About I

Gnarly old vine with clone 1

My given name, Uwe, sounds quite similar to the Italian word "uva", which means grape. But this is already where it ends. My father didn't own a vineyard, as a little boy I never roamed happily between vines. I grew up in Germany and yet, for a regrettably large part of my life I lived in complete ignorance of German wine and therefore of Riesling.

This changed fundamentally during a trip to the Finger Lakes region of New York. Surrounded by rolling hills and peaceful lakes I tasted the Rieslings of Dr. Konstantin Frank and Hermann Wiemer, amongst others. Being able to compare different Riesling wines it was puzzling to see that the same grape managed to produce such different wines. The fruit intensity showed more in one wine, the mineral characters were more clearly defined in another, in the next the acidity was just slightly more pronounced. But all were unmistakably Riesling and showed an elegance which to that degree I had not experienced in a wine before. The trunk of the car full with Finger Lakes Riesling I returned to New York City, where I dumped my collection of strings and started appreciating wine more actively.

I started taking wine classes at the International Wine Center in Manhattan, worked in the wine department of Balthazar (known for its exquisite French wine list) and gained wine retail experience at Appellation Wines & Spirits, a wine store dedicated to organic and biodynamic wines. I am also currently a student of the Diploma program at the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET).

There are no wineries on Staten Island

Riesling is a sadly misunderstood wine, not only, but particularly, in the United States. Der Kellermeister is simply a way of sharing what I am learning about Riesling with every sip.

In my tasting notes I am trying to first give an objective view of the wine's characteristic, followed by a less objective conclusion of it. Notes from industry tastings are rarely included, due to the limit of time and scarcity of wine at these events. I go out and buy a wine, take it home and then listen to what it has to say. This is why I drink wine, and Riesling in particular.

Together with Riesling I share an inborn aversion to French new oak, at least where it's obscenely obvious. I live on Staten Island, which apparently is the least popular of the five New York boroughs, but I do find it enjoyable here. I live here with Kelly, my newborn son Johann Serenus and 9 vines.

Uwe Kristen
Staten Island, July 2007