In the second of his Tipping's Tipples reports from southern Germany, MIKE TIPPING visits Wurttemberg, famed for its reds.

THE Wurttembergische Weingartner-Zentralgenossenschaft (WSG) in Moglingen has a very long name that is hard to pronounce. It also produces 35 million bottles of wine a year. All the wine-growing co-operatives and wineries in the Wurttemberg area, 73 in total, are members of the WZG. The WZG pays five cents per bottle on return, they can be cleaned and reused ten to 12 times on average.

A tour of the bottling and wine-producing areas at the WZG did nothing for the romance I associate with wine. Giant stainless steel towers used for fermentation stretched to the top of the WZG roof and my ears resonated with the harmonics of the bottling plant. I was glad to reach a large conference room, where wine producers had set up stall.

There was an array of wines to sample. I decided to stick to the local red, lemberger. My favourite was Marbacher Neckarhalde Lemberger trocken barrique 2000. This was nice and chewy with a delicious toasted oak finish. I picked up cherry, violet, almond and paprika flavours. It's hard to describe lemberger but it's not dissimilar to a merlot. If I could find it on the UK supermarket shelves, I'd snap it up.

I also tried trollinger, which is almost like a ros. It's light and chillable, which is great for summer nights. The Swabians in their sunny clime, appreciate these values. The example I tried was semi-dry with great smoothness and strawberry notes.

We had lunch at the WZG. The main course was a beef steak, which the Swabians like fairly well done. It was accompanied by large amounts of noodle-like, well, noodles, and I drank a lemberger.

In no time at all, we had arrived in the cellars of Schlosskelleri in Ohringen. A huge, decorative oak barrel greets visitors descending the steep stone steps into the cellar. This barrel, from 1702 and no longer in use for wine production, has become a visitor attraction.

The rear of the barrel is open, revealing a bench and table from which non-claustrophobics can sample wine. I headed upstairs to the castle proper, where four local wine producers provided samples.

Michael Graf Adelmann was every bit the German count. Tall and proud, he was sporting a cravat.

"In five years time it will be at least two glasses better," the count said in reference to one of his fine Graf Adelmann Lemberger offerings.

It was thanks to the count's wine and numerous samplings of young wines previously, that, by this stage, this writer's gums were beginning to recede. All that exposed dentine was giving me much graf, sorry grief. The lengths I go to, to bring you this column every week. It's a tough life.

Picking up the Tipping's Tipples vote at the sampling was a wonderful cuvee of cabernet sauvignon, cabernet dorio and lemberger. The 1999 Jodokus Rotwein Trocken Hades QbA barrique, from the Drautz-Able winery, had a nose-and-a-half full of rich fruitcake; this divine liquid had cherry and plum flavours. One to sit back and enjoy I think but at £25 (if it were available in the UK), you better make sure you do enjoy it.

Also needing of a mention are the wines of the young and very lofty Frank Rominger. His German grape variety wines owe a lot in their production to the New World. Australia to be precise, where Frank, in part, learned his trade. Not yet but perhaps in a few years, Frank's Homo-Sapiens wine label will be common in the UK.

I was in my element in Wurttemberg, where they take their whites seriously but red is king. In this country we associate quality German wine only with riesling. But some German reds, particularly those of Swabian origin, could give any French, Spanish or Italian red a run for their euro.

After a lengthy stay at the castle in Ohringen, it was more travelling. This time to a hotel in Franken and all things Bavarian.

But that's next weeks Tipping's Tipples.

Wurttemberg fact file:

Location: Wurttemberg lies between the Swabian Jura and the Tauber River Valley. Stuttgart is the region's major city.

Main wine varieties: the reds - trollinger, spatburgunder (pinot noir), schwarzriesling (pinot meunier), lemberger; and the whites - riesling, kerner and Muller-Thurgau.

Wine fact: Swabians, the good folk who live in Wurttemberg, consume almost twice the national average of wine per head.

Quote of the day: Something in German, I suspect unrepeatable, that our coach driver muttered after being asked to perform a third U-turn.

Updated: 16:30 Friday, May 21, 2004