Germany was interesting, but not for the reasons I expected. First of all you couldn’t get anywhere, and then you couldn’t see anything, and then you couldn’t get the wine you wanted in restaurants. There seems to be an epidemic of road improvements taking place, resulting in numerous detours – and I mean numerous, such that we were re-routed at least three times a day, which made us late and made me cranky. One closure of an autobahn exit entailed a 30-mile diversion, which I wasn’t happy with. That plus, it was foggy much of the time we were there, and also weirdly warm, which meant I wore the same clothes for days on end as I’d have roasted in the seasonal sweaters I’d packed so sensibly.
But the wine thing was truly strange. On our first night we tried for an early supper in a close-by wine bar. Please note – “wine bar.” After a quick menu scan it looked like the dry Scheurebe they offered would fit the bill. But our server quickly insisted they didn’t have it. Okay, fine; there were other things we could choose. We ordered an alternate wine, but our server reappeared in a few minutes to inform us that it, too, was MIA. Well hmmm….another wine was requested. Nope, out of stock. I heard the Monty Python theme song playing in my head. The server suggested a wine he did have, but it was wrong and we didn’t want it. A fifth and sixth wine were ordered, gamely I thought, and when a seventh wine was in fact available, the server arrived with the wrong vintage, one I didn’t want. “This is a wine bar, I’m led to understand,” I suggested.
“Oh yes, we are a wine bar,” he proposed.
“It seems to be uncontaminated with wine,” I ventured.
“Let me suggest the (XYZ),” he suggested with some impatience. We’d been tied up in this farce for fifteen minutes, and he was impatient? Okay fine; by this point I’d have drunk rubbing alcohol just to get something in my glass. We set about ordering food, hopefully. Surely they had food…
At the end of our trip, under the same roof but in the fancy Michelin-starred restaurant this time, a pleasant young woman from Piemonte was handling wine service. There was some overlap between her list and that of the neighboring “wine bar,” but this time I knew to avoid those bottles. However, the first four wines I sought to obtain were either not available or the vintage was wrong. I hated to harry the poor woman but it was hardly my fault. I smiled and was patient, and when a bottle finally materialized – not what I wanted but what I was “willing to drink,” I said to her, This can’t be easy for you, and you have my sympathy, she replied “It’s okay as long as people are nice to me.”
This restaurant also had a piano player, to whom we were seated nearby, which permitted us to hear in great detail how appallingly out of tune the piano was. Every time he’d land on one of the, oh maybe a dozen off keys, we’d wince. And yet the food was outstanding. I thought to suggest they give the pianist a two-week hiatus and use the funds they saved to A) conduct a wine inventory and reprint the lists, and B) get the fucking piano tuned. I decided not to. I have enough battles to fight, and the problem had to have run deeper than my constructive suggestion could address.
The good news is, we ended up on a new stretch of autobahn that includes the bridge over the Mosel that caused such consternation when it was proposed and even more when it was under construction, at which point it was much too late to stop it. But if you’re approaching the bridge from the south, the final exit before you reach it is “Traben-Trarbach” and when you take that exit you are rewarded with a stunning and spectacular first impression of the Mosel – one of the most dramatic I’ve ever seen. From left to right you see the entire expanse of what seem from this angle to be (literally) perpendicular vineyards, Würzgarten, Prälat, Treppchen, Försterlay, and as the exit road curves down you have plenty of time to gape at them. If you’re with Mosel newbies and you want to blow their minds, show them this.
This was a visit-our-friends trip, but our friends make wine and so we tasted, but the sketchy notes that follow will be augmented with my curious little tasting essays when I lay hands on the wines at home over the next few months. I don’t disavow what I write here, but it’s based on the kind of superficial quick-tasting I used to have to do, and whose limitations have since become dramatically evident to me.
Had I retired as and when I’d planned to, the final visits would have had some ceremony attached to them, and this would have tied things up in a fragrant little bow. Sort of like “closure,” if I didn’t loathe that word. But since I retired when I was….compelled to, there were breaches in all those relationships that made them feel unfulfilled and incomplete. I need to stabilize things again; these people mean a lot to me, and they weren’t just “guys I bought wine from.” I came back feeling this had been accomplished, and now that we didn’t have “business” to distract us, we could enjoy the simple sentimentality of our long and friendly associations with one another.
Our first visit was to WEINGUT THEO MINGES. This (now) VDP, certified organic estate is without an American importer, which I think is a travesty. The wines have never been better (especially the reds), there’s a natty group of wines as good as these can be – think Nikolaihof good – the future of the estate is secure for another generation, and prices are reasonable. I’ll continue to report on the wines here, and with this visit I wanted to look at wines outside of what I’d “usually” taste.
Among the reds a small revolution sems to have taken place. In the past these were rustic and tannic, common errors made by vintners who wished their reds to taste “important,” but these new beauties were suave, elegant and highly drinky. Starting with a 2022 St Laurent which was so yummy I know people who’d call it glou-glou (and I hope these people would note the complete freedom from flaws, especially the reductions this variety is prone to.) A Pinot Noir, 2020 “Tradition” has minerality, texture, poise and length ONE PLUS. 2020 Pinot Noir Kalkmergel(chalky marl) has more mojo and stony assertiveness. It’s very good and jumps through more of the expected hoops, but I found it less graceful. Next up was a 2020 Pinot Noir Rosenkranz (erste lage), and this was even “sweeter” yet still salty and sleek. A medicinal edge showed on the finish. Finally another 2020 Pinot Noir Rosenkranz (a GG this time) was similar but with more tangible carob, and better-balanced alcohol. They’ve traveled some distance with these, and have just a little further to go.
I wanted to taste SEKT. I am glad I did. The first was a 2020 Pinot Meunier Brut Nature, for which my high hopes were not completely fulfilled; it was fun, if a little reduced. Then a 2022 Pinot Blanc Brut Nature, with all of 11% alc, a hugely useful fizz; salty and structured with a semolina doughiness. Then came a masterpiece. This was 2022 Goldmuskateller Brut Nature, which was wild, generous, rich and entirely superb. Wow! TWO PLUSSES
A little flight of PINOT BLANCS started with a basic 2022 Löss, from a too-long opened bottle – I didn’t have the heart to ask them to open another one, especially when the 2023 Böchinger Rosenkranz Im untern Kreuz GG was so serious and so very good, whereas a 2016 was fantastic! TWO PLUSSES, though I don’t know if they still have any to sell.
Time for RIESLINGS. I only tasted the dry ones. In the past I’ve had trouble with them, based largely on a curiously pervasive bitterness, which was absent from this group. The 2023 Flemlingen is balanced and quite appealing. 2023 Gleisweiler is almost creamy. Big developments here! Pleasurable and drinky and wonderfully, 11.5% alc. 2023 Gleisweiler Kalkstein reverted somewhat to their former style, chewy and rocky. 2023 Gleisweiler im oberen Letten is a loving and intricate wine. ONE PLUS. 2021 Burrweiler Schäwer (from the only slate vineyard in the Pfalz) is excellent, surprisingly silky and elegant. ONE PLUS. 2023 Gleisweiler Hölle Unterer Faulenberg GG is another “Cru” in the best sense.
This estate has long excelled at what I call the Hans-Gunter Schwarz trilogy – Scheurebe, Muskateller, and Rieslaner – and at this point I’d argue the Scheus are second only to Müller-Catoir. (Everybody’s Muscats are second to Catoir’s, so that isn’t news….) I had the 2023 Scheurebe Gleisweiler Trocken which was as always a complete delicious success. ONE PLUS. Regine Minges poured me an astonishing 2014, which was another wonderful ’14 but a subtle Scheurebe; still, it was huge fun and even showed a spiritual dimension I was quite moved by. TWO PLUSSES Finally, my “house-wine” the 2023 feinherb was, as always, perfect. PERFECT! Both a glug-glug-glug and ONE PLUS.
Among the MUSATELLERS was a recherché one in the (natty) “Wurzelfieber” (root-fever) family of extremely long aging on the gross lees without sulfur. This 2022 was fascinating but not especially varietal, or rather it was a variant called GOLDMUSKATELLER (which has less acidity); the wine was exotic and culinary, less a wine that “goes-with” food than a wine that is itself food. The “regular” 2023 Gelber Muskateller Trocken is a juice-bomb of YUM; another wine both glug-glug-glug and ONE PLUS I was less impressed by 2023 Goldmuskateller (with sweetness) was fetching, but I wanted more angles and corners.
I concluded with another “Wurzelfieber,” this one a 2022 Pinot Gris, a wee slip of a wine with 11.5% alc that reminded me of some of Diedre Heekin’s best wines at La Garagiste (in Vermont). ONE PLUS
We paid a visit to ZIEREISEN (obviously!) and I had a quick run-through of wines I’ll taste in greater depth later. The salient news is the gorgeous character of the ’21 Spätburgunders, which are as different from the 2020s as consecutive vintages can be.
’20 is clearly and tangibly “great” (and I think the scare-quotes can be dispensed with); rich, large scaled, sumptuous, chocolatey, and as resonant as cathedral bells. ’21 in contrast is exquisite, less heroically scaled, fervidly floral, and amazingly detailed. Here they are, along with a few of the top wines from older vintages:
2021 Tschuppen: refined fruity aromas and a coniferous and adorable palate
2021 Talrain: highly ferrous aroma; gorgeously cerebral, lucid and limpid At least ONE PLUS
2021 Jaspis Hermann: (neighbor of Talrain, vines from the 60s, new holding) This is amazing. Rich, mineral, artichoke, fir. TWO PLUSSES
2021 Schulen: articulate and herbal.
2021 Rhini: is fine but not elevated nor obviously better than its colleauges as it usually is. Frost is the culprit.
2021 Zipsin: 11.7% alc! The fragrance is pure Chambolle’ as pretty as can be but with rich interior substance. TWO PLUSSES
2019 Bürgin: after the ‘21s this has a more mainstream profile but also a ton of vinosity and a nubby texture; made me think of certain Beaune 1er Crus. ONE PLUS
2019 “Ten-four”: enormously chocolatey and seductive. TWO PLUSSES
Having stirred my soul with those Pinots, it was time to survey the Gutedels. But first I must tell you of another south-Baden Gutedel I drank from a grower I didn’t know (and have shamefully neglected to record), which indicated that a trend seems to exist wherein this grape, formerly considered “neutral and slurpy” is now being made in ambitiously recherché ways by other growers who share Ziereisen’s pirate-rebel sensibility.
The basic 2022 Heugumber (grasshopper) is nutty and yummy as always; raw dough and walnut oil. The 2022 Steinkrügle is an especially successful vintage of this (old-style) Meursault look-a-like; juicy and fetching and focused. ONE PLUS.Finally the 2021 10-4, with which he intends to produce the “Montrachet of Gutedel” comes closest to realizing that quixotic ambition. Closest, but still some distance away. Still, one admires the derring-do, and the wine is replete with brown butter and raw cookie dough. TWO PLUSSES
There was one little side-wine I’d never tasted, a 2021 Muskatgutedel that was giddy fun. It tasted just like I’d imagined, and is quite the glug-glug-glugger. You probably have to go there to taste it, but you’re already there with your pilgrimage to a citadel of Pinot Noir.
His Syrahs can be perplexing. The 2021 Gstad is a gauze of Syrah, with an attractive aroma, freshness and melody – but who will fathom it? In effect you have to forget “Syrah” and welcome this compellingly ghostly, pale being. A 2021 Däublin is much riper, though still limpid and discreet, but juicy, with good length. That said, it is more markedly northern than a MOSEL Syrah (from Regnery in Klüsserath) that actually had more body and vinosity. I cannot explain this. Back to Baden, the 2019 10-4 gets closer to the “point” of the variety; warmer, more berried, markedly mineral. ONE PLUS
EUGEN MUELLER is alas another estate searching for an American importer. This I find baffling. The estate has every great Cru in Forst, which is rather like having all the Grand Crus in Vosne-Romanée, and the wines are generally excellent and the prices are genial. I think this reflects what I call the “fallacy of triviality” whereby a phenomenon that would garner OBSESSIVE ATTENTION in any nation without umlauts in its language, is blithely ignored when it comes from German-speaking locales. If Riesling is the greatest grape – and it is – and If these are among its most precious sources – as they are – and if you can obtain them without breaking the bank – as you can, or could have – then you know what? You should care more. In fact, much more.
RIESLINGS: (just the dry ones)
2023 Basalt – an early picking from Pechstein and (a little) Musenhang, and it’s lovely, juicy, balanced, full of character. 12.5 alc. Polished and tasty.
2023 Pechstein -a lot of umami here, along with the Pechstein twang, more stony than flowery, and quite salty. Again polished, almost suave. ONE PLUS2023 Ungeheuer – veal stock with kampot pepper, a seriously juicy wine, with lift and inner length – and again, nothing “earthy” or rural about it. Hugely satisfying, ONE PLUS.
2023 Jesuitengarten mineral, hymm-like, with an inside melody, some textural bite but the allusiveness of a true Cru, blossoming in the glass. ONE PLUS
NOW TO THE GGS
2023 Ungeheuer GG this has the goods especially on the suavely woody finish; it’s bigger and more heroic than the 2nd wine, but not necessarily more pleasurable.
2022 Ungeheuer Ziegler is the happy face of ’02 – honestly this ought to have been a slam dunk to sell. Has he ever made better wines?
2023 Jesuitengarten has the stern minerally side of this cru – if it even has such a side; needs decanting, or time (as they say) but the indicators are favorable.
2022 Jesuitengarten is Pfalz nobility. A rare 13.5% but somehow both juicy andsleek. It could be seen as heavy-treaded, but I can’t help loving this lumpen country gent. ONE PLUS.
A TRIO OF KIRCHENSTUCK GG
First the 2021, the sort of basic explication of the Cru for the -101- students. “You could say it’s ethereal” says the professor, as the students nod with comprehension. ONE PLUS
(He’s doing these with cultured yeast and lees contact now) 2022 is the juice bomb, dressed in a heavy leather coat against the snow. Not mystic but alluding to something “else” as a gesture within the lavishness. ONE PLUS 2023 is the mineral summons. The question of texture should be settled over the years. ONE PLUS
AND NOW TO PECHSTEIN GG
2022 Pechstein GG is the champ-peen among the ‘22s, a superb Pechstein that’s jammed with mineral jazz in a lovely juicy format. This one shows the flowers also TWO PLUSSES. 2023 Pechstein is again the explicable Cru this year, and it has the virtue of directness vis-à-vis-the obscure mysticism of Kirchenstück. Fantastic mineral clarity, perfect texture, a stunning dry Riesling with all its virtues plusdrinkability. TWO PLUSSES
The best lineup of Rieslings I ever tasted here.
2023 Sauvignon Blanc: the basic bottling is fantastic! Glug-glug glug – I want a case of it! The Leidenschaft bottling is riper and juicier, salty and seductive.
DARTING turned out to be a valedictory encounter. Despite having seven kids who might have taken over, and despite this being a successful and profitable producer, none were willing, and so 2023 is the final vintage here. The doors will still be open for sales of the existing inventory, as long as it lasts. The disposition of the vineyards is not yet known. Neither Helmut Darting nor his sister Heike seemed terribly stricken, but rather stoic, and each looks forward to being “retired.” And while I am sincerely happy for them, it is sad news for me.
This isn’t for any “business” reasons, as I’m retired myself from the mercantile side of wine. I’m sad that a laudable estate will cease to exist, and that the number of conscientious “commercial” wineries will be reduced by one. I was always proud of Dartings, because they considered the “simple” wine drinker and offered that person anything but simple wines. Should you suppose my standards are too lofty for wines such as these, it happens my cellar is full of them. Now what will I do, without the Pinot Meunier and the Muscat and the Scheurebe and the Pinot Blanc Sekt and and and?
Think about it. What lives in the world between industrial mundane dreck and “serious” wine from “important” growers? Not much more than sweet-fuck-all, that’s what. The passing of an estate like Darting is, at the very least, cause for concern, and the loss will become ever more apparent as time goes by.
REDS:
2022 Meunier as always yummy, ripe and generous this time, but fetching and delightful. A CELLAR FAVORITE. 2021 Pinot Noir is adequate. 2019 Pinot Noir Barrique, is good of its type, not too grossly woody, a little amateurish and “sincere,” but far from disagreeable. 2023 St Laurent, oddly metallic, of all things.
Pinot Blanc Sekt was bungled by the “maker” (i.e., the company that turned the still wine into Sekt) as it is far too dark – yet it tastes good, albeit you should drink it pronto. Pinot Blanc still, 2023, is good, reasonably rich though toastier than I’d like. The lighter yeastier vintages were better.
Rieslings: 2023 Kabinett Trocken Liter – on the money! Perfect basic dry Riesling, a tic of celeriac is not disagreeable. I love a wine that does the job. 2022 Kabinett Trocken “vom weissen kalk” (actually Kallstadter Annaberg) is the best facet of minerality; “white” minerality, a cerebral yum if you will.ONE PLUS . 2023 Kabinett Trocken (Dürkheimer) Spielberg, great aromas, site-typical, racy palate with dark flowers, tight but serious. 2023 (Dürkheimer) Michelsberg Kabinett is juicier - these 23s are demanding physically in the mouth – all are bottle-young. 2023 Kabinett Halbtrocken Liter, is as usual, perfect! Glug-glug-glug!
2023 Muskateller Trocken, 11.5% alc, ah! Now we’re talking. Superb, racy, delish. A hint of elderflower. ONE PLUS.
SWEETS: 2022 Herrenberg Riesling Spätlese is tasty in its mango-y way. A gesture toward a shrinking clientele.
2023 Scheurebe Spätlese (Honigsäckel) discreet, grapefruity, correctly citric but currently missing the cat scratch. Will it come?
2023 Gewürztraminer Kabinett – utterly correct aromas, and the palate is perfect, crisp and spirited – 54 g RS! – ideal of its type – all the fragrances and none of the heaviness.
STICKIES: 2020 Rieslaner BA , if you must drink a “dessert” wine this is better than 90% of them, exotic, balanced, drinky. ONE PLUS
2022 Albalonga BA – an astonishingly fine dessert wine; how did they let this variety disappear. Like a honey from roasted red beets and herbs TWO PLUSSES AT THE VERY LEAST
DAUTEL had just sent two vintages worth of samples (resulting in the huge tasting report I just ran) so this visit was mostly social. I like the guy; everyone likes the guy. We de did, though, taste a few things he’s bottled since sending me the last batch of wines. But it was seeing Christian Dautel that justified driving through a Biblical rainstorm to get to him. Bönnigheim, of course, was sunny.
2023 Trollinger – this one’s a gurgler! GLUG to the nth degree. A whole-cluster explosion of pure giddy joy.
2023 estate Spätburgunder (in bottle 6 weeks) and so a little mute; elegant and marrowy, stylish, silky, in effect as it ought to be. The intro-wine should charm, if not seduce. The best vintage yet.
2022 Lemberger Bönnigheim is, again, silky,as though it’s in some sort of magic glass; the wine is like a dainty spicy Blaufränkisch, rippling and ladylike. Charmingly angular. Empty glass is articulate.
2021 Lemberger Sonnenberg smells like a million bucks; the flavor is everything Bf can be without tilting into the toothy iron and pepper; more a rapture than an instruction. ONE PLUS. (would be higher, subjectively.)
SEKTS 2022 Riesling Brut, classy, like a Montagne Chard, not resonant but certainly graceful and with a nice brioche-y finish – deg 4/2024 and surprisingly deft and even-keeled.
Pinot Brut nature 2019 is a rich, juicy BdN, deg 8/24, long toasty cling, discreet PN fruit, interior length, balanced, entirely successful. Neither is over-ambitious which may be why both are so elegant and sensible.
A Trio of Pinot Blancs (and the man is a master of Pinot Blanc….)
2023 estate is as usual, essentially ideal as a “practical” glass of wine, not neutral but discreet, not heavy but dense, not “fruity” but flavory. Any decent cellar should have it and be glad.
2023 Bönnigheim is a favorite for a very good reason; a salty grinning beast of terroir leavened by exquisite lees-sweetness. ONE PLUS.
2022 “-S- “ the ashen type of lees and a useful rich-blowsy texture, “useful” because it works for a quenelle or a fish stew, and it’s a lovely balanced rich white wine.
My visit/pilgrimage to VON WINNING was dedicated to tasting the wines not offered in the States. I’m the one who initially selected which of the 1er Crus to offer, based on showing the widest range of styles with the smallest number of choices. I’d do it again now, though I’d have had to include the superb Herrenletten they first introduced with the ’21 vintage.
But Von Winning is an example of a phenomenon in which many German estates have expended to the point they become unwieldy for an agent or importer. The herd-thinning of the last twenty years (or so) has made excellent land available to anyone with the money to buy it and the infrastructure to produce it . Much of this land is precious, and it's impossible to say no to the chance to make wine from it. But if an estate offers 40-50 different wines, the agent who seeks to create a manageable portfolio has to leave some first-rate wines behind, and worry that the limited range of offerings doesn’t do justice to the property.
Lucky me, with the luxury to simply attend to the wines…..
2023 estate Riesling classic ginger/pineapple, limpid and skipping, the wine is just incredibly smart – it has a small bite at the very end but is otherwise buoyant and spicy and precisely what it should be.
2022 Deidesheimer (village) has the “gooey” character of ‘22 (on the heels of the zippy ‘23) – it’s probably early-gathered/younger vines from the best sites; has a nice hint of wood and smells like Herrgotsacker; also shows the pointed finish of ’22 but up to then it’s juicy and generous and grainy.
2022 Forster (village) is kinkier, slimmer and with esoteric perfumes; straighter lines (and less wood) into a peppery mentholated finish.
Now the 1er Crus (a.k.a. Erste Lagen)
2023 Paradiesgarten (available Stateside) is seriously smoky and loaded with fennel seed and summer savory; fabulously strict and linear, the best vintage in many years; a silex note, flinty, pinpoint balance, intricate finish. Has entirely swallowed its wood. ONE (STRONG) PLUS
2023 Mäushöhle: as usual the exotic, exacting aromas of lemon grass, fir and ylang ylang; palate is prominently bony but the flavors are compelling, peppery again, and you have to accept its angularity, though it grows in the glass. Very good, but the pieces don’t quite align.
2023 Leinhöhle (available Stateside) has its “frowning plum” aroma, blossomy, quetsch-like, but this is resplendent on the palate, with the seamless mineral of Paradiesgarten augmented by the largeness of earthy fruit. The tang is hard to resist! Like a really cunning compound salt you objected to on principle but can’t stop using AT LEAST ONE PLUS 2023 Herrgottsacker I continue to think should be an “interesting” lieu-die rather than a 1er Cru; this is tasty agreeable wine with the behavior of a Cru but with simpler flavors.
2023 Nussbien has a case to make! Hyssop, celery, marjoram…and the palate is slinky and slender and seductive; impressive all the way to the biting finish. But the saltiness and flint of what precedes it is pronouncedly erotic. ONE PLUS.
2023 Reiterpfad (available Stateside) is of course peachier and in this vintage, seriously pointed. The palate is just fabulous. The complete genius of Pfalz in…not really “miniature,” but in a place below the colossal. I’d argue for profundity here though, as there’s a vibrant conversation among each element of Pfalz jazz; grain, peach, sweet-earth, nutmeg and cardamom. Just superb – TWO PLUSSES .
2023 Herzog has a lively spicy aroma and seems eager to convince, and it’s by far the best edition of this wine since they launched it. In a way it offers the best elements of Mäushöhle with more coherence; we have citrus, 5-spice, and a finish of mint and vanilla. ONE PLUS .
2023 Bürgergarten (11.5 alc!), bright, melodic, springy aromas; palate is less overt than Herzog but also deeper, with more old-vines cling; lots of mirabelle, a pretty wine with surprising substance and a markedly fetching aftertaste.
2023 Oelberg I don’t know this Cru at all. I know of it but never had any. At first it’s a well-aged stock of Pfalz Riesling with carraway seeds. The palate really comes on, with superb earthy dimension and length; cloves and crackles; both appetizing and fascinating. ONE PLUS.
2023 Herrenletten sulfury at first. Then as always, jasmine, chalk, salts, length, ethereality – how can something be so solid, earthy, floral and mystic at the same time? Like a syrup of Cox’s Orange Pippins. TWO PLUSSES
2022 Idig GG, new for me, and quite good; it’s like Ungeheuer without the particular spice. Juicy, generous, relatively one dimensional (relatively!) and does the job. ONE PLUS
2022 Chardonnay Herrenletten (13%) nice! Crunchy, properly connected oak; a little along lines of Wm. Fevre, but in the best sense “toasty” and the wood is mitigated by a tiny degree of RS.
THE SAUVIGNON BLANCS:
2023 “!!” remarkably pungent, red pepper, less adorable than usual but still gulpable. Albeit assertive.
2022 “1” by this point it’s just a matter of fine and finer. This one is “mucky” and it misses the usual high note but it’s still a singularly persuasive wine of its type, and it has the gooey element of many 22s. 2021 “Imperiale” the question is whether one can surmount the dreadful vegetality of ‘21 SB….and the answer is, not quite. Mind you, there’s plenty of Sancerre that isn’t this good, but I avoid them also. I get the goal; let’s see it in a better vintage.
2021 “500” this one might work. I’d argue it does, but I’d quake at the price. But I’d insist that this is a very rare example of using the vegetality of ‘21 as a springboard. We don’t have great complexity here, but we do have a taming of the shrew.
2021 “OTC” It’s expensive, and it speaks to me. It’s assertively woodruffy, to a point one could consider blatant, yet it’s weirdly attractive. Maybe with repetition of the grossly-green 21 thing, it loses its annoying edge? I’m not standing up applauding – and I’ll be really glad to consider the 22, but what else could be done in ‘21?
The folks at MUELLER-CATOIR have been touchingly conscientious to send me the range of samples, and another batch is due to arrive in a few weeks. So this was largely a visit to thank them, and to talk with Martin Franzen (cellarmaster since 2002) which is always worthwhile. We wet the whistle with a few indulgences, just, you know, so we wouldn’t be parched. I was also forming a theory of the ’23 vintage and wanted to see how it played out at Catoir. Thus:
Pinot Blanc SEKT (which I think I’d never tasted) has lift and ripple and stone and crunch, and a finish of toasted semolina.
2023 RIESLINGS: The eventual GG Vogelsang seemed to be in a snit that day. Toasty and curious, it had no “fruit” as-such, and a sort of brassiness stood in for minerality. The finish was phenolic (common among many ‘23s) and I wasn’t getting Pfalz. 13% alc – the whole thing is atypical for Franzen, and I wonder if this was a proper bottle. Bürgergarten was floral and charming, lemon blossom and an angular herbal note added a piquant touch. Sleek, lucid, pretty. ONE PLUSHerrenletten , usually my favorite, was an elusive pale ghost of its typically queenly self; a dense mineral umami unfolded, or I thought it did, but the wine was dry after the lavishly attractive Bürgergarten.
2023 Sauvignon Blanc had an almost dainty aroma for the variety; really as graceful as can be, leading to a lovely discretion in the delicately fruity palate. The shrew is duly tamed, (though one may be forgiven for wondering why an estate that makes the world’s best Scheurebe needs to offer Sauvignon Blanc).
2023 Scheurebe Haardt (village) wasn’t terribly varietal (Scheu doesn’t thrive in excessive heat and drought); lemon marmalade rather than cassis and grapefruit, but a wild sage note poked its head out, and Scheu sometimes takes a couple years to come on.
2023 Muskateller Haardt (village) Thank god for this wine. We’d come from Alsace, where we duly ordered glasses of Muscat as aperitifs, and the wines were okay, in their spurious ways (too much Ottonel makes for a specious set of aromas, like air-fresheners you hang from the rear-view mirror). In any case the interior juiciness here rides along with a finely articulate form; not brash but amazingly precise, even elegant. Just superb. TWO PLUSSES
We took the restful, sylvan scenic route to the NAHE, and were nice and calm when we arrived at JAKOB SCHNEIDER. Calmer than Jakob himself, whom was fretful about the miserly crop in 2023, when Spring frost wreaked havoc over much of the central Nahe. He darted in while I was tasting with his wife Laura, and I asked him how the picking was going. “Well, we don’t really pick this year as much as we search for grapes,” he replied.
Two other things: I was reminded what a sensational person Laura is. And, I was saddened by the news that “Oma Liesel” had died in July, in her late nineties, suddenly and unexpectedly. I can’t say I “knew” Liesel, but she was certainly the symbol and the spirit of the domain. It’s been a tough year for losses; Willi Schaefer, Sigrid Selbach, the Merkelbachs, now Oma Liesel. One feels the heave of time, swelling along its inevitable wave. One old friend said “I hope I see you again” as we were taking our leave. Perhaps Liesel will be the star atop the Christmas tree. Perhaps they all will.
I had formed mixed impressions of the ’23 vintage, but here at Schneider it was outstanding. The American market has neglected Schneider – possibly due to the shadow cast by their friend and neighbor Dönnhoff – but this shouldn’t continue. I didn’t sample a ton, as a case of “official” samples is en route to me, but what I did taste was just superb.
ALL RIESLINGS:
2023 Grauschiefer Trocken is yummy. Smooth sailing and suave balance. It’s one of two estate dry Rieslings, the other being 2023 Melaphyr Tr (volcanic, where the last wine is slate), which again is almost creamy, though its typical exotics seemed subdued.
2023 Rosenheck Tr has crunch, vim and snap, though with a more typical closing sharpness (for ’23).
2023 Felsensteyr Tr is total Nahe YOWZA, Riesling in the form of a spice-box, a Nahe paradigm. ONE PLUS
2023 Klamm Tr is solid, snappy and juicy.
2023 Dellchen Tr is expressive (for a change with this introverted site), and grand, with overt umami. ONE PLUS
2023 “Magnus” (the reserve Hermannshöhle Tr) is exactly as it should be, the erogenous, gleaming GG. TWO PLUSSES
2023 Felsensteyr Halbtrocken has length, sizzle and spice, and ideal balance. ONE PLUS
2023 Rosenheck Kabinett is a perfect example of the genre; energy and moderate sweetness; only the sharp finish obtrudes.
2023 Kirschheck Spätlese is euphorically fruity, and yet again, a little clipped and sharp at the end. This won’t be the only time I found the dry wines better in 2023.
Laura and I tasted two Rosés, a dry one and a not-dry one, which I’d have blended to have a barely-not-dry one. Schneider’s Rosé is always exceptionally interesting.
We paid a visit to HEXAMER , whose big news is they bought the restaurant across the street, which used to be an “elevated country food” bib-gourmand sort of place, but which has utterly transformed itself. You can read about it here: https://www.traube-meddersheim.com
I took my wife Karen-Odessa there for her birthday, which happened while we were over in Germany. I had reasonable expectations, which the restaurant exceeded and then some. This is easily (Michelin) 1-star food, even at times 2-star food, at least on the degustation menu. (The a la carte menu is less ambitious.) The question is how they will survive at the edge of the Nahe in the middle of nowhere, and Hexamers are justifiably concerned about whether the place is too elevated for the locals. I get that, and would add that when the place is discovered by the restaurant guides – which is only a matter of time - will they be able to manage the uproar with fewer than three dozen seats? Still, these questions are ancillary to the truly gorgeous food they are capable of serving. Harald Hexamer was the person who conscripted the couple who do kitchen and dining room, and he seems bemused to have this tiger by the tail.
Before dinner we tasted a little wine. The 2023 estate Riesling Trocken shows piquant tree-fruit aromas, pure mirabelle; palate is snappy and mineral citric-dry, sweet-green herbs. Quite successful.
2021 Weissburgunder Herbstabfüllung, large cask, long lees, quite delicious, a surmise of cask and the leesy sweetness and his slim curvy style make for a captivating drink.
2021 Weissburg. No.1 reserve Trocken is the oaky one, yet it’s not without appeal thanks to the quality of fruit and to his endlessly sleek style.
2023 Schlossböckelheimer in den Felsen Riesling Trocken beautifully smoky and (Tasmanian) peppery; finishes with the “23 snap” but what precedes it is just so pretty.
2023 Schlossböckelheimer Königsfels Riesling Trocken is more rugged and firm, but while it’s less fetching it’s also better balanced, salty and spicy. ONE PLUS
2022 Riesling No.1 Trocken ( Meddersheimer Rheingrafenberg) is a big juicy flowing being, a bit woodier than it needs to be, but it wants to be regal and mostly succeeds.
2023 Sauvignon Blanc Trocken goodness this is classy; everything there and everything delicate, amazingly deft and articulate. If this variety has a refined side, it is here. TWO PLUSSES. Yes, it is that excellent.
2022 Scheurebe Trocken (23 is still in tank as there’s a lot of this) is a wee leetle parfait of cassis. A gleaming little sprite. Glugglugglug and ONE PLUS
2023 Riesling Halbtrocken is the mirabelle type; it’s perfect for me, unsurprisingly, intricate and salty; a green touch but a ridiculously useful wine.
2023 Porphyr is an ideal wine in a keenly good vintage – though the phenolic snap is present; it’s also misaligned structurally; in a paradox it’s an awkward wine that may be in some confusion of puberty.
KRUGER-RUMPF is an estate I’d lost some touch with, as they haven’t sent samples for me to taste at home. This is about to change, and my detailed report on the state of the domain will await a more comprehensive and deliberate sojourn with the wines in a few months. At this point the headlines might be – the wines are truly starting to justify the plaudits heaped upon them, and the estate is growing to a point I wonder about its future identity. But that’s speculation for another day. I did a quick-and-dirty romp through the highlights, and came away pleased with the quality of the wines, and stirred by the warmth of the welcome I received.
First the RIESLINGS: (Trocken unless otherwise noted)
2022 Estate lovely aromas, smooth, nuts and apples; excellent quality, rich and mineral and long. This is elevated. ONE PLUS
Same in 2023 – much spicier, more flowery, sexier, but equally poised and though ”sweeter” feeling it’s still a bomb for basic Riesling; slimmer and crisper.
2023 Quartzit is pretty and quince-y; the most positive side of ’23, without the phenolic finish. Charming and just a tiny bit too good for glugging.
2023 Binger is outstanding, jammed with its fruit (passion fruit, peach marmalade) and seductive juiciness, a side note of tarragon and matja powder. ONE PLUS
2023 “Zweistrom” (literally “two currents,” a cuvée of Scharlachberg and Pitterberg) this whole both unites the parts and exceeds them, though it has the old rustic bite these wines used to show (and the nip of 23), but in a juicier year it could be fascinating.
2023 Kapellenberg is angular, plummy, juicy, I call it “slinky” (and I know what I mean); just a little sharp at the end.
2023 Abtei starts with a sulfur burp and proceeds to naphthalene. Whether this is a phase, I can’t determine.
2022 Abtei is similar though structurally juicier; it also seems premoxed. I had higher hopes!
2023 Abtei 1937 is much more like it, the classic phyllite aromas; dignity and depth here, wonderful umami that’s not quite mineral, not quite herb, not quite fruit, but some allusion to all three – this is what it should be. TWO PLUSSES
2023 Dautenpflänzer GG is excellent, exotic, harmonious, full of character, and its spice is ethereal and haunting. ONE (STRONG) PLUS.
2023 Im Pitterberg GG is typically nutty and green-apple but what works here is the seamless depth of structure and the tertiary finish, with finely pulverized mineral. Also a lovely note of physio sweetness. Only a final finishing bite precludes two plusses ONE PLUS
2023 Im Langenberg the parcel is a cadaster that crosses current site-borders ;part Dautenpflänzer and mostly Kapellenberg, bit of so2 sting, but generally tangy/juicy if a little below the other GGs.
2023 Ries feinherb smells like Leinhöhle! It’s slim and plummy, more skeletal than the TR; good balance and desirable of course, but less weight than the dry wine.
2023 Phyllit feinherb is the best wine I’ve ever tasted from this estate, and it belongs in a class with Loewen’s “1896”; it has the fragrance of a 70s-vintage Rauenthaler and a dream of a palate. A complete wine, as is rarely found, and the very genius of Riesling; the concatenation of fruit, herb, mineral and incredible density while also lighter than air is miraculous. Haunting, delicate, rich…THREE PLUSSES
2023 Rheinberg Kabinett is only moderately sweet; a well-behaved wine, but the usual tangy-apple. Nice.
2023 Pitterberg Kabinett shows the better site; a finely delineated wine, fruit, mineral, umami; could be less sweet (but tasted room-temp) but there’s length and class here.
2023 Scheurebe Kabinett is simply huge fun. A riot of varietal laughter. ONE PLUS
2023 Dautenpflänzer Spätlese a finely refined aroma and moderate RS – less overt than either Kabinett – precise, complex, even a little grassy, but wow – how rare to find a Spät with invisible RS these days. TWO PLUSSES
And so to DÖNNHOFF
This collection encouraged a hypothesis suggesting that in 2023 the sweet wines could be wonderful, but the dry wines tended to be even better. After some uneven impressions of the ‘22s here, these 2023s are probably the best group of Trocken wines I’ve ever tasted at Dönnhoff. The shadow they cast is so encompassing as to obscure the beauty of the “sweet” wines – which are most definitely beautiful.
Everything here is 2023:
2023 Riesling stunning aromas and holy moly, what a palate. I never had a better vintage of this. It is the entire picture; you know the deets. TWO PLUSSES
2023 Tonschiefer monstrously beautiful aroma leads to a kick-ass palate, and no other term will do; has a slight green note and the raspy finish of some 23s but the sheer galvanic drive can’t be denied. ONE PLUS
2023 Kahlenberg the fruit drapes like a sari and the wine is as serene as a summer evening, and given that, the length is astounding. If you don’t form a crush on this, check that your heart’s still beating. ONE PLUS
2023 Höllenpfad is the most mineral and rock-solid vintage ever. If one insists on seduction this will stand up and boss you around. The Kahlenberg gives you a cat-bath.
2023 Mühlenberg GG the all-time best of this, with superb complexity, juicy interplay, swollen minerality, giddy earthiness; a kind of complexity that doesn’t show the arrangement of the pieces but rather the amazing intricacy of the Whole. Incredibly, THREE PLUSSES
2023 Felsenberg GG has its miracle 5-spice aroma (with extra ginger) has every great element plus intricate detailed minerality, and saltiness. An Alsace grower would assume you’d tampered with it somehow. Only the clasping tightness of the finish precludes the third plus. TWO PLUSSES
2023 Dellchen is, for this site, nearly scrutable, though the 23 finish is sort of risible; I respect its crackly brightness but I wish it would yield to explication. Not at all weak but the least of them so far. YET: the dreaded Zalto seems to have destroyed it, as it is much better from an ordinary Schott-Zwiesel tulip.
2023 Hermannshöhle GG smells like melting butter and uncooked basmati, plus all the craziness of the site; the palate is insanely mineral, tilting toward the twigs more than the cherries and fennel frond. THREE PLUSSES
-All the wines were bottled in August off the primary lees, i.e., no racking nor fining. – None have the sense-of-cask they have sometimes had.
2023 Brücke GG smells like a dream; it’s in the family with the Mühlenpfad in its insistant mineral umami; best from the tulip, densely juicy. TWO PLUSSES
THE NOT-DRY WINES:
2023 Riesling this is sexy, floral and angular with porphyry twang. It’s very good but the dry wine, amazingly, is better.
2023 Kreuznacher Krötenpfuhl Kabinett smells lovely, like muschelkalk with cloves and really overt woodruff. Fascinating but structurally nippy. 2023 Oberhäuser Leistenberg Kabinett is both a genius and a riddle; it is obviously brilliant yet has a “wild” green note; peach syrup plus matja into a vanilla bean finish itself tending green and nettle. ONE PLUS
2023 Niederhäuser Klamm Kabinett super peachy and charcuterie, Parma ham, juicy, sweet-green like verbena with quince jelly. Charming. ONE PLUS
2023 Norheimer Kirschheck Sp is markedly green, as though it had 25% Sauv-Bl in it – what happened?
2023 Oberhäuser Brücke Sp is adamantly salty and mineral, and bottle sick, grinding gears, much potential hidden at present.
2023 Niederhäauser Hermannshöhle Spno issues with this; it’s everything it could be, spicy and expressive. TWO PLUSSES (FOR NOW)
I was visiting friends in Baden-Württenberg recently where the fog was so damn thick, constant and finally depressing, we loaded the boot of our cars with wine & groceries and escaped to the Austrian Alps for a week of respite...a three week fog bank that won't budge will make you bloody crazy.