Rockss and Fruit

2010 Rheingau - Schloss Schonborn

2012-02-07T18:09:00.001-05:00

Peter Barth

I really have not visited many estates in the Rheingau. Just Spreitzer, which was a lovely visit, and is on my short list for the top estates in the Rheingau, but after my tasting with Peter Barth at Schloss Schonborn, they have zipped to the top. The Rheingau, historically is the grand-daddy of all German wine regions, with all the great castles, and estates, like Schonborn who have been making wine for 600+ years. But many estates lost their reputations at various points during the 50's, 60's and 70's for various reasons. But in the early 2000's and in some cases before that the great Schloss' started to rebuild their reputations. This is a very good thing as Schloss Reinhartshausen, Schloss Vollrads, Schloss Johannisberg and the great Schloss Schonborn have some of the best vineyards in all of the Rheingau. They have over 80 different vineyard sites, have been continuously owned by the same family since 1349, which is 27 generations if you are counting at home. FYI they did de-acidify in 2010 and out of all the estates I taste that did de-acidify, they did it the best.

The Schloss Schonborn, under the guidance of Peter Barth, who is the technical director and has been at the estate since 2001 is doing an exemplary job and it shows in the wines. They get better every year My tasting was with him and we only had an hour, and we got to it. Peter is smart and very funny and knows the estate and history like the back of his hand. Schonborn is in very capable hands.

Estate Wines

2010 "Pink" - A snappy little Spatburgunder Rose with bubble gummy flavors on a nice elegant frame. Good minerality and density. I liked. A throw back wine. In throw lots of it back in an evening.

2010 Weissburgunder Trocken - Beautiful minerality with a ripe and juicy palate. Pears and apples galore. Good persistence. These Estate wines from Schonborn are easy to drink and technically correct.

2010 Riesling Trocken - This clocks in at 8 grams of RS. Low acid here, which means there might have been to much de-acidification on this wine. But ripe and chewy and easy to drink. Delicious.

2010 Riesling Feinherb - This clocks in at 17 grams of R.S. Lovely, ripe, elegant, soft with great purity. Very good.

2010 Riesling - We have around 40 grams of R.S. here. Touch of sulfur on the nose and also some powdered sugar. Candied peaches as well. Elegant and soft. Fun and easygoing wine.

Single Vineyard Wines

2010 Hochheimer Kirchenstuck Trocken - Now the wines start to get more serious and interesting. Beautiful, high-toned nose of minerals, fried chicken (yep) and some delicate melon fruit. Great acids and grip on the palate. Ripe, clean and pure. Excellent wine.

2010 Hattenheimer Nussbrunen Trocken - A whisper of minerality on the somewhat closed nose. So elegant it is remarkable and must be noted that this wine is like a liquid cloud on a bed of minerals. A water be dof course. I always find wines from the Nussbrunnen so elegant.

2010 Hattenheimer Pfaffenberg Trocken - Mineral and ripe with excellent purity but holding something in reserve. Need to revisit.

2010 Winkeler Hasenprung - This was maybe the best of the four on that particular day. Dense wine with a lovely nose of powdered sugar. Full of minerality and vivid fruit. Spectacular.

Erstes Gewachs Wines

2010 Domdechaney EG - I love this vineyard and the Kunstler version is one of my favorite wines in all of Germany but at Schonborn they own most of the vineyard and Kunstler only owns a small slice.
Mineral, ripe and rich wine with gobs of yellow fruits and a persistent finish. Great stuff.

2010 Berg Schlossberg EG - Huge nose of minerals and slate. So aromatic. I wrote WOW!!!! in my notes after smelling this wine. Acid a bit lowish but super concentrated and powerful as Berg Schlossberg can be. Good spice on the finish.

2010 Pfaffenberg EG - Really closed in on itself. Huge wine though. Brooding. Very ripe and layered with great fruit and outstanding length, but this needs 3-4 years to really start to come in to its own. Even with rigorous coaxing this remained shy.

2010 Marcobrunn EG - Another closed beast. Damson nose but so pure. So textured and ripe. Amazingly clean and concentrated with loads of spice. Years to go on this baby.

Feinherb and Pradikat Wines

2010 Hattenheimer Pfaffenberg Feinherb - Almost pitch perfect feinherb. Mineral and just plain lovely wine. Dense for a feinherb but still great with grippy acids and so elegant. Amazing.

2010 Pfaffenberg Kabinett - This has around 45 grams of R.S. Closed nose but ripe and silky wine. Elegant, juicy, mineral and more mineral. Stunner of a Kabby and strikingly mineral.

2010 Marcobrunn Kabinett - 45 grams of R.S. here. Mineral and deep with lovely peach skin aromas. Nose a bit closed but Marcobrunn is a brooding youngster in most cases. Lovely, spice, grip and length. A rock star.

2010 Marcobrunn Spatlese - 70 grams of R.S. here. Very mineral nose with an elegant and silky texture. Pure and clean with stone fruits and lovely flesh. Awesome, but the next wine was awesomer.

2010 Pfaffenberg Spatlese - This has a special label and Peter Barth said it was perfectly balanced Spatlese as it had 9.5 grams of acid and 95 grams of R.S. which he said is the perfect equation for perfect balance. If the sugar is 10 times the acids then you are in rarefied air. Nose was slammed shit but oh man was this wine balanced and gorgeous. Stunning. Beyond balanced.

And that wraps up my 2010 trip. This summer I will be doing France and Germany. Can't wait to go back.

2012-01-19T15:48:00.000-05:00

The Ten Bells courtesy of Grub Street

Here is a post I did for Sidetour on the Top 5 Wine Trends I saw in 2011.

2010 Franconia - Rudolf Furst

2012-01-03T14:23:00.000-05:00

Centgrafenberg

Every year my visit to the estate of Paul and Sebastian Furst gets better. This year was the best visit so far, even if it had some minor problems as I was still reeling from my bag getting stolen at the airport. I had arranged to get my new pair of glasses in Kuess (across the Mosel directly from Bernkastel) and then we would drive to Wirsching and then Furst. Get to the glasses place when it opens and they tell me they have filled my prescription but it is not the exact one, but 99% similar to my previous prescription. I tried them on and was thrilled, but the woman insisted that I return the following morning to get the real lenses. I was in a rush and said OK, not knowing what the exact distance was. So, next we are in the car and driving towards Franconia on the Autobahn and I realize there is no way in hell I am making it to Kuess and back to Franconia for an appt with Furst the next day at 3:30. Mind you, I have not even paid for these glasses yet. So I call Sebastian Furst and I explain to him the situation, mind you, he thought it was contact lenses I was talking about and was a little puzzled why I was making such a big deal over the contact lenses. He figured it out when I talked to him and it was funny to inject humor into an other wise somewhat frantic situation. Anyway, he convinced the woman to let me have the glasses, and when I finally got to Burgstadt, where the Furst winery is, he got out his laptop, and we e-mailed my CC# to the glasses lady in Kuess and finally I had real glasses and could stop walking around Germany like I was Bono or something.

Also a word about the pictures. The picture below was taken by Julie Besancon

Sebastain Furst and me under blue netting to protect from wild boar.

2009 Spatburgunder Tradition - The entry level, or as I like to call it, the village level wine from Furst. Lovely nose of minerals earth and a slight bitter tone that is right at home in Franconian Spatburgunder. Juicy, pure and ripe but a bit closed on this day.

2009 Centgrafenberg Spatburgunder - Now we have the village level wines in the Furst Spatburgunder quality hierarchy. Meaty and mineral nose with notes of cinnamon and other spices. Really wafting aromas. Wonderful tannic structure and lovely lift on the backend but a tad closed. The 2009's, in general, are riper than the 2008's (which were gorgeous terroir driven wines) but they don't sacrifice their massive structures for ripeness. Not even close. This was profound but needs 5 years.

Stairs down the Klingenberger.

2009 Klingenberger Spatburgunder - Before I get into this wine, Sebastian took us to lunch, way up high in the terraced Klingenberger vineyard and it was a fantastic experience. This vineyard is Mosel steep, but very terraced too, so easier to walk up and down. Many old sandstone stairs and bees galore are some highlights of this vineyard. But what made it interesting was Sebastian brought a bottle of the '06 Klingenberger Spatburgunder to lunch in the Klingenberg vineyard. So we were eating grapes off the vine, then sipping on the wine and if you don't think terroir exists, think again. One of my favorite experiences by far in Germany. The '09 Klingenberger was my favorite version so far. It is a vineyard that has only been in the Furst family since 2004 but it has amazing potential. 2009 reaches that potential. Sebastian told me that there are about 60 growers in the Klingenberger and he said, very humbly, after much needling by me, that he was the best. By far the best. The wine had a very fine nose of mineral, violets and a touch of spice. Very aromatic. Juicy, complex and very serious wine. Big, grippy tannic structure. Wonderful mouthfeel, balance and exceptional length.

A wall of Zalto glasses in the new Furst tasting room.

2009 Fruhburgunder - One of my favorite German speciality grapes. It is an early ripening version of Pinot Noir and no one does it better than at Herr Furst. Super nose of minerals, violets, cinnamon and spice. Amazing aromas. Stunningly pure on the palate with vivid inner mouth aromas. Wow, really tannic for Fruhburgunder. Very ripe and concentrated with huge spreading fruit on the palate. Sensational.

2009 Fruhburgunder Centrgrafenberg "R" - Wowsers. The Grand Cru Fruhburgunder . Always one of my favorite wines to taste at Furst. Very mineral and ripe with intense, juicy fruit. Hints of very fine tobacco on the nose too. Killer nose. Really stunning, actually. Wafting aromas. Palate has great depth, big tannins (again, surprised) and wonderful inner mouth aromas. Awesome as usual.

2009 Centgrafenberg GG - Now onto the absolutely stunning GG Spatburgunders. What a collection. Complex, ripe and very pure nose. Dense, mineral and lively on the palate due to the fresh acids. Major structure on this wine. Meaty, full-boded and intense. 20 years? No problem.

Vines in the Klingenberg.

2009 Schlossberg GG - Mineral, spice, leather and smoke on the aromatic nose. More elegant and refined than Centgrafenberg but just as wonderful. A touch closed but did open up and get much more complex with just 10 minutes of air. Wonderful wine and very big, tannic and structured. Needs years. These were the most age-worthy and structured Spatburgunders I have ever tasted.

2009 Hunsruck GG - And here it is. The finest Spatburgunder I have ever tasted. bar none. Huge, deep, fragrant and very vivid nose. Like a serious GC Burg. The nose is beautifully layered and has kaleidoscopic detail. The palate is enormous but suave and elegant at the same time. The freshness is incredible despite the wines fruit and structure. The concentration is off the charts. Lovely tones of woodspice gracefully fall in between the shockingly concentrated, but never heavy, fruit. Toothsome and very long. A profound wine.

The new Furst tasting room.

2010 Muller-Thurgau "pur mineral" - One of my favorite wines from the Furst portfolio but in 2010 it seemed lacking, possibly due to de-acidification. Distinct nose of anise and mineral. Elegant and ripe with good purity.

2010 Silvaner "pur mineral" - Mineral and very ripe nose. Lovely concentration on the palate with dense vegetable flavors. Clean as a whistle and great acids.

2010 Riesling "pur mineral' - Petrol, honey and mineral on the lovely nose. No mistaking this for the Mosel. Super dry. Dense palate with loads of dry extract and wonderful inner mouth aromas.

2010 Riesling Centgrafenberg - Mineral nose with ripe Riesling fruit. Mucho finesse on the palate with huge body, which is typical for 2010, along with elegance and freshness. Lovely saline finish.

2010 Riesling Centgrafenberg GG - What an intense Riesling! Hugely mineral with such a massive structure this seems like a 25-30 year dry Riesling. Herbal, mineral and ripe, yet with huge acids and amazing length. A stunner to bury deep in the cellar.

The Kingenberger.

2009 Chardonnay Karthauser - In the oaky Burgundian style but gets better every year as the oak seems to be getting dialed back. Very mineral and sleek with intense fruit. Oak is there but integrated., Bright, lively with great freshness.

An amazing collection and my best visit yet to the Furst estate.

Next up a visit to the historic Schloss Schonborn Estate.

My Top 9 Films Of The Year

2011-12-12T18:00:00.000-05:00

This was a great year for movies as I was exposed to films I normally would not be exposed to as I firmly entrenched myself in auteur theory this year which basically means if you like a director you see everything he has done so you have a greater understanding of his/her voice. I covered filmmakers as diverse as Aki Kaurismaki, Francois Truffaut, Shohei Imamamura and David Gordon Green. I also was introduced to some daring new voices whose every film I now know I will see. Giorgos Lanthimos, tops the list with his amazing, disturbing and unique film, Dogtooth. I did not see as many movies as last year but the quality was extremely high as usual. Also look out at the bottom for names of films that almost made the cut. Links to previous top 10's will also be there. Without further ado, here is this year's list.

L'Eclisse, 1962 - Antonioni has always been an anomaly to me. I love Blow Up as that was one of the first films that got me into the whole film nerd thing in the first place. But I overdosed on it and for some reason only saw very limited Antonioni up to this year. This year I vowed to change that. I watched many but remained skeptical. While L'Aventura and La Notte were good, they were not great. It seemed he was trying to do something, filmically and artistically that quite hadn't come to fruition yet. Well, with L'Eclisse, boy did it come into fruition. Possibly one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen. Using early 60's Rome as a backdrop, there is not much of a story, but that is never the point of an Antonioni film, is it? Aesthetically it is brilliant. Within 5 minutes of putting the DVD in, I was transported to the bare existential existence that the characters were inhabiting in early 60's Rome. To skim the plot seems just in this case as that is what Antonioni does in this stark, beautiful existentialist meditation on a woman, Monica Vitti (she has never looked better), who goes from one relationship to another. The another is Alain Delon, in perhaps one of the most unexpected performances I have ever seen him in, as I am so used to him playing a cop or a gangster which he is so good at. He plays a stockbroker in L'Eclisse. As an aside, the energy in the scenes of the stock trading exchange in Rome are breathtaking, There are two scenes that have the stock exchange in them and the kinetic energy in each scene is unreal. But the reason why I love this film and it made such a deep impression on me is it seemed that the all the wanderings of La Notte and L'Avventura, for me, led to L'Eclisse. It seems La Notte and L'Aventurra were building towards L'Eclisse. During sections of L'Avventura and La Notte I found myself being bored and my mind wandering but not the case in L'Eclisse, which happens to be the third film in this unofficial trilogy. Antonioni looks at digressions not central to the bare bones plot as essential to his style and while many people see these as pointless, you have to understand that Antonioni was not going for film as entertainment but film as art. L'Eclisse was a film essay (more Faulkner) on modern malaise. The difficulty of having a relationship in the increasingly isolated world that they lived in. As you can see I could be typing these words about finding love in the world we live in today. The mark of a great artist. The art they put out is timeless, which L'Eclisse most certainly is. I urge you to see the remastered version on a big screen TV or even in the theater if you can find a place playing it. Criterion has put out an excellent version, which is the one I watched. I could write heaps more on this film and I have barely done it justice but if you have time read this wonderful article from Criterion's website on Vitti and Antonioni.

George Washington, 2000 - I have no idea how this ended up on my queue but I am sure glad it did. And after I saw the film I was even more surprised that the director, David Gordon Green, directed Pineapple Express. This film could not be more different than Pineapple Express. I hated Pineapple Express the first time I saw it but quickly saw it again after George Washington and actually loved it. The first impression I had in my mind when this film was over was "French New Wave meets rural North Carolina." The best way to describe this film would have to be, as on astute Netflix reviewer said, "GW is a film that embraces ugliness in the pursuit of true beauty, while managing to shun what is merely pretty." That is about astute an observation as I have read about this powerful yet delightfully innocent film. All the action, if you could call it that, takes place in a rural North Carolina town during summertime. There are a core group of characters at the heart of the film and they are mainly children but there are also a smattering of adults. The performances of the children are just amazing, and even more amazing is that they all were amateur actors hand-picked by David Gordon Green himself. Captivating, gritty and gutsy performances. There is a very existential vibe in this film caused by the effect of a narrator (one of the children) and the striking 35mm shots of the desolate rural and factory wasteland that is rural small town North Carolina. Most independent film debuts are not shot in 35mm so we really got to see the ugly turned to beautiful by David Gordon Green's brilliant camerawork. So what is the plot? Do you remember when you were between the ages of 9-13 how your summers were? Was there a plot to them? That is this film. The long, hazy, lazy days of summer in a small town are portrayed perfectly. Empty rambling conversations between adults who have nothing better to do and fascinating children. Something ghastly does happen in the film and this has an effect on the outcome and direction of the film yet it is not the "plot" of the film at all. That is something Hollywood would do, and most importantly, it feels completely right in this film to not shift the film to satisfy the audience that would want the film to be a specific "thing" tailored to their needs after the ghastly incident does indeed happen. It remains beautifully authentic as a result of this decision. That really deserves a bravo to Mr. Green as that was a risky decision to take, but it payed off swimmingly, at least, in my opinion. As I sit here and recollect the film a chill is running through me as it is one of those films that will never leave you. What is amazing about George Washington is the pure simplicity of the film. The shots, the acting and the "plot" are all so simple yet that simplicity at its deepest level remains purely authentic. Possibly my favorite film on this list the more I think about it.

In a Year With 13 Moons, 1978 - Rainer Werner Fassbinder at the peak of his powers and perhaps his most deeply personal film. And man does this film pack a wallop. It is the story of Elvira, a young German transexual, played fearlessly by Volker Spangler, and the last five days of her life. It is based on tragic events that played out in Fassbinder's life itself. Fassbinder's lover at the time, Armin Meir, committed suicide and that is what inspired him to make this film. The title means that in years of 13 moons, versus 12, tragic emotional events can happen, people can suffer increasingly emotional ups and downs plus there is a great chance of intense depression. This is not an up film. You will not feel like riding a unicorn into a field of wild flowers with endless bottles of La Tache at the other side after this film is over. You might not even be able to move from your chair for an hour. The performances by Volker Spangler and Gottfried John are riveting and not easy to watch. Elvira changes her sex to win the affection of Gottfried John, who plays a young, suave Holocaust survivor who becomes a pimp/businessman. He passively says one day when Elvira was a male, "I wish you were a girl," and that utterance sets him off to change his sex for him. He travels to Casablanca and returns a woman, and that is not enough for him. Fast forward to 1978. Elvira tries to find Saitz (Gottrfied John) to beg of his forgiveness but the film becomes Elvira's journey of self-acceptance and finding love that may or may not exist. If the plot sounds outrageous it is, and I have not gotten to the nunnery scene or the meeting with the mystical gay bodybuilders. Try and see this movie not knowing anything about as you need to let it sweep you up in its world. I knew nothing about it and I feel that is why it impacted me more. This will require numerous viewings over the rest of my life as Fassbinder's films are notoriously dense and this is perhaps the most layered of all. Fassbinder directed, produced, wrote, designed, shot and edited this film and it shows. It is a true work of art and about as perfect a film by Fassbinder I have ever seen. In the interview on the DVD, Fassbinder's friend and collaborator, Julian Lorenze, said that making this film successfully got Fassbinder through his grief and anguish, following Meir's suicide, that he emerged, she believed, a happy man. The power of film can be amazing.

Paranormal Activity 3, 2011 - Your probably wondering why this is on the list, especially after 3 very artsy films. The horror film is, next to the comedy, the hardest film to perfectly execute. There have been so few but when they are on, they capture humanity just as well as drama, romance, thrillers, which are all words I detest actually because a great film should not be classifiable by some meaningless, arbitrary word used to categorize things. But for the sake of simplicity and not trying to invent the wheel here, I will use horror. Paranormal Activity 1 swept through this country like an internet meme and was a rousing great horror film. Really scary, which is so hard to do, an innovative unique idea, amazing sound design and of course, an invitation for a sequel. Plus the plot was interesting and also extremely open-ended and a lot was left to the viewer's imagination. 2 was just a big swing and miss. Really disappointed me. I heard some good people were working on 3 and it would indeed be great. I saw it a few weeks after Halloween as the crowds are not so big. This was a great film. Horror or not. Another example of how so little can be used to create so much. For those of you who don't know the plot is very simple. Young couple in house, with young twins, notice weird stuff is happening and the husband decides to set up cameras in the house in various locations to capture the goings on and to try and figure out if it is a ghost, a possession, a poltergeist or some other nefarious entity that is wrecking their lives. The point of view is almost 100% through the cameras set up in the house. So each mini-scene is titled with Day 4, Day 5, Day 6. etc, as to establish the passing of time as that is somewhat difficult if the viewer's point of view is through a camera. A great horror film does not have predictable frights, has a slow build that climaxes with not a resolution, but some crazy scary stuff towards the end or at the end. Don't want to spil as this film is worth at least 3 viewings to catch all the nuance. This does each of those aforementioned things perfectly. The execution is brilliant, so brilliant in fact, that when the film ended, I was stunned in my seat, as I know it's corny, the last 15 minutes are mindbending. But this film is so good, and you lose track of time so quickly, that you don't know it is even the last 15 minutes until it is over. That is very very hard to do. Make the audience lose track of time. An exceptional film, perfectly executed, and easily one of the finest "horror" films I have ever seen. If curious, others I love are The Shining, Rosemary's Baby, Repulsion, Let The Right One In, Ju-On (The Grudge, not remake), Ringu (not remake), The 6th Sense, and High Tension. There are tons of others but those come to mind off the top of my head. Horror films are what I cut my teeth on and what got me into film and also is the genre I have the most range with. I'll watch a bad horror film. There, I said it.

The Hit, 1984 - Totally did not expect this to be as great as it was. A whopper of a mob-hit film, but done with an existentialist slant. Directed by the always intriguing Stephen Frears. Where to begin? That's easy. Performances. John Hurt is absolutely brilliant as the mobster who has to put a hit on Terence Stamp as Terence has testified against his old crime compatriots. Stamp, who is an utterly brilliant actor, gives a captivating performance as man facing imminent death. Tim Roth, who is very young in this film, kills it as an over aggressive side-kick to John Hurt's cool, calm and somewhat reserved yet crafty mobster. They leave a trail of destruction on their car ride to eventually kill Terence Stamp's character and police are hot on their trail. But the performances drive this film, especially John Hurt who adds layers with with his nuanced and very intelligent performance. There is much ambiguity in the way the viewer will feel about the characters. A great film with complex performances.

Dogtooth, 2009 - I just saw this within the past week and I am still thinking about it. An incredible film and from Greece, of all places, as I have not seen many great, or in fact many at all, Greek films. But that has all changed as it is a country I will investigate in 2012. It is directed by Giorgos Lanthimos, who is a voice to be reckoned with. This was his 2nd film. If I had to blurb it, it would "home schooling nightmare beyond anything you have ever seen" but that truly does not explain just the pure control that the parents have over their children in this film, but I am getting ahead of myself. The story is of a family who lives on a decent sized estate in a suburb. A father, mother, son and two daughters. The father works at a factory. The children are in their late teens/early twenties and all have never left the house and surrounding yard in their entire lives. The mother has not either and that seems voluntary, but Lanthimos does not give any backstory as to the why this has happened, the reasoning of the parents, or any type of deeper exposition than as to what is being said on the screen and shown us. This is this family. Let's watch them. The parents, in my opinion, are depraved for how they are raising their children. Teaching them words that have false meanings. The sea, in their world, means armchair. The title of the film, Dogtooth, is another myth the parents tell the children to keep them firmly under control. I won't give away what it is. They watch TV but it is only home movies of themselves. The sisters play a game where they knock themselves out with some sort of anesthetic. They swim a lot in the backyard. The father, pays a female security guard, at his factory to service the sexual needs of his son. But eventually she seeps in too much information from the outside world and is banished. So the father makes him choose one of his sisters, in the most innocent portrayal of incest you will ever see. There are so many compelling scenes in this film as it just explodes from the screen, but Lanthimos has the touch of a master and makes many interesting choices, especially with his composition of shots. Some characters are shot from waist down, cutting off half their bodies in certain scenes. The dialogue is also, so, well, just strange and sterile, but it is so effective. The sisters are amazing. The standout performances in the film. The above shot is from a scene when they are giving a dance recital. This is a must see film as Lanthimos seems to be an exciting new voice in the vein of Michael Haneke and Lars Von Trier.

The Ballad of Narayama, 1984 - This was during my Shohei Imamura phase where I gobbled up three of his films in a week. He is a unique filmmaker for sure. Other Imamura films, like The Pornographers and Vengeance Is Mine are on the just missed list at the bottom. This, I believe, won the Palm d'Or at Cannes in 1983. It is a beautiful, yet very sad and intense film. The story is just amazing. It takes place in 19th Century Japan in a very remote village. They have a very morbid tradition of sending their old people to the top of Mt. Narayama, where they are left to die of starvation. This is called ubasate. The main section of the film centers around a 69 year old woman, who seems fit, mentally and physically, getting ready to go to Mt. Narayama. She is not afraid to die despite hearing a husband had to throw his wife down the mountain the other week. Grim, huh? She gets her affairs in order and you see how life is in the village through her eyes. She helps her son lose his virginity in sequences that are pathetic yet endearing. All of this is building towards her eventual treck to Mt. Narayama. The film changes at that point and you cannot take your eyes off the screen. It is exquisite perfect filmmaking as soon the journey starts til the end of the film. The journey which she takes with her son is an amazing scene with no dialogue. It clocks in at just under 30 minutes. The last hour is incredibly powerful. Truly amazing film.

Ariel, 1988 - Directed by Aki Kaurismaki, who is from Finland, this is a director who is said to have the greatest influence on Jim Jarmusch. Kaurismaki is very influenced by Bresson and Melville himself so Jarmusch and Kaurismaki seem like very interesting lenses to look at the power of influence in film. A bit film nerdy but what do you expect? It is evident from the first frame, or should I say tableau, the Jarmusch influence. Very painting-like as Jarmusch is but Aki, seems to be the first to frame in this way. There is also some of the best deadpan, is it funny, isn't it funny performances in this film I've ever seen. I saw most of Kaurismaki's work this year and could have chosen any number of films but Ariel was the first I saw and still resonates the strongest. The story centers around a coal-miner stuck in a droll almost proletariat style existence, and in fact this film is grouped with two others in Kaurismaki's "Proletariat Trilogy." It is also very funny. The comedy can only be described as black, dark and almost perverse. I have included a clip of one of the funnier darker moments that will give you an idea of what to expect in this film. The film is basically a journey of this coal-miner to better himself after his coal-mine shuts down and along the way he finds love with a woman named Irmeli, who is a single mother who is heavily in debt. So many things happen to Taisto, the main character, all of them bad, yet there is an ugly beauty to this film, reminding me a bit of George Washington, in that the industrial/urban decay that is shown to be Helsinki and the outskirts has a sort of perverse beauty as a result of the way Kaurismaki frames everything. This is a quirky film that can be darkly comic at times, idealistic at others and just plain absurd at other times. A film you cannot take your eyes off. Best thing coming out of Finland by far.

Mafioso, 1962 - This film portrays the big Italian family that all Italian people talk about that have back in Italy. But also so much more. It is a about a man. newly married, who returns to a small, rustic village in Sicily to introduce his new, attractive, blonde wife to his family, and winds up getting entangled with some mobsters from the old days. Directed by Alberto Lattuada, the star of the film is by far, Alfredo Sordi, whose impassioned performance is really the whole film. Marta, his wife, has trouble handling the rustic conditions and Antonio (Sordi) meets up with old friends and also his old Don, Don Vincenzo. Don Vincenzo needs a favor from Antonio, which is to carry out a mob hit. He tells his wife he is going hunting early in the morning with friends and winds up being smuggled to NYC to do the hit. It is a jolt for the viewer as the whole film has taken place in rustic Sicily and then boom you are in Manhattan. Lattuada uses unique camera angles to capture the contrast. What's so masterful about this film is there are many black comedic moments, moments of light-hearted humor along with the dark undercurrent that Antonio has to kill someone. It is done masterfully. Also the portrayal of a backwards Sicily is unlike anything I have ever seen, and indeed, this was all shot on location. The trains stop running in Sicily, they said back then. It is a cultural stereotype, but doing some cursory reading, apparently Sicily was far behind the rest of Italy at this time. The more North you got the more cultured it was, or so the story goes. This is shown by the initial rejection of Antonio's blonde/northern/attractive by the family, who seem to be suspicious of all northerners. An amazing film that is half farce/half gritty neo-realist tragedy and still seems bitter even today. Timeless.

Only 9 films this year I want to write about. Been going back in forth in my head if there was a 10th film that was good enough that I wanted to write about, but it seems that is all she wrote.

Here is a list of just misses. All worth your time. Movie, year, director is the format. Some of the below are streaming on Netflix.

Melancholia, 2011, Lars Von Trier
Snow Angels, 2007, David Gordon Green
I Saw The Devil, 2010, Ji-woon Kim
The Chaser, 2008, Hong-jin Na
Insidious, 2011, James Wan
Onibaba, 1964, Kaneto Shindo
Dersu Uzala, 1975, Akira Kurosawa
The Corner, 2000, David Simon
The Earrings of Madame de . . ., 1953, Max Ophuls
La Ronde, 1950, Max Ophuls
All The Real Girls, 2003, David Gordon Green
The Passenger, 1975, Michelangelo Antonioni
Exit Through The Gift Shop, 2010, Bansky
Until The Light Takes Us, 2008, Aaron Aites/Audrey Ewell

As promised here are the links below to the previous top 10's.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Franken 2010 - Hans Wirsching

2011-12-06T17:54:00.001-05:00

I absolutely love going to visit the Hans Wirsching estate in idyllic Iphofen, which is my absolute favorite wine village in all of Germany. Picturesque like nobody's business. Some great pics this year but there are some (actually all) pics are from Julie Besancon, who was my travelling companion this trip and did have an iphone to take some pictures. Dr. Uwe Mateus, the director of the estate is an absolute rock star and always makes me and whoever I am with feel right at home. Now onto the wines. The 2010's at Wirsching have some moments but all in all the de-acidification really hurt this estate as they make almost 90% dry wines and they were bringing in grapes at 15 g/pl/acid so they had no choice as there is no buffering sugar. Having said that there still were some impressive wines.

2010 Estate Silvaner - This was one of those impressive wines. Super mineral, lovely vegetable/green notes and very juicy and long. Really impressive for a basic Silvaner.

2010 Iphofer Kronsberg Silvaner Trocken - This was also very good. Higher toned minerality than the basic estate Silvaner. Very elegant and complex already. Lovely little wine.

2010 Iphofer Kronsberg Silvaner Kabinett Trocken - Mineral, ripe and pure. Elegant and smokey palate. Lovely classic Silvaner vegetable aromas. Pretty big on the palate but still nimble and refined.

2010 Iphofer Julius Echter Berg Silvaner Kabinett Trocken - Powerfully mineral nose as is expected with the Julius Echter Berg. Ripe and very juicy on the palate. Tea-like aromas. Some quince and intense minerality. So pure.

2010 Iphofer Kalb Silvaner - Not bad. Not great. Silky and mineral and very ripe. Lowish acidity.

2010 Iphofer Krosnberg Silvaner "S" - Killer aromas. Really penetrates the nostrils. Very elegant. Almost haunting elegance. Long and complex and chewy on the finish. Excellent.

2010 Julius Echter Berg Silvaner GG - This was out of this world. Mineral nose with huge ripeness and loads of quince. Very floral too. Suave and very complex with lovely saline/sea-breeze aromas and inner mouth aromatics. Dances on the palate. Best wine so far, by a mile.

2010 Iphofer Kronsberg Silvaner GG - Stoney vegetables on the nose. Pure and clean palate with huge amounts of dry extract. Like, wow. Rich yet balanced. Very pretty wine. A great GG.

2010 Julius Echter Berg Riesling Kabinett Trocken - Huge minerals on the nose and one of those wines where you can smell the acid. Very, pure, elegant and intense but seems to be lacking some energy.

2009 Julius Echter Berg Riesling "S" - I forgot how great Wirsching did in 2009 and this wine was an ample reminder. Wonderful, mineral and vegetable nose. Earthy and pure with wicked elegance. Suave and sappy on the palate with clean and crisp flavors. There are some dried fruit flavors that really add to the haunting complexity here. The nose really brings the funk as this is 50% sponti and 50% cultured yeasts. Very complex wine and really better than all the 2010's.

2010 Julius Echter Berg Riesling GG - Spicy and mineral nose. Tight palate with good acids and serious density. But almost too tight to evaluate.

1990 Julius Echter Berg Riesling Spatlese Trocken - Pretty amazing wine. What a nose. Minerals abound. Almost like a paste of minerals. Ripe and sinewy palate. But the nose keeps getting me. Leather, smoke and wild herbs make this fascinating aromatically. Deep yellow almost urine-like color. Palate is spicey and elegant with great mouthfeel and concentration. The finish leaves sawdust and vegetables on the palate. Why I love Franconian Riesling.

2010 Iphofer Kronsberg Scheurebe "S" - Currants, citrus and minerals on the nose. Really awesome nose. Great acids on this. Lively and elegant and oh so appealing.

2008 Spatburgunder "S" Trocken - In this area of Franken they are not known for their Spatburgunder but this was an impressive effort. Minerals and spices on the foresty and brambly nose, Loads of wild berries on this. Lovely purity along with earth and tree bark on the palate. Really good.

Nahe 2010 - Jakob Schneider

2011-12-01T18:19:00.001-05:00

I love my visit to Jakob Schneider as Jakob is one of the nicest, laid-back, easy-going and best winemakers in the Nahe. He has a major baby face and will charm you almost instantly. This is my 3rd time visiting him and it is firmly locked into the schedule from now on as this year was particularly fun. Getting to Niederhausen from Siefersheim (Wagner-Stempel) proved to be a bit of a chore as there were the famous 34 German road construction projects that were happening seemingly on every road to Niederhausen. Julie and I almost killed each other on this particular car ride, and we flying from such a great visit to Wagner-Stempel. Well, through much yelling and screaming and trying to trick the GPS we eventually got to Niederhausen. I have never been this happy to be in Niederhausen. Ever.

The 2010's from Jakob are wonderful wines and yes he did de-acidify a little. And he had a legitimate reason, even for my purist self. For example, Jaokb makes two basic trocken wines that don't come to the USA but are a large part of his overall production. The Graucschiefer and Melaphyr Trocken. Killer values and lovely little wines but nothing more and usually there is a consistent style that he goes for every year because he has clients that have been buying these wines for 10-15 and even 20 vintages. Cases upon cases. So now comes 2010 and wines that finished are maybe 7-8 grams of acid are now coming in at 15 in 2010, something had to be done. Also these wines have 4 or less grams of sugar. So 15 grams of acid and 4 grams of sugar + super crazy shock to regular clients. So in order to ensure sales continuity he de-acidifed these basic wines. The higher up the pradikat the less the de-acidification, And Jakob, next to Schloss Schonborn did one of the best jobs of de-acidifying.

Onto the wines . . . (the water pictured below is by far the best I have ever had in Germany.)

2010 Grauschiefer Riesling Trocken - Herbal nose with nice acids and good grip. Lovely and quaffable.

2010 Melaphyr Riesling Trocken - Minerals abound on this ripe nose. Excellent purity. Nice concentration. Impressive.

2010 Niederhauser Hermannshohle Riesling Trocken - Airy and mineral nose. Also some chalkiness. Ripe and juicy with a huge mineral component. Very nice.

2010 Niederhauser Felsensteyer Riesling Trocken - Loads of melons and minerals on the nose with really high acids on the palate. I like. Nice fruit, good length and grip.

2010 Norheimer Dellchen Riesling Trocken - I did not like this. It happens. Powdered sugar on the nose with very low acid.

2010 Niederhauser Hermannshohle "Magnus" - Jakob's GG wine as he is not in the VDP so can't make an official GG wine. A great Magnus. Mineral, ripe and juicy with greta poise and class. Loads of extract and very pure. Tons of dried berry fruit. Very ripe.

2010 Niederhauser Kertz Riesling feinherb - Kiss of RS on the nose. Lowish-type of acids with lovely purity and cleanliness but did not move me.

2010 Niederhauser Rosenberg Gewurztraminer Spatlese feinherb - A great wine. Hugely floral nose with roses and kinky aspects. Lowish acid and just loads of fun. Great minerality.

2010 Niederhauser Klamm Riesling Kabinett - Very ripe and juicy with vivid minerality and great acids. Lovely purity.

2010 Kabinett 1L - This is the wine Terry Thiese has made for the US market. Mineral, fructic, fun, ripe and juicy with very good freshness.

2010 Niederhauser Hermannshohle Spatlese - Ethereal nose. Really wowed me. Donnhoff-like. Elegant and very lacey with phenomenal ripeness. So pure. White pepper throughout along with heavenly and very pure fruit. Just a great Hermannshohle Spatlese.

2010 Niederhauser Hermannshohle Eiswein - Killer acids in this wine. Maybe no de-acidification here? Ripe and mineral with huge saffron nose and outrageous richness. Stunning Eiswein. Maybe 16-17 Grams of acid here.

2010 Niederhauser Hermannshohle Auslese Jr. - This was 12.7 grams of acid and 190 grams of sugar. Ripe. Ripe. Ripe. Elegant and with some of the saffron in the Eiswein. Gotta be a botrytis aroma. Stunning. Like a cloud on the palate.

2010 Niederhauser Hermannshole BA - My favorite wine of tje day and usually I'm a spatlese/feinherb guy. Saffron city on the nose. Very complex nose with loads of clean and very pure botrytis. Silky and ripe.

After the tasting we drove back to Bockeneau before we headed to dinner in a town I forget, but near Niederhausen. Great food and the best Dourade I ever had. The restaurant made their own Schnapps and I had a little but not nearly enough. At dinner we drank an '10 Schonleber Trocken. A wonderful visit as usual and already planning next years trip. Thanks Jakob!

The pictures are of the food from dinner, the bottle we drank and the strange dolls in the kitchen at the pension we stayed at. Remember I only had my phone and not my Canon G 12.

2010 Rheinhessen - Wagner-Stempel

2011-11-08T19:10:00.000-05:00

This was my 2nd visit to Wagner-Stempel and it is now in the must visit every time category for sure. My visit last year was wonderful and now that they have picked up a new distributor, Rudi Wiest, who is a dear friend and helps make my arrangements in Germany each year, I was even more pumped to go. Siefersheim is a charming little village and the estate pf Wagner-Stempel has to be one of the more beautiful estates in that pastoral style. It is unreal how close to the Nahe Siefersheim is. It is a 20 minute drive from Bockenau, and not surprisingly it shares much of the same porphyr soil. The wines of Wagner-Stempel in 2009, I must admit, overall as a group I liked better than 2010, but in 2010 the Grosses Gewachs bottlings of Hollberg and Heerkretz were out of this world and a leap over the excellent 2009's. Daniel Wagner, who guided us through the tasting after another epic vineyard tour from Oliver Muller, did tell me that he did de-acidify some of his lower end bottlings and did not for the two GG's. As a result some of the basic bottlings do seem to be missing some electricity and snap. Overall it is an excellent group but lacks some energy and at some times can be dull at the low end. This was not the case in 2009 and I see 2010 as a blip and the basic bottlings which were so great in 2009 will be back to form in 2011. But do not get me wrong, this is one of the top estates in the Rheinhessen, and now that they have a new US importer who champions the Grosses Gewachs wines of Germany, they will see a wider audience in the United States, as the wines deserve it.

2010 Silvaner Trocken - Mineral, green (in that good Silvaner way) and ripe. Dense, pure wine with excellent focus. But a touch warm.

2010 Siefersheimer Silvaner Trocken - This is the next level up Silvaner. This was quite good. Mineral and ripe nose. Lovely, pure and clean. Inviting aromas. Some pistachio and other nuts develop after aeration. Elegant on the palate with ripe, complex flavors along with clean, yet creamy flavors. Still very precise wine but shows the creamier side of Silvaner. Long and intense wine. Needs food.

2010 Weissburgunder Trocken - Simple nose of minerals and apples. Very ripe. Sappy and dense on the palate but really lacks snap.

2010 Siefersheimer Weissburgunder Trocken - Floral and high-toned nose. Ripe and juicy on the palate with excellent purity and focus. Clean and mineral wine with persistent apple and pear flavors on the finish. Good weight. Quite good.

2010 Schuerebe Trocken - This was the best basic wine by far. Always is. Grapefruit and redcurrants on the nose. Great acids and snap on the palate. Can't believe this is de-assed. Huge currant fruit on the palate but as lean and mineral as they come. A lot to like in this one.

2010 Sauvignon Blanc Trocken - Minerals and typical SB aromas. Palate is sappy and dense. Excellent for what it is.

2010 Riesling Trocken - Pretty mineral and ripe nose. Yellow fruits and a salty impression on the palate. Intense yet lacks energy and snap.

2010 Siefersheimer Riesling Trocken "Vom Porphyr" - The calling card of the winery and it is excellent again in 2010 and is one of the best "non GG Riesling done inna GG style" values on the market today. From young vine Heerkretz and Hollberg fruit. Mineral and ripe in 2010 and full of tightly packed mineral and fruit. Wonderful texture and some great finesse but still very powerful as this wine can be. Bee pollen on the nose after aeration. Just awesome.

2010 Hollberg Riesling GG - Very mineral and ripe nose. Expansive. Powdered sugar on the nose which I love getting out of high end dry German Riesling, especially from this area. Keller and Schafer-Frohlich also get this confectionary aroma in their wines in ripe vintages. Great complexity emerges after some coaxing. What a palate and easily the best Hollberg ever. Just had the 2005 Hollberg GG the other night and wow was it delivering after only a short time in the cellar. The 2010 in five years should be at a much higher level than the 2005. Already amazingly complex on the nose. So suave and fine on the palate. Regal stuff and one the very best 2010 GG's.

2010 Heerkretz Riesling GG - 9.5 grams per liter of acid here, which is pretty high for a GG, but man does this wine bend the mind quickly. So fine and filigreed and absolutely stuffed with minerals. Outrageous complexity and almost weightless yet immensely concentrated. A remarkable wine and one of the top GG's of the vintage.

2010 Siefersheimer Heerkretz Spatlese - A brilliant year for the fruity styled wines of Wagner-Stempel. Ut is a very small part of their production and not at all what they are known for. Just a perfectly balanced, ripe and sappy wine. So dense with extract and ripe but alive and tingles the palate. Remarkable. Heerkretz again dances on your palate.

2010 Siefersheimer Heerkretz Auslese - Incredibly vivid yellow fruit along with dazzling minerality. So juicy, ripe and concentrated yet elegant. Out of this world Auslese with a finish that keps on pushing the fruit. Remarkable again.

A great visit to one of the best estates in Germany and one of the top three in the Rheinhessen along with Keller and Wittman.

2010 Mosel - Weingut Gunther Steinmetz

2011-11-03T13:21:00.002-04:00

I always look so forward to my visits at the Steinmetz Estate. Out of all the producers I visit in the Mosel I feel that the Steinmetz's are kind of like my adoptive German family. There's Stefan, his engaging fiancee Sammie, his lovely mother Edith, Gunther (the patriarch), Sophia (the new addition) and of course Ramses the cat. And the past two years Mark who is Stefan's close friend has joined us. I get a home cooked meal every time I visit which is a wonderful thing as that is very rare in my life, get to joke around, as Stefan has an incredible sense of humor and loves all types of comedy, taste his magnificent Rieslings (which get better every year that I have been tasting since the 2004's), and drink way too much which results in me usually dead passed out on the way to the Nahe, which is where I usually go after the Mosel. This year was a bit different as we had to drive to Frankfurt to the good old US Consulate to get my new temporary passport as we all know that my stuff was stolen at Frankfurt airport. I got 15 minutes of sleep. We left at 6AM. A few words on Frankfurt. Hands down this is one of, if not the ugliest city I have ever visited. Just ugly. Modern gone kitsch gone awry. Just a wacky place with bright colors, no sense of real neighborhood and taxis that might be the most expensive in the world. But I do have to say, the swiftness and lack of any bullshit in getting my passport was nothing short of brilliant. Germans and the USA should have a United bureaucracy or something.

Now onto the wines. In 2010 Stefan Steinmetz made the best wines so far in his time making the wines at the estate. He did not de-acidify and is incredibly passionate about it. I, for one, applaud this passion for keeping it real. He only made one true Trocken I believe, which is the estate Liter, which is the best value I tasted while over there. This collection is stunning and the Geierslay wines from his new parcels are just stunning in 2010. But also wines from side valleys like the Muhlhemer Sonnenlay and Veldenzer Grafschafter Sonneberg produced some of the best I have ever tasted from these sites. Everybody should grab some of these as they are some of the most pure, unadulterated, gripping Rieslings from the Mosel I tasted in 2010, where many growers de-acidified their wines and made dull, lifeless wines from maybe some of the best material Mother Nature has ever offered the Mosel. Onto the wines.

1990 Kestener Paulinsberg Spatlese - We started with this wine as I was curious to taste again as a bottle I had this summer was tremendous. And, yes this was tremendous and even better than I remember it. A wine that would fit right in in 2010. 36 grams sugar and 12ish acidity. My kind of Riesling. Gorgeously detailed mineral nose with plum fruits. Also some yellow fruits show after some air. Forward and rich on the palate with bracing acids. Amazing texture and palate presence and of course German Rieslings uncanny ability to show age and outstanding youthful freshness at the same time is on full display in this wine.

2010 Riesling Trocken (1L) - Full on trocken and not de-acidified which was a rarity along the Mosel in 2010. This wine is an absolute freak show. Huge sponti, mineral and just plain stanky nose. Rich on the palate yet with great acids. I mean great Tony the Tiger from Kellog's great acids. Ripe and lemony with incredible concentration and spice. Tremendous wine.

2010 Veldenzer Grafschafter Sonnenberg Trocken - Wonderful wine from a side valley vineyard near the Goldtropfchen I believe. Distinctive nose of mineral and corn. Freakish acids on this wine but I loved it. Grippy and tensile palate with amazing purity. A trock-star. Bad pun, but it just came to me.

2010 Muhlheimer Sonnenlay Alte Reben - Ripe nose but with lovely edgy minerality, Silky, ripe and elegant on the palate. A creamed corn flavor with fresh mint. Great acids but lower than Sonnenberg Trocken.

2010 Brauneberger Juffer Riesling Devon - My notes at this point get a bit less accurate as, if you can believe it, the previous four wines took us three hours to taste, as this was over a long dinner. This was as rich as Devon can get but with grippy and high-toned acids. These 2010 acids also sneak up on the finish. Other times they get you right on the attack. This sneaks up on you. I know its hard for 10 grams of acid to sneak up on you but, believe me it can happen. Very elegant wine.

2008 Graacher Himmelreich Spatburgunder - Actually this might have been a dinner wine. Or not. Big, ripe and rich Pinot that went well with what we were eating. If we were eating. And yes this is Graacher Himmelreich Spatburgunder.

2010 Wintricher Geierslay "sur lie" - The wines from this vineyard in 2010 are epic. And I don't use the word epic lightly. Ever. Even in 2009 this vineyard yields Rieslings with great electricity and clarity. Such clean wines. Lemon and mineral nose and very sleek palate. Amazing purity and great grip on the back end. Very serious wine.

2010 Kestener Herrenberg Riesling - Creamed corn notes on this very ripe and rich wine. Very mineral and seems lower in acidity than the other wines.

2010 Wintricher Geierslay Spatlese Feinherb - This was one of the best wines I had all of last year so I had high hopes for the 2010. And wow did this set me straight. Very mineral and precise nose with mucho sponti aromas and amazingly precise on the palate. Only 9% alcohol and a whopping 10.7 grams of acid. Wonderful wine and a classic at chez Steinmetz.

2010 Brauneberger Kabinett Feinherb - Airy nose of sea breeze and minerals. Oceanic nose. Huge levels of concentration and killer acids.

2010 Veldenzer Grafschafter Sonnenberg* - This vineyard was outrageously successful in 2010. 12 grams of acid here! Passion fruit on the ripe palate but so juicy and electric die to the acidity. Profound.

2010 Brauneberger Juffer Spatlese* - 11.7 grams of acid and 92 grams of sugar. Ripe, juicy and elegant wine with an absolutely beautiful and haunting texture. Loads of apricot and peach fruits stay with you for minutes on end.

2010 Wintricher Geierslay Spatlese* - Pure and clean with candied fruit yet very fresh. Huge acids and I mean huge. Will last 100 years for sure. Amazing finish and just stunning wine and best from Geirslay in 2010.

2010 Muhlheimer Sonnenlay Spatlese** - Mineral and yellow corn aromas. Great acids and coolling fruits. Sorry notes are not up to par but this is hour 7 of tasting and at around 3:15 AM.

2010 Braunebeger Juffer Spatlese** - Mineral and sea breezey nose with a ripe, juicy and elegant palate. Amazing precision which was a theme in all the wines.

2010 Kestener Paulinsberg Auslese* - Wheat aromas? Huge, swelling acids and the level of ripeness along with the acids make this a brilliant Auslese. Stays with you forever. So intense.

You may not see it in my less than great notes but the 2010's from Steinmetz are the real deal. Buy, Buy, Buy.

More with Auction News Network - 2011 Bordeaux. Is it a stinker?

2011-10-25T18:17:00.001-04:00

New venture with Sidetour - Authentic Experiences. Real People.

2011-10-11T16:15:00.003-04:00

So, I always get a lot of offers to do wine stuff, but most of it seems just plain not interesting, not fun and in general, not too creative. So when the people from SideTour contacted me, I was naturally skeptical, but soon I heard what they were all about and got very excited as the experience, seemed, well, authentic. Tour buses, wine classes (some can be good, most are not), etc just seem so frigid. But what SideTour does is sell authentic experiences from real people. If there is anything I am about wine, it is real, and not to toot my own horn, but I am about as authentic as they come. And when it comes to wine, I am a truth-teller and want clients and friends to drink good, no, great wine for as little cash as possible. SideTour's slogan, "Authentic Experiences. Real People." , is what I have been about wine since I have been involved it. Life is too short to drink bad wine. My motto. I'd rather pour it down the drain than drink bad wine, inauthentic wine and have a false experience. I mean, we only have one liver, so might as well use it to the best of it's ability.

In my sidetour, I meet my group at Chambers Street Wines, take them around the store, show them the ins and outs of the wines, the prices, the salespeople, the closeout bin and of course have an engaging wine tasting with one of the exemplary staff there. Quick sidebar. I worked at Chambers twice for a total of around 4-5 years, so I am a bit bias. Then we all decide as a group, what wine to buy and then buy it for our tasting later. Then we walk a little bit up to Vestry Wines and do the same thing there, with an engaging wine tasting, some inside tips and then the we cab it up to my own little wine tasting room, known as my apartment for a grand tasting with some surprises.

Please retweet this, share on FB, diggit, reddit, tumblr, etc. Every single possible social portal you can think of as I am very behind this venture and think it will be huge. Also please look at their other sidetours as they all seem mad cool.

Three 2010 Schafer-Frohlich GG's

2011-10-07T20:00:00.012-04:00

Had dinner last night at Lotus of Siam and it was excellent as usual. The wine theme was 2010's from Peter Lauer and Schafer-Frohlich. I managed to take home the Schafer-Frohlich GG's as I wanted to follow them over a 24+ hour period as Tim's GG wines I generally prefer on day 2 and beyond. And this set has been especially heralded so I really wanted to dig my teeth in. And man were they tight last night. But today each one has blossomed and the tension between racy acids and high ripe, opulent mineral and fruit expression is something else.

2010 Schafer-Frohlich Felsenberg GG - One of the most elegant and mineral expressions of Riesling to come out of the Nahe every year is this bottling. The 2010 is flat out the best I have ever tasted. The nose is densely packed with minerals, spearmint, saltiness and lime zest. Layered and amazingly stanky and complex. Even a hint of very refined sponti. Great nose. But, takes a day to blossom as it was somewhat mute last night. The palate is just unbelievable. Layers upon layers of densely packed mineral infused fruit. But places on the palate so delicately in a powdered refined presentation. Long, complex finish. I mean really long. Sappy with loads of dry extract, as impressive a Felsenberg as I have ever tasted. Just profound.

2010 Schafer-Frohlich Halenberg GG - This was the most forward last night and has that lovely mix of opulence and minerality in a non-freak vinage like 2010 is, so I was eager to see what 2010 would bring to Halenberg. Nose is less fine and complex than the Felsenberg. Loads of melon and crazy minerality. Palate is ripe and precise while also being opulent. Fleshy stone fruits mixed with rainer cherries abound. Loads of fruit being pumped on the spicy/mineral finish. Impressive and big wine but the Felsenberg for me is more in the style I prefer. This is an excellent Halenberg but I still prefer the 2005 as the most impressive young Halenberg I have tasted.

2010 Schafer-Frohlich Felseneck GG - Ahhhhh . . .Felseneck. The crown jewel of the four Schafer-Frohlich GG's. Amazing last night and ever more amazing today. Multi-dimensional nose of mint, mineral, stone fruits, lime zest all presented with such jaw-dropping detail and dazzling purity. Vivid does not even beging to describe how expressive and pure this nose is. Beautiful wine on the palate. Rich, dense and woven beautifully. Perfect balance. One of the richest Felsenecks I have ever had but the acidity is just electric. The elegance is top-notch and there is a chewy quality due to the sheer wealth of material. An amazing, lengthy and detailed finish, that honestly speaking could use another day to open up. Nonetheless and amazing wine.

I wrote this whole blog on an iMac

2011-10-07T00:00:00.003-04:00

Thanks, Steve.

2010 Saar - Von Hovel

2011-10-05T18:45:00.000-04:00

I have not visited Von Hovel since my initial visit to Germany in 2006. I have always had a fondess for the wines of Von Hovel. First of all they have an incredible vineyard in the Oberemmeler Hutte which is their monopole. It creates opulent yet racy wines with lovely precision. Then they have a nice slice of Scharzhofberger. Not as thrilling or as baroque and refined as Egon Muller's but a wonderful, lean, mineral style. Both of these sites are the heart and soul of the portfolio and now that Max Von Kunow is making the wine, rather than his father Eberhard, there is a notable stylistic change. For the better I must say. Von Hovel wines, in my experience have always been wonderfully approachable and very fruity. Max seems to be going more lean/mineral rather than fruity. The trocken and feinherb style wines in 2010 are particularly compelling. There was no de-acidification here. A wonderful collection and my favorite since 2005. We got there during his vintage presentation and it was extremely busy at the winery yet Max came down and took us through each wine in detail. I thank him for giving us the time. After the tasting on our way to the car Max asked me to taste a mad ton of wines from Luxembourg that some producers were pouring as Max has done some work with Luxembourg wineries before he was full time at the estate. Some were pretty nice, some were oaked to death and some of the sparklers were too sweet. But I was not totally put off and it might be worth investigating more. Interesting Pinot Blanc and Auxxerois.

2010 Oberemmeler Hutte Spatlese Feinherb - This was a knock me out wine. Really wowed me. Nose of minerals, lemon curd with notable ripeness. Clean, precise and pure nose. Ripe and elegant palate with clean, ripe and pure flavors that mirror the nose. The lean style and opulence of the Hutte do a nice balancing act. Wonderful mouthfeel.

2010 Scharzhofberger Spatlese Feinherb - This was beautiful wine too and along with the Hutte feinherb got my highest rating - ****. A great set of feinherb as I have ever tasted. Mineral and chalky nose. Classic Scharzhofberger aromas. Like freshly crushed sweet tarts. Crazy good aromas. Palate is wonderfully lean, precise and mineral. Grippy and lively acids. So long as a result of them. Cleanses the palate. Actually shimmers the palate. Massive structure and tangy minerals. Earthy, dense and ripe. Profound wine.

2010 Scharzhofberger GG - Not an easy wine but it sure is a profound wine. Really complex as in complicated and nuanced. Intense and slightly austere nose. You know you are in for a serious palate experience. Very mineral and lean and a bit closed but still showing great complexity. Beautifully knit and nimble. Great balance and a wonderfully successful Scharzhofberger GG. Very impressed.

2010 Obermmeler Hutte Kabinett Trocken - Simple, crisp little trocken here. Mineral and bright with good ripeness and crunchy fruit. Nice.

2010 Obermmeler Hutte Kabinett - Creamed corn on the nose and even some green chilis. Nice, ripe and friendly palate with clean flavors and excellent precision. Really giving today.

2010 Scharzhofberger Kabinett - Chalky mineral and very complex nose. Also lots of passion fruit. That passion fruit comes across on the palate with other complex, ripe and nuanced flavors. Again, a nimble and filigreed Scharzhofberger. Really enjoying the new Scharzhofberger style wines that Max is making. It seems he is really tapping into this great site's potential with his own voice.

2010 Scharzhofberger Spatlese - Much more ripe than the Kabinett with tons of passion fruit and mineral on the palate. A bit closed on this day as the finish was clipped.

2010 Obermmeler Hutte Spatlese* - Earthy, mineral and dusty nose. Very nuanced and precise. Wonderful textural and sensual wine on the palate yet still with nerve and tension. Crunchy fruit and minerals give way to an explosive finish.

2010 Obermmeler Hutte Auslese - Minerals and creamed corn galore on the nose along with some clean botrytis notes. Ripe and intense on the palate with absolutely mind boggling purity. Auslese are so great in 2010. Just perfect. I need to buy more Auslesen in 2010. Very special wines.

2010 Obermmeler Hutte Auslese*** - Huge, massive wine bursting from the seams with acid, ripe fruit, botrytis. Yet with all it's weight it is so light and filigreed. Amazing.

A great visit. From what I have tasted (Zilliken, Lauer, Von Hovel) it looks like 2010 is wonderful in the Saar. Really curious to taste Egon Muller.

2010 Saar - Peter Lauer and a surprise

2011-09-29T18:24:00.008-04:00

So, as you may have noticed, the look of Rockss and Fruit has changed. I kind of like it. Very Web 3.0. Clean and simple. Not sure where all my links and stuff are, but I think I am really feeling the clean look of it. I'll look for the links and stuff and do some more tinkering, if I can. I think, you the reader, can click on the upper left things that say Magazine, Mosaic, etc and choose the way you see it, which I think is pretty cool. Still will be the same old Rockss and Fruit with sporadic posting, but it actually looks like I write a lot more than I actually do.

Anyway now onto the Peter Lauer section of the trip. This year I did not get to sit with Florian for 3+ hours as he was having his presentation that day. So was Zilliken, Von Othergraven and Von Hovel. We made it to Von Hovel. 2010 plus Saar acids and that schedule of estates pretty much means you will be ass out by 9pm assuming those 4 appts and a quick lunch. I love acid and let me tell you, these 2010's have the craziest acid I have ever tasted in German wine. These wines will last and last and last. Florian made 3 BA's and 3 TBA's this year for the first time in the history of the winery. He did not de-acidify and all are from great old vineyards scattered across the Ayler Kupp, which I feel guilty for calling it that, because there are so many named spots within the Kupp that are not there anymore due to the "simplification" and vineyard expansions of the 1971 German Wine Law. Luckily Florian names his wines after the historical sites. The 2010's here are electric and nervy and chock full of minerals but with the best precision and balance of any set of Lauer's I have had. They are much better than the excellent 2008's, but in the same family/style with acid levels perhaps with 2010 being higher and more piquant, but 2008 was not anywhere near as ripe as 2010. Every wine was compelling. This was a standup tasting in two different rooms. Every wine was poured he made in 2010. My notes are good but not great and these are impressions/notes combined into one murky description. My labeling, which I hope maybe Dan Melia or Lars Çarlberg can help with, is not great as I lost the tasting book and am relying on my notes from my notebook. Usually the tasting book is a good guide.

Saar Riesling Brut - The best Sekt out there. Saline and mineral with great cut from the acids. Touch of feinherb-like sweetness. Good depth. Very impressive.

2010 Barrel X Saar Riesling - Here is the write up from my Grapes e-mail. Sourced from vineyards on the Ayler Kupp hillside this wine is a wine to drink. In Germany it is called "Alt Scheidt" which is a type of "Saufwein" which means a wine you can drink the hell out of. This is principally from one site called the Ayler Scheidtberg, which was changed with the 1971 wine laws into the Ayler Kupp. 15 unique sites in Ayl were lumped into one vineyard called the Ayler Kupp and if you get Florian started he will go off on the VDP and the 1971 German wine law. This is a very mineral X with great concentration, sponti aromas, excellent length and fine, elegant minerality. Such a tremendous value. Done in a feinherb style so carrying around 30-33 grams of residual sugar but remains dry tasting. An incredible basic Estate Riesling.

2010 Fass 23 - This is a trocken. Could be Saar Trocken or Ayler Trocken. Not sure. Whatever it was it was great. Very high-toned and precise minerals. Very juicy and clean. Brisk beverage. Delicious.

2010 Fass 2 Ayler Kupp Riesling (Extra Trocken) - Yes this is the extra trocken. Becoming one of my favorite wines in the portfolio. Huge mineral on the nose and a nice helping of slate. For an extra trocken the amount of dry extract in this wine is off the charts. So pure. Concentration is huge but it wears its armor very well and is extremely elegant despite the wealth of material. Chewy wine with lovely inner mouth aromas. Wonderful.

2010 Fass 6 Ayler Kupp Riesling “Senior” - This was also a favorite. Had a closed bottle of the 2008 the other night. Still being closed it was great. That's Lauer for ya, even when closed they are great. This is in an off-dry but dry-tasting wine and is the preferred style that Florian's grandfather liked. Thus the name "Senior." I have tasted every vintage of this since 2007 and this is by far the most haunting. The balance is absolutely bonkers on this wine. This comes from the western part of the Ayler Kupp with a southwest exposition from more than a dozen scattered parcels. Lots of old vine material in those parcels. Lovely nose of sponti, mineral and slate. Palate is chunky yet precise at the same time. Very ripe but oh so elegant. Haunting in its elegance. Kind of a very elegant late summer corn flavor on the palate awash in minerals. Just wowed me.

2010 Fass 1 Ayler Kupp Riesling (trocken bis feinherb) - This is between a trocken and feinherb. So 20-22 grams of RS I surmise here. Closed on this day but still great. Extremely mineral and vivid with cool fruit flavors and great ripeness. Acids lovely and extend out the finish.

2010 Fass 4 Ayler Riesling (feinherb) - Mineral and tropical nose here. Ripeness of the vintage evident in the nose. Palate is rich and dense with clean fruit and salty acids. Very good.

2010 Fass 3 Ayler Kupp Riesling (feinherb) - Spicy and mineral nose. Nose is chunky yet perfectly refined. Rich and powerful palate with some sugar showing. Super amount of dry extract. Just remarkable the dry extract in these off-dry and dry wines. Salty finish. Really compelling.

2010 Fass 12 Ayler Kupp Riesling “Unterstenbersch” - Really wow nose here. Classy stuff. Silky palate with fantastic elegance balanced with major ripe fruit. Tropical, salty and long. Really long. Dense wine. Really stops you in your tracks.

2010 Fass 18 Ayler Kupp Riesling “Kupp ‘56” (trocken) - From vines planted in 1956. I bought 3 bottles and brought them back with me. That's how much I loved this wine. Very aromatic. Beguiling aromas here. Super mineral and slatey. Thick with oozing minerals and dry extract. Friendly in a mean way. Gives you a hard time because it knows you will understand. Profound wine.

2010 Fass 11 Ayler Kupp Riesling "Schonfels" - The legendary Schonfels, of which the '09 I fawned over earlier this year and at the estate last year. This is 100+ year old vines. Very complex nose if a bit closed. So pure on the palate and riper than '09 Schonfels but boy is there a whiplash of acidity in this wine. Rich and loaded with extract and almost citrus oil Riesling flavors. Lovely.

2010 Fass ?? Ayler Kupp Riesling "Neuenberg" (feinherb) - Do not know what Fass this is but I am sure it is Ayler Kupp. Feinherbey in style and a nice herbal nose. Lovely spice on the palate. Mineral and sappy. Dense wine. Extraordinary.

2010 Fass ?? Ayler Kupp Riesling "Stirn" - Very ripe for a Stirn. Salty, elegant and rich. Lovely mouthfeel. More sugar here. Full on Feinherb.

2010 Fass ?? Ayler Kupp Riesling "Kern" - Nose leaps out of the glass with huge mineral and tropical fruits. Lovely and pure with tremendous grip and palate presence. Sold out at the time I tasted it and I don't believe any made it over here. Profound stuff.

2010 Fass 13 Riesling Saarfiesler - Here is the text from my Grapes e-mail. This is a very special wine. Florian's eyes light up when talking about this wine. My eyes lit up when tasting this wine. It comes not from the Ayler Kupp but from one of the greatest sites in the Saar, from what is essentially a half-island in the middle of the Saar. The complexity of this wine comes from the diverse selection of soils which include wild-mix sand, gravel and galets similar to Chateauneuf (Florian calls it "Saar des Papes). It is firmly in the feinherb style and carries around 40 grams of residual sugar. The vines are very old with extremely deep roots. The site is warmer than the Ayler Kupp and creates wines of opulence but still has those Saar lasers. This has lovely ripeness with intense, focused minerality and a wonderful saline impression on the palate. Really juicy due to the extra lift from the 2010 acids. A mouthful of profound wine that lasts and lasts. Very refined and lithe. Instant smile-inducing wine. Has at least 15-20 years ahead of it. Totally profound.

2010 Fass 7 Ayler Kupp Riesling Spätlese - In 2010, for my palate, Florian made one of his best collections of fruity styled and nobly sweet wines I have tasted yet. The acidity of this vintage, when this high, begs for fruity style wines. White raisins and minerals on the nose. Pure and clean but enormously ripe. So precise with those Saar lasers. Killer.

2006 Fass 7 Ayler Kupp Riesling Spatlese - A little back vintage stuff on display now. Very developed on the nose. Honey, hay and very ripe. Good acids and really fills the mouth.

2010 Fass 23 Ayler Kupp Riesling Spatlese** - Amazing acids here. This is really actually not labeled a Spatlese as Florian believe it is between a Spatlese and an Auslese. I believed it will just be labelled Fass 23. Whatever it is it is an exceptional and noble fruity wine. Amazing acids in this wine along with a cleanliness that is jaw-dropping. Ridiculous.

2010 Fass 10 Ayler Kupp Riesling Auslese - Head spinning wine here. Euphoric nose. White raisins again with lovely minerals and a smokey sense throughout. Compelling Auslese.

The rest of the wine were BA and TBA. Tasted four of the 6. The Kupp TBA, The Feils TBA (from the Saarfiesler vineyard), Schonfels BA with 17 grams of acid and one other whose name I cannot decipher from my own notes. It was a BA. All I know.

So the lesson is that this is the best collection of Lauer wines I have tasted.

See me talk about 2010 German wine vintage for Auction News Network

2011-09-22T17:00:00.001-04:00

I'll miss you, Joe Dressner

2011-09-17T12:18:00.011-04:00

As I am sitting here in teary-eyed sadness regarding the loss of my friend and wine importer Joe Dressner, words are not really doing it. Having worked at CSW twice, traveled to France with him, and drank more of his wines than I will ever remember, I can say Joe Dressner had one of the most positive impacts on my life of anybody in the world of wine or in the world, period . He was uncompromising, brilliant, one of the funniest people I will ever know, kind, sweet and took no prisoners. I can't really write any more so here are some pics from my visit to France with Joe, from February 2008.

Here is what I wrote on his FB profile page wall. Was trying to find the perfect words and I found them.

Joe, I will always remember our last time hanging out at your apartment this past June, drinking tea, bullshitting about the royal wedding, mystery novels, Treme, The Wire, playing with Zaggy and so many other things. Now I know it was a goodbye and I could not have dreamt of a better goodbye. You were so much more than the greatest wine importer. You were my friend. I will miss you.

2010 Germany - J.J. Prum

2011-09-14T20:04:00.007-04:00

So now we arrive at Prum. I was extremely excited to taste these in the 2010 vintage. Katherina told me earlier in the year that her father said they reminded her of the great 1990's and that got me amped to see what the greatest estate in the Mosel had to offer up in 2010. First we had to get there and that was not successful after the first attempt. As I alluded to earlier we drove to Bonn as our GPS waas not working and had to cancel JJ Prum and Sonora. Sonora we did not get to but we were able to arrange a tasting at the Prum estate with Katharina the next day.

2010 absolutely kills at Prum. No two ways about it. They only de-acidified the one Kabinett they made and everything was what nature gave them. And that "de-assed" Kabinett was fantastic. The wines have a zen quality about them. Serene and focused due to the thrilling acid levels but it only seemed really apparent on the Graccher Himmelreich Auslese, which won me over very quickly. Before we tasted Katharina gave me a choice, which was to taste wine that had been open a day or freshly opened bottles. I chose the day old stuff as 2010 is one of those vintages where if you leave a bottle open of the sweet stuff, it'll last you a week or two. Probably longer.

2010 Riesling Kabinett - Excellent wine. Ripe, juicy and clean. Very crisp and lean. Fantastic energy in the mouth and finesse. Slatey as can be.

2010 Graacher Himmelreich Spatlese - Very pure wine and very Graach-ey with crisp, icing like minerals on the palate. Great concentration which was a pattern here. The 2010 Prum wines are very concentrated. You don't notice it as the balance is extraordinary, but it's there, which makes me believe these will last 50-100 years. With that acid, that concentration, the high oechsle level, and the fact these are Prum, who ages longer and better than anybody, my money is on 50-100 years ageability. Back to the tasting note. Super elegant and fine. Crystalline in its purity.

2010 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Spatlese - Creamy and ripe as WS from Prum should be, with slightly lower acid than the GH. Elegant and extremely pure. Explosive in the mouth with incredible depth. Ripe and so juicy due to the higher than normal acids. Still with great balance and a very long finish. Totally stunning.

2010 Bernkasteler Badstube Auslese - Really mineral and racy. Loved this. Such a unique BB Auslese. Notes are not extensive on this as I was too busy drinking it. Balance was amazing here. This is an Auslese I'd kill young and it would not taste all sweet and rich and botrytisey. Just lasers, minerals and finesse. Oh yeah, all that with serious concentration.

2010 Graacher Himmelreich Auslese - Ripe, rich and profound. Huge acids. Echos in your mouth. Amazing depth and concentration. Leaves you speechless it is so good. Pure and explosive. Okay, I could also drink this young. Easy.

2010 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese - What you would expect. Rich, deep, ripe and creamy. Very slatey and even a touch herbal on the nose. Great finesse and elegance. Just perfect harmony. Amazing acids that makes every sip an experience. Tremendous.

2010 Bernkasteler Badstube GK Auslese - I believe this is the first one ever made. Huge burst of clean and very pure botrytis. Bursting with tropical fruit and buffered by killer acids. Amazing lightness while being very rich at the same time. Another extraordinary bottle.

2010 Zeltinger Sonnenuhr GK Auslese - Wow. Yes. Wow. Ochochinco "I'm clueless in the Patriots offense" wow. So dense and ripe. Huge botrytis but so clean. Ripe crisp acids. The acids in these GK wines is totally bonkers. Huge Auslese. Takes over and colonizes your mouth. This should provide a stellar value for the vintage. I don't think they have made this much in the past.

2010 Graacher Himmelreich GK Auslese - Very rich, ripe and dense. Lovely and pure. The standout aspect of this brilliant was the texture. Creamy, rocky and enveloping and sneaky all at once. Creeps, crawls and spikes. But the texture of the next wine is a once or twice in a lifetime thing. This was spectacular but I was so taken by the WS GKA served next my notes are less than stellar on this wine.

2010 Wehlener Sonnenuhr GK Auslese - Just a dream in the mouth. Nose was very botryized but had wet slate, mango and a creaminess. The palate had density, creaminess and almost like a sand-like texture peppered throughout the creaminess. And depth that gives you a stomach drop like a rollercoaster. Stunning wine and easily the best vintage at Prum since 2001. Buy these and hide them.

2010 Germany - Monchoff and Christoffel

2011-09-09T14:10:00.012-04:00

So now the story gets to be told of my German adventure. Blow by blow. So after my bag gets stolen and we filed the police report we get the rental car and decide to drive 3hrs in the wrong direction because the GPS was not even remotely close to being accurate. I remember sitting in the car in front of the JJ Prum estate the next day and punching the address in and it telling me we were 560 km away. Ridiculous. But we got by on borrowed GPS's thanks to the kindess of Jakob Schneider, Justin Christophe and Danielle and finally Stefan Steinmetz's fiance, the lovely Sammie. So it was GPS musical chairs and I now am an expert on the ubiquitous TomTom, which is the preferred brand in Germany. So after missing our appointment with JJ Prum (don't fret, I tasted them the next day and well, they are well worth discussing) and our *** Michelin meal at Sonnora we finally arrive at Monchoff at 8:30 PM. I landed at 10:55 and we left Frankfurt airport at 1:30 PM. Oh yeah, travel follies galore.

The next morning we had an unreal breakfast and were ready to taste with Robert Eymael. They de-acidified at the estate but the wines remain clean, classic examples of the Mosel style. The higher pradikat Auslesen from both estates were excellent.

And sorry for the only few pictures as the camera was in my stolen bag.

2010 Monchoff Urziger Wurzgarten Riesling Kabinett Trocken - I love this category as getting the balance right is often tricky as RS is low and acid is high, and to pull it off right and then afte that to pull it off right without it being biting. Among the most obtuse German wines I have ever had are Kabinett Trockens. This was not obtuse. Crisp, juicy, mineral with nice snap and slight roundness that only detracts a tiny bit. Good tension and fruit expression.

2010 Monchoff Urziger Wurzgarten Spatlese Feinherb #33 - This was a feinherb highlight in 2009. Very good in 2010 but not up to the 2009. Lovely purity and cleanliness with a juicy, mineral thing going on in the mouth. Seems a little constructed.

2010 Monchoff Estate Riesling - Always solid year in and year out and 2010 is no exception. Great intro wine for little cash into the fruity Mosel style.

2010 Monchoff Urziger Wurzgarten Kabinett - Showing really well that morning. Spicy, juicy and mouthwatering. The acids were really on point in this wine.

2010 Monchoff Urziger Wurzgarten Spatlese - Voluminous on the palate with big spice and fruit. Easy, fun and cheerful Spatlese. Excellent purity again.

2010 Monchoff "Slate" Spatlese - This is 100% Erdener Treppchen fruit. Touch drier than the Wurzgarten. Very refined with cooling blue raspberry and blueberry fruit. Snappy acidity and great earthy minerality and a ton of slatiness as the title implies.

2010 Christoffel Erdner Treppchen Riesling Spatlese - Blueberry and raspberry jump out of the glass along with major slate. Very clean and incredible purity on the palate. A touch closed on the backend.

2010 Christoffel Erdener Treppchen Auslese** - Always a great bottle, regardless of vintage. This was fantastic and I must declare, for pradikat wines, Auslese is certainly the sweet spot in the Middle Mosel as my tasting notes will concur. High acid, high must weight and little, but very clean botrytis always translate to excellent Auslesen. Rich, ripe, honeyed and round with excellent cling and grip. An Auslese that can be a guilty pleasure to drink young. So luscious.

2010 Monchoff Erdener Pralat Auslese - Pralat is a personal favorite vineyard and this bottle is out of this world. Incredible purity and all that exotic Pralat fruit.High acid give this great focus and definition. Phenomenal length and super clean botrytis. Will last 30-40 years.

2010 Christoffel Urziger Wurzgarten Auslese*** - Just profound Auslese. Big, rich, spicey with extra clingy and tense acids. Best wine of the morning.

2011 Germany adventures. Initial thoughts.

2011-09-03T10:19:00.008-04:00

First the bad. My bag was stolen at the Frankfurt airport. My carry on bag that is, with my whole life in it. My iPad, 2 iPods, glasses, passport, some prescription medication and my Canon G12 camera. So, no awesome G 12 pics on the blog this year which really bums me out but actually had an incredible positive side effect. For the first time in Germany I was not running around snapping pictures and actually was living in the moment. This made me much more active and as a result I listened more instead of taking pics followed by running and catching up. So that was good. Back to the bad for a second. I have Aviator mirror sunglasses and had to wear them for the first 3 days which sucked. Despite what many people say sunglasses at night, especially in Wehlen, do suck. Wehlen, at night is not well lit, so I was pretty much in the pitch black at night. Burgstadt on the other hand is lit like a movie set for some reason, but I had my new glasses by then which brings me to another positive. I have always admired the eyewear of the German people and now I finally have my own pair of stylin' German glasses. In fact next year I am going to buy another pair at the store in Kues as the selection is top notch and much cheaper than stateside.

I would also like to thank if they are reading the numerous amount of growers who helped me with my plight and actually made it a pleasure to deal with. I dealt with the police twice in Germany this trip, once as a victim and once as a perpetrator (car accident in Monzingen) and they were fantastic. Both interactions ended with handshakes. No BS, real, earnest handshakes. I really saw the selflessness of the German people as a result of the mishaps, so that was a huge positive.

Okay, I suppose the 27 people left in the world who actually read my blog want to read about wine rather than glasses, the polite police and car accidents. 2010 at the top estates is a profound vintage. No two ways about it. The de-acidification debate, which is the pink elephant in the room with every grower, is much more nuanced than I thought it was. I heard compelling reasons against for the first time. Jakob Schneider told me how for his two basic Trocken wines, the Melaphyr and the Grauschiefer, what would his customers think if they clocked in at 12 acid and 4 residual sugar when they were used to 7 and 5 maybe? Locals who have been buying these bottlings for 10-15 years every year. It could endanger that business relationship if they get some enamel-ripping acid bomb in their 2010 order. But higher up the pradikat ladder you go the de-acidification was less and less at each estate that engaged in it. Jakob's Niederhauser Hermannshohle Spatlese with 10+ acid was the best one he has ever made. Electric with amazing flavor intensity. Some of the producers who did not deacidify like Steinmetz, Immich, von Hovel, Immich and Lauer made, for me, the best wines I have ever tasted like Stefan Steinmetz's Wintricher Geierslay Spatlese with 12.2 acid and around 120 sugar. A stunning, electric wine that will age for 50+ years. Stefan made his best vintage yet. The liter bottling with 10.1 acid and between 8-13 sugar is a revelation at the basic bottling level. A profound estate trocken. But also some estates that did like Schneider, Schloss Johannisberg and Wirsching also made excellent wines.

Another interesting thing I learned was the many ways people deacidified. The one method I liked the most was the blending method, which was to take out some juice, deacidify the whole lot and then blend it back into the already high acid juice. Softens it and for me retains some of the snap and electricity of 2010. If you are gonna do it, this way seems the way to go.

So many great wines. Here are some memorable ones. The 2010 Schloss Schonborn Hattenheimer Pfaffenberg Spatlese was one of the most balanced wines of the trip. Just perfect and de-acidified. Really wowed me. Actually all the Pfaffenberg and Marcobrunn wines dry to to fruity were very compelling at Schonborn. The almost zen-like quality of the JJ Prum 2010's. Heerkretz GG 2010 from Wagner-Stempel completely obliterating the 2009 while the 2009 was the best wine I have ever had from WS. The brilliant non de-acidified Steinmetz Estate Trocken Liter. The 2009 Hunsruck Spatburgunder GG from Rudolf Furst. Maybe the best Spatburgunder I have ever had.

Well those are my initial thoughts. Stay tuned for more.

Off to Germany

2011-08-24T10:35:00.004-04:00

Well I only have two more posts (Pfeffingen and Burklin Wolf) to wrote up of my 33 visits last year and tomorrow I leave again on a trip to Germany to taste the awesome yet perplexing 2010's. Huge must weight, huge acids and tiny quantities led to a wacky vintage for sure. Many producers de-acidified and really did not do a great job and you have dry wines that taste like they went through malo and sweet wines, especially at the lower pradikat levels (where de-acidification was more common) that seem stripped of their very souls. I am visiting a good swath of Mosel producers plus some others and will taste dry to sweet and everything in between and will be able to have a more definitive verdict on the vintage when I get back. Here is the list.

G. Steinmetz
Peter Lauer
JJ Prum
F Weins Prum
Monchoff/Christoffel
Wagner-Stempel
Immich-Battierberg
Reinhold Haart
Von Hovel
Rudolf Fuerst
Wirsching
Schloss Schonborn
Schloss Hallburg
Jakob Schneider

Also have a Sonora experience happening my first night plus two more restaurants with killer wine lists with a good amount of old vintage stuff. Will be Tweeting and FB'ing from the road so look for me there.

Pfalz 2010 - Von Buhl

2011-08-22T18:30:00.007-04:00

Von Buhl has always had a special place in my heart. They are located in Deidesheim which is tied with Iphofen as my favorite German wine village and they have improved so much since my first visit in 2006 it is quite remarkable. They are transferring over to biodynamic viticulture and they have a healthy selection of the best sites in all of the Pfalz, including the profound Kirchenstuck. This was a great visit with the fantastic Christophe Von Graff, who is always a wonderful host and he got us a reservation at the utterly otherworldly restaurant Freundstuck. He also treated us to mini GG verticals of their top sites, which was quite a treat. '07, '08 and '09 are all excellent with the cooler '08 having the most long term potential but all great vintages. My feeling is they will keep improving and become one of the leading estates in the Pfalz like they used to be.

2007 Weissburgunder - This was super impressive. Mineral and nutty nose with great purity on the palate and excellent persistence on the finish. Very concentrated.

2008 Riesling Brut - Mineral and juicy. Concentrated and dense. Very ripe with high acidity and what seems like a high dosage. Flavors of passion fruit and guava. Very tropical. You can't tell from my description but I liked it very much.

2007 Forster Pechstein Riesling Brut- This was disgorged in June 2010 and I tasted in early September 2010. Very ripe and intensely mineral nose. Very pure. Nice saline quality on the palate with passion fruit again and more vinosity. Lovely purity. A classy drink.

2009 Sauvignon Blanc - It seems everybody makes a Sauvignon Blanc in Germany now, especially the more south you go. Good, mineral and ripe with killer acids and a slight spritz. Not bad.

2009 Spatburgunder Trocken - Good mineral infused berry fruit. Pure, ripe and clean. Good quaffer.

2008 Spatburgunder Trocken - Lovely aromas of spice. On the cardamon side of things. Nice freshness and tactile acids. Elegant. The extra year and the cooler vintage 2008 help this wine.

2007 F.P. Buhl Spatburgunder - Ripe, juicy with cooling red fruits. Touch of vanillin oak. Some saddle leather and leafiness on the palate. Good purity. Nice.

Von Buhl's Spatburgunders have improved greatly since I tasted 2004, 2003 and 2005 at the estate in 2006, which were pushing awful. They are not quite in Rebholz, Becker territory but they are drinkable and quite appealing now.

2009 Deidesheimer Herrgottsocker Riesling Trocken - MIneral and pure with excellent acids. Citrus aromas with great concentration and cut. Nice but not a world beater.

2009 Maria-Schneider Medium-Dry - Good fruit on a bed of minerality with lovely, intense ripe fruit. Good for this bottling, which generally I am not crazy about.

2009 Ungenheur Forst GG - The GG marathon starts now. Lovely mineral nose with lots of puppy fat-style fruit. Elegant and ripe on the palate but as it opens the wine gets very perfumed on the nose. Spicy citrus fruits delivered in a ripe and generous style.

2008 Ungenheur Forst GG - Much more obviously high acid than the 2009. Dazzling, precise minerality with vibrant orange fruits. So pure. Packed.

2007 Ungenheur Forst GG - Huge citrus fruits on the nose with lemony minerality. Intense, lovely and pure and more open than the 2008 on the palate. Fatter. Voluminous palate with killer purity. I liked all 3 of these equally and they all showed their vintage character to the tee.

2009 Forster Pechstein GG - Very giving nose. Ripe, mineral and pure. And very deep. Super deep citrus. Big fruit on the palate with fleshy peach infused with dense minerality. Serious. Nice flintiness comes through. Showing young and primary but with great potential.

2008 Forster Pechstein GG - This was outrageous. Mineral, rich and more developed than the 2009. KIller 2008 high-toned acids and dense minerality. Laser-like precision with spikey acids. Even though more developed than the 2009 this is showing way younger than the 2008 Ungenheur Forst. I really like seeing the quality of the sites served in order from least to best as the differences and quality levels really shine.

2007 Forster Pechstein GG - This was super impressive too. Very filigreed wine. Huge minerality and big fruit on the palate and ripe, ripe, ripe. Complex and rich wine that is drinking spectacularly.

2009 Forster Kirchenstuck GG - Opulent and mineral nose that is extremely perfumed. Exotic. Classic Kirchenstuck which is considered the finest vineyard in the Pflaz by many. Great acids with packed, dense citrus fruits on the palate and an iodine like finish. The breed of this vineyard is amazing.

2008 Forster Kirchenstuck GG - Lovely nose of fleshy citrus fruits. Some development too. Supernal balance on the palate and very ripe. So packed. Tight. Really tight. Needs 10 years if not more.

2007 Forster Kirchenstuck GG - Citrus skin and oil abound on the nose. Along with an ocean of minerals. Pure, explosive and intense. Just wow.

2009 Armand Kabinett - Huge fruit with great richness. Classic Armand.

2009 Forster Jesuitgarten Spatlese - Pure, mineral and ripe. Good fruit but lacking excitement.

A great tasting that shows the great GG's they have plus shows how superior Kirchenstuck is compared to Forst and Pechstein.

Next up is Pfeffingen.

Germany 2010 - Rebholz

2011-07-27T12:37:00.015-04:00

I always look forward to my visit with Hansjorg Rebholz as he is a man of few words, yet his wines are like tomes. So dense, so complex and take years and years to finish or in wine-speak, unwind and show all they have to offer. These are bone dry and very complex wines that always will crush Clos St. Hune, which for some inexplicable reason people bow down to as the greatest dry Riesling in the world. I could name 25+ off the top of my head from Germany and hopefully one day German Trocken wines will get their due. A great place for them to get their due is in Birkweil where the great Rebholz winery exists. There are a lot of wines we tasted plus we took a wonderful tour of some of Rebholz's top sites. We also had an amazing vertical of Rebholz's top Spatburgunder, the Im Sonnenschein GG. Later at dinner in Deidesheim at Freundstuck we had the 2001 whose notes I will include.

2009 Muskaeteller Kabinett Trocken - Usually in a more acidic vintage like 2008 or 2002 this wine sings but this was very ripe and pure and lacking some of the sizzle I come to expect from this bottling.

2009 Silvaner Kabinett Trocken - Really mineral and clean nose. Precise. Fruit is green pea like. Well that is a vegetable. Ripe and generous with lovely acids and a long, juicy finish. Wonderful.

2009 Vom Bunsandstein Riesling Trocken "S"- MIneral, pure and ripe on the nose. Lots of green chlorophyl fruit on the palate and nose. Very filigreed and elegant. Ripe with salty acids. Terrific palate presence. Grippy.

2009 Vom Muschelkalk Riesling Trocken "S" - From limestone soils which Muschelkak means this is mineral and ripe with airy green apple aromas on the nose. Very ripe and accessible with good acids and a crunchy lettuce finish. Very good.

2009 Vom Rotligenden Riesling Trocken "S" - Spice, lime juice and minerals on the nose. Lovely purity and freshness om the palate. Big, powerful palate with harmonious acid and perfect balance.

2009 Ganz Horn Riesling GG - The first of an amazing journey of Rebholz GG's. Outrageous nose. Very complex. spice, brown sugar, potpourri and minerals. The palate is complex and deep with tremendous richness and maximum intensity. Long finish, rich palate with lots of salinity and pure lemon fruit. Really changes every minute. One of the best GG's of the vintage.

2009 Im Sonnenschein Riesling GG - Nose of oyster shell, mushroom and mineral. Big, forceful, complex aromas. Really fleshy palate with crazy minerality. Long long finish. Like epic finish. A touch reduced but does not take away from the wine at all. Super mineral and ripe palate with exceptional purity. Awesome as usual.

2009 Kastanienbusch Riesling GG - My favorite and perhaps the most complex dry German wine being made today. Subtle, complex nose of perfume and mineral. So delicate. Outstanding palate with insane density, purity, concentration and freshness. Amazing wine. Regal. Needs ages.

2009 Vom Muschelkalk Weisserburgunder Trocken "S" - MIneral nose as odds are if you put a Rebholz wine to your nose you will smell the overwhelming mineral stank that makes this winery so special. Also some floral hints and presented so delicately. Awesome nose. Lovely palate with gripping acids and very juicy. Really dry presence on the palate with nice herbal tinges. Sappy dense and minerally.

2009 Im Sonnenschein Weissburgunder GG - Complex nose of apple spice and an airy, salty vibe. Rich palate with nice juiciness and loads of spice. Good minerality and intense elegance. Dense, long finish and very generous for such a young Sonnenschein Weissburgunder GG. Crazy great wine. Just as mind bending as the Rieslings.

2009 Chardonnay Trocken "S" - Lots of people like this more than me. Oak, barrel aromas, high toast on the nose. Decent minerality and very ripe. Bleh.

2008 Spatburgunder Tradition "S" - Lovely aromas, ripe and juicy with loads of spice and mineral. Good berry fruit on the palate with lovely precise minerality and a wonderful mouthfeel.

2008 Spatburgunder Vom Muschelkalk Spatlese Trocken - Spice, complexity and an awesome nose. Very mineral and ripe with complex berry fruit. Elegant wine with lovely floral aromas and inner mouth aromas. Good ripe tannin. Great stuff.

2008 Im Sonnenschein Spatburgunder GG - Complex spicey nose harkens to Morey St. Denis GC wines. Some wood spice but does not detract only adds. Elegant and pure palate with lacey, sexy elements. Tannins grip you on the finish and shows you this bad boy needs time.

2007 Spatburgunder Tradition "S" - 2007 is a more fruit-forward vintage than the terroir focused 2008 vintage for Spatburgunder. Dense fruit and spicey nose and ripe, generous fruit on the palate. Lacey. Tannic but ripe. Very intense village level wine with a long kick-ass finish.

2007 Spatburgunder Vom Muschelkalk Spatlese Trocken - Matchstick and flint on the nose at first sniff. Dark, dense palate with brooding ripe berry fruit. Lovely spice and inner mouth aromas. Needs time but 1er Cru quality from a top producer.

2007 Im Sonnenschein Spatburgunder GG - Mineral and musky nose. In a good way though. Really complex and my notes just say wow nose. Super structured in the mouth and exceptionally pure. Spicy and complex wine with a neverending finish. Ripe, sweet tannin. This will be ready before the 2008 but will still need a lot of time.

2006 Im Sonnenschein Spatburgunder GG - Mineral and spice on the nose and a ligher color than '08 or '07. Very closed wine but promising as evidenced by the long finish.

2005 Im Sonnenschein Spatburgunder GG - Slightly more open than the 2006. Very pure, mineral and fresh wine. Real gamey nose too that comes with age. Outrageously complex and dense palate. Ripe with lovely purity. In 2-3 years this will show like a rock star.

2004 Im Sonnenschein Spatburgunder GG - Mineral and crunchy nose. Spice and meat. Also some lovely, very pure, berry fruit. Really elegant Pinot and just devastatingly complex nose. Sexy elegant and ripe palate with high mineral complexity. Sappy and spicy. Awesome finish. Starting to be mature.

2001 Im Sonnenschein Spatburgunder GG - Has this at dinner that night and it was getting mature but not quite yet. Lovely rust, game and meat aromas and a supple mouthfeel with some tannin still prominent. Great wine and needs 1 more year.

Next up, Von Buhl!!!

Germany 2010 - Andreas Laible

2011-07-25T18:10:00.003-04:00

This is perhaps the lowest flying under the radar producer of dry Riesling in all of Germany. Well I should not say that as he is a rock star in Germany but is little known stateside as his wines barely get here. Also another factor is that he is in Baden, which barely has a reputation in the states. As readers of my blog know Baden is very special to me for its variety of wines, styles and beautiful scenery. Just a different vibe down there than in the Mosel. Not bad. Just different, And the food is way better than the Mosel. The Laible winery has been on my list for a very long time to vist as it is in an area of Baden I had never been to plus the wines that I have had have been brilliant, nuanced, chiseled and clean examples od dry Riesling. For the quality they are also relative values. Ortenau, where Laible is located, is the coolest part of Baden and has some of the steeper vineyards I have seen down there. The Durbacher Plauerlain which surrounds Laible's estate, which is tiny, has slate like soils and is impeccably manicured. I did not get that many good photos but I will offer up what I have as we were late and got there at 8pm as the sun had almost gone down the all the way. We did have a dinner at a charming restaurant at our hotel. Durbach is definitely an old school German village that almost exists in a different time. Everyone in the hotel that worked there was in traditional dress and the restaurant had that woodsy old school rustic German look. Laible made some astonishing 2009's that unfortunately will never make it over here.

2009 Durbacher Plauerlain Riesling Kabinett Trocken - The first of two of these to taste as one has more RS and the other, this one, has less RS. Mineral and ripe nose that is generous and full of fruit. Some smoke and spice on the palate with lovely palate-cleansing acidity.

2009 Durbacher Plauerlain Riesling Kabinett Trocken (4g/pl RS) - The sweeter of the two if you want to consider 4g/pl RS sweet. Very mineral nose. Much more than the previous wine with incredible purity on the palate and sizzling minerality. A mineral bomb. Beautiful wine. Graceful. I liked the little bit extra the RS provides in this wine.

2009 Durbacher Plauerlain Riesling Spatlese Trocken "Alte Reben" - This is a wine that has never seen these shores and who knows why. This is from 5 different parcels and each parcel is a different clone of Riesling and vary from 5 - 50 years of age. Spectacular nose of perfumed minerals with some intense pepper notes. Lovely, intense palate with riper fruit than the previous wines. So much depth. Great body and power. Will age and age. A highlight.

2009 Durbacher Plauerlain Riesling Spatlese Trocken "SLC" - This is from 60 year old selecccion massale vines. Ridiculous wine. Intense purity. Intense power. Ripe and explosive with an incredibly detailed finish. A work of art. Another of Laible's finest wines that has never made it here. Who know why and I don't buy the idea he sells out in Germany and the importer is "lucky" to get their puny allocations.

2009 Durbacher Plauerlian Riesling Spatlese Trocken "Achat" - This is a wild yeast spontaneous fermentation Riesling. This style of German Riesling leads to an outrageous nose. Lovely biting acids and amazing purity. This wine could have benefited from much more air but I saw the greatness.

2009 Plauerlain GG - Ho-Hum. Another brilliant Riesling from Andreas Laible. Ripest nose so far with also some intense spice. Juicy, peppery and wonderfully delineated palate. So elegant. The apex of Laible Rieslings and one of the best GG's that NEVER sees the US shores. I had the 2008 here, after I asked to buy a bottle and Andreas, generously gave me the bottle.

2009 Durbacher Plauerlain Weissburgunder Kabinett Trocken - Not only do brilliant Rieslings come from Laible but also great Pinot varieties. This is all sourced from young vines. Mineral, floral, elegant nose. Lots of green apple skins. Great acidity and outstanding length.

2009 Durbacher Plauerlain Weissburgunder Spatlese Trocken - Mineral, ripe and intense nose. You can smell the sap and extract. Palate is full of sap and extract and spice. Awesome laser-like finish. Brilliant Weissburgunder.

2009 Plauerlain Grauburgunder GG - Sponti fermentation here. Super mineral and stony nose. Lovely stone fruits and intense concentration. Almost slatey expression of Pinot Gris. Very rich but acidity cuts it perfectly.

2009 Durbacher Plauerlain Chardonnay Spatlese Trocken - The best German Chardonnay I have had. Bar none. Some oak on the nose but heaps of minerality. There is no new oak on this wine, as I asked when I sniffed. Fantastic grip and structure. Just insane wine. A rock star of a Chardonnay.

2009 Durbacher Plauerlain Muskateller Trocken - There are many a tasty Muskatellers coming out of Baden and in the cool climate of Ortenau it works so well. Very flamboyant, mineral and floral nose. Very ripe and such pure aromas. Super mineral despite all its flamboyance. Amazing acidity cuts right through all the citrus and lime blossom fruit flavors. Awash in minerality. An epic wine.

2009 Durbacher Plauerlain Clevner-Traminer Spatlese Trocken - About as weird as it gets. Clevner-Traminer here we go. Floral, mineral and very ripe nose. Exotic spice. Inner mouth aromas were exciting and awash in acidity and mineral. Spicy peppery finish. Interesting and fun wine. Apparently this was here. Looks like it is gone. Great wine to import but be nice to have some of those Rieslings, especially in '09 as Laible hit it out of the park.

2009 Durbacher Plauerlain Gewurztraminer Spatlese Fruchtig - Mineral and very ripe nose. Lots of yellow flowers/ Lovely balanced and restrained. Great purity.

2009 Durbacher Plauerlain Schuerebe Spatlese Feinherb - Mineral and grapefruit on the nose and some black currants. Very ripe. Like a fruit basket on the palate. Lovely if a bit simple.

2009 Durbacher Plauerlain Schuerebe Auslese - Very mineral and ripe nose with exotic pineapple and red currants intermingled with black currants. Huge intense fruit basket. Real wow wine and very intense with a perfect sugar-acid balance.

2009 Durbacher Plauerlain Gewurztraminer Auslese - Mineral and spices with a huge fruit explosion. Mango fruits on this. Papaya. Exotic, tropical and very ripe Gewurztraminer.

2009 Durbacher Plauerlain Spatburgunder Spatlese Trocken - Very delicate and aromatic. Ripe, explosive fruit. Incredibly elegant with great ripeness and purity.

2009 Durbacher Plauerlain Syrah Spatlese Trocken - From 3 year old vines this was astonishing. Lovely meaty Syrah character and a bit floral with sappy dense fruit.

A great tasting and any Laible wines you see you should buy as they cannot miss.

Next up Rebholz and an epic tasting of GG's!!

Germany 2010 - Dr. Heger

2011-07-23T16:16:00.014-04:00

Some highlights from my Dr. Heger visit.

I love visiting Heger in Ihringen. Joachim Heger is a class act and a hilarious guy and Markus Mleinek, who now as of 2009, makes the red wines at Dr. Heger could not be a more nicer guy. I go to Germany for the wines, of course, but the people behind the wines are just as important.

2007 Ihringer Winklerberg GG Spatburgunder - I just had the 2005 of this wine a few weeks ago and was blown away by the quality. It was Grand Cru Red Burg all the way. Talking to Rudi Wiest the importer the other day, he said the 2007 was better. My notes can concur with his statement. Lovely aromas of underbrush and ripe red fruits and also a dusty Morey thing going on. Really expressive aromas. Very Winklerberg. Nice spicey palate with lovely purity and an excellent long finish. Has years to go but another amazing effort.

2007 Achkarrer Schlossberg GG Spatburgunder - Warm, open and dusty nose yet very nuanced and complex. Ripe, juicy palate with lovely inner mouth aromas of flowers and spice. Very Vosne. The fruit is riper and a touch more candied than the Winklerberg. At the moment this is more generous than Winklerberg but just as fine and compelling.

2008 Ihringer Winklerberg GG Spatburgunder - Just stunning wine. Outdoes the 2007. More fruit, more terroir and more restraint. Just stunning. '08 is a benchmark vintage at Heger for Spatburgunder.

2008 Ihringer Winklerberg GG Grauburgunder - Usually it is a bit warm in the Kaiserstuhl to produce a bracing and acidic version of Grauburgunder, but with the cooler 2008 vintage some stunning Grau and Weiss wines were made at Heger, Salwey and Furst. Huge mineral nose of stone fruits. Wafting. Mineral stank. Love it. Lovely, dense palate that is chewy but hugely acidic. Excellent purity and intense ripe stone fruits bathed in acidity. Sap and extract are a-ok but the structure, minerality are big standouts in this wine. Glad I have one bottle.

2007 Achkarrer Schlossberg GG Grauburgunder - Mineral nose, but even smelling this you get a sense this is a much riper wine than the '08 Winklerberg GG. Some interesting notes of caramel and butter from what I presume is new/newish oak. It is very well-integrated on the palate. Very pure, mineral, sappy and ripe.

2009 Ihringer Winklerberg Riesling Spatlese Trocken - The first non GG wine that I am mentioning as there is so much going on in this wine. Stemmy nose with apricots, some sulfur and minerals. Palate has very high acid, gobs of chewy minerals and is so dense. Just packed. Long finish. The acidity in this wine is amazing.

2008 Achkarrer Schlossberg GG Riesling - If you want a sweet Riesling look somewhere else as this has .8 g/pl of RS. Very mineral and ripe nose with with high, bracing acids on the palate. Bone, bone dry. Like wow dry. Such precision. Like razors in the mouth. In a good way. Super-tight at the moment, yet packed and dense. Very high=toned citrus fruits. One of the highlights of '08 anything in Baden.

2009 Ihringer Winklerberg Schuerebe Kabinett - Wow. One of the greatest Schue's I have ever tasted. Crazy nose of peppermint and pineapple. Two things you rarely see together but then again Schuerebe is a certifiable freak show grape. Palate is all red currants and ripe exotic kinky Schue fruits. Awesome and fun. A real highlight.

2008 Ihringer Winklerberg Rulander BA - A little off the beaten track but I really liked it. Very mineral and HUGE ripeness but it came across as all elegance and lace.

New videos for Auction News Network

2011-07-18T12:31:00.003-04:00

I have teamed up with the Auction News Network for my polemic views on the world of fine wine. Hope you all enjoy.

Germany in Pictures - The Growers

2011-07-03T17:44:00.036-04:00

Hansjorg Rebholz

Andreas Laible

Sebastian Furst

Oliver Muller of Wagner-Stempel

Klaus-Peter Keller

Cornelius Donnhoff

Tim Frohlich

Florian Lauer

Christophe Schaefer

Clemens Busch

Gernot Kollman of Immich-Battierieberg

Matthias Knebel

Jakob Schneider

Beate Knebel

Wolf Salwey (R.I.P.)

Andreas Spreitzer

Stefan Steinmetz

Johannes Selbach

Katharina Prum

Phillipe Wittman

Johannes Geil-Bierschenk of Geil in the Rheinhessen

Hans Muller of Bruder Dr. Becker

Konrad Salwey

Rainer Schnaittman

Paul Furst

Fritz and Agnes Hasselbach

Volker Raumland

Gunter Kunstler

Heinrich Wirsching

Joachim Heger

Doris Eymael of Pfeffingen

Olivier and Wilhelm Haag

Hanno Zilliken

Christophe Tyrell and his importer Rudi Wiest

Robert Eymael Of Monchoff and Christoffel

The Lower Mosel vineyards in February. Stark yet beautiful.

2011-06-25T16:45:00.029-04:00

2010 Germany - The actual vintage.

2011-06-10T17:29:00.008-04:00

Well, I did not get my lazy ass in gear as usual and the 2010's are being tasted and all the buzz is about the 2010's and I still have Von Buhl, Rebholz, Burklin Wolf, Pfeffingen, Heger and Laible to report on for '09. I think I'll combine them into one post soon to get it out of the way. There were some excellent wines in there for sure. With that being said though the 2010's are electric wines. I just went and tasted my first batch at Tribeca Grill as Rudipalooza happened there this past Tuesday.

It is a CRAZY vintage and I write crazy in capital letters as I have never tasted wines like this, especially in the Mosel and the Nahe. The keys to this vintage are electric acidities and as a result many producers had to de-acidify, which is extremely rare in Germany, and I am not sure how I feel about it as I tasted some from both schools and for my palate, and knowing I am an acid freak, the wines left with their natural acidities, whilst being high, were some of the greatest young Mosel/Nahe wines I have ever tasted. There also was huge ripeness and ridiculous must weights and not much botrytis, which results in incredibly complex wines right out of the gate. Another key is there ain't much of these wines as yields were way way down. I mean Schloss Lieser absolutely blew me away. Thomas Haag always makes killer wines, but he outdid himself in 2010. His Estate Kabinett is just a freak show. Like Grand Cru Kabinett. Tim Frohlich who has been making profound wines since 2003, and wines that outdo the previous vintage every year since, rocked the house in 2010 with electric, chiseled wines, dripping with minerality. Maybe my favorite fruity-styled wines from him ever. The GG's are supposedly amazing too and I hope to taste them this summer which brings me to another point. Dry wines, although I did not taste many, were very hit and miss and acidities were mostly too high to make them successful. Schonleber made some killer ones but not up to '09 quality at all. '09 is the dry wine vintage to pay attention to. When I was talking to Bert Selbach of Dr. F. Weins Prum, who made scintillating 2010's, he said he made no dry wines at all in 2010 because of these high acidities, which is amazing as he makes some very fine, albeit sometimes severe, dry wines every year in the Middle Mosel. His 2009's in the dry category were sensational. His sweeter style wines and his feinherb were absolutely bonkers. His 2010 Graacher Himmelreich Kabinet Feinherb, the driest he went in 2010 made me forget he did not make dry wines. Bert is a reserved guy and was absolutely beaming about his 2010's. They were sensational with 9-10+ grams of acidity for his feinherb, kabinett and spatlesen. The Wehlener Sonnenuhr Kabinett and Auslese were just electric wines with vivid fruit, tremendous complexity and some of the more compelling, razor sharp version of WS I have ever had from Bert. He said his Erdener Pralat Auslese has 10.7 grams of acidity in 2010. That is nuts. The richness of these wines combined with the blazing acidities made these like nothing I have ever tasted. I had no reference point. The finish was like pop rocks of Riesling. Bert Selbach continues his amazing consistent streak of great vintages and too bad his wines don't get the attention they deserve in the States.

Monchoff. Hmmmmmmm. They usually are great Mosel 101 wines but there was definitely some de-acidification going on here as the wines just seemed flat and uninspiring. Too bad. I did love the Erdener Pralat Auslese which was clean and rich with a pretty electric finish. Maybe this was not de-acidified? Dunno. Then again I am an Erdener Pralat slut.

So those are my initial thoughts.

2010 Baden - Ihringer Winklerberg

2011-05-24T14:10:00.000-04:00

This is just a crazy looking vineyard that Dr. Heger makes lots of great wine from. Grau, Weiss, Spatburgunder and more. It looks like a fortress. All the terracing is a result of some German government ordinance that it was too steep. Strange. Anyway here are the pics first and then maybe notes soon, but I am not really in a note writing mode these days.

Baden 2010 - In Pictures

2011-05-09T12:13:00.016-04:00

After we were at Weingut Salwey we took a lovely drive through the rolling hills of Baden on the way to Dr. Heger in Ihringen. The scenery was so nice it required a picture post.

2010 Baden - Weingut Salwey

2011-05-02T16:46:00.022-04:00

This was my third visit to Weingut Salwey in the small town of Oberrotweil in Baden, which scenically speaking is just stunning. The vineyards, because of the terracing, makes it look like ancient mayan temples. Many pictures to come. Some in this post and then maybe more in another post with just pictures.

But first before I get into the wines, I must mention some tragic news. Wolf Salwey, the patriarch of the winery, shortly after I left Germany, was in a car accident and lost his life. In my previous visit in February 2008, Wolf gave me a fantastic tour of the vineyards, the main cellar, a comprehensive tasting along with a stop at their new bottling/wine-making facility, which was a warehouse in the middle of what seemed like nowhere. He was a man who brought immediate joy to everyone around him. It was apparent as soon as you met him. Always laughing with a deep pronounced laugh, he was a great person to spread the knowledge and passion of the great wines of Salwey and the great wines of Baden in general. He was a tremendous ambassador to a region that gets huge play in Germany but barely any play in the United States. I consider myself lucky to have known him and he will be missed greatly. His son, Konrad, will not skip a beat and continue to bring this classic winery to greater and greater heights. Wolf, you have a big fan in me, over here in NYC, wherever you reside now and I'd like to say thank you for showing me around Baden, a region I am enthralled with now and sharing your generous spirit.

Salwey is a winery that specializes in Spatburgunder, Grauburgunder and Weissburgunder. They also make Silvaner and Riesling and really fantastic Schnapps, which is common in the region. They also make a boatload of fantastic GG's from really top class sites. 2008 is a very special vintage here, as it was much cooler than normal, and the wines ripened normally and retained great acidities and as a result the sites are screaming in the wines. These wines are very structured and need, what seems like hours, to open up in the glass. 2009 is a warm vintage in the already warm Baden but Salwey gets the acidity he has been given and works it, despite the wines being more glyceril than usual. The 2008 Spatburgunders are tremendous wines and every Spatburgunder freak should seek some out for the cellar. This tasting was in about 40 minutes as Konrad had a meeting at his daughter's school. Oh they also had a new puppy that was pretty out of control cute. Pictures litterd throughout the post.

2009 "48F" Rose - This estate is by far the best pink estate in Germany. Mineral, gamey, earthy nose with elegant and ripe fruit flavors. Great purity and richness on the palate with a rich finish. Yes a rich wine but the acidity is lurking underneath.

2009 "52F" Cuvee Weiss - Mineral nose and lovely crisp palate. Great acids. Lovely and easy to drink but has stuffing.

2009 Kaiserstuhl Weissburgunder Trocken - Rich fruit which is obviously ripe with outstanding purity and just the right amount of acidity. This will convert any Trocken hater.

2009 Kaiserstuhl Grauburgunder Trocken- Stone fruits leap out of the glass on the nose. Mineral and elegant with lovely knit fruit. Very pure, delicious and even unctous. Ripe, as all the whites are here in 2009.

2008 Kaiserstuhl Auxerrois - Okay, I even admit a little obscure. Auxerrois from Baden. But this absolutely rocked. Auxerrois, for those not familiar is a sibling of Chardonnay and grown in Alsace mainly, but also in small amounts in Baden. Ripe and mineral and very aromatic. Ripe and rich palate with lovely, zippy acidity that is so good in 2008 down here. Gamey and meaty white yet with cleansing and zingy acids. Really fascinating wine.

2009 Glottertal Riesling - Mineral, petrol, stone fruits on the nose. Lovely, ripe, good acids and hugely drinkable. Great stuff and tremendous value if you live in Germany.

2009 Oberrotweiler Kasleberg Weissburgunder Spatlese Trocken "RS" - Short note for a long name. Mineral, ripe, fat, needs air, very pure and silky. As this tasting was fast we really focused on the GG's and the RS series which is essentially 1er Cru wines.

2009 Oberrotweiler Kasleberg Grauburgunder Spatlese Trocken "RS" - This was out of the park wine. Mineral and peaches on the nose. Lovely knit wine on the palate with complex flavors of stone fruits. Rich and glyceril but so well made and like a complex multi paneled quilt in the mouth. The acids on this my notes say are a bit low but then I write in full caps, "BUT IT WORKS!!". Great spice on the finish and just outrageous complexity. Tremendous wine.

2009 Oberrrotweiler Kirchberg Riesling Spatlese Trocken "RS" - Big fruit on the nose. Nice full aromas. Rich and juicy with a chewy density. Unctous again. But it works. Gobs of minerality I wrote half-joking. Great wine. Totally different take on Riesling. It's hard to make Riesling in the Kaiserstuhl but Konrad is really pulling it off. He is modest when it comes to his Rieslings but they are better than he lets on.

2009 Glottertal Eichberg Spatburgunder Weissherbst Spatlese Trocken "RS" - Perhaps the wine they are most famous for at Weingut Salwey, for me, the greatest Rose in Germany and one of the top in the world. I am not a rose fan, but I sweat this wine. Rich, ripe, creamy, lovely red fruits and purity. A touch hot which did worry me.

2009 Muskateller "RS" - Not a fan. It was ok, but generally I need my Muskateller to be crackling with acid. I get that more in the Pflaz at Rebholz, old Muller-Catoir and rarely with Messmer. Classic nose. Big and ripe with lime blossoms and orange blossoms but the acid was not there.

2008 Eichberg Riesling GG - Mineral nose with some green apple and a touch tropical. Little sponti action on the nose too. Lovely purity on the palate. Great concentration and power with a nice acid streak. Make no mistake this is a rich and weighty Riesling, but really well-made. Excellent.

2009 Eichberg Riesling GG - Pungently mineral nose with apple and some tropical notes. Fleshy wine with good inner mouth aromas. Very focused with stone fruits and a vibrantly fruity presence. Good, long finish of stone fruits and cassis.

2009 Enkenberg Weissburgunder GG - Mineral and ripe with some sponti aromas. High toned nose. There is some wood on this too. Really rich and dense. Really needs time to come together.

2009 Kirchberg Weissburgunder GG - Ripe, mineral and floral nose. Well knit wine, with tremendous richness. Pitted fruits galore and the earth and mineral really show through. Site expressive but needs time.

2009 Eichberg Grauburgunder GG - Wide open nose of screaming minerals. Juicy, rich and ripe with dense minerality throughout. Good inner mouth florality and distinct red fruits on the finish. Cassis, big time.

2009 Henkenberg Grauburgunder GG - Mineral and stone fruit nose with huge ripeness and density on the palate. Lovely purity, but tight, then again seemed more expressive than the Eichberg Grau GG.

2009 Enkenberg Grauburgunder GG - My favorite of all the GG's. Mineral and ripe with floral aromas that are quite striking and pure. Very mineral wine. Good structure and richness but so elegant. Long loosey goosey finish. Loved it.

All of the previous white GG's were served in around 20 minutes and much more time is needed to be spent with these wines to see them evolve and gain in complexity. Now a crazy freak show of a wine.

2009 Grauburgunder Beerenauslese Trocken "M" - Yes a BA trocken. This was the first time I have even seen this pradikat in a trocken form. The wine was 17% alcohol and bottled on a lark as they had a special lot. Mineral nose with ripe fruit and of course a touch of heat. Elegant and very pure on the palate. Nice, but more of an oddity than anything.

2008 Spatburgunder Trocken- Very mineral nose. Rich and ripe, yet nicely elegant with crunchy fruit. Lovely fruit here. Touch of that old school Spatburgunder bitterness on the finish. For serious S'Burgunder geeks only.

2008 Spatburgunder Oberrotweiler Kasleberg - A touch more complex and spicy than the straight trocken. Elegant and ripe. Good richness and purity with lovely berry fruit. Full of energy and vigor. Lovely wine.

2008 Kaiserstuhl Spatburgunder "RS" - Mineral, ripe and pure wine. Explosive berry fruit. Excellent but less complex than the previous wine.

2009 Eichberg Spatburgunder GG - Ripe, juicy and a touch candied. Fermented with 100% stems. Juicy, powerful and dense. Very concentrated and palate staining wine. The finish is long and complex. A great wine.

2008 Kirchberg GG - Again fermented with 100% stems. Intense, ripe and juicy, dense fruit. So pure and intense on the palate. Ripe and powerful and a deep wine. Quite profound and epic. A real wow finish. Stunning.

Up next was an amazing drive through the heart of the Baden vineyards. We stopped and took lots of pictures and those pictures, well the best ones will be the next post.

Recent wines

2011-04-19T16:27:00.007-04:00

Had some very solid bottles of wine recently. Here they are.

2005 Denis Bachelet Cote de Nuis Villages - Way way too young and just shows how great 2005 actually is. This is always a structured wine but in 2005 it is a super-structured wine. Just bonkers. I thought I was drinking Gouges. Super intense, dark, evil, primal wine. Chunky and not the least bit finessed, but raptures you with its dense berry fruit, rocky, vivid minerality and long, Grand Cru-like finish. And this is as sappy as they come, albeit a bit wild, animal and unrefined. It took two days to properly aerate. Incredible and I think will become a bit more civilized as it ages. I give it 20 years. One more bottle left.

2008 Rene Bouvier Bourgogne "Le Chapitre" - Shows how beautiful 2008 can be on the low end. Killer aromas. Earthy and intense raspberry. The palate has loads of earthy-sweet-raspberry fruit that is so appealing. Great acidity gives this lift and freshness. Totally surprised me and glad I have another bottle.

2008 Weiser-Kunstler Enkircher Ellegrub Spatlese - Heaven in a glass. Or about as close as it comes if I were religious and not agnostic. Sick Mosel nose of minerality, slight honey, slate galore, apple and lime. Gets much much more complex as it aerates. Haunting wine. Beautiful wine. Zesty wine.

Wurrtemberg 2010 - Weingut Rainer Schnaittman

2011-04-14T19:59:00.003-04:00

This was my 3rd visit to the great Schnaittman winery in Felbach, which is a suburb of Stuttgart. The wines just get better and better and this year he has outdone himself with fantastic 2008's and 2009's. Mainly red here but he does make astounding Riesling GG's. Lemberger, Trollinger (the local specialty), Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Schwarzriesling and more make this one of the more eclectic addresses I visit. I look forward to it also because Rainer is a mensch in the truest sense of the word and is so passionate about what he does that the tasting is always a marathon, but such a blast, as you've tasted a ridiculous amount of wine and learned so much. It starts at the tasting bar then moves into the cellar where there is always Mozart, Bach or some other classical great playing for the wines. The music never stops in the cellar. Well sometimes.

A special shout out to Rainer, for seeing us as he drove all night from Italy, with two young crying, not sleeping children and barely got any sleep and still greeted us bright and early at 9 AM for a great tasting and barrel tasting after that. We even chilled after that and had espresso with this insane new espresso machine he got in the chill-out family/children's room. We needed that espresso as we had a very long drive to Oberrotweil next where the Salwey winery is in Baden.

Onto the notes, and lots of them. This year I got no pictures of the amazing vineyards that overlook Stuttgart, but the ones included in this blog post are from previous visits.

2009 "Gemischer Satz" - An ode to Austria, particularly Vienna where this wine style originates. This is a blend of Weissburgunder and Sylvaner. Pretty low acids, but very mineral and ripe with excellent focus. Great richness and concentration. Truly impressive.

2009 Riesling - Mineral, petrol, honeyed nose. Great acids and taut minerally palate. Concentrated and pure with fantastic grip and juiciness. Incredible entry level Riesling.

2009 Riesling Fellbach** Trocken - Ripe, pure, mineral nose with lovely and astounding purity. Very clean despite a slight reduction. Really that juxtaposition between cleanliness and reduction is astonishing. Cannot wait to see this wine after the reduction goes away.

2009 Riesling Scwhatt** Trocken - This is very mineral but more concentrated than the Fellbach. A wine that you get lost in the mid palate. Fantastic with big fruit and very expressive. Wonderful texture.

2009 Muskateller** Trocken - Lovely, mineral nose with the typical huge Muskateller nose of orange blossom, lime blossom, spice and flowers. Lowish acidity and creamy yet with laser-like precision. A luscious fruit salad of a wine.

2008 Fellbacher Lammler GG (Riesling) - This is an amazing vintage for this wine. Mineral, lively nose with lime zest, orange skin and very elegant and layered. Concentrated and complex. The inner mouth aromas are stunning. The acidity, as this is 2008, is lively and very present, but ripe and not at all jarring. Lovely concentration with a just a huge mouthful of fruit, acidity and minerals. Chewy wine. Very pure with a lingering note of citrus. Lovely GG. From gypsum/marl mix.

2009 Fellbacher Lammler GG (Riesling) - If you are wondering why I add Riesling to the denomination is because Lammler is also GG for Lemberger. Which we will get to later. Ripe tropical fruit on the nose. But still very mineral and alive. Some baby powder action going on in the nose. Lower acid than the 2008. Good concentration. Very mineral. The mouthfeel is exceptional and the contrast between juiciness and guts is fantastic. The aromas on this wine after some aeration are sick. I actually turned out liking this better than the 2008. From gypsum/marl mix.

2009 Ohlbacher Gotzenberg Riesling GG - A new one for me. Big, ripe nose with loads of tropical fruit. A nice tangerine element too. Elegant yet opulent at the same time. Very ripe. From sandstone soils.

2009 Grau-Weiss*** A blend of Grauburgunder and Weissburgunder this is a phenomenal quaffer. Touch of oak and loads of mineral. Juicy and ripe and oh so inviting.

2009 Muller-Thurgau - From 10 year old vines. I was not crazy about this. Oaky, low acid yet with tons of fruit. Not to my taste.

2009 Sauvignon Blanc*** Trocken - Really impressive and maybe the best SB in Germany. Gooseberries and stones. Great purity. Very mineral with lovely berry fruit bordering on tropical with a kiss of oak. Very concentrated and dense. Excellent.

2009 Gewurztraminer*** - Lovely lime zest on the nose with some classic lychee aromas too. Very complex, mineral and spicy.

2009 Trollinger Alte Reben - Aged in old DRC barrels. MIneral and spicey barrel complexity on the nose. Red berry fruit explodes on the palate. Rustic does not even begin to describe this wine. Primal would be more apt. Very nice purity of fruit without. Stunning for Schiava. I bought a bottle and drank it when I got back. Trollinger-Schiava is the next Petit Rouge.

2009 Lemberger** - Spicy oak, ripe fruit along with lovely aromas. Funky yet pure with complexity, elegance and dark fruits. Vibrant due to the high acids. Killer wine.

2008 Lemberger Trocken - Green peppercorn on the somewhat vegetal nose that I really dug. Elegant and ripe palate with a touch drying tannins on the finish. But hella spicy wine. And juicy.

2009 Schwarzriesling*** Trocken - Or as we know it, Pinot Meunier. Lovely ever expanding nose with great green complexity. Mineral and some exotic spices. Cuts like a knife due to great acidity. Flowers and berry fruit on the palate. Fantastic.

2009 Spatburgunder Junge Reben*** - Elegant, sexy wine here. Ripe and very pure. Lovely mouthfeel and masterful use of oak. Meaty wine with a tingly mineral finish. Killer. Amazing entry level Spatburgunder.

2008 Lammler Lemberger GG "Simon Roth" - I bought a bottle of this as I was BLOWN away. I don't get blown away often but this shocked me how delicious it was. Outrageous nose of mineral, herbs and fresh berries. Really a wow nose. Super ripe and fresh with a sweet-fruited finish and ripe, sweet tannins. Man this was an intense and muscular mouthful of wine but had grace, elegance, power and structure. Brilliant use of oak.

2008 Lammler Spatburgunder GG "Simon Roth" - Elegant, ripe and very very pure nose. Yes, doubly very. Spicy oak that only adds and does not subtract. Outrageous concentration and tremendous grip. Very fresh with lovely fruit. Wow, Wow, whoah. My highest rated wine in this tasting.

2008 Merlot/Cabernet Franc Trocken - Oak, plum and herbs on the nose. Very elegant and sleek. Good structure and great freshness. Lovely. I'd totally drink this with some pork shank.

2009 Fruhburgunder - Spice, berries and violets on the classic Fruh nose. Very pure with extremely sweet fruit and ripeness. So appealing and sexy.

2009 Cabernet Franc - Herbal nose with spice, elegance and lovely berry fruit. Lacey, charming wine. A lighter style.

There were some barrel samples after this but my notes get sketchy as running around the cellar was a bit chaotic. But the '09 Lemberger and '09 Spatburgunder GG's were unreal. There was also an excellent Cabernet Franc/Cabernet Sauvignon Blend.

A great tasting and an extra special treat to see Rainer at Rudi Wiest's dru wine tour the other week. Up next the long journey to Baden on the Autobahn and a quick but invigorating tasting at Salwey.

Iphofen/Rothenburg ob der Tauber 2010 - A picture is worth a thousand words edition

2011-04-08T18:35:00.004-04:00

So after Juliusspital I went to the apotheke and got my tablets, nose spray and extra tissues and headed to Wirsching in idylic Iphofen. I took the tablet in the apotheke as I was sneezing so much it was absurd and my nose was itchy, red and just out of hand. It had to stop. Well those tablets started knocking me out and by the time we got to Wirsching I was barely conscious. I went in, excused myself from tasting, and passed out in the car for an hour. Matt was in there with Dr. Uwe Mateus, which is always a long tasting, as I've done it twice before, so I knew I had time. This was also our last appointment of the day which was very rare as most days were 4 or 5. This was 2 and then sightseeing in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, whose pictures I have included also as it is not a wine village but beautiful nonetheless. Well after I woke up in the car which was parked in the Wirsching parking lot, I walked around Iphofen, which is about as beautiful and idyllic as it gets in small town Germany. I felt a lot better but still could not taste, but Dr. Mateus graciously gave me a bocksbeutel Silvaner GG from the Julius-Echter-Berg. Here are the pics. Hope you enjoy. It was a glorious day.

Iphofen

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

After Rothenburg ob der tauber we had a very long drive to Wurrtemberg but finally wound up at our hotel and had great food. The hotel was based on antelope or deer. There was antelope and deer stuff everywhere. Dinner was fantastic. Everything very local and with a lovely rustic vibe. Pics are blow. I don't remember what each dish was. We ate in the casual restaurant as we were too late for the Michelin starred tasting menu one. We drank a local Riesling from a producer I never heard of. It was average at best.

This soup was insanely good.

Next up, Schnaittman time!

Franconia 2010 - Juliusspital

2011-04-04T17:07:00.027-04:00

I always just go to Furst and Wirsching in Franconia and wanted to see something new and different. Juliusspitall fit the bill. A winery/hospital in the middle of Wurtzberg, which is an absolutely gorgeous city. The story of the winery is very interesting as all the profits go back to the hospital. So they make wine to cure sick people. Sounds good to me. It is a bigger winery than I am used to as they make 1 million cases every year, which is enormous but small compared to some of the larger corporate wineries out there. This had a corporate feel to it, but they still are incredibly knowledgable about terroir, winemaking, etc. The facilities are gorgeous and you never know what you are going to see, as in one of those endless archway things I saw a doctor wheeling all this medical equipment around. The cellars are magnificent and the nicest I have seen in Germany. Long, winding, with incredibly ornate carved barrels. Great location for a German wine horror movie. Our tour guide was lovely and full of enthusiasm. One aside to the tasting notes, as I had insane allergies on this particular day which was steaming hot, and as a result my usually acute taste buds were not so acute, but I still barreled my way through. I must have gone through a pack of tissues during the tasting and sneezed at least 50 times. Again, our hostess could not have been more accommodating. And yes, many many pictures in this post.

2009 Silvaner Trocken - Very mineral with green fruits and fantastic purity. Very easy to drink and not complex. Chug by the bocksbeutel.

2009 Riesling Kabinett - Mineral, ripe with lovely chlorophyl flavors. Pure and clean. Chuggable.

2009 Schuerebe -Very mineral for Schue with gobs of grapefruit and lovely acidity. Still round as Schue can be and finishes very ripe. The best wine so far.

2009 Julius-Echter-berg Silvaner Kabinett Trocken - The JEB (Julius-Echter-Berg) is the most famous vineyard in Franken and I find it makes wines of great power. Mineral, ripe, elegant wine with lovely creamy tones. Ripe and pure with excellent juiciness. Amazing value for 7 Euro 50 at the winery.

2009 Wurtzberger Stein Silvaner Kabinett Trocken - Another famous vineyard that is right in the middle of Wurtzberg overlooking the river. Beautiful. Harder minerality than the JEB. Very ripe and concentrated with astounding purity and lovely mineral structure. Amazing purity. Stunning wine.

2009 Julius-Echter-Berg Riesling Kabinett Trocken - Herbal mineral nose with elegant pure fruit and perfect ripeness. Excellent crispness with some nice creamy tones on the mid palate and finish.

2009 Wurtzberger Stein Riesling Kabinett Trocken - Very clean wine with dazzling minerality. Elegant, complex frame. Ripe and juicy with laser-like precision. Smokey finish and amazing acids.

2009 Julius-Echter-Berg Silvaner GG - Very mineral and ripe nose with uncanny depth. That chlorophyl thing happening again. Ripe and dense palate with extreme power. Great purity and so clean. Profound and one of the best deals in GG's out there . . . .if you live in Germany.

2009 Wurtzberger Stein Silvaner GG - MIneral, airy, ocean breeze of a nose. Vey sultry humid nose. Intense, ripe minerality with lovely fruit and astounding purity. Clean as a whistle but the JEB Silvaner GG has more going on.

2009 Wurtzberger Stein Riesling GG - Very aromatic wine with good green veggies and other notes that add complexity. Deep, concentrated and focused palate. Astounding wine.

2009 Wurztberger Stein Riesling Auslese - Very fruity nose with intense minerality, yet low acids. Dense wine and very good but not my first choice for Riesling Auslese.

Next up was Wirsching. In between Juliuspital and Wirsching I went to one of the lovely apothekes in Wurtzberg, got some tablets and nose spray and passed out in the car while Matt was tasting with Dr. Uwe Mateus at Wirsching. I woke up halfway through and took great pics of Iphofen. It was a glorious day and those tablets set me straight for the drive to Wurrtemberg and dinner that night.

Many recent notes on many recent wines

2011-03-28T15:07:00.003-04:00

Had a bottle of 1986 Rieussec which is typically not in my wheelhouse but this was na extraordinary bottle. Big, ripe, rich, mineral as only Rieussec can be with notes of honey, burnt orange and some slight oak. Delicious with ample acidity and a nice sexy mouthfeel. Maybe the only Sauternes I can deal with.

2009 Weiser Kunstler GE (Grand Eule) is their version of a GG named after some owl on their property. This is the best Mosel GG I have had in 2009. Sorry Fritz Haag, Thomas Haag and Willi Schaefer, the new kid on the block wins. At first the nose was all pistachio and mineral like an Austrian Riesling, except without all the excess heat. After a bit it becomes balanced, juicy and mineral. So lush and layered with very floral and mineral aromas. Compelling wine. Long, juicy, complex finish.

2009 Immich-Battiereberg Ellegrub was a rockstar the other night. It is like Riesling filtered via Puligny as there is a significant wood presence in this wine but it works so good that I learned under the right conditions with the right winemaker Riesling can handle it's own with new wood. Soaring aromas of slate, spice, apples and flowers. It became disgustingly floral after an hour. Lush, ripe, very '09 palate with excessively pure fruit and richness but has a feather-like vibe on the palate. Kept getting better and better and better. Stunning wine. Way better than when I tasted in August at the winery.

2005 Gabriel Billard Bourgogne "Milliane" was perfect. Not too complex, high acid, rustic red fruits and good grippy tannin and killer 2005 fruit. Not much more to say. Hit the spot.

Franconia 2010 - Rudolf Furst

2011-03-17T15:46:00.021-04:00

I always look maybe the most forward to my jaunt through Franconia as it is unlike any other region in Germany. The towns of Burgstadt, where Furst is, and Iphofen where Wirsching is, are truly some of the most beautiful places I have ever been to. The towns in the Mosel, Nahe, Rheinhessen are nice but don't hold a candle to the architecture and idyllic wonderment that awaits you in Franconia and further south in Baden and the Pfalz. Wurrtemberg is just weird with lots of crazy 60' and 70's architecture gone wrong. See Heilbrunn as an example of an entire city that depresses you because the architecture is so bland and dull. Would be a perfect setting for a zombie movie actually.

Now to the topic at hand, a wonderful visit to the Rudolf Furst winery, with Sebastian Furst as the host. This is my 3rd time at Furst and there have been some major changes. Gone is the wall of bocksbeutels and gone are bocksbeutels. The blowback has been heard at the Furst winery and these magical little goat scrotum bottles will be no more. I will miss them dearly and have been very lucky to experience the wall of bocksbeutels twice in my life. I had a moment, but it passed quickly as the baby-faced Sebastian Furst greeted us and took us on a wonderful tour of the Burgstadter Centgrafenberg. The vineyard tours really pickup in the South as the vineyards are just not that steep. In some pictures you will see a blue net over the vines as wild boar love Fruhburgunder and Spatburgunder grapes but won't touch Riesling, Chardonnay or Silvaner. Picky boars, but they go boarshit over Fruh and Spat. I ate a ton of grapes off the vines and the Fruh and Spat they have harvested in 2010 should be spectacular. The whites, in 2009, as usual were brilliant but the set of 2008 Spatburgunders were absolutely brilliant. Hands down, the best set I have had from any address in Germany. 2008 is an amazingly transparent vintage. Reminds me 2008 in Burgundy and/or 2001. Just amazing. Onto the wines.

2009 Silvaner 'pur mineral' - Huge mineral and very expressive nose brings forth a very acidic palate, which is true to the Furst style, allied with lovely finesse. I mean this was very very elegant wine. So pure and just dripping with minerality. Luscious green fruits and sweet vegetable flavors. Totally great wine.

2009 Muller-Thurgau 'pur mineral' - For me, the best, most finesse-driven Muller-Thurgau in the world. As Furst told me while tasting this wine, "Muller-Thurgau is the Aligote of Germany." Very apt description. Beautiful mineral and herbal nose. This had power, grace and elegance and very ripe and juicy flavors yet great acid backbone and crunch. The balance was ethereal. This wine always does nothing but astound.

2009 Riesling 'pur mineral' - Nose of pea pod shoots and other assorted green things. Great acids and again so elegant. There is such an amazing juxtaposition between power and elegance in all of the Furst wines, especially in these "basic" bottlings. The palate shows the ripeness of '09 with exotic fruits like passion fruits and things of that nature. Great mouthfeel and nice length.

2009 Riesling Centgrafenberg - Wow, this was a high acid wine, even for me. But at what other address in Franken can I get super high acid, with crunchy structure and ridiculous finesse. Only here. Super mineral and perfumed nose but what acid. Grippy with great vinosity and a long finish of minerals that are palate staining. And oh man..the length on this is just astounding. Finishes with green apple and pear notes. Such a complete wine.

1999 Riesling Centgrafengerg (GG) - Before GG this wine existed which is essentially a Spatlese Trocken. The lone bocksbeutel of the visit so I cherished it and had another moment. First bottle was corked and Sebestian graciously got another. What a wine and what a treat. GG's do age. And this was the most convincing proof I have had yet. This wine had a lovely intensity with hints of petrol on the nose with the outrageous complexity that only comes with age. Just a mineral explosion on the palate. Just classic wine.

2009 Riesling Centgrafenberg GG - This will be better than the '99 in 12 years. What a wine. Huge perfumed and mineral nose. Like an explosion. Incredibly floral and just vivid aromas. Elegant, ripe and hugely concentrated with a riveting mineral expression. And....just an epic finish. Stunning and the crown jewel Riesling at Furst in 2009.

2009 Weissburgunder 'pur mineral' - Tons of ripe apple and pear with minerals galore. Very aromatic. Pretty nose. Elegant and pure with a lithe like finish that is like a feather on the palate. So perfumed aromatically and in the mouth. Very concentrated. A great vintage for this wine.

2008 Chardonnay Karthauser - For some reason a lot of German winemakers in the South love making really oaky, full malo, buttery Chardonnay. They just do. Big oak, minerality though with super rich flavors. Not my scene. Very ripe too.

2008 Spatburgunder Tradition - What an entry level wine. Well 2nd level up. Lovely fruity nose that is pure, ripe and elegant. The palate follows through with excellent ripeness and spice. Really lovely fruit presented in a rustic way and with loads of complexity showing already.

2008 Spatburgunder Burgstadter - This was solid and nothing more. This is the true entry level wine. Mineral, pure, ripe and juicy with good sour cherry flavors. Silky and not much tannin.

2008 Spatburgunder Klingenberger - Huge fruit on the very pretty nose. Lovely purity on the palate with blueberry fruit showing through vividly. Some sour cherries too. Great exotic spices and tremendous structure. A baby. Will develop for at least 15 years.

2008 Spatburgunder Centgrafenberg GG - Dazzling wine here. Such a pure Pinot nose. So complex. Minerals and berries galore. Really deep and nuanced. The palate is at once elegant and ripe but soon develops midway through brilliant complexity and purity. Dripping with fruit drenched in terroir. The fruit is particularly compelling and expressive on this GG. The length is epic and you get a fruit soak you would think came from Vogue or Roumier. Find this if you can and don't flinch at how much it is. Worth every penny.

2008 Spatburgunder Schlossberg GG - Another drop dead wine. Amazing nose. Just craziness. Intoxicating almost. No aromas descriptors here as I did not know what I was smelling but loved it anyway. Umami all the way. This wine was so dense and layered I could not believe it. Wow. Concentration is off the charts. As an aside, the Fursts have mastered oak and it is not intrusive and barely if at all noticeable. Buy this wine. But first, find it.

2008 Spatburgunder Hunsbruck - Another masterpiece. Sour cherry on the layered and very subtle nose. Also after some air becomes meaty and feral. Plenty of spices and concentrated fruit with just amazing Chambertin-like structure. Ripe, sweet tannins. 25 years?

208 Fruhburgunder "R" Centgrafenberg - So little and so expensive but always a treat to taste. Classic fruh nose of violets and blueberries with a touch of oak peeking through. So sappy and dense and truly sexy in the mouth. All blue fruits allied with sour cherry and insane vinosity. Astounding. Try this before you exit this life.

We later met Sebastien Furst at a local restaurant in Burgstadt and we drank some wines Daniel Muller gave us at Wagner Stempel and Sebastien brought the '07 Chardonnay Karthauser which was marginally better than the '07 but went great with the wienerschnitzel.

Next up Juliuspital in the heart of Wurtzberg!

Winning wines with Tiger Blood.

2011-03-10T17:03:00.008-05:00

Had some good stuff recently and it's worthy of a blog post. I don't blog as often as my 5 readers have pointed out but I do my best. So with no further hullabaloo here are some notes.

Last night had a bottle of 2008 Weiser-Kunstler Enkircher Ellegrub Kabinett and it was amazing. Such a brilliant wine with amazing, cut, clarity and purity. Great depth and just so clean it was a like a science experiment gone good. Long finish and wonderful tactile sensations in the mouth. This winery will be a super star in less than 5 years. I am 98 points on that prediction. Maybe one of the best 2008 Kabinetts I have had and that includes JJ Prum.

Also on Monday had a bottle of the 2009 Weiser-Kunstler GE (Grand Eule) which is their GG named after some owl. Don't know the details but all I am interested in is how stunning this bottle was. At first, aromatically it was like an Austrian wine. Nutty, pistachio and some cream. The palate was showing a skoche of alcohol, but soon this wine integrated like tiger blood coagulates and was stunning. Creamy, yet with brilliant cut and precision and a level of elegance I could not believe. Brilliant wine and maybe one of the best values in GG/GE's in 2009 for the Mosel. I liked it better than the Schaefer Himmelreich GG.

1981 JJ Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Spatlese was great. From a notoriously difficult vintage this wine was wonderful. Yes, the finish might have been a bit short, but the palate presence when it was there was mighty impressive. Ripe enough for me, with lovely smokey flavors, green apple fruit, petrol and killer acids. I drank a lot.

Rheinhessen 2010 - Wagner-Stempel

2011-03-03T17:25:00.020-05:00

I have always liked these wines a lot, despite only having tasted them sparingly over the past five years. They make mostly dry wine, but their sweet stuff is spectacular as well. But dry is the name of the game here. This was my first visit, and I might have to say it was the best visit of the trip, as Oliver Muller, Daniel Wagner's right hand man, is easily one of the coolest people I have met in Germany. Very frank and matter of fact. His story is crazy too. He was working in hotel management until three years ago, when he started working for Wagner-Stempel. The guy knows the Heerkretz vineyard like the back of his hand. It is a beautiful vineyard and deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Abtserde, Kirschspiel and Morstein as the great sites of the Rheinhessen. I was really amped also to taste all the wines as Terry Thiese only brings in a few, and with those few, even less comes into the US as no one buys them, which is a shame as they want to sell more wine to America. They are rockstars in Germany, Norway, and Scandinavia but still need and want a presence in the US. I am only one man....so I hope people read this recap and call their Terry Theise representative and order these wines. They are stunning.

These are Rheinhessen wines but they might as well be Nahe wines as the soil is the same. It is porphry which dominates the vineyards of the Nahe. They taste like Nahe wines too, but still have some of that Rheinhessen sunshine. The '09's here are just ridiculous wines with amazing precision like say Keller, but also oomph and soul and edge, like Wittman. Just tremendous. Took a lot of great shots as Heerkretz is gorgeous and the day was beautiful.

2009 Silvaner Trocken - The set of "village wines", per se, from Wagner-Stempel in 2009 were stunning. Mineral nose. Almost searing in its mineral intensity in the very inviting nose. Ripe, juicy and perfectly balanced palate. Amazing intensity combined with stunning purity make this a winner.

2009 Weissburgunder Trocken - Mineral, apple on the very clean and pure nose. Excellent acids and very crispy palate. Excellent fruit quality and wonderful purity. Really juicy. Just amazing for its level.

2009 Grauerburgunder Trocken - Really mineral nose with stone fruits. Excellent purity with lovely, enveloping acidity and very juicy fruits. Just amazing freshness and balance.

2009 Riesling Trocken - Mineral, chestnuts and flaming embers on the nose. So weird. But appealing and fresh. Juicy palate with lovely inner mouth aromas. Wonderful fruit and stunning finesse for a wine that is a an entry level wine. Fantastic apple and passion fruit laced finish.

2009 Schuerebe Trocken - Grapefruit, mineral nose and some blackcurrants. Really filigreed and finesse driven Schue and not all ponderous and slutty. Truly amazing wine with so much finesse and juicy as all can be.

2009 Sauvignon Blanc Trocken The local market loves their Sauvignon Blanc so almost everybody from the Rheinhessen and further down south makes one. This was the only wine I did not like. I don't go to Germany to drink or taste Sauvignon Blanc so I might be biased. It's funny as ex-cellar this was the most expensive of the village wines. Grassy and fruity on the nose with gooseberry. Pretty complex. Juicy, ripe palate with extreme mineral intensity. Real figgy finish. Ok.

2009 Siefersheimer Riesling Vom Porphry - Now to the "1er Cru's", per se. Flat out great. My Von der Fels killer as I call it. Right about the same price and at least in 2009 I liked it better. Different style of course as it is more fruit driven while VDF is more of a finesse wine. Sinewy, mineral nose that offers wonderful earthy/stony minerality. A wet impression. Also some stone fruits and notes of powdery confection that add a wonderful complexity. Delicate, nuanced and soil-driven nose. Compelling and complex. The palate is ridiculously concentrated and so sleek, yet with lovely edges from the minerals and acids. Very explosive backend with fleshy pit fruits, mouth-watering minerality and sap and extract galore on the long finish. This is a remarkable wine and offers GG quality for short money.

2009 Siefersheimer Silvaner - Lime blossom, mineral nose. So intense. Creamy and ripe palate. Excellent palate presence. Very pure. Great zingy acidity. Long finish. Richer than the village version. I liked it though just as much.

2008 Siefersheimer Silvaner - With a year of age this was as complex as all can be. Touch of oak peeking out with wonderful richness and complexity on the palate. Really expansive palate and velvety mouthfeel. So juicy and pure. Excellent.

2009 Siefersheimer Weissburgunder - Huge nose of mineral, apples and pears, with a touch of oak that adds to the complexity. Deftly used.Very mineral palate but still rich and juicy with almost a honeyed element. Lovely acids and a very expressive finish.

2009 Hollberg Grosses Gewachs - The first of two GG's. This is an excellent site but is a bit more forward and earlier drinking than Heerkretz which follows. Mineral, lemon zest on the wafting extremely complex nose. LIke a dust of minerals. The palate is rich and juicy and so pure. A touch closed. Very big winer with a super structure. Weird as this is the one that is usually open. Great stuff but need to retaste as it was showing huge structure and not much else, especially on the back end.

2009 Heerkretz GG - In my top five GG's of the trip. Deep, mineral, complex wafting nose. Dusty, minerals that display lovely nuanced sides to them of spice and fruit. The intensity of the minerals on the palare have to be tasted to be believed. Just unreal depth here. No mistaking this for anything else except, mineral driven, site specific, compact, powerful dry German Riesling. The fruit on this wine is plain awesome. Pure. So pure. Concentrated and bursting as the grapes were compact and small berried. You can just taste it. The intensity this wine brings to your palate is something else. It needed some air to get there. This will age effortlessly for many many years. A remarkable achievment for an estate I think will be a rock star after this vintage.

2009 Hollberg Spatlese - Very mineral and juicy with ripe, beautiful, focused fruit. Loads of yellow fruits on the palate. Fleshy and chewy with a long finish. Excellent.

2009 Herrkretz Spatlese - Very pure and mineral nose. More complex than Heerkretz. A touch closed it seems on the nose and no doubt it is closed on the palate. Still, though the class of Heerkretz shines through. Very concentrated and lovely yellow fruits. The palate is pure and sleek but it really needed a ton of time in the glass to start showing.

2009 Heerkretz Auslese - This was excellent. Some botrytis on the nose with creamed corn, celeriac and a nice herbal essence. Extremely perfumed. Really nuanced nose. Again another outrageous 2009 Auslese. Great, crisp acids, bring it all home. Stunning hierarchy and delineation of flavors. Long finish.

2009 Spatburgunder Eiswein - Maybe the most insane German wine I have ever tasted. 25 grams of acidity. Yes 25 grams, This was an acid bomb like nothing I have ever tasted. Like liquid electricity. Wow. Very floral. Like a bouquet of roses. Ripe but so finesse-driven. An anomaly but a delicous one.

Next up. Franconia...land of Bockbeutels and Dirk Nowitzski.

Many, many recent wines. Well, not that many.

2011-02-26T18:05:00.009-05:00

Just some notes from recent dinners and gatherings.

Had an outstanding bottle of the 2002 Catherine & Pierre Breton Chinon Beaumont. I love this bottle and think it is absolutely one of the best values in Chinon. I am long on this cuvee in my cellar but have not had the '02 since it was in its precocious youth. 2002 is a great vintage in Chinon with vivid fruit, incredible transparency and a rugged, high-acid style. Very me. This nose was singing the symphony of Chinon with wet earth, ripe berry fruit, smoke, herbs galore and a classic hint of barnyard. Utterly classic. The palate, for me, was in a perfectly evolved state. Enough ripe fruit to please the fruit-lovers and enough soil tones and acid to please members of the anti-flavor wine elite. Great finesse and weightlessness on the palate with pretty chalky tannins that are big and furry but match well with the acid and fruit. The tannins in this wine, I think, will never fully resolve, so drink up now. If you wait for them to resolve, I fear there will be no fruit left.

To compare to the Breton I opened a bottle of 2000 Chateau Dauzac. I know, I know, he opened a Bordeaux, but I have always had a soft spot for Dauzac and for 2000 Bordeaux. Dauzac, in 2000, made a classic Margaux and this wine had it all in spades. Freshness was the key to the whole wine. Great acids. lively dark purple-people eater fruit, floral perfume, and wait, wait for it, no camphor! Savory too. But 2000 was a ripe vintage so this had an abundance of fruit. Still it was not overtly sweet, but had lovely savory elements and just teetered the ripe/sur-maturite line for me. But teetered in my favor, so I loved it. It was big in its boots but never spilled over so you could see its alleged cankles. A wine that is no where near ready due to the mouth-coating tannins and slight immaturity of the fruit, but will be a beauty once it is.

2006 La Stoppa Ageno - All orange wine needs to bow down to Ageno from la Stoppa. It is like the DRC of orange wine, There is La Stoppa and then there is everybody else. Sorry Stanko. Just a beguiling nose of rose water, spirits, green tea and a lovely rose perfume. The palate was rich and very tannic as I believe skin contact was over 10 months. That is nuts. Ripe and silky yet with so much savory character that is was like drinking turkey juice, but in a good way. I have no idea how this will age but I would guess maybe 5-7 years. But an interesting wine to throw in the cellar for 20 years and forget about.

Had a stunning bottle of the 2001 Joseph Biffar Wachenheimer Altenberg Spatlese. I remember drinking the hell out of this wine when it came out. My last bottle was a dud around 4 months ago. Lifeless. This bottle though was a miracle of 2001 German Riesling. Started off average to be kind. Nose was a bit mute with some cream notes and faint spice, but it youthed up in the glass and within 30 minutes this was blasting on all cylinders and showcasing what makes 2001 so great in the Pfalz and Mosel. It had electric acidity, incredible structure, lovely spice, rich and ripe fruit and a long, epic finish. Easily the finest fruity-style German Riesling I have had so far this year.

There was a good not great bottle of the 2002 Joseph Biffar Wachenheim Gerumpel that was merely good. Actually it got very good with air. After underwhelming bottles of various 2002 Pfalz Trockens from Knipser and Biffar, I was really wanting this to be ok. It was. Lovely citrus oil and cream aromas with a rich, ripe palate chock full of minerals and adequate acidity. Good mouthfeel and nice crunchy mineral finish. Satisfying.

No Words. Germany 2010 Edition.

2011-02-20T03:45:00.013-05:00

Rheinhessen 2010 - Keller

2011-02-16T16:13:00.031-05:00

After Schneider we stayed in Waldbockelheim, in one of the oddest hotels I have stayed at in Germany, and I have stayed in some tripped out, unique hotels. Especially the more south you get, the more slightly weird it gets. In an endearing way of course. It's part of the charm. Durbach, where the great Laible winery is, is quaint, traditional and fascinatingly weird. But that's for the Baden section, which will be in about 46 weeks. Get ready. But I know why you are reading. Keller. The name brings German wine lovers to their knees and rightly so, as they can be quite compelling wines. I am still curious to see how the great dry wines that Klaus-Peter makes will age. The G-Max, the Abtserde, etc. These wines, like other GG's have no track record for aging, so the question remains. G-Max and Abtserde seem to have major structure while the others (Kirchspiel, Hubacker) have say 1er Cru structure, while Morstein might be on the level of Abtserde in 2009, generally it is a tic below in quality in most years.

The Keller winery was under major construction while we were there and there was a very busy vibe at the estate but Klaus-Peter made time for us at 9:00 AM. We arrived, and I know Klaus-Peter from times in NYC, so it was nice seeing him again. This was my first visit to the winery. I will be back after all the work is done as it looks like the new space should be incredible. We went down to the tasting room and started on with a great tasting. I was very excited about this vist. Especially at 9:00 AM when tasting acuity is at the best it will be all day.

2009 Westhofen Schuerebe Trocken - Ahhhh. The first Schuerebe of the trip. I love this grape, but it is so egregiously mishandled sometimes it becomes a caricature of itself, which is easy as it lends itself to that with its powerful flavor profile. This version was slammin'. Crisp, clean, mineral, high-acid style, which naturally I adore in Schuerebe. Still very ripe with lovely red currant fruit and stunning purity. Truly one of the better examples I've tasted since some Muller-Catoir 2001's.

2009 Silvaner Feurevogel - High-toned minerally nose. Clean as a whistle. Crisp and minerally on the palate with luscious fruit. From old vines which brings that sap and density. Very intense Silvaner. I loved this wine.

2009 Weissburgunder Trocken "S" - This is made with 90% old oak and 10% 2nd year passage barrels. Loads of apple, mineral, pear on the pretty ripe nose. Great acids. Still very rich. Excellent Weiss.

2009 Grauburgunder "S" - This was much more oaky than the weiss. Still it was integrated and only added and did not detract. Lovely stone fruits, sappy, lively wine from 60 year old vines. Real smokey, leaves you salivating for more. Real grip on and cling on the palate. Excellent Grau.

2009 Riesling Trocken - This wine is always such a steal and value as the quality is so high. Crazy mineral intensity on a huge luscious palate with frolicking acids. Stellar concentration. Phenomenal.

2009 Riesling Von Der Fels - Extremely complex and ripe nose. Lovely, pure and intense minerality screams out of the glass. Elegant, concentrated and powerful wine and much more elegant than in previous vintages. Great depth on the palate. Clearly from Grand Cru vineyards. Intense, complex and long palate. Showing great now, but in 4-6 years should be screaming. I really liked this VDF. Better than '08 or '07.

2009 Westhofen Riesling - This is 100% Morstein. From 32 year old vines. Mineral and very citrusy nose. Deep, powerful wine with serious concentrated flavors of citrus. Lovely tang and ripeness. The density is quite something. Again great intensity here. Sappy as most of the wines seem to be in 2009 at Herr Keller. Real echoing finish that goes on forever.

2009 Kirchspiel GG - Elegant nose of cherries and red currants. This is always the most finesse-driven of the GG's. Dances like a ballerina on the palate. Exceptional fruit purity. LIke a sheen on across the palate. The balance here is compelling. Great concentration and depth. Really shows off its pedigree. Huge step up from the Westhofen Riesling. Slabs of minerality on the finish, which is really long by the way.

2009 Pettenthal GG - The debut for this and although KP was a bit vague I think more will be made in upcoming vintages. Only 1400 bottles and 300 bottles are going to a friend. Also 240 bottles of Kabinett and 104 bottles of Spatlese were made, which will not be sold and kept at the winery for parties and dinners. Amazing nose of lemony citrus oil. Very chalky and complex. Real aromatic depth and complexity. The palate is ripe and leaves you with mouthwatering acidity along with extremely intense concentrated fruit flavors. An oily citrus character. Yet so precise. This was wonderful and one of my favorites of the GG's.

2009 Hubacker GG - From yellow limestone soils. The tasting room we were in was made of Hubacker limestone. Very mineral and floral nose. Really deep, intense nose. Explosive palate with ridiculous mineral concentration. The mineral expression is just pure class. So pure. Epic intensity. Huge as Hubacker can be. Citrus fruits and also a citrus oil character. Great balance. I thought this was the strongest Hubacker I have had so far.

2009 Morstein GG - Only 2000 bottles of this were made. Precise, pure, mineral nose. Very complex. Nuanced. You need to take your time with this nose or you might miss something. Very structured palate. Old vine sappiness with very vivid fruits and an overall big impression on the palate. Loved it.

2009 Abtserde GG - Chalky soils with red limestone with also some yellow mixed in. Complex, chalky nose, with insane high-toned florals. Really fragrant. Like a perfume of Abtserde. Just a crazy complex nose. The grapes harvested were tiny Klaus-Peter told us. The palate is complex and ripe with a long, epic finish. Finishes very spicy. There are almost like two finishes. One spicy and one juicy. The finish just keep pushing. This was compelling wine. My favorite of the day. And yes G-Max is next.

2009 Keller G-Max - Crazy stunning nose. Just exponentially great. Very floral with amazing depth. A complex ennui. Oh ethereal too. Just special on the nose. The balance on this wine is extraordinary. The palate combines smokey, salty, citrusy with sap, density and a pervading smokiness that comes and goes. It's very complimentary. Really juicy. The limestone also comes through. Many layers to this wine. The aromas kept changing in the glass. Like a potpourri. So big. So massive. Almost tannic on the finish from all the extract. This will age.

2009 Pettenthal Spatlese - I am one of the lucky few to taste this stunning Spatlese. The best Spat I have ever had from Keller. Chalky citrus fruits on the nose with very pure flavors that reflect the nose on the palate. The texture is like a cloud. I know it sounds stupid but just like a sweet version of the GG. The family resemblance was remarkable. This was a little fluffy cloud wine.

A great tasting and Klaus-Peter Keller rocked the boat in 2009.

Next up Wagner-Stempel, a winery I am really excited about that needs to be on everybody's must taste/buy list every year. The new rising star in Germany.

1982 JJ Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese

2011-02-08T09:40:00.001-05:00

Two recent stunning Rieslings

2011-02-07T17:45:00.008-05:00

Just some notes on two killer Rieslings in the village category. The first is the 2009 Peter Lauer Ayler Kupp Rielsing "Fass 1" which is in the trocken bis feinherb category which is something between a trocken and a feinherb. But with the Lauer style this is all crunchy minerals. More trocken than feinherb but I do see the perfumed fruit on the nose and palate nibbling at the altar of feinherb. Upon opening the nose is all sponti and rocks with some nice peach skin. The palate is crisp and crunchy with a nice silken texture that develops over many hours(days) open. Beautiful purity and texture and the palate impression is like tons of tiny rocks of Riesling exploding on your palate. The balance of this wine is extraordinary. So pure and sleek but with the wild sponti profile that I love in Lauer. Long finish of minerals and stone fruit skins. This was Florian's favorite wine of his for the vintage.

The next wine is a wine I have written about before and have not had since I got back from Germany, as it was one of my favorite wines from a QPR perspective on the trip. It was the 2009 Wagner-Stempel Siefersheimer Riesling "Vom Porphry" and boy did it deliver, but it did need a day to deliver the goods. This is the "Von der Fels" killer as I call it. I call it that because everyone thinks VDF is the greatest wine for the $30-$40 tariff it commands in the Rheinhessen. I think the Vom Porphyry from Wagner-Stempel is, especially in 2009, as the 2009 is just stunning and keeps getting better and better. Upon opening this wine was tight and coiled with intense minerals. All the material was there but on day 2 this shifted into 3rd gear. Amazing wafting aromas of stone fruit compote. Still extremely mineral and almost steely. But the palate shows the ripeness of '09 backed up with intense minerality and crunch. More opulent texture than Keller which reminds me more of Schafer-Frohlich, which should come as no surprise as they share the same soil, porphyr. A killer wine that will still be fresh as a daisy in 2020. Killer stuff.

Nahe 2010 - Jakob Schneider

2011-02-05T18:35:00.032-05:00

This was my 2nd visit to the charming estate of Jakob Schneider. I have grown a fondness for his great wines from the Niederhauser Hermnanshohle. He used to be the the largest owner, but due to a swap between the State Domaine and Donnhoff, of all of Donnhoff's Kupfergrube for the State Domaine's remaining Hermannshohle, Jakob Schneider is the 2nd largest owner now of Hermannshohle.

Jakob is a jovial and very giving of himself when he has visitors to his estate, which is the family home in the very sleepy town of Niederhausen. I could live in Niederhausen and work in the vineyards. Not as hilly as the Mosel, more of a laid back vibe and bustling Bad Kreuznach nearby to get my party on. In fact, we ate at an excellent restaurant in Bad Kreuznach with Jakob later that night. Jakob also gave us a driving tour on an Ancient Roman road through the vineyards of Niederhausen (Klamm, Hermannshohle, etc) with a thunderstorm battling a rainbow chasing us right as the sun was just about down. One of my greatest memories of this summer. Jakob also opened some old bottles in the vineyard and brought glasses along as we were drinking Hermannshohle trocken from '96, I think, in Hermannshohle with a light drizzle over us and a fat rainbow in the distance. The terroir was going through my body. A great experience and the kindness od Jakob cannot be overstated. We left the vineyard tour and stopped at the famous Traistener Rotenfels which is a vineyard that is protected by the highest rock north of the Alps. It is also one of the smallest vineyards in the world at 3.2 acres. Dr. Crusius is the main and maybe only owner. Totally amazing vineyard. Two pictures of it are below. Anyway onto the wines. There were lots of them too.

2009 Grauschiefer Riesling Trocken - Very mineral nose and silky palate. Good acids and excellent concentration. Delicious. A Riesling to throw back.

2009 Melaphyr Riesling Trocken - Named after a unique type of rock related to porphyry found in the Niederahausen vineyards. Very mineral nose with lovely fruit. The fruit was exotic and tropical with nice slate undertones. Great concentration and an intensely mineral finish. Great stuff.

2009 Weisserburgunder Trocken - Aged in small oak barrels. Not sure if they were new. This had a smokey nose with nice ripeness. The palate was round with great purity but was a bit one-dimensional. Good.

2009 Grauerburgunder Trocken - Mineral, ripe and very powerful nose. Pure, big palate with a crisp, mineral finish. 8 hours of skin contact on this wine. Creamy and silky wine, but a touch of heat is a point against.

2009 Niederhauser Roseneck Riesling Trocken - Mineral, lacey nose opens up to a palate of pure crunchy fruit and loads of minerals. Just delicious. Smile-inducing.

2009 Niederhauser Hermannshohle Riesling Trocken - This was fermented with natural yeasts. Lovely nose, very pure and very spicy. Deep and pure palate with crisp acids. Very intense and ripe wine. Needs 2-3 years.

2009 Niederhauser Felsensteyer Riesling Trocken - Big, expansive nose. Lovely acids on the palate with big minerals and just a crushing acid explosion on the backend. Love it. Intense and also comes from melaphyr which is almost purple looking soil.

2009 Norheimer Dellchen Trocken - Mineral and expansive nose. Brown sugar comes into the picture. Palate is loaded with spicy cherries. Lovely acids. Very pure, high acid wine with a chalky finish.

2009 Niederhauser Hermannshohle Trocken "Magnus" - Jakob's GG if he was in the VDP. It is surely GG quality. Big fruit on the nose with loads of layers and elegance. Passion fruit stands out. Really ripe palate with apricots and a mineral finish. So much more to reveal but fantastic.

2009 Niederhauser Kertz Riesling Feinherb - This was killer and if ever brought in is a tremendous value. Mineral, rainwater and huge florals on the nose. Lovely purity on the palate with excellent richness from the kiss of sugar. Great palate presence on this.

2009 Niederhauser Felsensteyer Halbtrocken - Glad to see someone is still making halbtrocken. Refreshing to see. A dying breed. Mineral nose with a touch of peach. Great complexity on the palate. Very textural wine. Just lovely, pure and ripe.

2009 Kabinett Liter - I was not a fan. Mineral and ripe. Just ok.

2009 Niederhauser Klamm Kabinett - Nice fructic nose. After all that trocken, I actually needed sugar. My palate welcomed it. Floral and herbal elements also add to the complexity. Nice sappy, dense wine with amazing purity and great concentration. Sure it's super-sized Kabinett but I loved it anyway.

2008 Niederhauser Hermannshohle Spatlese "Edith Elizabeth" - I don't know the story of Edith Elizabeth, but I am sure it was told. Remember, I am still on maybe 4-5 hours of sleep from raging at Herr Steinmetz the night before and already had two very long appointments at Frohlich and Donnhoff. So that's where I am at. The wine was exceptional. I do know that. Lovely, pure and ripe with an opulence rare for 2008 Nahe. Delicious apricot tinged fruit and raging acids. Great length.

2009 Niederhauser Klamm Spatlese - This was also natural yeast. Very ripe nose intermingled with complex florality. Great concentration on this too. Pure, which seems to be the style here. Great acids and loads of cherry fruit.

2009 Niederhauser Hermannshohle Spatlese - So fine. This wine is always so fine. Very floral nose. Just lovely. Easily, the most compelling wine aromatically so far. Lovely acids with immense and intense classic Nahe cherry fruit. Long finish. Needs time but oh so much promise. Better than the 2007.

2009 Niederhauser Hermannshohle Auslese - Completely bonkers wine. Such clean Auslesen in the Mosel and the pattern continued in the Nahe, and soon you will also see the Rheinhessen. Mineral nose with intense and vivid fruits. Some honey and intense richness on the palate, yet so clean and uplifting from killer acids. Just stunning.

2009 Niederhauser Hermannshohle Auslese "Jr" - Mineral nose and showing more botrytis than the non Jr. Super intense palate with huge underlying acidity. Powerful and concentrated with great acids but a touch closed on this day. I preferred the non Jr, but both are great wines.

2009 Niederhauser Hermannshohle BA - Huge, mineral and botryized nose. Rich, creamy and intense with huge fruit. So hedonistic, even though I hate that word. Like liquid icing. The clarity was drop dead.

2009 Niederhauser Hermannshohle Eiswein - Fruit on the nose, and I mean fruit. Mineral and honey on this extremely outsized nose. Rich, silky and soft palate, but not soft as in no acid, soft as in cloudy and refined. Very pure. Salty, passion fruit finish. Crazy acidity brings it all together. Dazzling wine.

2009 Niederhauser Hermannshohle TBA - Huge saffron and botrytis nose. Lovely and pure with the expected TBA richness, exceptional complexity and jaw-dropping purity. Stunner for sure.

A lovely day in the Nahe was over. After the tasting we went to our hotel in Waldbockelheim, which will get its own post in pictures as I was completely fascinated by how weird and Shining-esque it was. And Waldbockelheim is truly in the middle of nowhere. Got in a small nap, headed back to Schneider, did the vineyard tour and headed to a relaxed dinner in Bad Kreuznach. Fantastic. Next morning it was off to the Rheinhessen.