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

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NAHE WINES 120 THE AMAZING TRIO OF AUSLESEN: Again, abandon any thought of selecting among these; the sensible thing is to buy them all. That is how you understand them singly, and how you appreciate the astonishing achievement they represent. They are: GSD-037 2005 Dorsheimer Pittermännchen Riesling Auslese ++ GSD-038 2005 Dorsheimer Burgberg Riesling Auslese +++ GSD-039 2005 Dorsheimer Goldloch Riesling Auslese ++ Pittermännchen is the slimmest of the three, with its ravishing lilac and blackberry notes, gauzy as cirrus clouds, piquant, talc and salt, wonderfully transparent. Goldloch is the lemon éclair, all aglow with mid-palate mineral; maltier now, with a thymehoney finish. Burgberg is the heartbreaker; bigger stones than Pittermännchen; iris and blown-out candle, moonglow pear; length enough to defy credibility, and a riveting dialogue between stones and honey. SOS: 3 (for all) and (15-45 years) for all. GSD-040H 2005 Dorsheimer Pittermännchen Riesling BA, 12/375ml ++ BAs exist from all three Crus; this, in an admittedly very preliminary stage, seems to be the most precious. It is very rich but tall and sleek. The site-expression is almost erotic. Adjectives must wait. SOS: 4 (20-50 years) GSD-041H 2005 Dorsheimer Goldloch Riesling TBA, 12/375ml ++(+) On the 6th of March this was almost still fetal, but there’s a shapely clarity and transparency that augur a masterpiece, potentially one of the supernal wines of this supernal vintage. SOS: 4 (30-75 years)
heinhessen wines A few of you may recall my saying, some seventeen years ago, that the Pfalz was the region to watch; it was creative, hyper-oxygenated and full of vitality—and so it was. And the press took notice, and the Pfalz was and remains established as an attractive and important wine region. But there’s a settled-ness in the Pfalz now, and this was inevitable. Eventually the up-and-coming being finally ups-and-comes. And there’s a clear and present danger the Pfalz will be suffocated by the ideologies of its movers and shakers, if this hasn’t already happened. Am I overstating? Try and find a single Riesling Kabinett with residual sugar on any significant restaurant in the region! You needn’t bother: you can’t do it. The fetish for dry wine has cast a pall over the land. But all is not lost. In fact the spirit of inquiry still lives. The sense of community still lives. The heady feeling of youthful energy and idealism still lives. The sense of a region awakening still lives. Only one thing has changed—it has migrated a few miles northward, to the RHEINHESSEN. At this very moment Rheinhessen is <strong>German</strong>y’s most interesting wine region. And this is entirely due to its people, because its terroirs remain unremarkable. Indeed one laments the cruel irony; if only these young lions had grown up in the Rheingau. But we take passion where we can find it, and we’re finding it here. And it isn’t only happening along the Rheinfront by Nierstein. Last year at Gysler I noticed a poster for a tasting featuring growers in a group called Message In A Bottle. Any group to which Alex Gysler belonged was ipso facto intriguing, and I asked Alex whether any of his colleagues might be interesting to me. You’ll see the results of his answer a few pages hence. Perhaps these guys were inspired by the acclaim attaching to Wittmann and Keller, who are making stellar wines from vineyards no one heard of ten years ago. Sure the Rheinhessen remains home to a great deal of dross (Liebfraumilch has to come from somewhere, I guess) but there’s no equivalent buzz in the Rheingau, where mediocre wine from great land remains the status quo. Indeed the Rheinhessen seems to invert that melancholy formula, making excellent wine from (ostensibly) nondescript land. You don’t drive around thinking “Well it’s obvious that great wines come from here.” Instead its landscape is lullingly formless; without rhetoric, rolling and buckling its gentle pointless way. I like it in every kind of weather, sometimes hazy and secretive and other times clear and full of vista. An early Spring morning when the first smoky haze hasn’t quite burnt off—that’s how I remember it best, dreamy and indistinct, the plain little villages emerging vaporously from the mist. You need a really unassailable idealism to worry and strain out a living in the Rheinhessen. It’s romantic in a grand, quixotic way to work the steep slopes, but the flat- tish, rich-soiled Rheinhessen is another matter. It may be possible that great wines just could be written into some of this land, if you’re unwilling to assume they aren’t, and willing to stake it all on your idealism. And, I’d have Rheinhessen is still a buyer’s market, happy for us in the short term, if the growers can survive. to add, willing to sell your wine for something less than it’s worth. It helps that much of the vineyard work can be done by machine, but it helps even more that these young people no longer feel alone; they are part of an informal fraternity working for a common good. The results for us are entirely desirable: We can obtain beautiful wines for very gentle prices. I only added a single new estate to the portfolio this year, and it came from Rheinhessen. 121
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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
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MOSEL WINES 66 Sleek, feminine, ele
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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 124 and 125: NAHE WINES 116 GKF-099 2005 Scheure
Page 126 and 127: NAHE WINES 118 viti-and-viniculture
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
Page 174 and 175: PFALZ WINES 166 GEM-080H 2005 Forst
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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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