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Overall, this is less even than the wines from further north in the Pfalz, but there are wines of interest here, too, led by the outstanding Siegrist Sonnenberg. (Continue reading here,)
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Weisser Burgunder (Pinot Blanc) can produce in Germany wines of a type that one never, or almost never, encounters in many other areas where the grape in planted, and the Pfalz is perhaps foremost in the Weisser Burgunders it produces. At their best, they are clear, pure, saline, mineral, and racy. (Continue reading here.)
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Rarer even than Riesling GG from Württemberg are those from Baden. (Continue reading here.)
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I debated whether to publish these notes, as I think the wines are consumed mostly in Stuttgart, Württemberg’s largest city, and the surrounding area. Nevertheless, I do occasionally come across some producers from the region. (Continue reading here.)
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Still more disappointments, but a major success, Ludwig Knoll’s Stein. (Continue reading here.)
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I love, love, LOVE Silvaner from Franken, but this set largely falls short of expectations. (Continue reading here.)
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Finishing up with Franken Rieslings — so many wonderful wines, so hard to obtain. (Continue reading here.)
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Finishing up the Pfalz Rieslings — not as consistently strong as 2021, but plenty of outstanding wines. (Continue reading here.)
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As we move south towards the French border, notable here is the Schäwer vineyard, a very rare occurrence of slate in the Pfalz. (Continue reading here.)
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Moving to the southern portion of the middle Pfalz, the quality remains high from these two superb producers. (Continue reading here.)
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Immediately south from Deidesheim, there’s still plenty more of outstanding quality. (Continue reading here.)
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If Forst is the Vosne-Romanée of the Pfalz, Deidesheim is the Chambolle-Musigny with the emphasis more on elegance. Deidesheim is also one of the most beautiful wine towns I have been to in well-over forty years of such wine visits.(Continue reading here.)
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Kirchenstück is for me the greatest Riesling vineyard in the Pfalz, if not all of Germany. But just as Romanée-Conti is not always the greatest wine of a given vintage in Burgundy, so that is not always the case with Kirchenstück. But there is high quality, nonetheless. (Continue reading here.)
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Great wines here. Especially notable are the wines from von Buhl which, across the board, were outstanding to great in 2021. The years of the overly-reductive style are becoming a distant memory. (Continue reading here.)
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This set kicks off the dazzling tour of the great vineyards of Forst, the Vosne-Romanée of the Pfalz. (Continue reading here.)
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We move now to the northern part of the Weinstrasse which produced successful wines. (Continue reading here.)
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As up around Bingen, here there is a difference in political boundaries but not in terroir. (Continue reading here.)
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Groebe and Wittmann are two of my favorite Riesling producers from anywhere. Alas, Klaus Peter Keller is no longer showing his wines at this tasting — it was always fascinating to compare the three greats. (Continue reading here.)
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Unevenness of the Roter Hang is less marked with this set of wines, but still, the Pettenthal from Kühling-Gillot was a disappointment. (Continue reading here.)
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Good results from Siefersheim, but then moving down to the Roter Hang (Nackenheim and Nierstein), the results are much more mixed, clearly reflecting difficult conditions. (Continue reading here.)
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With this set, we transition to Rheinhessen, although here it is a political boundary only and not one of major terroir difference — the Nahe River in fact flows into the Rhein at Bingen, and Kruger-Rumpf and Prinz Salm have vineyards in both the Nahe and Rheinhessen by virtue of their Bingen holdings. (Continue reading here.)
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Outstanding wines from Diel and Schäfer, somewhat disappointing ones from Kruger Rumpf. (Continue reading here.)
Continuing from the area in the previous post, just a little down river, the quality remains high. (Continue reading here.)
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It’s just pure joy tasting through wines such as these. (Continue reading here.)
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The Nahe VDP is endowed with such a great set of producers, and here are four producing at a very high level. (Continue reading here.)
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Finishing up the Rheingau Riesling GG’s with a magnificent set. (Continue reading here.)
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Some excellent wines here, and a few disappointments. (Continue reading here.)
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This selection is an excellent example of the high-quality wines coming out of the Rheingau these days. 2021 or 2022, take your pick. (Continue reading here.)
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Continuing with Hattenheim, the quality of 2021 continues, and Prinz has a super 2022 Nussbrunnen. (Continue reading here.)
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Mostly Wisselbrunnen here, and the terroir really comes through. (Continue reading here.)
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When the producers presenting their wines are Barth, Kühn, Prinz, and Weil, you expect only the best . . . and that’s what you get. (Continue reading here.)
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If you want to see evidence that great Rheingau vineyards that had been languishing are flourishing in new hands, check out the Marcobrunn and Hohenrain GG’s below that now are coming from Künstler and von Oetinger (Jung and Kloster Eberbach have long been making very good wines from those vineyards). (Continue reading here.)
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In some quarters, the Rheingau’s reputation is unjustly demeaned by persons who think of early efforts in the 1980s and early 1990s to make dry wines (that were brutal because they were too dry) and because of some large estates that were underproducing. In the former case, the wines are now very well-balanced; and in the latter case, to a large extent, those estates don’t exist any more and the vines have been taken over by some of the top Rheingau estates.
As I indicated in an earlier post, the Rheingau VDP chapter has adopted a rule allowing producers to show their GG in the year following harvest, but they can only sell them beginning September 1 of the second year following harvest. So the 2021s are just coming to market now. (Continue reading here.)
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Mittelrhein is a region that even many German wine fans don’t know exist. There’s not a lot of wine here, but it can be very good. (Continue reading here.)
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Heymann-Löwenstein is quite far down the Mosel River, only a few kilometers before you reach Koblenz, the city where the Mosel empties into the Rhein. These are successful wines across the board. Continue reading here.)
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A frankly uninspiring set of wines. One hardly expected wines from Lösnich and Kinheim to show better than those from Erden, Ürzig, and Wehlen. (Continue reading here.)
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As we continue down the Mosel River, these are good wines, but not up to some other recent vintages from these producers. (Continue reading here.)
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The unevenness of the vintage is evident in this set of wines. I was particularly disappointed in the Grans-Fassian wines (see also the Laurentiuslay in the previous post) — it’s a producer where I’ve had good results in the past (Continue reading here.)
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A transitional group of wines: finishing the Saar, a quick peek at Ruwer, and then beginning the Mosel. (Continue reading here.)
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The GG’s from Wiltingen, mostly Scharzhofberger, generally show well, even if the vintage is not one of the best in recent years. (Continue reading here.)
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Here we begin to get the quality and consistency one expects from the Saar. (Continue reading here.)
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Right from the get-go, we see the unevenness and the disappointing aspects of the 2022 vintage, with several Saar producers falling short of expectations, but Schloss Saarstein coming through with a winner. And von Othegraven provides the contract of the outstanding 2021 vintage. (Continue reading here.)
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Last week I spent four days in Germany tasting Grosses Gewächs (GG) wines, mostly from the 2022 and 2021 vintages in white, and from the 2021, 2020, and 2019 vintages in red.
To generalize for the whites (I’ll get to the reds in a later post): (Continue reading here.)
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I’ve spent the past four days in Wiesbaden, Germany tasting German Grosses Gewächs wines. While I organize my notes to put here, I’ll put up some recent notes on Muscadet, a highly under-appreciated wine in my opinion.
2020 was a marvelous vintage for Muscadet, but the availability of those wines is now fading, and furthermore as you can see below for Landron’s Les Houx, I’ve not found all the wines of such high quality.
2021 has shown well in previous reviews of wines I’ve had and continues to do so here, but where I’ve had the chance to compare the same wines of 2021 and 2022, as here with a couple of producers, the 2022s showed even better. Moreover, due to severe frosts in 2021, there is very little wine from that vintage available. (Continue reading here.)
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2021 was a disastrously small vintage for white wines in the Côte d’Or, and Domaine de l’Arlot was no exception. Overall volume was down 65% from a full year. As a result, only two white wines were produced.
All wines below, including the reds, excepting the Bourgogne-Hautes Côtes de Nuits which is bottled with DIAM, are bottled with cork. Alcohols are in the 13 to 13.5% range. (Continue reading here.)
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It’s not yet apparent to me whether 2022 will be at the same spectacular in whites as it is in reds, but it does appear to be a top white vintage, nonetheless, and this Faiveley selection shows real strength. (Continue reading here.)
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Given the very high quality of the premiers crus that I tasted from Faiveley, you’d expect very high quality for the grands crus, right? Right. (Continue reading here.)
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Erwan Faiveley and I looked at each other in amazement that seventeen years had passed since he took over as head of this iconic producer.
One of the changes that he instituted was to divide Faiveley into (1) Domaine Faiveley for the estate wines and (2) Joseph Faiveley for négociant wines. In fact, 80% of the production these days is Domaine Faiveley, and the great bulk of the Joseph Faiveley production is generic Bourgogne. As for Domaine Faiveley, it now consists of 120 ha, 70 of which are in the Côte Chalonnaise. And in addition, there is Domaine Billaud-Simon in Chablis, which Faiveley purchased several years back but is still operated separately. (Continue reading here.)
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Only the Beaune Clos des Mouches is an estate wine, although some of the others contain wine from Drouhin-owned property, as indicated. (Continue reading here.)
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This sampling of Drouhin’s 2022 whites and that of the 2022 reds that will be in my subsequent post provide yet evidence of the great success of the 2022 vintage. I hope to be able to taste more of Drouhin’s 2022’s later this autumn.
At the opening level, there are good wines that should not cause the shock of the prices for prestige vineyards in white Burgundy. Further down, the prices will undoubtedly be higher because of limited supply and increasing demand, but the quality is there. (Continue reading here.)
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Yields for the whites were 36-38 hl/ha, 20% new oak. The wines sampled here range from very good to magnificent. (Continue reading here.)
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Vougeraie began production with the 1999 vintage, and in 2001 began its conversion to biodynamics. In addition to being biodynamic, all wines are certified organic.
The 2022s are a great success, especially at the upper appellations.
Maximum new oak for both reds and whites is 20%. Alcohols are around 13%, with the maximum being 13.5% for the Charmes-Chambertin (not tasted here).
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The Beaune and the Savigny are Domaine Tawse wines, the Morgon, Bourgogne Côte d’Or, Côte de Nuits-Village, and Morey-Saint-Denis are Maison Marchand-Tawse wines. (Continue reading here.)
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The following are all Domaine Tawse wines. Those from Gevrey came from the former B. Maume estate. (Continue reading here.)
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As I stated in my previous post, this is a producer to consider if you don’t already know it — they provide quality wines, especially at the premier and grand cru level at a time when other sources are drying up in the market.
All wines below négociant wines vinified by Marchand-Tawse and will be sold under the Marchand-Tawse label. (Continue reading here.)
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This operation in the heart of Nuits-Saint-Georges, a partnership between (a) Pasacal Marchand, formerly of Domaine des Epeneaux/Comte Armand and Domaine de la Vougeraie, and (b) Morey Tawse continues to make attractive wines that are a little below the radar in today’s Burgundy. Notably, the style here is now less powerful and extracted than were the wines under Pascal’s tenure at both Epeneaux and Vougeraie. These wines certainly are worthy of exploration by Burgundy fans who have found that current conditions have cut them off from other producers they once were able to obtain.
As almost everywhere in the Côte d’Or, the malolactic fermentations were quick in 2022.
The wines below are estate wines except for the Bourgogne Côte d’Or. (Continue reading here.)
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rancy is a village in Northern Burgundy about 10 miles/17 km southwest of Chablis (and on the opposite side of the A6 autoroute). It has a long history for growing Pinot Noir, and there are also some vines of César and Pinot Gris. César is a grape associated almost exclusively with Northern Burgundy, and in particular, Irancy.
Irancy became part of the regional appellation Bourgogne in 1977 (the red wines could be labelled Bourgogne Irancy), and in 1999, Irancy became a separate appellation. A minimum of 90% of Irancy must be Pinot Noir, and no more than 10% may be César or Pinot Gris.
Because of its position in Northern Burgundy where the cooler climate was a damper on the vintages and its small surface area, for most of the 20th century, wine from Irancy was rarely seen outside of the region except in the hottest of vintages. Indeed, until about eight years ago, the only wine from Irancy that I’d ever drunk was from the (then) very hot 1976 vintage. But with climate change and the big run up in prices for wines from the Côte d’Or, the wines of Irancy, still at relatively modest prices, are beginning to receive deserved attention. (Continue reading here.)
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Jean-Nicolas Méo said that overall production in 2021 was down about 30% from normal, but it was very unequal: some vineyards had normal production, others were down 70-80%. The wines were bottled between January and April 2023. Jean-Nicolas indicated that he took the wines out of barrel to en masse a little earlier than usual and tried to bottle without any hint of reduction. He is hoping that these are wines that will not go through a closed period.
The estate follows organic principles except for two sprayings in the spring that are not entirely organic.
Méo said that one difference from the past is that he is now bottling more magnums.
All wines below were tasted from coravined bottles. Those wines not otherwise indicated are Domaine wines; those indicated Méo-Camuzet Frère & Soeurs are négociant wines.
As you can see, there were some very great wines produced here. (Continue reading here.)
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Harvesting in 2022 began on the first of September, said Fred Mugnier. It was a hot dry year, and he was very pessimistic at the beginning of August. A little rain around 20 August helped. The wines came in around 13.5 to 14% alcohol. Malolactic fermentations finished in December.
The style is not the same as that of the great 2021s here, but it is another fabulous vintage — lucky those who will be able to drink and appreciate these wines. (Continue reading here.)
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More modest wines from the renowned 2021 vintage are showing well and worth your investigation. (Continue reading here.)
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Frédéric Mugnier said that 2021 was cold and rainy with a late harvest, yielding wines that are more classic in style than either 2020 or 2022.
Currently, there is greater variability among vintage dates than in the past. In 2021, the harvest began around 16 September, for 2022 it was more than two weeks earlier, and so the dates continue to vary from one vintage to another. For 2019, 2020, and 2021, yields are all about 25 hl/ha. Not much sorting was necessary, and as usual, all grapes were destemmed. Some malolactic fermentations were early, others were a bit later. Alcohols are 13 to 13.5%. The reds were tasted from tank while awaiting bottling.
The vintage is a great success here, and the further up the hierarchy, the greater the wines become, finishing with the amazing Musingy. (Continue reading here.)
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A fair portion of the red wines that I taste from these two regions in Southeastern Austria have too much new oak for my taste, but I found these four wines to be of interest. (Continue reading here.)
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As with the red wines here, the wines are in a ripe style. (Continue reading here.)
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This estate, formerly known under the name Domaine Réyanne et Pascal Bouley, is now firmly under the control of their son, Pierrick. He said that 2022 posed no problems for him. Yields were “normal to a bit over” normal: 25 hl/ha for the premiers crus, 45 hl/ha for the Aligoté, and 35 hl/ha for the estate overall. He began the harvest on 1 September.
The estate is now following organic farming and will be officially certified this year. As with many producers now in order to combat the heat, Pierrick is not cutting the tops of the vines, allowing them to provide more shade.
Because he doesn’t use sulfur, malolactic fermentations were rapid, with many finishing before the alcoholic fermentations. All fruit for the wines is destemmed. In general, about 30% new wood on the wines. In 2022, there were 2-3 pigeages (punch downs) per day at the maximum in order not to extract too much.
These are very good wines in a somewhat modern style. (Continue reading here.)