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…