LET’S HAVE SEKT - A GERMAN SPARKLING WINE, GET YOUR MIND OUT OF THE GUTTER!
WHAT THE HECK IS SEKT?
I’m glad you asked. Sekt is a delicious, relatively inexpensive sparkling wine that comes from Germany and Austria. Sekt has loads of tropical fruit aromas - hence the photo above 😘
The majority of these lively concoctions with that sparkly X factor still reside in Germany. Very few are exported to the US because let’s face it, we don’t really drink a lot of bubbles compared to the Europeans.
With all that in mind, I wanted to go into further depth about these little bottles of joy and share the history of Sekt, the categories of Sekt, and what kind of Sekt is right for you. Sound good?
The history of Sekt
The history of Sekt begins with one man:
Georg Kessler of Württemberg, Germany.
George loved his bubbly wines and started his career in the bubble trade at none other than Veuve Clicquot - the Champagne house where he learned the process of Champagne making.
Ever the entrepreneur, he took back his knowledge to his native Germany and opened a Sparkling Wine house in 1826.
George’s story - though he was the first - was not uncommon. There were many German men who loved their bubbly, so they would go to Champagne, learn all about making it from the French and then return home to start businesses of their own.
In 1850, production of Sekt skyrocketed at 1.5 million bottles a year. The numbers kept increasing and in the early 20th century - right up until 1913 - it was never under 10 million bottles. People were having a lot of Sekt.
Sekt was considered knockoff Champagne
For a long time, Sekt had a less than stellar reputation. In fact, it was just seen as… well.. cheap, bootleg Champagne if you want to put it plainly. It would be like, Real Thin Mints Girl Scout Cookies versus the ones you buy at the 99 cents store. Sekt had kind of hit rock bottom at that point.
At the end of the 19th Century, Otto Henkel took a tour through the United States and decided to rebrand Sekt. As technology improved, so did Sekt.
Today, Germany still takes the cake for the highest level of sparkling wine consumption with an insane 310 million liters of the stuff. Not only do they drink a lot of it, but they make a lot of it as well.
The majority of Sekt is pretty easy drinking, pleasantly acidic, gluggable stuff. It’s very much the sort of sparkling wine you can bring to picnics — a casual bubbly if you will.
A bottle of Sekt with this? #bliss
The grapes used in Sekt.
The grapes that are generally used in German Sekt are Riesling, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris — but can have other grapes such as Gewürtztraminer, Kerner, and Huxelrebe (try saying that five times fast) to name a few. You can also find Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier in German Sekt.
Austrian Sekt exists as well — but I have to say, so far I have seen a significantly higher number of German Sekt available for sale in the US Market.
For Austrian Sekt, the grapes that are added are the following: Grüner Vetliner is the star, with some other fun little varietals thrown in the mix such as Zweigelt, Saint Laurent, Grašvina. There are also some more commonly known varietals like Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
How Sekt is made.
Most Sekt wines are made the same way as Prosecco — using the Charmat or Tank method.
During this method, the “base wine,” (or whatever still wine is made) has some yeast and sugar added to it. Then it goes through a process called, “Secondary Fermentation,” in a pressure resistant tank.
The wines are then filtered to remove sediment - it’s like a type of sand-like gunk made from grapes skins, seeds, and little crystals called tartrates.
After this process, they are dosed, with what us folks in the wine biz like to call, “liqueur d’expedition” or a mix of sugar and wine. Then they are bottled.
Wines made in this method have a freshness associated with them. And there’s no shortage of that with Sekt, let me tell you.
What kind of Sekt should I look for the next time I go to the store?
The least expensive kind of Sekt you want to look for is called, '“Deutscher Sekt,” or basically German Sekt. The term, “Sekt,” is not geographically associated with only Germany or Austria - so there are a lot of mediocre to bad Sekts out there that are just generically sourced from random European grapes not even growing in Germany or Austria.
If you’re looking for Austrian Sekt, the base level would be called Austrian Sekt. Simple enough, yeah?
A step up.
If you want to try more quality versions of Sekt, might I suggest checking out wines labeled German Sekt b.A - or if you wanna go real offish, the proper German phrasing is Sekt bestimmter Anbaugebiete or Qualitätsschaumwein b.A.
For Austrian Sekt, it’s a little bit different. These are categorized as, “Klassik.” These Klassik Sekts can also have vintage dating on the labels and are very affordable if you can find them.
Austria also has a category above this called “Reserve,” which requires 18 months aging, grapes must be harvested by hand. This type of Sekt must be done in the traditional method instead of the Charmat method.
The best Sekt you’ve ever had.
The créme de la créme of German Sekt is categorized as Winzersekt, which is single varietal (one grape, not a blend) estate-grown Sekt. These wines must have a vintage on the label.
Exceptional Austrian Sekt is categorized as, “Gross Reserve.” It’s a highly stringent process to be able to be categorized as, “Gross Reserve.” These wines must be made in the classical method, have 30 months lees aging - which means the wine sits on dead yeast cells, giving it a fuller mouth feel. It also must be harvested by hand, only be made in dry styles, and pressed with certain presses.
PICK OF THE WEEK:
Ulrich Langguth 2017 Riesling Sekt Trocken (dry) - $16.99 @ Total Wine & More
First off — that label tho.
I am a huge fan of Art Nouveau anything, so the moment I picked up this pretty little bottle I have to say I was definitely charmed by the label. And as it turns out, Art Nouveau labels and German Wine Labels kind of go together hand in hand.
More pretty German Wine Labels.
My partner and I had this bottle of Sekt on Valentine’s Day, because who wouldn’t want to have Sekt on Valentine’s Day, amirite?
It was a bit sweet for his tastes, but I really enjoyed it. The wine was crisp, clean, bright and uncomplicated. There were elegant aromas of honeysuckle, beeswax, and sugared almonds but at its core was a racy and pulsing aroma of fresh lime.
The Ulrich Langguth Riesling Sekt had lively acidity and great minerality, and it conjured up images of poolside Mojitos somewhere in the tropics, garnished with those little sticks of sugarcane.
Think of it like a sexy, grown up Sprite.
Some wines are serious and thought provoking while others are just fun. This would be a wine that falls into the later category.
We paired the Ulrich Langguth Sekt with homemade Korean BBQ that we had been marinating all day, some roasted ginger broccoli and cilantro rice and boy did it do the trick!
If I could go door to door to all the Korean BBQ spots in Los Angeles, peddling a bag of this stuff I definitely would.
Be sure to have this Sekt with some spicy food. If KBBQ is not your thing, may I suggest pairing it with Sriracha anything, Jalapeño Poppers, buffalo wings, or some spicy Lamb Vindaloo.
