Know your étiquette: Fantasienamen and the Rheingau

We go a little off-piste this week, with a look at something that sits outside the boundaries of the typically prescriptive German labelling laws.

Fantasienamen - fantasy names - are what the Germans call fancifully titled cuvées. Now, what’s in the bottle here might be a dry Riesling lover’s fantasy, but there’s nothing weird about it.

In fact, this is a fine example of what the best vineyards of the prestigious Rheingau region conjure from this grape variety.

It comes from one of the country’s pace-setters with site-specific dry Riesling, the Georg Breuer estate in Rüdesheim.

And Theresa Breuer happens to be a wonderful person with talent to burn. Click here to read my profile of her which, written some years back, gives a good sense of what this family stands for.