Scenes from Rudipalooza 2009 in Beverly Hills (Los Angeles)

Rudipalooza is the annual Rudi Wiest vintage tasting for the trade. This year, 12 producers were represented, by their owners and/or winemakers, or their international sales representatives. The event was well attended by restaurant and retail wine buyers alike, and the 2008 German Rieslings and other newly released German wines (think Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Rose, sparkling wine) were very well received!

The 2008 vintage is a classic vintage, cooler than some other recent vintages, giving the wines crisp acidity, while providing ample lush but not overly fat fruit. The wines, in a word, are delicious. This vintage in Germany is more about the Kabinetts and Spatleses, and less about Ausleses and noble sweets. Which is great, because our market wants great, classic Kabinetts and Spatleses!

Below here see Tim Frohlich, winemaker and owner of Schafer-Frohlich, and Christophe Graf, international sales director from Von Buhl.

Here we are have some of our guests tasting and discussing the wines in full wine-geekiness, which is the best thing that can happen at a wine tasting:

Over 100 different wines were being poured, including those of producers who did not attend. These were poured by the Rudi Wiest Selections representatives:

The Rudi Wiest vintage tasting at Lawry's is famous for their German spread...... a real German feast put on by Lawry's chef, who is German, and creates an authentic lunch with all sorts of delicious German food, including smoked fish, potato salads, wurst, saurbraten, and all sorts of other things I don't know the names of:

Below, Robert Eymael of Monchhof, Tom Driesberg of Wegeler Estate:

All in all, a very successful event, and very well attended. I was working so didn't get to taste as much as I would have if I had been an attendee (which I was the last three of these tastings!). But I'm sure in the coming months, I'll get to revisit these wines, and they will taste way more put together than when I tasted the tank and barrel samples back in February on the Germany trip.