Martin Zwick - International Man of Mystery

Martin Zwick, of the famed blog Berlin Kitchen,  is one of the few people on the wine internet that I had been dying to meet as I arrived at the great 2011 GG tasting in Wiesbaden this summer. He is a Riesling freak like me, he also is a dry Riesling freak like me and he has a passion for great wine and life in general that comes vividly across in his writing.


When I finally met Martin Zwick in person, he said to me, "Lyle, we must have lunch..."  As a cynical New Yorker, if anyone else had said this to me, I would have thought he was putting me on.  But Martin's old world manner and charm convince you of his sincerity. Martin comes across as one of the few people I have ever met that is absolutely content with his life. Just happy to be anywhere. Hs exuberance for life and Riesling is contagious.


Martin's posts are a veritable who's who of German wine.  He counts many of the top winemakers among his personal friends.  A Martin Zwick post is a veritable sign of arrival for a German winemaker.  An announcement that you have joined an elite club.


His annual Berlin Riesling Cup is a blind tasting of around 30 Grosses Gewachs and is a fascinating look at how Germany's top dry wines stack up against each other.  It is a wonderful contribution to the German wine and the world wine scene as there is a very international flavor of people in attendance.