Einfach Verdammt Gut: der Jahrgang 2014 beim Weingut Dr. Loosen von Frank Ebbinghaus

Man könnte diesen Beitrag mit einer originelleren Feststellung beginnen als: Dr. Loosen hat im schwierigen Jahrgang 2014 einen echten Volltreffer gelandet! Man könnte sicherlich über ein originelleres, trendigeres Weingut schreiben. Und man könnte origineller über dieses Weingut schreiben, zum Beispiel einen Totalverriss. Könnte man alles. Geht aber nicht. Denn in Wahrheit ist Dr. Loosen bei genauerem Hinsehen ziemlich originell und spektakulär, und der Jahrgang 2014 ist ein echter Kracher!

Der Reihe nach: Dr. Loosen in Bernkastel, Mosel galt Anfang der 90er Jahre einer der hottest rising stars (Wine Spectator) unter den deutschen Rieslingerzeugern, 2001 kürte der Gault Millau Ernst Loosen zum „Winzer des Jahres“. Dann wurde es hierzulande etwas still. Die aufkommende Bloggerszene konnte sich nicht recht für die Weine des umtriebigen Ernst Loosen erwärmen, vielleicht auch, weil Loosen erst spät auf den Trend zur Erzeugung trockener Spitzenrieslinge einstieg. 2008 erzeugte er sein erstes Großes Gewächs (GG), heute sind es immerhin deren sechs. Und auch qualitativ haben Loosen und sein kongenialer Kellermeister Bernhard Schug enorm an der Qualitätsschraube gedreht. Dank moderatem Alkoholgehalt und langem Vollhefelager verbinden ihre GGs moseltypische Eleganz und Finesse mit großer Komplexität und Langlebigkeit. Mit den GG Reserven, die zwei oder mehr Jahre auf der Vollhefe liegen, erzeugt Dr. Loosen einige der spektakulärsten trockenen Rieslinge in Deutschland. Mehr über die trockenen Spitzenweine gibt es bald von Stuart.

Hier geht es um die trockenen Gutsrieslinge sowie die restsüßen Weine bis zu den Spätlesen des Jahrgangs 2014. Mag das Jahr auch schwierig gewesen sein, bei Dr. Loosen haben die auf den Punkt gereiften Trauben für elegante, mineralische und perfekt balancierte Rieslinge gesorgt. Bei allen Weinen spielt die Säure das Generalthema. Sie ist höchst präsent, aber nie spitz, sondern vor allem als intensiver mineralischer Geschmack erfahrbar. Das beginnt schon den Gutsrieslingen, die sehr unterschiedlich ausfallen, aber für mich zu den Jahrgangsbesten zählen. Der 2014 Dr. Loosen Blauschiefer Riesling trocken schmeckt im Moment durch und durch mineralisch, an der Hintertür klopft aber bereits der Pfirsich an. Die reife Säure und pure Mineralität bieten großes Trinkvergnügen. Noch eindrucksvoller ist der 2014 Dr. Loosen Rotschiefer Riesling trocken, dessen Säure sehr präsent und seidig zugleich wirkt und immer wieder kühle Aromen von Pfirsich, Aprikose oder Walderdbeeren freigibt. Aus der offenen Flasche entwickelt sich dieser Wein im Verlauf einer Woche aufs Beste und erreicht nach acht Tagen seinen Höhepunkt. So lange muss man beim 2014 Graacher Himmelreich Riesling feinherb nicht warten. Die Restsüße ist perfekt integriert, weißer Pfirsich, ein Hauch Nougat und Orangenzeste steigen in die Nase, während am Gaumen zur Zeit Fenchel, Kümmel und nasser Stein den Ton angeben, aber auch hier kündigt sich viel Frucht an.

Die vier Riesling Kabinett-Weine schmecken naturgemäß sehr unterschiedlich. Aber sie sind allesamt feingliedrige, moseltypische Kabinettweine wie aus dem Bilderbuch. Während der 2014 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett in seiner noblen Zartheit dem Spitzentanz einer Ballerina ganz in weiß gleicht, schlägt das 2014 Erdener Treppchen Kabinett mit seiner typischen Windhund-Rasse am Gaumen einen atemberaubenden salto mortale. Tief in sich ruhend, kühl und nobel zeigt der 2014 Ürziger Würzgarten Kabinett feine Aromen von Ananas und orientalischen Gewürzen. Seine Zeit kommt noch. Hingegen ist die des 2014 Bernkasteler Lay Kabinett bereits angebrochen. Nach ein paar Tagen Luftzufuhr in der offenen Flasche entfaltet dieser Wein eine geradezu unwiderstehlich erotische Anziehungskraft.

Die restsüßen Spätlesen verbergen ihre Säure zunächst. Der 2014 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese entströmen florale und Pfirsicharomen, am Gaumen dominiert der Pfirsich, der Wein wirkt fast etwas üppig, aber doch nie fett. Unter viel Luftzufuhr kommt eine tolle Säure ins Spiel und diese Spätlese fängt an zu tanzen. Anders die 2014 Erdener Treppchen Riesling Spätlese, die von Anfang an ihre Rasse ausspielt und mit floralen Aromen und etwas weißem Pfirsich glänzt, während die sehr dicht gewirkte 2014 Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Spätlese mit ihren Pfirsich-, Ananas- Tabak- und Gewürzaromen ein klassisches Drama aufführt, das erst in vielen Jahren seinen glücklichen Ausgang nehmen wird.

Eine eindrucksvolle Leistung, also, die dieses Weingut 2014 vollbracht hat. Sie wird in den Schatten gestellt durch die große Konstanz, mit der Dr. Loosen zuletzt selbst unter schwierigen Witterungsbedingungen einen ausgezeichneten Jahrgang an den anderen reihte.

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NYWC Diary: Day 8 – #1 is Completely Outrageous and Coming Very Soon on Kindle!

Yes, ROCK STARS OF WINE AMERICA #1 is completely outrageous and coming very soon on Kindle. There was no alternative to applying the Parental Advisory Explicit Content sticker to the cover of my new work, pictured above, because of the no-holds-barred way that the first of this series of stories about wine, America and I is told. Already the first paragraph of the main text (there is a brief introduction before that) pushes the envelope of what you can say in a wine book all the way to the limit, and then some. I promise you that this was not just a willful act of provocation and I’m not only trying to shock and awe. Rather, it is the logical consequence of deciding to tell the story of my first experience of America without hesitation or obfuscation.

This is the backstory to a series of tales about the underground rock star winemakers of America that will follow during the coming months and years, and its purpose is not only to explain how this project started, but also to set the tone for all that will follow. During the last years I often said that wine is a third world region of journalism, meaning that the research was often poor, probing questions were not asked, uncomfortable issues weren’t raised, nor was accepted wisdom was not called into question, much less did the story have even a convincing progression from beginning to middle to end, nor was there anything compelling about the whole that would compensate for these weaknesses. Instead, it more or less did the modest job it was supposed to do, neatly filled the slot allotted to it without particularly upsetting or pleasing anyone, the writer collected the fee (writers generally don’t receive a salary) then didn’t really worry that the readers weren’t so interested in what he or she had written. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that all writing about wine is like this, but all too often this is a fair description of what is written about wine, and of how it is written.

My new work tries to radically break with this, and unashamedly seeks to surprise and entertain to the max, because this is the way to grab readers’ attention. I wouldn’t have written this story first if it hadn’t been for the fact that when I told it people begged me to write it down. I wouldn’t have been able to publish it so quickly and easily were it nor for the possibilities that e-books open. However, you must tell me if I am on the right track, or have maybe even succeeded in my radical goal. By clicking on the link below you can order now for delivery early on the day of publication, Sunday, September 27 of the year of Our Lord 2105. The price is just under $5. Those of you who don’t own a Kindle also have the option of downloading the free Kindle app onto an iPhone or iPad and reading it there.

http://www.amazon.com/ROCK-STARS-WINE-AMERICA-featuring-ebook/dp/B015QQWTKQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1443094170&sr=1-1&keywords=Stuart+Pigott

The cover features a work by the young New Jersey based artist Angelyn Cabrales who will also be responsible for the cover art of the next issues of ROCK STARS OF WINE AMERICA. Please be patient, very shortly, there will be a story here about the making of the work pictured above. Perhaps some of you can guess the medium she uses before that story appears in a couple of days? Using a completely contemporary image for the cover of this story set in Baltimore many years ago is my way of announcing that this is no exercise in nostalgia, rather I have tried to describe those events as if they happened yesterday. This wasn’t difficult because they were so very colorful, packed with sex and love, very bad PR, a declaration of war, alcohol, vomit, corpses and cockroaches. If I’d tried to make up a great story I wouldn’t have come close to this true story. And although the wine content is on the low side compared with the stories that will follow, it was enough to persuade me to return to America and to make NYWC (New York Wine City) my second home.

 

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New York Riesling Diary: Day 6 – FLX Launches a Great Riesling Vintage!

I am really not a fan of vintage tables, much less the declaration that this or that year is a Great Vintage, because every vintage varies considerably in quality from winery to winery, and sometimes no less from one plot of vines to the next wine. However, if we accept those facts as given, then I’m willing to stick my neck out and say that 2014 is a great vintage for Finger Lakes (FLX) Riesling. That was amply demonstrated this afternoon at the Riesling Vintage Launch of the FLX Quality Alliance at the Scandinavian Center on Park Avenue in New York Wine City where wineries large and small with widely contrasting winemaking styles shone.

Of course, some shone brighter than others, none more so than the tiny Boundary Breaks with their dry 2014 Riesling “239”, one of the wines of the new vintage that will help to change professional and public perception of what an FLX Riesling is like. You see, there are still plenty of people out there ranging from the somnolent to the somms who think that dry FLX Riesling is a light, tart and austere wine only for acid hounds and Riesling geeks. This kind of full ripe stone fruit aromas and elegant freshness just isn’t what most people expect from the region – some somms and journalists will be seriously disappointed because the acidity doesn’t bite! –  but I strongly believe it’s the taste of the future. In a less extrovert form it was also strongly present in the medium-dry 2014 Round Rock Riesling from Lamoreaux Landing on Seneca Lake, and in the sleek and mineral dry 2014 Estate Riesling from Thirsty Owl on Cayuga Lake. However, it was more or less present in all the 2014 Rieslings shown at today’s tasting.

In some ways, the most remarkable achievement showcased today was the leap in quality that the wines from Wagner Vineyards on the eastern shore of Seneca Lake have made recently.  They were represented by marketing director Katie Roller, who is one of the tight team lead by John Wagner that has steadily cranked up the quality at this large producer (225 acres of vineyards) over the last five years. She had good reason to smile, for not only was the 2013 Dry Riesling from Wagner recently declared Best in Class of the dry Rieslings at the 2015 Finger Lakes Wine Symposium, but the 2014 vintage of the same wine is at least as good as the 2013. Here is a prototypic new style FLX Riesling with a vibrant acidity and more than enough fruit aromas to carry it, a hint of spitz to lift the wine’s juicy, surprisingly full body and a very clean, beautifully balanced finish that draws you back for more. And we are talking about a wine that retails for just $15!  This combination will further push the reputation of the FLX as the premier Riesling producing region on the Eastern Side of America, and of Riesling as the premier grape of the Finger Lakes. Wagner’s rise is seriously good news for the FLX and for wine drinkers in the United States of Riesling!

 

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New York Riesling Diary: Day 3 – Some Pictures (from the NYWC Wine Riot) Speak for Themselves!

There’s little need to write much in the way of explanation for these images from the NYWC Wine Riot yesterday evening and today, except to point out that it was 2013 vintage dry Rieslings from Dr. Loosen on the Mosel, Robert Weil in the Rheingau and Wittmann in Rheinhessen which generated this excitement at the end of the crash courses on dry German Riesling I gave at this off-the-scale wine event. By the way, I never saw any of the people pictured with me before they entered crash course zone B where I was performing and will do so twice more this evening.

This picture shows that the tattoo culture unleashed by the Summer of Riesling back in 2008 is still very much alive and kicking, even if officially the Summer of Riesling now only happens at the Terroir wine bars. Just the other evening at Terroir TriBeCa I experienced an astonishing food and wine pairing by complete chance. Kelby Russell, the winemaker of  Red Newt in the FLX wanted to try the dry 2013 Gaisberg Riesling from Schloss Gobelsburg in the Kamptal region of Austria and it arrived almost simultaneously with our burgers. It was totally “wrong” according to all the rules and the books, but it tasted so very right!

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New York Riesling Diary: Day 1 – Wine Rethinking (or how a Change is Not as Good as a Rest!)

Moving from one place to another, both in the sense of traveling and of moving house unleashes unusual energies in me, and I’m still feeling the after-effects of doing both simultaneously yesterday. This is my new place in New York Wine City (NYWC), although I should point out that the windows of my room look out the back of the top floor of this three-story house in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Arriving here from my currently improvised quarters in Berlin, Germany set my mind spinning at unusually high revs, because during the months prior to 2am on Wednesday, September 16th when I landed on this rather solid piece of ground, my situation had felt seriously nomadic.

When I was a child and I said or did something that the grown-ups didn’t like there were lots of sayings they used to throw at me like, “practice makes perfect,” ” all things come to those who wait,” and “a change is as good as a rest.” I used to hate them, because they were all frustrating for me. Are you familiar with that feeling from your own childhood? Now I have to admit that practice really does make perfect, but, on the other hand I consider saying all things who come to those who wait is just a thought-terminating cliché designed to quickly end discussion. However, for me the worst of those three examples is the last, because I never found change restful. It’s a blatant lie as far as I’m concerned, because change always made me think at far higher speed than normal, which is always hard work. Even for those many millions people seeking excapism from the work-a-day world this only works if the change is to a resort holiday or a Harry Potter novel, rather than a holiday in a crummy hotel or bad pulp fiction.

Let me explain what’s been going through my mind. It suddenly hit me what a very unusual thing it is that I earn my living by writing about wine, while, on the other, this city is full of people who are obsessed with specialist stuff like jazz music, cigars or wine. What those fields have in common is that while regular people often partake of these pleasures, they usually regard them as being closed worlds that they’ll never actually understand. Sure, some of those people become determined to make sense of, for example, wine and plunge themselves into it, but often they become gruesome wine nerds. We wine journalists, including myself, take a bunch of ideas about wine (e.g. that it is an art form, that it’s all about terroir) dead seriously that are completely outside the thinking of regular wine consumers. Worse still, we’re completely unaware of the fact that we’re as far outside their perspective as the New Horizons probe that just passed Pluto is from Earth’s orbit around the sun. Like it, we just plough on ever deeper into the void, then we wonder why nobody except the nerds can keep up with us, or even wants to try and do so.

The problem is that most attempts to overcome this gulf between wine insiders and wine outsiders end up dumbing down the entire subject and employing simplifications so gross that the truth in wine gets watered down to the point where you can taste the chlorine in that water! This is no solution, but what are the alternatives? A new German language wine magazine called SCHLUCK – a print magazine that will appear just twice a year – is one of many possible answers to this question. It is full of great story-telling and strong to outrageous opinions, most importantly from the Austrian  photographer and journalist Manfred Klimek, who’s also the editor in chief. Of course, given the fact that issue #01 just came out a few days ago I can’t tell you if this path is one that will appeal to a large number of consumers, but at least it has dared to be very different, as you can see from the cover image above by Berlin photographer Oliver Rath. By the way, this isn’t just provocative wine-porn. It is reinterpretation of the image on a wine label designed by cartoonists who worked for Charlie Hebdo. It was also a strange shock for me to discover that there was a connection between this brutal terrorist attack and the world of wine, that even I often assume to be idyllic. Of course, I wish this magazine was also available to English speakers, but I think everybody can understand the cover!

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Berlin Riesling Diary: Day 13 – Is Eric Asimov Really Unprejudiced Towards American Grapes and Wines?

Rarely do I take an article by a colleague and pick it apart here on this blog, because this could so easily be interpreted as (excuse me for the pun) sour grapes that I wasn’t the one  who filled that space in that publication. Although I can’t prevent anyone from jumping to this conclusion, I feel compelled to comment upon Eric Asimov’s recent story in The New York Times, “At La Garagagista, Hybrid Grapes Stand Up to Vermont’s Elements”, because it raises questions not only as to whether Eric Asimov is really unprejudiced towards American grapes and wines, but also if much of the American wine scene isn’t grossly prejudiced against them.

Just to make one thing clear before we start, the hybrids in question are French-American hybrids, that is crosses of French (Vitis vinifera) grape varieties with native American vines that resistant to both kinds of mildew and to the phylloxera mite. They are widely planted on the Eastern side of the US, because they have an easier time coping with the climate, diseases and pests than Vitis vinifera varieties, and for other reasons that we’ll come to in a moment. Usually, somms and journalists treat these hybrids as American grapes rather than European ones, although many of them were actually bred in Europe. Of course, this same vexed question of identity comes up for American citizens who are of mixed race. For example, my therapist Dr. Brian Pheasant is one quarter Cherokee Native American and has a Cherokee emblem on his business cards. The image above is an 18th century Native American depiction of grapes (amongst other plants) to be found in NYC’s Natural History Museum.

Eric Asimov begins his article with a sweeping statement, “Wine is now made in all 50 states, though few suggest much of it is any good.” Of course, he’s not saying that this is the case or even his opinion, but making this statement about public perception right up front does give it immense weight. From the way he makes that statement it also might be taken to imply that this situation is equally widespread wherever you go in the US, for he makes no geographical or other qualification to that statement. In fact, this view seems to be most widespread in New York and the other large cities of the Northeast, particularly in the wine scene, and on the West Coast where there is a much bigger wine industry based on vinifera grapes. In the regions where the hybrids are grown, and amongst consumers who don’t belong to the wine scene in the East Coast cities there is quite some demand for them, appreciation of them. Otherwise the rather large acreage planted with them, particularly in Upstate New York, would long since have been ripped out and replaced with something else.

In paragraph three Eric Asimov tops all this by making the claim that, “for wine lovers conditioned to cherish the best expressions of pinot noir, riesling and other benchmark grapes, the notion of drinking wines made from hybrids…feels like trading in your chauffeur-driven Bentley for a bus pass.” What he is describing is a snobbish prejudice that is (see above) certainly not shared by all. Open-minded wine drinkers don’t place wines in hierarchies before they’ve tasted them, rather they seek to approach each wine afresh untainted by prejudice. Although few wine professionals actually do this, this is what they were taught to do! The person who sees the name of a European vinifera variety on the label and therefore expects the wine to taste better than one from a bottle with a hybrid grape’s name on the label is that living fossil the blinkered label drinker. I say living fossil, because I’ve encountered a bunch of younger wine drinkers of the Millenial generation who are no that way. There are also some of my own (more advanced) age.

To rub it in Eric Asimov then adds, “Wines from hybrids can often be dull and dreary,” which only seems to reinforce that brutal contrast between the chauffeur-driven Bentley and the bus pass. Sure, hybrids can be dull and dreary, but so can European wines made from vinifera grape varieties! Here in Berlin it would be no trouble to find Sancerre, Muscadet, regular quality red Bordeaux, various Burgundies (including some with fancy vineyard names), and, and, and. A similar list could be written for Italy, Spain, and any other wine producing country.  New York Wine City (NYWC) is in the privileged position of being protected from much of this mediocrity by importers who filter it out (by not listing these wines), but the fact that comparatively little of this French Stuff hits shelves and lists in NYWC doesn’t mean it ceases to exist. However, for Eric Asimov it doesn’t seem to. There too, I fear, is a preconception, if not a prejudice. This is one shared widely by the inhabitants of NYWC who all too frequently assume that people elsewhere in the world face store shelves and lists stocked like their own.

Now to the positive side of the article: the story of Deirdre Heekin’s La Garagista micro-winery and the wines from hybrids that she makes there. It reminded me of the many discoveries I’ve made over the decade that I’ve been (too slowly and erratically) exploring the wines of the East Coast. The last of these, the 2014 Vignoles made by August Deimel at Keuka Springs Winery in the Finger Lakes of NY a couple of months back. This stunningly aromatic (most obviously apricot and pineapple) semi-sweet wine with great concentration and a Riesling-like brilliance for just $13.99 per 750ml bottle direct from the producer. A few months before that it was the La Crescent from Coyote Moon winery in the Thousand Islands of NY region that stunned me with its citrus freshness and floral high notes. In this case a 750ml bottles costs $15.80 direct from the producer. Then there was the powerful and fresh 2013 Chambourcin red from Working Dog winery in central New Jersey. I feel rather sure from his description of the wines that Eric Asimov’s story describes a producer with wines of similar quality and originality, and I’ve put La Garagista on my to visit list. That will set you back a staggering $17.99.

My problem with the core of Eric Asimov’s story is that he writes as if the idea, “that wines made of hybrid grapes can not only be deliciously satisfying but can also show a sense of place,” is something radically new. However, it really is not at all new, because hybrids have been around for decades and some good wines were made from them right from the beginning. And please don’t think I’m claiming that I was there first, because people like Howard Goldberg, the retired OP-ED editor of The New York Times, was there long before me.

My real point is that American wine is way more diverse than any of us in the wine scene realize, and I feel that I too am struggling to eradicate some residual prejudices in my own mind, like that against wines made from Muscadine grapes in the Southeast. I seek to embrace that diversity of American wine wholeheartedly without hesitation, and of course to try and understand these wines, then to figure out which are the most exciting of them. And I promise you some of them are as exciting as driving a Great Red Shark Chevy convertible to Las Vegas at a hundred miles and hour with the top down. Watch this space!

 

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Berlin Riesling Diary: Day 8 – The Daring of Cornelia Heymann & Reinhard Löwenstein

Wine is not only an emotionally charged product, it is also a catalyst of emotions. You want to go one way and it leads you another, sometimes dragging you by the scruff of your neck while you kick and scream. On Saturday evening I’d planned to say completely different things to those I actually said, and it was the wines that forced my hand.

I was part of the annual wine Heymann-Löwenstein (H-L) dinner at the Weinstein wine bar in the Prenzlauer Berg district of Berlin. It was there that I took the above photograph of H-L founder Cornelia Heymann which captures the serious side of this event. 8 dry H-L Rieslings of the 2012 vintage from different terroirs around Winningen, Terrassenmosel were poured. The H-L wines should be world famous not only because of their remarkable character, but also for being the original New-Old style Mosel Rieslings. They were the stylistic model for producers like Clemens Busch and Lubentiushof (also Terrasenmosel) along with Peter Lauer and van Volxem (Saar), just to name the most obvious examples. It was Cornelia Heymann and Reinhard Löwenstein, pictured below, who back in the early 1990s showed that Mosel wine could not only taste different to the “classic” wines with their light body and intense interplay of acidity and sweetness, but a dry yet richly textural style that was spicy and mineral-driven was not only possible, but exciting. None of this is widely appreciated internationally. For example, in New York Wine City (NYWC) Clemens Busch is presumed to be a rather new producer, although when I first met him in 1987 and his current style goes back to the 1999 vintage.

Perhaps the reason for this is that from the moment they founded H-L in 1980 until only a few years ago what Cornelia and Reinhard did was considered by the majority of Germany’s wine establishment to be incorrect. That was in spite of the fact that H-L had a cult following here, often topped blind tastings, and received some major foreign accolades such as the top prize in France for the best non-French wine. This, the way the wines tasted, and a small incident at the beginning of the evening when a guest asked Reinhard Löwenstein for analytical data – he was desperately trying to “make sense” of the wines rather than letting them make an impression upon him – made it necessary to incorrectly describe them to the guests.

There’s a bunch of things we can explain about terroir, such as how a high chalk content in the soil tends to make white wines that have a certain roundness, but in this there isn’t yet a scientific explanation for that. Knowledge and mystery go hand in hand, and in this case they not only get along really well with each other, they’re actually in love. That’s what 2012 Uhlen Blaufüsser Lay made me say. It is one of three very different dry Rieslings H-L produces each vintage from the Uhlen site of Winningen, the others being the Uhlen Laubach and the Uhlen Roth Lay. Each comes from terraced vineyards sitting on a different geological formation . The Uhlen Laubach is on chalk-rich slate (which is very rare) and has a round, almost creamy texture every year. The Uhlen Blaufüsser Lay is on hard blue slate, is the sleekest of the Uhlens in body and the coolest in aroma. Finally, there’s the Uhlen Roth Lay which is the most powerful and rich, but with an astringency that you either find taxing or enticing.

All of this is old hat to German H-L fans, but I’m guessing that for most readers in the English speaking world it’s all new. The 2012 Uhlen Roth Lay and the 2012 Röttgen – another site close to Winningen, one that gives wines with a tropical character (think durian!) – messed with my head in a pretty serious way, dragging memories of moments in movies that had made a deep impression upon me many years ago. The 2012 Röttgen reminded me of that scene in Dr. No, the first James Bond film, where Ursula Andress climbs out of the tropical surf in a white bikini with a big diver’s knife in her hand. Regardless of what you think of the scene, I don’t think anyone who saw it could forget it. The same applies to the moment in David Lynch’s Blue Velvet that the 2102 Uhlen Roth Lay reminded me of. I’m thinking of the one when the youngster played by Kyle MacLachlan emerges from the closet after having watched the strange tryst between the singer played by Isabella Rossellini and the gangster played by Dennis Hopper. When the youngster ends up in her arms, she tenderly asks him, “hit me.” Now that was definitely an incorrect way to describe those wines, but the wines wanted it that way and I did their bidding. Afterwards, it struck me that this was appropriate given the daring course that Cornelia Heymann and Reinhard Löwenstein have taken and continue to take.

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Berlin Riesling Diary: Day 6 – Wu are You? Introducing ROCK STARS OF WINE AMERICA

Here in Berlin I’m still struggling with that virus in my lungs, but I’ve been trying not to let it get me down. One of the best things about being back in Berlin is being able to visit Hot Spot,the Chinese restaurant known to almost all of its customers by the name of its remarkable manager  and guiding as Wu or Mr. Wu. Here an astonishing synthesis of Chinese culinary culture and German wine culture has been achieved that is, as far as I know, unique in the entire world. Not that Wu considers his own achievements to be in any way remarkable, for he would say that all he has done is to take the logical step of combining worlds of flavors that belong together. That may be true, but before he did it nobody else saw it that way, or at least if they did they didn’t do anything about it.

Regardless of the field of human endeavor, that is the decisive question, not who believes to some degree in a certain idea, but who acts upon their belief and does so in a way that cannot be ignored by their contemporaries. It’s sometimes been suggested to me that somehow I was responsible for the renaissance of Riesling since the last turn of the century, but this is complete nonsense. If I’d died back in 2000, then the developments of recent years in Germany and elsewhere on Planet Riesling would all have happened very much as they did. The one thing I can rightly claim is that pre-2000, before the new and mighty wave of enthusiasm for my favorite grape and its wines was visible, I sang the praises of what was then an almost completely forgotten and horribly misunderstood category of wines. I did this decisively and in way that couldn’t be ignored here in Germany, and this certainly sent a signal out into the world that was received by many.

Wu’s achievement at Hot Spot is the uncompromising way he runs his restaurant according to his unique culinary concept. He has proved that you can mix food and wine cultures in ways previously regarded as impossible, or at the least totally improbable. And that is very much what my next project is all about.

Yesterday, after 8 months of work on and off I just completed the first in a series of e-pamphlets (available shortly for Kindle through Amazon) on the subject of America, wine and I. The above logo will appear on the cover of all these publications and stands for the spirit of a generation of winemakers scattered across America in unlikely locations who are daring to make remarkable wines where most people would consider this impossible, or at least totally improbable. My role is that of the traveler who dares to take the new underground Rock Star winemakers of America seriously, visits them with an open mind and the desire to understand their world, then reports on their achievements. It is, of course, bizarre that I an Englishman should be doing this rather than patriotic American wine journalists, but it seems to me that this mix of cultures is an important part of the entire project. That’s why #1 in the series tells the outrageous story of my first journey of discovery to America and how that set me on my present path. Watch this space for more information very soon!

Important note: Dear German winegrowers, Dear fans of German wines, the fact that I will be writing a series of e-pamphlets about the wines and winemakers of America does not mean that I will be taking the wines of Germany any less seriously than during the last decades. This is not a matter of either / or!

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Berlin Riesling Diary: Day 2 – Mosel Unplugged inc. staring Niels Frevert & Unforgettable Riesling

Because maybe / You’re gonna be the one that saves me…

Note: Many apologies that it’s been such a long time since the last posting, but a horrible virus made its home in my lungs, and it was a struggle to manage even the most urgent work. Thankfully, I could still taste and smell, because I traveled to the Mosel and tasted some great wines there. Here’s the story:

Niels Frevert, pictured above, is one of the stars of Germany’s answer to Brit Pop. You can hear at least a hint of Oasis or Blur in all of his songs, at least I thought I could last Saturday evening when he played at Weingut Immich-Batterieberg in Enkirch, Mosel. Of course, this is not what the world associates with Germany or with Mosel Riesling, nor is it what normally happens when a rising phoenix producer on the Mosel presents it’s new vintage. However, this “unplugged” style concert in the garden of this producer really did fit the spirit of modern Mosel Riesling very well: wines that are at once rather serious, but with a playful and gentle side. At least, that’s how I’d describe the way that Niels Frevert played songs like Waschmaschine last Saturday evening.

I also played a part in this event, following classical pianist Yorck Kronenberg – a very hard act to follow! – the previous evening with a talk about what terroir really means, both in general terms and specifically in relation to Immich-Batterieberg, a producer who’s wine already had bundles of terroir (vineyard site) character under the last of the original owner family, Georg Immich (I met him back in ’89 and he sold the property in ’92). I received a fee for giving that lecture, but that doesn’t alter the fact that under the present owners Dr. Volker Auerbach and Roland Probst, and director-winemaker Gernot Kollmann (since 2009) this estate has bounced back and rightly been showered with praise. To my mind, it makes striking wines with a lot of terroir / vineyard character. However, I suggest that you taste and make up your own minds about that.

Although time was very short I also managed to visit three other producers with my old school friend Richard Aczel, a lecturer on English literature and related subjects at Cologne University. He’s just purchased a house on the Mosel and begun an in-depth exploration of the regions wines. Our visits to the historic Weingut Wwe. Dr. H. Thanisch (VDP) in Bernkastel, then Daniel Vollenweider and Martin Müllen, two pioneers in Traben-Trarbach, were discoveries for him.

Sofia Thanisch is currently making the best wines of her career and has developed a style that remains true to this house’s commitment to the filigree style that most of the wine world considers “classic” Mosel with an impressive amount of backbone. Although the majority of the wines are in sweeter styles there are two impressive new dry wines from the 2014 vintage, the Graben Riesling GG and the Lay Riesling feinherb. Normally I don’t attach much importance to numbers, but in the case of the Lay they are particularly interesting. Although this wine is dry enough to accompany savory food (it would be great with all kinds of moderately spice dishes too) it weighs in at 11.5% and costs only Euro 14,50 direct to private customers from the estate.

As far as I know, Daniel Vollenweider was the first complete outsider to found a winery in the Mosel when he purchased just over 3 acres of vines in the forgotten top site Wolfer Goldgrube back in 2000. Although Vollenweider comes from the wine producing canton of Graubünden in the German-speaking East of Switzerland there were no wine growers in his family. Since then he has expanded his holdings fourfold and built an excellent reputation for both sweet and dry Rieslings. He proved that you can start with almost nothing and become a Mosel winemaker with your own vineyards, and within five years he had his first imitators. Those in this part of the Mosel now have their own club, for more info see: www.klitzekleinerring.de

Even Vollenweider’s basic, bone-dry 2014 Riesling Felsenfest is packed with aroma and has great vitality, and single vineyard wines like the 2014 Goldgrube Riesling “GG” and 2014 Goldgrube Spätlese are seriously concentrated without in any way being massive or in any other way willfully overdone.  Thankfully, you can say the same about his prices! The painting pictured above hangs in his tasting room and depicts the Traben-Trarbach section of the twisting Mosel Valley in a manner rooted in tradition, yet is also strikingly original just like these wines.

Martin Müllen is definitely not star material, because what interests him is growing and making the wines, not dancing in the spotlight on the wine and gastronomic stage, nor unleashing Twitter-storms on a world already jaded by their frequency and repetitiousness. And I think that the photo above confirms that very well. One of his focuses is light, dry wines and at their best – e.g. the 2014 Hühnerberg Riesling Kabinett trocken * – they weight in under 11% alcohol, but have great herbal and floral aromas, the acidity crisp rather than biting (often a problem in low-alcohol dry Riesling). However, it is his dry, and medium-dry Spätlese wines that blow my mind with complex spice and mineral freshness combined with enough power and discretely succulent fruit. Most of them lie in the Euro 13 – 20 range if you buy direct from him as a private customer, and for this they represent outstanding value for money. Perhaps the best value on the list at present is the 2014 Riesling Revival feinherb for Euro 11,90, a typical Müllen wine with the special character of the Hühnerberg already described above. A lot of younger newer winemakers tell me that they make their wines like a century ago. Usually, this means that they are inspired by what they think the style of those wines was and use modern equipment. Müllen actually uses an old basket press and does wild ferments in the traditional Fuder barrels of the Mosel (263 gallons, neutral oak) for all his wines! Hence the name of this wine and the slogan on the label: Unforgettable Tradition.

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Rheingau Riesling Diary: Day 1 – The Grapes Begin to Soften ! (Technical Word: Verasion)

After the hottest summer in Western Europe since 2003 & 2006 and the driest summer in Western Europe since 1961 how do the grapes look? I have to admit the combination of hot and dry made me worry that a lot of the vineyards in Germany and elsewhere would look yellowed, maybe wilted, or even sometimes close to collapse. However, I just got back from an intensive tour of the vineyards in the eastern end of the Rheingau with Hajo Becker of J.B. Becker in Walluf, Rheingau and was very pleasantly surprised by what I saw. By no means is 2015 doomed to be a problem vintage, in fact the great majority of vineyards that were well cared for looked very good.

The photograph above shows the plot in the Eltviller Rheinberg site from which J.B. Becker regularly makes a dry Riesling and harvests the base wine for the sparkling Riesling Sekt. As you can see, it lies right on the bank of the Rhein and that makes it a warm location. The soil is very sandy, which means it can hold little water. This together with the heat and drought has resulted in the grass between the rows completely browning (something it rarely does in the generally moist climate of Germany), yet the vines are obviously in excellent health. Only in one small corner of the vineyard did I see any drought stress, and I saw absolutely no sign whatever of fungal disease. I also found the first berries that were beginning to soften (technical word: verasion), a sure sign that  the final ripening process is beginning.

This softening is accompanied by a change appearance of the grapes. White wine grapes become translucent, but this is very difficult to photograph (my Olympus EP-5 is great, but I don’t usually have a tripod with me or all the time in the world). Red wine grapes turn color at verasion, and this is much easier to photograph. The picture above shows grapes on Hajo Becker’s oldest Spätburgunder / Pinot Noir vines in the Wallufer Walkenberg site that were planted in 1959. As you can see, the change of color is almost completed, and they look extremely healthy. This is the ideal state for red wine grapes at this point in the year year, and it suggests that as long as theres on heavy rainfall between now and the harvest this could be an excellent red wine vintage for Germany. Don’t forget, Germany has the third largest area planted with Pinot Noir in the world!

Riesling dominates in the Rheingau where it accounts for about 70% of all the vineyards (only the tiny Mittelrhein region has a higher percentage of Riesling in Germany, or indeed the world). From what I saw here yesterday and today there is clearly variation between the vineyards of one commune to the next, because summer storms brought rain in some places and not in others. In a few places, like the Rüdesheimer Berg vineyards, the intensity of the storm (more than two and a half inches of rain in about half an hour!) was so great that it actually reduced the size of the crop. These factors, and differences in cultivation methods, have lead to widely varying crop levels. That and the longer time until the late-ripening Riesling grapes are ready to pick, makes it yet more difficult to predict the result. However, the general good health of the vines and the fact that serious drought stress has only occurred in a few corners, suggests that a positive result can be expected as long as the pre-harvest period and the harvest itself aren’t plagued with heavy rains.

Famously, those who predicted the end of the world fell became a laughing stock, and it’s the same with those who dared to predict to a great vintage many weeks or even months before the first grapes were picked. On the West Coast of America some wine producers have foolishly been playing that game this year, basing their prediction on the exceptional advanced development of the grapes. Excuse me, but this is complete BS! My experience says that vineyards like the plot of old Riesling vines in Hajo Becker’s holdings section of the Wallufer Walkenberg site, pictured above, give very good to exceptional wines year in, year out. There are many, many examples of this in Germany, Western Europe and the world of wine as a whole. The excitement about the new vintage each year is a good thing, but even good things can be carried too far! A good wine in your glass is the main thing!

 

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