View 2011 German Catalog - Michael Skurnik Wines

Finally, the stories you heard are true; the crop is small.
Most growers reported yields from 30% to as much as 50%
below average. I think our Spring 2012 DI will be pretty
thready unless the 2011s are early and copious. So please
understand this isn’t a vintage you can afford to “buy later.”
The smart money says to grab now and don’t look back.
PRINCIPLES OF SELECTION IN THIS PORTFOLIO
At first I was deliberately ecumenical. I wanted to
show you many facets of German wine and many different
ways for it to be good. I still do. I am fond of the quirky.
But I’m also realistic about how the wines are sold.
You can’t visit each estate one-at-a-time like I do.
Such visits have advantages and disadvantages. You see the
wines in context, as they should be seen. But you don’t
see them in “peer-group” conditions; i.e., with a bunch of
similar wines from other growers. We show the wines in
portfolio tastings wherein a big ol’ slew of wines are lined
up to be tasted alongside one another, exactly contrary to
how they should be tasted or to any aims their makers had
for them. But what choice do we have?
The results are predictable. Some wines “show”
better than others. Fragrant wines with lots of primary
fruit. Spritzy wines. Even (ulp) sweeter wines. If your
wine has quirks or tics, if it’s asymmetrical, earthy and
ornery, it will be laid to waste in “peer-group” tastings.
(What actual consumer ever says “Let’s see, tonight we’re
having a big greasy pizza: let’s line up sixty-two Chianti
Classicos and see how they ‘show’!”)
From a zenith of over SIXTY growers this little
family has been reduced to around thirty, and it might
have gone down as far as it should go. Demand is rising
and one remains alert to the eventual demise of estates with
no visible heirs. Plus I’m a curious cuss and don’t want to
sit in my house with the windows closed. I suspect many
of us in the fine wine biz have to struggle to reconcile
our aesthetics with what passes for “common sense” as,
ahem, businesspersons. For me, unless the businessman’s
point is beyond argument, the aesthete usually prevails.
Somebody has to hurl beauty in the wan face of common
sense, and it might as well be me!
Selecting was easier in the old days. German wine
was unpopular and therefore inconspicuous, and it was a
buyer’s market. I was at liberty to take only what I wanted.
These days, we’re selling more and are therefore more
consequential to the grower; if I pass on a certain wine it
can play havoc with his plans. And bruise his ego. It’s all
very Realpolitik, I suppose, and I sometimes wonder why I
care so much about my precious “standards,” but always I
come to the same answer. It’s because I want to keep faith
with you.We may disagree, you and I, we may not like the
same wines, but you deserve to know that I like what I say
I like, and I won’t ask you to buy a wine I don’t endorse.
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I’m delighted by the number of growers I selected
long ago who have since become famous VDP estates.
Wanna know who? Here’s who!
Joh. Jos. Christoffel
Willi Schaefer
Florian Weingart
Dönnhoff
Kruger-Rumpf
Josef Leitz
Müller-Catoir
Meßmer
Minges
And I’ll predict here that Adam will be the next to
ascend the lofty ranks of VDP-dom.
CORE-LIST WINES
The core-list, with which we have been very
successful, was created to ensure greater continuity and
help you build brands. It began as an empirical record
of having consistently selected a certain wine over many
years. The wine needed to be in “good” supply (by smallbatch
standards). Yet for all that it’s been fabulously
received, it’s created many “candid exchanges of views”
(in the parlance of diplomacy) among my staff and me.
I want you to know this: no wine will be offered merely
because it’s on the core-list. Every wine will continue to
earn its way into this offering. In the (extremely unlikely!)
event a core-list wine is yucky in the new vintage, off it
goes. If we’ve done our jobs properly, that will almost
never happen. Core-list wines will be clearly indicated in
the text (with notes in bold print) and I’ll explain why
each wine is on the core-list.
HARD-CORE-LIST WINES
I like this idea and it was moderately successful in its
first year. I mean, we sold Hexamer out of his Sauvignon
Blanc, which felt pretty rad. But the 2010 vintage is very
small, and growers have no incentive to concede on price.
I’m still gonna offer a few things though. I need to draw
attention to wines that just get lost otherwise.
Here’s the basics for the hard-core program. I usually
offer around 300 German wines per year, and of those
we keep some 44 wines on the core-list. That leaves a lot
of wine subject to the caprices of the DI system, where
even my fulsome swollen tasting notes will often fail to
entice buyers. Last Winter I drank a bunch of wine I’d
bought from my growers, which I like to do because it’s
drinking like y’all do as opposed to “tasting” which is only
a fraction of any wine’s truth. While I drank the wines I
got pissed off at how little of them we sold. I decided we
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