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

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NAHE WINES 116 GKF-099 2005 Scheurebe Spätlese + Dautenpflänzer again. This is actually a little drier than the Kabinett but the ripeness umami brings a creamy mass to the middle. 98º; ferociously expressive; sage and staranise; a burbling drool of salty spice; Scheu lovers, line up! This is wine as make-up sex. SOMMELIER ALERT! SOS: 2 (now - 10 years) GKF-101 2005 Binger Scharlachberg Riesling Spätlese + It is so good that someone’s making wine that does this Grand Cru justice. This has wild fragrances of cherries, roses, wisteria; the palate is a wackoid madness of mineral, Mirabelle, and pink peppercorns; spicy as all get-out, with a maple-salty finish. The snow melted here first, by the way. SOS: 2 (8-24 years) GKF-102 2005 Münsterer Dautenpflänzer Riesling Spätlese ++ CORE-LIST WINE. AND THE BEST CORE-LIST WINE OF THE 2005 VINTAGE. 102º (good big Auslese); this is an absolute masterpiece of cellar and soil; wildly exotic aromas — wintergreen, cox-orange, star fruit; palate is again dense, with a wizardly swirl of smoky mineral; brilliant minty shimmer and chewy length; just sensational, complex, superfine Riesling. SOS: 2 (9-26 years) GKF-105 2004 Münsterer Dautenpflänzer Riesling Auslese + GKF-105H 2004 Münsterer Dautenpflänzer Riesling Auslese, 12/375ml First offering. Just what we need, right: more Auslese? But man, this wine is close to perfect. It’s more lissome and deft and verbena-scented than the `05s, but what complexity, transparency, and all with this slippery dancing lift; a sweet-lime perfume bewitches the senses; the finish is intricate and long. Don’t DARE tell me you can’t drink this with food. SOMMELIER ALERT! SOS: 2 (9-25 years) GKF-106H 2005 Münsterer Dautenpflänzer Riesling BA, 12/375ml (+) Selected, like many `05 BAs, at the beginning of the harvest. A slim, lissome BA that’s recognizably Dautenpflänzer (in contrast to a TBA that isn’t), and it’s toe-curlingly minty and spicy, more salty than ‘sweet”; a concentrate of terroir. SOS: 3 (18-38 years)
schlossgut diel nahe • burg layen This year I want to broaden the offering. Some of the new items are still awkwardly priced in this weak-Dollar era (can’t Armin Diel use his considerable influence and resourcefulness with the central banks?? I mean, after all . . .) but I’m showing more of the range as a kind of tribute. It is very rare indeed to encounter a domain whose work is marked by such consistent intelligence across a variety of styles. It brings Bründlmayer to mind, actually, and not at all because Diel’s cellarmaster Christof Friedrich has a voice identical to Willi Bründlmayer’s. Armin Diel believes 2005 is the greatest vintage in his estate’s history. Yes, he said the same about 2003. So OK, `03 becomes the 2nd-best vintage in the estate’s history. Ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty years from now I’ll meet you there and we can see which one really delivers the goods. Me, I just hope I get to drink plenty of both. And I sense 2005 will, at every point of its life, show just a little more vinosity and thickness, and that 2003 will evolve an even more exquisite, pure fruit. I don’t deal in a prioris, and I’m a lousy tactician. I never sat down and said “I will make a specialty of catching the rising stars before anyone knows them,” yet in many cases this is what I’ve done. Dönnhoff, Hexamer, Rumpf, Weingart, Catoir, Meßmer, Leitz, Spreitzer, Christoffel, Schaefer, Adam (if he opts to continue!), Karlsmühle; all were relatively “obscure” when I began importing their wines, and all are Big Names now. This is satisfying because I share-at least a tiny part-in the achievement. Thus my representing Schlossgut Diel constitutes a departure, and will ramify in unpredictable ways. For it’s the first time a superstarestate has entered this portfolio with its reputation already established. The first thing to tell you is: the wines are stellar. That’s not a word I casually throw around. Schlossgut Diel belongs in the class of the elite. The wines will wow you. Armin occupies an unprecedented position in the wine world. He is proprietor of his estate on the Nahe, and he is perhaps the most influ- Armin Diel ential wine writer in <strong>German</strong>y. Imagine if Bob Parker owned one of the 1st-Growth Bordeaux: just like that. Needless to say neither Armin nor his colleagues •Vineyard Area: 17 hectares •Annual Production: 10,000 cases •Top Sites: Dorsheimer Goldloch, Pittermännchen and Burgberg •Soil Types: loam and gravel over rocky subsoil, quartzite and slate •Grape Varieties: 65% Riesling, 20% Grauburgunder, 10% Spätburgunder, 5% Weissburgunder writing for the same books or magazines review the wines of Schlossgut Diel, which is why the name doesn’t appear on the various lists of estate “classifications.” But of course there’s a meta-message: “The man is such an expert, imagine how good his own wines must be.” The ethics of the situation are quite sophisticated to American sensibilities, yet behind it all are the wines themselves. The rieslings hail most importantly from a trio of contiguous Grand Crus: Goldloch on thin loam and gravel over a rocky subsoil, Burgberg on quartzite, and Pittermännchen on Hunsrück slate. “The age of the vines are similar in the three sites, the microclimates are similar in the three sites, only a few meters separate them from one another, yet they are entirely different based on terroir,” say Armin and his cellar-master Christoph Friedrich. These two have an admirably close working relationship. Indeed it’s a pleasure to see the penetration and flexibility of their mutual intelligence. Of course we rapped about the usual wine stuff, but at one point Armin interrupted to say “We do this and we do that, but most important is that all indications are in question every year, there is no monolithic recipe to ‘make’ wines year by year. Each vintage asks different questions than the previous one. I’m really thrilled to have a sensible guy like Christoph who can play in both major and minor keys.” Quite so. In effect there is very little in the “hard” 117 NAHE WINES
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terry theise estate selections Impo
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ii “Within every effort there has
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iv contents Theise Manifesto . . .
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vi LET US WRITE YOUR ORDER FOR YOU!
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2 These things coincided with a dec
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4 View of the Mosel. human care and
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6 Continuing New Approach to Tastin
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8 Making the Case For German Wines
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10 I’m sure I didn’t convert th
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12 Principles of Selection in this
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14 Belgium, and they immediately ru
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16 Core-List Wines The core-list, w
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18 to know better) that the great d
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20 How I Approach Wine, or Let Wine
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22 time and lots of flavor. Due to
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24 SHORT-LIST FOR ROCKHEADS: Dr Dei
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26 “Antiques” 2001 has modestly
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28 Ah but this isn’t P.C., you se
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30 How German Wines Age To define a
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32 Label Basics German labels are s
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34 around until he gets fluent in t
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36 Plusses and The Quest For Perfec
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38 sommelier alert GSO-264 2005 Sel
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40 subject: why riesling? A) Becaus
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42 Treking up the Erdener Treppchen
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MOSEL WINES 44 Other Regionals from
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MOSEL WINES 46 could do was sit the
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MOSEL WINES 48 A Look At The Vineya
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MOSEL WINES 50 THE SPÄTLESEN GSO-2
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MOSEL WINES 52 SCHTICKIES! GSO-281
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MOSEL WINES 54 Erstwhile cellar-mas
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MOSEL WINES 56 it’s confusing. Me
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MOSEL WINES 58 alfred merkelbach mo
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MOSEL WINES 60 GME-135 2005 Ürzige
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MOSEL WINES 62 joh. jos. christoffe
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MOSEL WINES 64 GJC-146 2005 Erdener
Page 74 and 75: MOSEL WINES 66 Sleek, feminine, ele
Page 76 and 77: MOSEL WINES 68 he elects not to.
Page 78 and 79: MOSEL WINES 70 a.j. adam mosel •
Page 80 and 81: MOSEL WINES 72 changing; enterprisi
Page 82 and 83: MOSEL WINES 74 reuscher-haart mosel
Page 84 and 85: MOSEL WINES 76 hoffmann-simon •Vi
Page 86 and 87: MOSEL WINES 78 weingut ansgar clüs
Page 88 and 89: 80 Does this self-evident truth rea
Page 90 and 91: MOSEL WINES 82 carl loewen mosel
Page 92 and 93: MOSEL WINES 84 carl schmitt-wagner
Page 94 and 95: MOSEL WINES 86 karlsmühle-geiben r
Page 96 and 97: 88 Is all taste equally valid? Sure
Page 98 and 99: 90 mittelrhein wines In 1900 there
Page 100 and 101: MITTELRHEIN WINES 92 Bacharach, but
Page 102 and 103: MITTELRHEIN WINES 94 jost at a glan
Page 104 and 105: 96 nahe wines It is a joy to labor
Page 106 and 107: NAHE WINES 98 dönnhoff nahe • ob
Page 108 and 109: NAHE WINES 100 vintage happens befo
Page 110 and 111: NAHE WINES 102 GDH-172 2005 Estate
Page 112 and 113: NAHE WINES 104 helmut mathern nahe
Page 114 and 115: 106 the matter of “globalization
Page 116 and 117: NAHE WINES 108 jakob schneider nahe
Page 118 and 119: NAHE WINES 110 GJS-067 2005 Niederh
Page 120 and 121: NAHE WINES 112 Meddersheimer Rheing
Page 122 and 123: NAHE WINES 114 kruger-rumpf nahe
Page 126 and 127: NAHE WINES 118 viti-and-viniculture
Page 128 and 129: NAHE WINES 120 THE AMAZING TRIO OF
Page 130 and 131: RHEINHESSEN WINES 122 j.u.h.a. stru
Page 132 and 133: RHEINHESSEN WINES 124 started to wo
Page 134 and 135: RHEINHESSEN WINES 126 THE PATERBERG
Page 136 and 137: RHEINHESSEN WINES 128 wagner-stempe
Page 138 and 139: RHEINHESSEN WINES 130 GWG-016 2005
Page 140 and 141: RHEINHESSEN WINES 132 weingut oekon
Page 142 and 143: RHEINHESSEN WINES 134 gernot gysler
Page 144 and 145: RHEINHESSEN WINES 136 christian-wil
Page 146 and 147: 138 tasting versus drinking I once
Page 148 and 149: 140 rheingau wines Recently Jancis
Page 150 and 151: RHEINGAU WINES 142 josef leitz rhei
Page 152 and 153: RHEINGAU WINES 144 Rüdesheim Viney
Page 154 and 155: RHEINGAU WINES 146 On August 4th, 2
Page 156 and 157: RHEINGAU WINES 148 I did, and liked
Page 158 and 159: 150 why does place-specificity matt
Page 160 and 161: 152 pfalz wines In the pretty walle
Page 162 and 163: PFALZ WINES 154 müller-catoir pfal
Page 164 and 165: PFALZ WINES 156 THE NOT-DRY WINES!
Page 166 and 167: PFALZ WINES 158 josef biffar pfalz
Page 168 and 169: 160 scheurebe: what gives? Um, I ha
Page 170 and 171: PFALZ WINES 162 board; these were t
Page 172 and 173: PFALZ WINES 164 eugen müller pfalz
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PFALZ WINES 166 GEM-080H 2005 Forst
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PFALZ WINES 168 Messmers use only o
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PFALZ WINES 170 theo minges pfalz
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PFALZ WINES 172 GTM-093 2005 Gleisw
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PFALZ WINES 174 Well, guess again.
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PFALZ WINES 176 kurt darting pfalz
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PFALZ WINES 178 GDR-143 2005 Dürkh
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Back Cover Photo: Deer resting in t
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German Catalog 2006 USE THIS ONE.qxp - Michael Skurnik Wines

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