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

NAHE WINES
114
kruger-rumpf nahe • münster sarmsheim
Something’s sure up at this winery. Maybe it’s because his children are growing up and helping
out (kids have a way of giving their dads a kick in the pants, don’t they . . .), and maybe it’s just
simple ambitiousness, but there’s no doubt Stefan Rumpf has taken a significant step forward the
last two vintages. I’m just guessing here, but I intuit a subtle kind of competition between Stefan
and son Johannes. Dad has an audience now, and he wants to show off a little, to earn the boy’s
respect. I saw them spur each other on while we were tasting, and felt the frisky new energy.
It used to be quite the decathalon tasting the young vintage here, but Stefan showed me his
`05s in nearly-finished form, and the vintage was far less bracing and phenolic than any of its
predecessors. We were done remarkably fast (my rough notes from the cask-samples used to
look like an engineer’s diagram for a cyclotron) and we
used much less dosage.
I do think a small tribute is in order for his geniality.
Many producers, especially young studs in their twenties,
can be quite the divas. “I make the wines I like and
he takes them or leaves them” is a typical sentiment. And
it’s reasonable enough on its face; it only locks a door
whereby collegial interaction might benefit grower and
buyer alike. But hey, I understand, having been an insufferable
twit in my twenties, and I didn’t have to deal with
boffo reviews before I was old enough to handle them
gracefully. All of which is to say that Stefan Rumpf’s collegiality
is becoming rare, which makes its underlying
gesture of respect and friendliness even more precious.
Stefan’s latest lil’ plaything is three-fourths of a
hectare in the Binger Scharlachberg; yes, our hero is making
RHEINHESSEN WINES. “We had to take everything
out and replant with Riesling.” I wondered what had
been planted in such an obvious Riesling site. Albalonga!
Perhaps this is why the wines of the former proprietor
(who shall remain nameless) tasted so much like cherries.
5% of Albalonga with its high acid could marry quite
Stephan Rumpf
• Vineyard area: 20 hectares
• Annual production: 11,500 cases
• Top sites: Münsterer Dautenpflänzer,
Pittersberg & Rheinberg, Dorsheimer
Goldloch
• Soil types: Grey and red slate, quarzite, loess
• Grape varieties: 65% Riesling, 5% Scheurebe;
the rest mostly Weissburgunder,
Grauburgunder & Spätburgunder
well with an overcropped Riesling—give that thin little
sucka some aroma. Don’t think such things aren’t done.
As a vintner, Stefan is as practical as they come. Ask
him how he does things and he often answers, “It
depends.” Two fairly consistent practices are early racking
and early bottling, but for the rest he lets the wine do
the talking. “You can’t improve wine in the cellar, only
make it worse,” he says. “At least ninety percent of the
quality of a wine comes from the raw material you harvest.”
He sees himself as a craftsman, a worker, whose
goal is to make clean, varietally typical wine that expresses
its origins in the soil.
Stefan’s modesty expends to his very reasonable
pricing — less than the wines are worth.
The `05s are so consistently outstanding one grows
tempted to deploy the s-word: stellar. Stefan bought a
leaf-trimmer “which paid off!” Canopy work, remember,
was decisive on `05. This is clearly a superb vintage from
a grower on the move.