German Catalog 2006 USE THIS ONE.qxp - Michael Skurnik Wines

toni jost
mittelrhein • bacharach
Jost’s wines have been famously tardy since Peter began his regime of long lees-contact, and I
have sometimes underrated them out of the gate-I and other tasters also. They have appeared to
slip down a notch from the elite position they held. I had hoped the 2003s would arrest this
trend, but there was a strange Kabinett which evolved odd beery notes after bottling. Josts are
aware of this, but disagree with my intuition it has something to do with lees. In any event,
2005was wonderful, and I hope it will remain wonderful in bottle.
Want to hear a story of fortitude? Peter Jost broke his leg in the vineyards just three days
before the harvest one year. He was in utter denial. This simply could not be. He didn’t go in for
X-rays for three days, and when he did he was told “your leg is broken and you’ll be laid up for
about six weeks.” “Um, I don’t think so!” After three
weeks hobbling around on crutches, includingpicking
grapes in vineyards as steep as 60 degrees, his Doctor
told him “Look, if you don’t get off your feet we’ll put
you on your back!”
The solution? A WHEELCHAIR! “I rolled through the
cellar in my wheelchair and made my wines,” said Peter.
This is an estate with the lion’s share of a single vineyard,
with which they are identified, in this case the
BACHARACHER HAHN. There are a few other parcels
also (along with some Rheingauers), but Jost and Hahn
are inextricably linked. I’ve looked at Hahn from all sides
now; from across the river (where it looks impossibly
steep), from immediately below it, from above it, within
it, and any way you slice it, this is one special site; steep
goes without saying, perfect exposure, large enough to
allow selective harvesting. One cannot tell anymore
whether its exuberant glory of fruit is innate, as there
aren’t any other proprietors to speak of. But who cares?
It’s one of the diamonds of the German wine world.
The wines can be calm and shining. What polish and
beauty of fruit is in them! They can attain a celestial elegance
and a fine nectarine-y fruit, always generous but
never overbearing, underpinned with slatey filaments
and a second wave of berried tanginess which lifts them
from merely delightful to truly superb.
The wines are fermented in stainless steel, using cul-
Peter and Linde Jost
•Vineyard area: 12.5 hectares
•Annual production: 8,000 cases
•Top sites: Wallufer Walkenberg,
Barcharacher Hahn
•Soil types: Weathered Devonian slate in
Hahn; loess and loam on gravel sub-soil in
Walkenberg
•Grape varieties: 80% Riesling, 17%
Spätburgunder, 3% Weissburgunder
tured yeasts, with controlled temperatures. “We’re particularly
careful of how we handle the grapes,” says Peter. “All
the grapes arrive at the press in undisturbed condition. We
press with a maximum of 1.8 bars of pressure; the best wines
don’t go higher than one bar.” Lees contact is “as long as possible,
but regularly three months. Actually our wines throw
very little sediment since we ferment a very clean must.” says
Peter. What lees do exist are stirred. “I want a partnership
between primary fruit and the richness of the lees.”
Nary a wine has been de-acidified for the last
decade. And Peter is friendly toward the use of
Süssreserve if it’s produced optimally. “Each wine should
have its own Süssreserve,” he says. “It’s labor-intensive
and it falls just at the busiest time of the harvest, which
means working the night shift!” But, he says, the later
fermentation stops, the better for the wine. “In any case,
at least for our wine which we ferment technically clean
with the cultured yeasts, we can use a third less sulfur.”
Josts report a likelihood their oldest of three daughters
will take over the winery. I remember her and her
sister when they were little girls, producing something
like one liter of “TBA” which they bottled in 200ml bottles
and offered for sale to their Uncle. For ten Marks! I’d
say the estate will be I good hands, and I love any example
of Frau-power in old Europe.
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MITTELRHEIN WINES