After two amazing months working at Bowery Restaurant I believe it is a good moment to formally introduce myself through this blog. Besides selecting and presenting the new ‘wine of the week’ through our social media channels, as a Sommelier, I am responsible for each and every delicious glass of wine at your table.
My name is Michelle Bos and I graduated from the Hotel school in Maastricht with a passion for food, drinks and wine in particular! In my family, great food has always been important and I always wanted to lift that great food even higher by pairing it with matching wines. I think it is amazing to be able to compliment the food with the wine and the other way around.
About a month ago I made a wine trip to the Mosel and Saar, visiting two of my favorite wine producers: Dr. Loosen in Bernkastel-Kues and Van Volxem located in Wiltingen. Both domains mainly produce Riesling wines and are known for their stunning GG’s. A GG wine comes from the best vineyards, the so-called ‘Grosse Lage’ (Grand Cru) in Germany.
I started my trip at Dr. Loosen, where all GG’s are made according the same standards with only the terroir of the specific vineyard causing a difference in taste. Five different Grosse Lage wines, a difference which I noticed clearly while tasting the wines beside each other to compare. For example the wine made with grapes from the ‘Ürziger Würzgarten’ gives more exotic fruits and spicy tones due to the red volcanic soil the vineyards grow on. From the blue slate soils in the ‘Wehlener Sonnenuhr’, one of the steepest vineyards in this area, you get more elegance in the wine with hints of peach and apple.
Besides tasting wines we have also conquered the ‘stairs’ in the ‘Erdener Treppchen’ vineyard. These stairs are created to help the workers reaching the grapes, however with its steep and poorly maintained character it is a tough job bringing the grapes back safely. I truly admire the workers who daily go in to this vineyard using these ‘stairs’!
We continued our trip in the Saar area to the village of Wiltingen where we visited the former monastery now known as the wine domain of Van Volxem. Due to the history, this domain owns many of the best vineyard parcels throughout the village. The afternoon was spent well tasting the complete assortment of Van Volxem. Even though I knew many of his wines already, I became even more enthusiastic about this domain. In the tasting room I noticed many old wine menu’s which show back in the day many German wines were more appreciated and expensive compared to wines from the Bourgogne or Bordeaux, which are nowadays rated as the world’s best vineyards. My personal favorite is ‘Gottefuss Alte Reben’ made with grapes from 120 year old vines growing on steep hills giving it a greatly aromatic nose with ripe stone fruit. It has an excellent balance in minerals and acidity which makes it a great, juicy though delicate Riesling with a bit of body.
Since the Schiefer Riesling is my special selection for this week, you have the opportunity to taste one of these beautiful wines from Van Volxem!
In Bowery Restaurant I get to share my passion for wines with our guests and my team. At the moment our menu is build up with classic wines and less known domains counting up to about 100 wines. As we like to serve our guests unknown wines we have various unknown wines represented in our wine menu. I select with one important rule, which is quality, this is what all the wines in my selection have in common.
For more information about myself and my wines: follow Bowery Restaurant on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. I look forward to personally welcome you to Bowery Restaurant in the near future!
Michelle