Welcome to Winephabet Street Season 2 Episode 4 D is for Dornfelder. Winephabet Street is a monthly series where Lori Budd of Draceana Wines and I work our way through the alphabet exploring wine and wine regions one letter at a time. The show is live on the third Monday at 8pm and is free, but you must register to attend. Put it on your calendar, pour yourself a glass of wine and hang out with us.
This month we learn about the Dornfelder grape. Dornfelder is a cross between Helfensteiner and Heroldrebe born in Germany. Helfensteiner a dark skinned grape is a cross of Fruhburgunder (Pinot Precoce noir) and Trollinger (Schiava Grossa.) What I found very interesting about Dornfelder is that it has a lost little sister called Hegel. The crossing took place in August 1955 by August Herold and it was given variety protection in 1994.
Other regions Dornfelder is grown is Fingers Lakes Region in New York, the Cantons of Zurich, Schwyz England, Chech Republic, California in the Sta. Rita Hills and Lodi, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Hokkaido Japan and Brazil Rio Grande do Sul.
2017 Windisch Dornfelder
This wine I chose for Winephabet Street hails from the Rheinhessen region of Germany. The Windisch family has been growing grapes since 1780. This is the first German Dornfelder I have tasted. It was a semi-sweet red wine. Not one of my favorites, but if you like sweet red wine, this is the wine for you. It was a very deep dark red in color. I immediately tasted cherry pie, lots of red berries and notes of boysenberry. Soft smooth tannins and a slight hint of tartness to the wine on the finish.
Learn more about Dornfelder and the wines we tasted by listening to the podcast or watch the webinar.
For more episodes of Winephabet Street visit http://winephabetstreet.com/
