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.