sep 2026 17:00:19 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d8e337_c346a9aade7844f2873ecc6fa6a942a5~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_792,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Terry Theise</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[2026 ARRIVALS FROM KUNSTLER]]></title><description><![CDATA[This may be a bittersweet few days of tasting, as Gunter Künstler has changed his American importer, and it’s an open question whether and how I might continue to receive samples. It remains to be seen. But I’m more confident that Gunter and I will stay friends, as he is a lovely and remarkable soul with whom I’ll make every effort to keep in touch and maintain our accord.   As far as Riesling goes, and much as I hesitate to apply singular superlatives, I think Künstler is the best in the...]]></description><link>https://www.terrytheise.com/post/2026-arrivals-from-kunstler</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a801f6d40f3daf10ba1a08d</guid><pubDate>Fri, 14 Aug 2026 23:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d8e337_ac7e2b3c251e49d28e0bc0d015852c45~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Terry Theise</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[NEW DOINGS IN DEIDESHEIM – RECENT SAMPLES FROM VON WINNING]]></title><description><![CDATA[An odd range in some ways, omitting the best among the GGs in favor of three Chardonnays and an equally odd group of the 1er Crus. The estate, like many in the Deidesheim-Wachenheim nexus, is capacious. Only Forst has seemed to preserve the classic “small-grower” culture. But let’s see about those Chards; there must have been a reason they were included.   But first, two of the red GGs. There’s an entire range of nine red wines, mostly but not exclusively Pinot Noir, among which this seems to...]]></description><link>https://www.terrytheise.com/post/new-doings-in-deidesheim-recent-samples-from-von-winning</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a560601d0730204c2510c14</guid><pubDate>Thu, 16 Jul 2026 17:00:27 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d8e337_76f3cb724ccc462588fe947b0aa0266a~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_750,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Terry Theise</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[ARE YOU NOW OR HAVE YOU EVER BEEN “FINE WINE?”]]></title><description><![CDATA[There was talk recently about whether the term “fine wine” had about it a stench of exclusivity, as though the very wines themselves wished you to know you weren’t cultured enough to suss their esoteric gifts.   It’s a symptom – yet another symptom – of the current wine malaise, in which all of us are casting about feverishly trying to figure out how to make wine enticing again. Anything smacking of <ulp> connoisseurship is clearly infra dig, at least for persons who do not demur at...]]></description><link>https://www.terrytheise.com/post/are-you-now-or-have-you-ever-been-fine-wine</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a42869f3c06bdad542687e3</guid><pubDate>Thu, 02 Jul 2026 17:00:14 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d8e337_63843a3d058c4022bdc0be62e4fcb836~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Terry Theise</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[I CAN’T STOP LOEWEN YOU – 2026]]></title><description><![CDATA[I have a case of samples, eight dry wines and four “sweet” wines. All Rieslings, though I do miss the Pinot Blanc.  This is a grower of special consequence in my view, as opposed to just-another-excellent estate.   Coincidentally, I’m tasting these yet again when our backyard crabapple tree is a day or two from blooming. It isn’t on purpose, but sems to be a sort of kismet I’m willing to believe isn’t random. As my half-sister Rhonda likes to say, “Coincidence is how God preserves his...]]></description><link>https://www.terrytheise.com/post/i-can-t-stop-loewen-you-2026</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a29522f2a057aa1c77b151f</guid><pubDate>Mon, 15 Jun 2026 17:00:18 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d8e337_d460184dfc304f918b883c4633c01f53~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_683,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Terry Theise</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[OVERRATED, UNDERRATED – HOW AND WHY?]]></title><description><![CDATA[A friend arrived for dinner bearing two wines he wanted me to taste blind. He said he was curious to know what I’d think of them, which told me these were not just random wines, but that they were noteworthy in some way.   One was white, the other red.   The white wine first struck me as an ambitious Aligoté. It was coarse and disjointed; if it were a car it would have had rattles and dings. I couldn’t guess where it was from. It had no particular signature. I drank it again the following day...]]></description><link>https://www.terrytheise.com/post/overrated-underrated-how-and-why</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a27dc017af0f733569a77b5</guid><pubDate>Thu, 11 Jun 2026 17:00:18 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d8e337_fb8401952cf649978148baf35e6ab73b~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Terry Theise</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[VILMART &#38; CIE – THE LATEST]]></title><description><![CDATA[If the best idea is held in the tenderest hand, these Champagnes couldn’t possibly be more convincing.   I was reading a catalogue for a retreat center offering various wellness/vedic/meditation/spirituality stuff, and at the end they printed a letter from a “satisfied customer” that gave me a feeling adjacent to an ice cream headache. The luckless author of said document made reference to “walking mindfully” or some such thing. I was surprised, because I couldn’t fathom how one could walk in...]]></description><link>https://www.terrytheise.com/post/vilmart-cie-the-latest</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a0c614a60efaf29e32808e3</guid><pubDate>Mon, 25 May 2026 17:00:17 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d8e337_14f859a61e394fc49ac4b54045f26787~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Terry Theise</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[AT LONG LAST SPREITZER!]]></title><description><![CDATA[Andi means to send me samples; he’s just busy and forgets. So it’s been a few years, and because of that he sent me what amounts to (mostly) a vertical collection of his two GGs, rather than the current assortment in its entirety. It would be churlish to complain, but those are highly interesting wines I’ve sometimes found to be closer-in to the soul of the domain.   Should you be wondering, those wines include a Muschelkalk Trocken, an Oestricher Doosberg Scharfenstein (a cadaster parcel now...]]></description><link>https://www.terrytheise.com/post/at-long-last-spreitzer</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a0ac0fd8ba6aec9a80f6a18</guid><pubDate>Mon, 18 May 2026 17:00:17 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d8e337_14cf55c5d8494b5d81837133ad993be1~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Terry Theise</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[SCHUTZEN STRIKES! PRIELER’S LATEST]]></title><description><![CDATA[My immense regard for Prieler is surely no secret. This is a culling of recent bottlings, omitting the (often lovely) St. Laurent and the entry-level Pinot Blanc. If I knew the reasons for omitting them, I have forgotten.   Let the (abbreviated) games begin. This will be good.]]></description><link>https://www.terrytheise.com/post/schutzen-strikes-prieler-s-latest</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69fe0bc44f7ebdc9f6aa6149</guid><pubDate>Thu, 14 May 2026 18:37:06 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d8e337_93bdc594f82d4d108008c93fa29a4764~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_474,h_247,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Terry Theise</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[BOTTLE BY BOTTLE, SIP BY SIP]]></title><description><![CDATA[Jancis Robinson published a piece in the Financial Times and enlarged upon it on her website, about the many vagaries of bottle variation. She (and the redoubtable Tamlyn Currin) cited the many external factors whereby bottles of the same wine might differ. Many of them would surprise you, unless you were in the wine trade or handled shipping logistics.   It needed saying, because wine reviewers are often taken to task for the divergences of praise (and ugh, “scores”) among different tasters...]]></description><link>https://www.terrytheise.com/post/bottle-by-bottle-sip-by-sip</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69fe0b285bf92805eb600470</guid><pubDate>Mon, 11 May 2026 17:00:13 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/11062b_f66a53a028054b0f839f6e7f5043cc32~mv2.jpeg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Terry Theise</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[2026 NEW ARRIVALS FROM ZIEREISEN]]></title><description><![CDATA[Firstly, a note that if you missed the previous two tastings from March '26, they can be found here: Dautel  and here: Glatzer . This might be a time to revisit my practice of always tasting a wine from at least two different glasses. I’d say that the wines are the same (or close enough) maybe a quarter of the time. That’s to say it didn’t matter which glass I used. The other 75% of the time there was a decisive difference, important enough to look for a through-line to try and see what the...]]></description><link>https://www.terrytheise.com/post/2026-new-arrivals-from-ziereisen</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69dd2e13798372f8ac839a0f</guid><pubDate>Mon, 13 Apr 2026 18:14:39 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d8e337_9a815006427f4ac1aead3555ea6e1b20~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Terry Theise</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[A PINNACLE OF DELICIOUSNESS:  GLATZER’S 2025 COLLECTION]]></title><description><![CDATA[No one drinks wine any more. Fewer and fewer people drink alcohol of any kind, thanks to a WHO report that will be contradicted in five years by another WHO report. But we here are interested in wine.   Let’s leave aside the question of wine’s status as an “alcoholic beverage.” And then let’s admit that wine is singularly unattractive to anyone but we who’ve been bitten by the bug. Let’s further admit that wine is unattractive because we who are nuts about it are also unattractive. Not all of...]]></description><link>https://www.terrytheise.com/post/a-pinnacle-of-deliciousness-glatzer-s-2025-collection</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69c6880d60f0b8e11350743b</guid><pubDate>Thu, 26 Mar 2026 23:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d8e337_b63565008bfc4fe9a91af557ac78da4e~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Terry Theise</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[CAN’T KEEP MY HANDS OFF DAUTEL]]></title><description><![CDATA[I’m not that much of a weeper, though I don’t mind crying and I do it easily when it’s worth doing. I think of Roger Ebert’s line about crying at the movies: we don’t cry from sadness, we cry from goodness. That is true for me. But I’ll go weeks without tears and then I have a couple soggy days in a row. As happened recently.   I have a folder of bookmarks of musical performances, and I was thumbing through it when I had one of those time units where I couldn’t start something but I could...]]></description><link>https://www.terrytheise.com/post/can-t-keep-my-hands-off-dautel</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69b3ed02f897a5d712611d9c</guid><pubDate>Mon, 16 Mar 2026 18:00:24 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d8e337_d6a439c93895477eb5ce191bc132cc83~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Terry Theise</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[HIEDLER’S 2025 COLLECTION]]></title><description><![CDATA[Ludwig “Senior” appears to have actually retired. He came back to the winery after a lengthy absence to say hi to me, I was told. This isn’t common; often the elders stick around, if only to ensure the kids aren’t getting up to any mischief. But my old friend Ludwig is off to the rest of his life, leaving the estate in the able hands of his sons.   In a fundamental way, Hiedlers will always be Hiedlers. Their website is eloquent on that score. The question I find myself asking is, will...]]></description><link>https://www.terrytheise.com/post/hiedler-s-2025-collection</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69a58e957db715abddf6900c</guid><pubDate>Tue, 03 Mar 2026 18:00:27 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d8e337_6d35a6d90634472e8a39b637b45992a3~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_750,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Terry Theise</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[THE LORD OF LANGENLOIS IN 2025]]></title><description><![CDATA[Before we consider the delicious doings at Bründlmayer , a small bit of news. Joshua Dunning has written an excellent article on the history of sugar in Champagne; not only dosage, but the evolution of tastes among Champagne’s customers, and how it seems to have landed on a creed whereby any residual sugar is held in the deepest suspicion. Mr. Dunning’s piece is here: https://wordonthegrapevine.co.uk/dosage-champagne/   I’m quoted, as you’ll see, which is hardly surprising as I’m a...]]></description><link>https://www.terrytheise.com/post/the-lord-of-langenlois-in-2025</link><guid isPermaLink="false">698c8e8cd9c323c10df5d066</guid><pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 16:43:05 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d8e337_e89084aeff8744f89b6cd64bf3cfc068~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_527,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Terry Theise</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[ROCKIN’ WITH SCHROECK ‘N SONS]]></title><description><![CDATA[These days I’m preoccupied with trying to do what one puny guy can do to make wine less forbidding so that we can slow down (or even stop) the attrition of drinkers. A dialogue I had with my friend Meg Maker was published in the latest World Of Fine Wine and seemed to tickle some vagus nerve of the zeitgeist, and even engendered a bit of snark from some chap whose piece circled the drain while missing the points that Meg and I were addressing. But most of the subsequent online conversation...]]></description><link>https://www.terrytheise.com/post/rockin-with-schroeck-n-sons</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69734d724c5d7ca6b9ba35ed</guid><pubDate>Mon, 26 Jan 2026 18:00:50 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d8e337_18df1e2f98fc422f90121ad84fc9153e~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_537,h_672,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Terry Theise</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[GOBELSBURG UP TO DATE!]]></title><description><![CDATA[I know I report on these quite regularly.  That’s because the estate is remarkably interesting and consequential, and because they are very good about sending me samples. With this collection I’m unusually timely, as the Crus on the market are (still) the 2023s, and all the other wines were current when I visited them last April.   There are two more reasons for paying this degree of attention. One is, even with a winery as reliable as this one, the occasional flub sneaks through, e.g., the...]]></description><link>https://www.terrytheise.com/post/gobelsburg-up-to-date</link><guid isPermaLink="false">695d4ae6893b8ca0edfce60f</guid><pubDate>Wed, 07 Jan 2026 18:00:32 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d8e337_f7f40a4f231147debc10df9f458ca743~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_330,h_500,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Terry Theise</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[NOTES ON HANS-GUNTER SCHWARZ]]></title><description><![CDATA[“HGS” as he was known to most of us, succumbed at last to the various maladies that had dimmed his aura in recent years.   He will – already has, when he turned 80 – receive a clamor of encomia both for the impact he had on viticulture and for the gentle soul he was personally. I paid tribute to him when he “retired” from Müller-Catoir back in July 2002. You can find it on this website by looking under “portfolio” and then downloading my 2003 Germany catalog. There aren’t many people in the...]]></description><link>https://www.terrytheise.com/post/notes-on-hans-gunter-schwarz</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69482751cd28170851f4b44d</guid><pubDate>Mon, 22 Dec 2025 18:00:28 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d8e337_a9e636e5df7242db9f438d5c39644881~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Terry Theise</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[2024 MERKELBACH – THE VINTAGE]]></title><description><![CDATA[As you know, Selbachs make the wines now, following the passings of the Merkelbach brothers. Rolf and Alfred’s methods are being followed, in order to preserve their Edenic style, their lightness, and their freedom from affect.   What I don’t know is whether the old viticulture is being continued, including harvesting dates and methods. I trust it is being followed at least in spirit, because a precise facsimile seems impossible. Given that most of the vines grow in the classic single-stake...]]></description><link>https://www.terrytheise.com/post/2024-merkelbach-the-vintage</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6932fc1921dbaf583f85f988</guid><pubDate>Wed, 10 Dec 2025 18:00:28 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d8e337_fe4ab96953904dbe84a995a7f40ce950~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Terry Theise</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[THE SUMMER FLUSH: DARJEELING IN 2025]]></title><description><![CDATA[[Editor's note: Find all of Terry's Tea Thoughts here. ] Don’t expect the explicit muscatel “attack” we had with the 2024s. I liked that, it was fun, but at times it was so uniform it felt like it was grafted on. Still, the few ’24 teas I have left are a reminder of why the term “muscatel” exists at all; the teas can be overtly grapey. I noticed its absence when the first ‘25 teas arrived, and thought it might be a problem, but these teas have deeper and more inscrutable tricks up their...]]></description><link>https://www.terrytheise.com/post/the-summer-flush-darjeeling-in-2025</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6932b4bd479d818f7a3e0772</guid><pubDate>Mon, 08 Dec 2025 18:00:27 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d8e337_31033900808a4c5e9b598ca3f33f31a9~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Terry Theise</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>