2004 Burgundy. Talked up at its release as a “classic” vintage where vineyards showed their terroir. So the top vineyards perform, erm, well, and the lesser vineyards are shit. Which means an underperforming vintage then.
So was it so bad?
As a white wine vintage, not a bad vintage at all. There are some beautiful whites made in 2004, and I don’t think any disagree that this is where the strength of 2004 lies. Drinking from my own cellar seems to confirm this, although much of that has been wines made by Bouchard - hard to go too far wrong!
But what about the reds, do they deserve to be maligned? There are folks i nAustralia who flipped their whoel order to auction after seeing lukewarm reports. Theres all sorts of talk of the vintage being “green” but lots of tasting notes which indicate otherwise. Some say there were issues with bugs of different sorts, and when the grapes hit the triage tables they couldn’t all be picked out. Ladybirds and millipedes in particular seem to have the finger pointed as beasts that have infected the vintage.
Well whatever is true, here are a couple of 04 village level reds (and reasonable ones at that).
04 Armand Rousseau Gevrey Chambertin: Pale, almost salmon pink. Starts out with lovely spicy notes while it still has a bit of bottle spritz. An hour’s quarantine sees this settle down into a lovely drink. Violets, forest berries, some undergrowth, pinous sappy elements, and lovely density on the tongue. Tannins remains fine and gentler now. Lots of coiled power here bodes well for the future, but a lovely drink right now. None of the green elements that many seem to find in 04’s.
04 Louis Jadot Chambolle Musigny: Violets, some berries, touches of maturity, pinot sap that verges towards greenness, combined with what tastes like unripe acids. Fine tannins and most of the pinot palate profile. Technically this is all here, but it has a number of green elements and just doesn’t taste very nice.
This was never going to be a definitive test but there you go – 1 all. You might expect the Rousseau will be good given the maker’s reputation. But Jadot is a biggish negociant and should have plenty of fruit to pick from. The best conclusion I can make based on these two wines is buyer beware.
Cheers
Andrew
Now I’ve been back from the German odyssey for a while, its back to life as normal - and drinking as normal. hers a few things that we’ve consumed at our place over the last week or so:
07 DeBortoli yarra Valley Reserve Pinot Noir: 2 bottles. The first tasted like a bandaid dipped in iron filings and stuck to a horses backside, which was then ridden in the rain, though some mud, and rubbed against a similarly wet dog. The second also took a fair bit of time to show itself. All pooey and mushroomy at first, some bright strawberries, raspberries and cream emerged after a fair bit if breathing and coaxing. If you have some, cellar it a while longer for it to all come together - there are some nice ingredients here but they aren’t talking to each other just now.
07 Carrick Pinot Noir: After the DeBortoli, this could have been a shiraz. Weight and richness reflecting the year in Central, black cherries and plums, and a mocha character which is usually oak or shiraz - I’m not sure what that reflects in this wine though. Big and powerful, a tasty drink as long as you aren’t looking for Burgundy. not overly complex though - just drink it and enjoy.
07 Egon Muller Scharzhof QbA Riesling: As QbA’s go this is expensive - more expensive than most Kabinetts. This is now losing the white flower freshness and vibrancy of its youth and picking up more palate weight and some honeyed notes to go with its citrus flavours. Suggest if you have any, wait a few years for it to build complexity and enter the secondary phase of its life.
06 Dr Loosen Erdener Pralat Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel: My first look at the 2006. Initially a bit strange and plasticene like and not pleasant to smell or taste. Some air time does this a lot of good, and on the palate is shows its Pralat origins - its all yellow fruit, peaches, apricots and oranges. It seems to be relatively lightly touched by the honey of botrytis. Acids are present but not yet really asserting themselves. More in the pure and clean mould than anything complex and spicy, and it does show its origins. Nice enough, but $75 for a half is getting a bit steep. Drinking window brought forward, as this is already approachable.
Monteiths Crushed Apple Cider: Went to a local chain looking for a cider for some cooking - and spotted this. So a little bit of it went toward braising some fennel, a little went toward an apple crumble, and a lot went to wards slaking my thirst on a lazy afternoon. Lovely spicy clean apples, slipped down a treat.
Impressions, issues, things you might not know
Production, demand and Vintages
The 09 Vintage is a winner. For me probably the best all round vintage since 01. Some will prefer the classical 04 and 08’s, others will like the richer years like 06, then 07 and 05 (and even 03), however 09 offers something for everyone. I saw good wines at every level from QbA to top dessert wines. Buy the 08’s and leave them in the cellar, then load up on 09 and drink them gradually over a long period.
What Comes to Australia from Mosel and Nahe is the cream of the crop. There must be oceans of 3 Euro wine being sold somewhere – we don’t get these wines in Aus.
Huge chunks of German wine sold in Germany is trocken. For some producers, this is their domestic income, where their export income is usually from the fruitier wines. However some are seeing their export markets changing too, with more demand for drier wines.
The area
The Mosel itself was a little different to my expectations. Yes there are lots of silly-steep vineyards. But there are an awful lot of grapes planted, over a very long length of the river, and not all on the steep, sun gathering slopes. The 30km stretch that runs from Trittenheim to Erden is pretty much the centre of the universe and where most of the well known wines come from. But there are about 300km of this river, and there are vines pretty much from the French border right to Koblenz where it flows into the Rhine.
The Middle Mosel is fairly touristy – some big caravan parks in a couple of places. Cycle tourism seems well established, and it’s a great place to be riding a bike! A group we talked to said there were cycle paths pretty much the whole length of the river, and villages every few km to stop.
Viticulture and Winemaking
I didn’t get the impression however that the Mosel is a natural home for the drier wines. Nahe was certainly more impressive in this area.
Permitted yields in the Mosel are up to 120hl/ha. The good producers go nowhere near this, 50 to 60hl/ha seems more typical from what we learned, for riesling anyway. No one wants to go too low, the increase in richness and intensity is not seen as necessarily a good thing for Riesling (although we didn’t pursue this with anyone).
“Natural Ferments’ – meaning wild yeast ferments, are very much in vogue. The only exceptions from the producers we visited were for lower end wines where anything other than clean flavours was seen as a risk. On the pradikat wines we never saw anything overtly funky, feral or problematic, the effect appeared to be subtle – with the possible exception of the Frohlich GG.
A couple of times we heard concerns about climate change and what that will mean for the area and for business. There are some clever things that can be done in the vineyard, and in Schmitges case, some long term thinking has influenced site selection toward cooler sites.
Visiting
Some wineries are set up with “open to the public” cellar door style facilities, but not too many as far as we could tell. All of our tastings were by appointment. JJ Prum and Willi Schaefer had no dedicated tasting facilities. All of the places we tasted had the family home, winery, and any reception facilities closely integrated.
It is easy to get around, and a GPS with German maps should do the job, unless you’re prepared to brave things with paper maps.
All of the tastings were tutored and structured to varying degrees. We never took less than 1 ½ hours at any location.
We didn’t get enough exposure to the Nahe to form many strong impressions. The Nahe is not a place you will find or visit by accident, and seems very sleepy.
Favourite wines (of the various styles) – all 09’s unless noted
Estate: Donnhoff QbA
Trocken: Donnhoff, Schaefer Frohlich and the Fritz Haag Spatlese Fienherb
GG: Donnhoff Niederhauser Hermannsholle, Schaefer Frohlich Bockenauer Felsneck
Kabinett: 08 JJ Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr, Schaefer Frohlich (don’t remember which one).
Spatlese: 08 JJ Prum Graacher Himmelrich, Lieser Niederberger Helden, Fritz Haag BJS
Auslese: Schaefer Frohlich Bockenauer Felsneck
Dessert: Schmitges Eiswien; Lieser Niederberger Helden Langhe Goldkapsel
Red: Schmitges Dornfelder (in a very small field!)
Honorable mention to the Schmitges Auction Auslese – a love it or hate it style.
Things to watch for.
Schaefer Frohlich. I still remember walking out of the reception room with my jaw on my chest at how good these wines were across the range. He doesn’t seem to have the Donnhoff reputation yet, but he will one day. Soon.
Andreas Schmitges. Doesn’t have the raw material of the other makers, but his passion and willingness to try new things speaks to me – this man will make exceptional wines. The 09 Eiswein is from a vineyard called Erdener Herrenberg – No I’d never heard of that vineyard either. Its at the top of the slope, eisweins are traditionally made from grapes down by the river.
And that’s all – until next time…
After the thrill of JJ Prum yesterday, this also shaped up to be an interesting day, as these three producers have the right ingredients to make up the core f a good German collection – great sites, good winemaking, and wines right across the range from trocken to eiswein.
Willi Schaefer
We’re greeted at 10 by Christoph Schaefer, and his little boy, and his wife, and his father! And once again we are tasting in the dining room. This is strange to me, tasting in family homes, and perhaps a little uncomfortable. But what we have seen so far is that every winemaker we have visited has the family home, cellar, winemaking facilites and tasting facilities integrated into one set of buildings. They all get regular visitors, ranging from 4 to 5 a day down to 4 or 5 a week, so we take some comfort we aren’t doing anything unusual.
I get a sense that Christoph is perhaps less used to working with visitors than some others as we begin to taste, but he lights up when I mention I already have his wines in our cellar. We taste:
09 Trocken
07 Graacher Himmelreich Kabinett
09 Graacher Himmelreich Kabinett
09 Graacher Domprobst Kabinett
09 Graacher Himmelreich Spatlese
09 Graacher Himmelreich Auslese (this is what I wrote down – these may have been Domprobst?)
76 Graacher Himmelreich Auslese
09 Graacher Domprobst Beerenauslese
I didn’t get AP no’s on any of them. Schaefer are focused on the fruity wines, with the only trocken being the estate wine. Fair enough – their overall production is the smallest of all the producers we visit, coming from only 4ha at Graach with a tiny holding in Wehlener Sonnenuhr.
These are lovely wines, taut and elegant across the board. These show a more open floral and citrus set of flavours than say the JJ Prums from the same site which are all about minerality, and will be approachable earlier. This combination of subtly complex fresh flavours, approachability and good structure make these a must for any serious cellar, and I must say 09 has been very kind to this estate.
The 76 shows these wines wil keep for a log time. Christoph poses the question about wines just lasting the distance vs improving. To me the 76 is older than I would want, but this is still full of life and will go another 10 if these are the flavours you want. Christoph has wines back to 1921 in the cellar. He also jokes about bottling Kabinett halves (in a “who’s the idiot that want these kind of way) and some magnums. I laugh and own up that these are for me!
The BA is a great piece of work. The bottle has been open nearly a month and was still fresh and lovely to drink. 180g/l isn’t the sugar monster seen in some BA’sand the 50% botrytis component is supporting rather then defining.
We walk away affirmed that all is good at Schaefer and that we will load up on 09.
Graacher Domprobst
All of Schaefer’s production spends some maturing time in 1000l foudres (I could only count 18 of them!). This oak is old and clearly quite neutral. Schaefer also use wild yeast ferments as does almost everyone else, with the aim of adding interest and complexity to the wines along with the wood treatment. I have to say the effect is subtle and all the better for it, these wines would lose a lot if too much winemaker trickery became evident in the finished product.
Schloss Lieser
At Schloss Lieser
Off to Lieser to visit Thomas Haag. Lieser is a tiny little village, but it does indeed have a Schloss (palace) in it. In fact he Schloss Lieser wine facility and Haag home is in a building that was once part of the schloss. We’ve been told Thomas wont have a lot of time, and we also have an appointment to visit his brother Oliver the same afternoon. When we arrive we find there has been a mistake and Thomas had us in his diary yesterday – I get that instant feeling of dread – did we stuff this up? Are we going to taste?. Thomas’ 16 year old daughter practises her English on us briefly and like almost everyone in Germany she is very good. We are then greeted by Wilhelm Haag, who has driven over from Brauneberg, having an inkling that Thomas’ diary may have been wrong.. Apparently there has been some misunderstanding and Thomas was expecting us yesterday. However Wilhelm is very gracious and shows us through the Lieser range, which I really like.
As we work through these wines I notice that as I spit, Wilhelm drinks!
The QbA’s and trockens are a touch dry and light on fruit flavour for me. The Kabinett and Pradikat wines are a step up. They are very tropical in the flavour spectrum across 08 and 09, and the 09’s have great acids to keep everything in balance. This seems to spread across the Niederberg and Brauneberg wines, and we don’t see this in the Fritz Haag wines from Brauneberg that we see next.
The flavour spectrum here is asuch a contrast to others we’ve seen so far, but it is delicious. I backed up the truck for the 06 Niederberger Helden Auslese Langhe Goldkapsel, and they have made that wine again in 09. Must make sure I get an allocation before it sells out, as it will.
On closures – entry level wines are screwcaps, and higher level wines are cork.
Fritz Haag
Then we follow Wilhelm in the car to Brauneberg to taste the Fritz Haag range.
Juffer Sonnenuhr - complete with sundial
On the way we stop and learn the difference between Juffer and Juffer Sonnenuhr, the two sites that form the backbone of the Fritz Haag portfolio. Apart from the latter having a sundial in it, Juffer Sonnenuhr is the bottom half to 2/3 of the slope, at about the midpoint of Juffer (lookingleft to right along the vineyard.
Again we start with Trockens, which are a big seller in Germany as a by the glass wine. Once again entry level wines in screwcap and higher level wines under cork. I don’t like the trockens, here, the most Austere so far and not to my palate. The auslese Fienherb from Brauneberger Juffer is very good, and everything from Kabinett upwards are great, really showing off the ethereal lifted flower and white peach characters I’ve always found in the Haag wines. Wines we try above Kabinett were the only ones I wrote down:
09 Brauneberger Juffer Spatlese: Pure and light white peach and flowers. Lovely wine.
09 Brauneberger Juffer Sonnenuhr Spatlese: Tried side by side with the BJ Spatlese. Wilhel finds the former wine more approachable now. I find this win a touch deeper set, with other flavour nuances creeping in aove flowers and peaches, and suspect this will have more to offer in the long run..
09 Brauneberger Juffer Sonnenuhr Auslese: Took some time to reveal the step from Spatlese, and it appears as weight rather than flavour.
09 Brauneberger Juffer Auslese Goldkapsel (The Sonnenuhr version not yet n bottle): Lovely gear, now showing nectarine and orange, retains its feet and dances lithely. I think the Lieser Long Goldkap has it on the day.
Now if only the importer situation for Fritz Haag would sort itself out so we could see these wines in Australia again – the last time these officially came in was in 06.
The whole afternoon between Lieser and Haag has run for 3 hours, and Wilhelm is still drinking everything we pour! Well he doesn’t have far to go home. We briefly pass Oliver Haag who is busy sorting out some final spraying of BJS, which is strictly controlled in the Mosel. We saw the helicopter go over earlier that afternoon.
And that’s all folks. One more chapter to come with observations and conclusions.
J J Prϋm
At J J Prum
This was a morning I was looking forward to with both excitement and trepidation. I understand J J Prϋm is not an easy place to get into for tasting, they do not normally receive visitors. Like some other great estates, the building is only denoted by a dull bronze plaque:
Amai Prϋm – Manfred’s wife and Katarina’s mother hosted us for the morning. The tasting was structured and very instructive, and over nearly two hours we went through the intricacies of Wehlen vs Graach, character of the 08 vintage and similarity to 04, and then the contrast to 07. From the first Spätlese the wines we tasted below were served blind:
08 Kabinett
08 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Kabinett
08 Graacher Himmelreich Spätlese
04 Graacher Himmelreich Spätlese
04 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese
07 Graacher Himmelreich Auslese
A hallmark of these wines is their elegance, to which this label aspires. The two 08s certainly project this way and the Kabinett comes across as almost dry. The 08 Spätlese really shows why the Prϋms believe this is a Spätlese vintage, this is a thing of beauty. The 04 shows the similarity of the two vintages, and at the end the 07 is much more open and giving. This was a freshly opened bottle, and the bottle stink threw me and I thought it was an age character. Knowing the Prϋm wines stay fresh for a long long time (a 95 tasted in May 10 tasted 3 years old) I though this could be anything up to 15 years old. Imagine my horror when the 07 label was revealed.
J J Prϋm also make a trocken which is only available in Germany.
We also talk about the Bridge over the Mosel which is proposed to cut right through vineyards at Urzig. Amai is naturally horrified, but reactions within the valley vary from horrified protest to a belief there is a lot to be gained fro the bridge.
We also get an understanding of the various Prϋm’s in the Valley – There is JJ Prϋm, Stϋdert Prϋm, Wiens Prϋm and SA Prϋm. The last of these brands is owned by Peter Mertes, a big German conglomerate, and perhaps stands apart from the rest of the family. We move on from this subject quickly as it seems to be a prickly one.
Interstingly Amai expresses a preference for the Graach wines and their spicy elegance over the Wehlen wines and their more open floral tones. I have seen others prefer these to the Wehlen wines, despite the latter having the most revered reputation.
Gracious lady that she is, Amai accompanied us back to our car which was parked some distance away, as the street where the Prϋm facility is located was being torn up at the time.
What an experience – a visit to the home of one of the holy grails of riesling. We actually stop for a half hour to take a breath before we go on to our afternoon appointment.
Reinhold Haart
Reinhold Haart’s facility is about 25km further up river, and like Prϋm is right on the Mosel itself. Johannes Haart greets us and shows us through a large range of the Haart wines:
09 Piesporter Riesling
09 Haart to Heart
08 Piesporter Goltröpfchen Kabinett
08 Piesporter Goltröpfchen Spätlese
09 Grafenberg kabinett
09 Domherr Spätlese
09 Ohligsberger Spätlese
09 Piesporter Goltröpfchen kabinett
09 Piesporter Goltröpfchen Spätlese
02 Domherr Spätlese
04 Piesporter Goltröpfchen Spätlese
91 Piesporter Goltröpfchen Spätlese
03 Piesporter Goltröpfchen Auslese
09 Piesporter Goltröpfchen Auslese
The wines were very consistent – every Piesporter Goltröpfchen and Domherr wine was correct in that it showed its vineyard characteristics and also reflected vintage. Goltröpfchen and Domherr are adjacent, and contain finer soils than some of the slates elsewhere. They also retain a lot of heat, and overall this should produce riper, richer wines in any given vintage. The Ohligsberger was the point of difference looking more like other middle Mosels, as the vineyards is further away and contains more slate in its soils.
The 08’s and 09’s behave the way they should with 08 more acidic and elegant, the 09’s more immediately giving and enjoyable.
The common flavour characters are lemon and sugar cane juice. These are fun wines, relying more on clarity of flavour and power in their youth than elegance and complexity. They are all site and vintage correct, and the outcomes for each wine are almost predictable. Bear in mind of course power is a relative thing in the Mosel, where balance is everything! The older wines demonstrate that these do age, even in low acid vintages like 2003. Perhaps this was hard after the elation of Prϋm, but suffice to say I have Haart in my cellar and will continue to do so over time.
Closures
Having now tasted at 5 different producers, attitudes toward closures are emerging. They vary. Schmitges has gone straight to Stelvin Luxe on the grounds he will not tolerate 5% failure rate from cork (his words). Prϋm will stay with cork, believing Screwcap and glass are not suitable from long ageing wines. Haart is in between, screwcaps on the entry level wines. Dönnhoff is all cork. I actually don’t remember what sealed the Schaefer Fröhlichs but I have vague recollections of the same approach as Haart. Everyone was surprised when I put forward that 98% of Rieslings in Australia are sealed under screwcap.
Amai Prϋm also suggested that if one was to reseal an unfinished bottle for later consumption, always put the same end of the cork back into the bottle as was originally in there. The rationale is that when a bottle is sealed, it might sit for some time in a producers cellar before it is labelled and the capsule added. Any odours or other matter attaching to the outside of the cork would then be transferred to the contents. Sounds logical, but there’s the issue of the damn cork expanding…
Tomorrow: Willi Schaefer, Schloss Lieser, Fritz Haag.
So onto our digs at the Mosel, a holiday villa at the back of the village of Erden, among the vines. From our window we can see Erdener Trepchen and Pralat, and also Urziger Wurzgarten further around. We meet Waltraud Schmitges, who is bubbling over with enthusiasm, and invites us to join a tasting with some cycle tourists who are coming by that evening. We are tired but Schmitges is imported into Austraia, so we take a look with both Andreas and Waltraud hosting.
I did take notes this time. its also becoming clear that wine tasting in Germany takes longer than in Aus - so far everything has been much more tutored which has been really helpful. And Andreas is also full of passion and enthusiasm over the next two hours!
The first 6 wines were planned, the last few resulted from me showing interest in in higher pradikat wines
09 Treppchen Kabinett Trocken: Made from the lower slopes of the Erdener Treppchen Vineyard. Home made lemonade and minerals. Both spicy and herbal, great flavours.
09 Treppchen Selection Spatlese Trocken: Spatlese character immediate on the nose (yellow fruits), tending to berry weight. Muted at first but builds a bit with time.
09 vom Berg QBA Feinherb: Lemonade nose with some yellow fruits, fresher and more citrussy on the palate. Lovely fresh zippy acids.
09 von der Lay Feinherb: Initially muted but warms to show yellow peach and tomato characters along with a touch of herb and lovely acidity to balance the ripeness.
09 Kabinett von roten Schiefer: South facing vineyard on red slate soils with higher canopy to maximise sun exposure. Bright fresh notes with a whiff of blackberry intensity. Treads the Kabinett/Spatlese line in weight and flavours. Zippy acids are there but don’t quite clean up the palate.
09Treppchen Spatlese*: Rich blackcurrant palate over yellow fruits. A rich, almost plasticine note. Riper and slightly cloying.
09 Rotwein Cuvee 4: 100% Dornfelder: Hand plunged and crushed, barrel and stainless steel fermented. Immediate smell is slightly buttery but then fruit and spice emerge. A lovely fresh fruited wine, mild tannins, lovely summer drinking. A real surprise – somewhat in the shape of cru Beaujolais.
09 Treppchen Auslese**: Dense, almost dutch licorice character. The florals are “open” along with some ripe peach and this is still clean and lovely in its acids.
09 Pralat Auction Auslese: Now then. Here we go. This is a Kramer wine. Do I love it or hate it? it is confronting, yet I cannot look away. Pure peach and apricot nectar sucked straight from the tin. Nectar in its flavour and texture. Rich and syrupy, and with time starts to show other nuances of honey and citrus. Worth a small investment to see how this shapes up over time. I thin this is a *** Auslese, or Goldkapsel in some peoples language.
09 Herrenberg Eiswein: From the Erdener Herrenberg vineyard, at the top of the slope above Treppchen. Well hello there darling. You have my undivided attention now. Go ahead and dance for me. 6%, 300g/l and 12.5g TA. And pure, varietal riesling limes and yellow fruitiness in a crystal clear, racy, wide awake, adrenaline fuelled, mouth tingling attack. Brilliant bright, ripe juicy acidity to balance the intensity. Buy this.
Some nice wines here, and I’m glad we got to taste them. This really shows some of the varietal characters of the Erden sites, which seem to be bright peachy and citrus notes and sometimes white flowers. The Schmitges wines show these in a ripe expressive way. I’d be most interested to see what Andreas would do with a parcel from further upriver, say from Wehlen or Graach.
And in part 3 - the visit to JJ Prum and Rienhold Haart.
Nahe and Mosel. For riesling lovers, these are two words synonymous with paradise, places every Riesling lover must visit in their lifetimes. Wines of refinement, delicacy and balance, laser like precision and fabulous ageing potential. Everything from bone dry to tooth rottingly sweet.
And in July I did visit. 2 producers in the Nahe, being Donnhoff an Schaefer Frohlich, and six in the Mosel: Andreas Schmitges, JJ Prum, Rienhold Haart, Willi Schaefer, Schloss Lieser and Fritz Haag.
Visitng the Nahe first, on a weekday this is one sleepy area. A few cyclists and pedestrians but that’s it. First stop was Donnhoff, which is a place you would only find if you were looking for it. We saw the much photographed Nahe river sign and crossed the cobbled bridge and took the turn to the right. . This must be something of a pilgrimage as you cannot find Donnhoff accidentally. And it’s a pilgrimage we made after meeting Helmut at a dinner in Australia in February 2010 (apologies for the shadowy photo).
Donnhoff has a wide range of vineyard holdings in the Nahe, all close to the river itself and with all sorts of different soils and microclimates.
This shows in their wines which vary quite a lot in flavour
profile. The range is significant, and only a few come into my home country of Australia. There is a tasting room at Donnhoff, and they receive about 5 visitors a day. Susannah hosts us as Helmut is overseas. She is great – knowledgeable at al levels, and her English is brilliant
The Nahe hasn’t seen a bad vintage for some time. 2009 returns to a bit of richness, ripeness and weight after a classical 2008. We taste a very wide range of mainly 09’s. The year has been particularly good to the trocken and Grosses Gewachs wines, which I like from beginning to end. The Oberhauser Liestenberg Kabinett is almost a house wine for me and once again a winner in 09. Even the entry level estate wine is lovely, and probably the best we taste on the entire trip. The Pradikat wines reflect their sites nicely, and yet somehow I find them on the whole slightly less convincing – a victim of extremely high expectations (and to prove a point we buy a bottle of the one I like the least and drink it two nights later – it is lovely). It’s also clear that Niederhauser Hermansholle is a special site – everything from this vineyard from GG to Auslese stands out for balance and serene beauty. The Grosses Gewachs from Dellchen and Felsenberg are also lovely. The 08 Eiswein is freaky – but I but two bottles to bring home anyway.
What a first up experience of wineries in Germany.
Then onto Schaefer Frohlich, whose facility is about 15km away in Bockenau. Tim Frohlich’s wines have come into Australia for two years now and based on the few bottles I’ve tried he is clearly a quality producer. He’s just been awarded range of the year in the 2010 Gault Millau guide, so he’s clearly doing a lot of things right.
Tim greets us and we are most embarrassed when we find out he is getting married the next day! While he has a range of vineyards, some in common with Donnhoff, but others at Monzigen and Bockenau, his approach appears different. Tim is looking for elegance, complexity and minerality, which has led him to slate based sites and more commonality of style across his range. This is a great – no - stunning - range of wines in a style I really like, with an elegance to his 09’s that we don’t see again anywhere else. The estate wine is a beauty, the kabinetts are juicy, the spatlesen are richer in weight but hold their line and show the minerally notes across their citrus fruits without straying too far into yellow fruit (or berry) territory. The 09 Felsneck Grosses Gewachs is an untamed thing of beauty and the Bockenauer Felsneck Spatlese is an absolute knockout.
Do not take Schaefer Frohlich lightly or walk past these bottles when you see them, this is serious wine, and worthy of a place in your collection.
So I expected Donhoff to be the King. Maybe he is – but Tim Frohlich is the crown prince.
After a stunning start we drive to our accommodation in the Mosel, attached to the Schmitges winemaking facility. But that’s for part 2.
A few years ago I was introduced to the world of Burgundy. It wasn’t easy at first, but the light eventually went on. And I realised I was instantly financially ruined. I wonder sometimes if the whole thing that is burgundy is a sinister marketing device - the whole region is so complex yo just have to buy everything you see to completely understand.
Now I’m trying to taste more widely again, including a lot of new world pinot noir. And so opens the Bindi Pinot. But wait a minute, there’s a whole lot of burgundian stuff going on here…
The diam comes out of the dreadnought bottle with a punt so deep you could lose your car keys in it. The first whiff says class. Delicate at first, and more yielding with time. raspberries, redcurrants and blackcurrants with some white peppery spice. The first sip is a lovely balanced textural experience. This wine settles on your tongue and cheeks just so, and delivers the same fruit basket that the nose announced. Red fruits at first, then some forest berry elements. A deft touch of white pepper. A touch of sap, and yet another dab of forest floor funk. There is some coiled power here still, at 6 years old there is a clear sense this wine has more to give with further ageing.
But there’s still plenty to enjoy now, and I did enjoy this wine plenty.
Oh, there was that burgundy reference. This seems very Chambolle Musigny like to me. And that’s all good
My first introduction to Drew Noon MW (Master of Wine - currently there are only 280 across the world) and his wines was shortly after I first arrived in New Zealand over five years ago. Working at a wine store while studying, I received an email from an importer offering some cult Australian wines, including the Noon reds. Having never heard of Noon, I quickly did some research and also consulted with my good friend Craig who always had the number on hard-to-get, premium SA booze from small producers.
Some big Parker scores seemed to have put Noon on the map and with a tiny production (at least by Australian standards) there was now a considerable waiting list for the mailing list. Failing that, you could purchase the wines at super-inflated prices on the secondard market, or at very reasonable prices in the New Zealand market. And so I blindly secured an allocation of the 2003 reds; the Reserve Shiraz, the Reserve Cab and the Eclipse (a Grenache/Shiraz blend off bush vines grown at Drew’s own property, as opposed to the fruit for the Res Shz and Cab which is sourced from a Langhorne Creek vineyard).
I promptly brought the Eclipse along to a wine dinner where it swamped everything before it, and everything after it. Massive wines, made that way before it was fashionable.
Back in the day, Drew didn’t have an email or website. I called him the next day and left a message - I was super keen to head over and work for him over vintage, but at the very least spend a few minutes talking to the man over the phone. What happened next was truly astonishing.
He called back. Naturally, he couldn’t have me over for vintage - he just didn’t make enough wine to warrant having someone else around - but he called back. A call back from a winemaker is an exceedingly and increasingly rare event, but here was Drew, calling back some young student MW-wanna-be in another country, to relay that message but also talk about the MW, his wines, his philosophy and even me for the next half hour. I haven’t yet had the opportunity to meet Drew face-to-face, but I already know that he is one of the nicest, most genuine blokes in the entire wine industry.
It has to be said, however, that my wine tastes have changed over the past five years. I now drink more pinot, enjoy cool climate syrah, generally steer clear of sauv and pinot gris, and continue to explore new varieties or styles in Europe and North America. But winter in Central Otago is here, they’ve predicted snow, the fire is roaring and after a hearty home-cooked meal, there’s only one option for an after-dinner red; something ballzy, something Australian.
2003 Noon Reserve Cab Sauv A narrow perimeter of burgundy red colour is the only indication that this wine has age, the remainder an impenetrable blood red sea. The nose, fruit-forward and spicy, boasts bold aromas of aniseed, cassis, eucalypt, blackberry and a hint of smoky, chocolate toast. It’s a sensory barrage of heady, volatile fruit bursting from the glass; it’s a Noon.
Initially a little awkward and disjointed, the mouthfeel found its footing on the second night (something I’ve noticed with Drew’s wines in the past) and all the compounds just came together. Spicy, liqueur berry fruit playful on the palate, the prickly touch of woolen velvet adding grip to the texture and a gentle undercurrent of fresh acidity augmenting the structure.
Tannins are still a little grainy, reinforcing varietal distinction and a sweet fruit finish. At a paltry 14.9% alcohol, this is the only Noon wine I can recollect having that is under 15% a/v. Not as rich or unctuous as I was expecting, but this was nice for a change.
Cheers,
Max
“Recommend a Pinot I haven’t tried to fill out a sixpack”
“have you tried the Escaprment’s? The Te Rehua is the most elegant of them”
“OK, throw it in.”
And so the conversation went at my regular retail outlet herein Brisbane. What a fascinating wine it turned out to be.
Pop the diam out of the bottle and it opens silky and perfumed and lifted and lovey. I’m really looking forward to this. Its perfumed, spicy, shows some stalk, and it shows lovely balance in the elegant, red fruit end of the pinot spectrum.
Pour a second glass. Hey, this has gone all bitter and astringent! Truly horrible! So the bottle goes into quarantine.
A few hours later this is different again, and much more pleasant. Its full and dense and powerful the way good pinot can be. It never becomes heavy, it is a basket of lightly spiced forest berries, lightly touched by wood. I like the apparent philosophy underneath this. Structurally this is perhaps a touch Chambolle like with its delicate but coiled fruit power, and its spread across the palate. Tannins are moderate at best. I like this very much to drink in the next year or two.
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