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

MOSEL WINES
68
he elects not to. “The estate is the right size for me to
work and give the proper attention to the wines,” he
says. How’s that for capitalism! Willi could make, say,
50% more wine and sell it instantaneously, thus obtaining
kid-leather seat covers for his zippy new Porsche, but
instead he knows in his bones what the proper size for
his estate must be, if he is to preserve his relationship to
his wines, to his work. Hopeless Willi, just hopeless;
where’s your ambition, man; where’s your can-do spirit?
DON’T YOU WANT TO MAKE MORE MONEY???
Most businesses confront this conundrum eventually.
What is the ideal size to which to aspire? I would
define it as the most robust volume consistent with maintaining
the original motivating spirit of the enterprise.
You know you’ve passed that point when it isn’t as much
fun as it used to be. Growth, in itself, is the siren song
that dashes our souls against the rocks unless we insist
on balancing our whole lives. This sermon will be
rebroadcast at eleven.
When we finished tasting one year, Willi brought
out a bottle of the celestial 1975 Domprobst Auslese,
which is about as good a Mosel wine as has ever been
made. Christoph appeared in the doorway to say hi in
his raffish sideburns. I recalled that the first time I drank
this Domprobst was in 1980, in Willi’s living room. His
kids were little then. Willi left the room to take a phone
call and I sat there with my glass of Auslese while the
kids sat on the floor playing with a little top which
hummed as it spun. The humming and the playing and
the beauty of the wine and the friendliness and hospitality
of my host became a single thing. I often recall that
moment when I hear someone defend the idea of giving
point-scores to wines.
Schaefer grows only Riesling and only on steep
slopes. The best is the Domprobst, though there’s no
scoffing at his Himmelreich (fruitier), or his Bernkasteler
Badstube (actually Matheisbildchen, and typically rich
and flinty) or his little bit of Wehlener Sonnenuhr (light
but true to form). Vinification isn’t unusual, expect for
the very gentlest of pressings, which leaves few bitter
phenols in the wines, and gives them their strikingly pale
colors. Willi knows his vineyards like he knows his children,
all their quirks and foibles and capabilities. As a
taster he responds to “character above all. The finesse of
fruit is also important to me, and the harmony of sweetness,
fruit and acidity. Apart from that, the wine should
embody its vineyard and grape variety.”
Christoph’s decision to carry on the winery is quietly
momentous. Schaefers said, with characteristic understatement,
“we really didn’t pressure him at all, he came
to the decision entirely on his own,” and there was something
even more stirring than Willi’s and Esther’s quiet
pride and gratification. How can I put it? I hope that
Christoph observed the contentment in this household,
the bedrock joy when one’s heart is at home in one’s
work. Different vintners have said this to me at different
times: Hans-Günter Schwarz is always saying, “you have
to love it.” Helmut Dönnhoff repeats almost as a mantra,
“It has to be FUN.” And Willi Schaefer has the glow of a
man doing exactly what he was put on earth to do.
I am fortunate to be a part of it, and to know this
kind, honorable, modest and lovely man as a friend.
For many tasters, these are the Ne Plus Ultra of Mosel
schaefer at a glance:
wine, and they have attracted an almost religious following.
Thus my most frustrating agency, as there is never enough wine.
It is hard to put a finger on exactly what it is that makes
how the wines taste:
these wines so precious. There is a candor about them
that is quite disarming. They are polished too, but not brashly so. They are careful to
delineate their vineyard characteristics, and they offer fruit of sublime purity. They are
utterly soaring in flavor yet not without weight. What many of you seem to have
warmed to is their clarity, precision and beauty of fruit, so maybe I’ll leave it at that!
GWS-133 2005 Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Kabinett +
Shy at first. Then what fruit-quality; partly exotic (a’la `97) and also serenely appley;
then an adorably woodsy mid-palate; with air the stayman and cox-orange starts to
exhale, and there’s a granular salty spiciness that leaves a wintergreeny finish.
SOMMELIER ALERT! SOS: 2 (7-23 years)
GWS-132 2005 Graacher Domprobst Riesling Kabinett ++
I damn sure didn’t taste a better Mosel Kabinett than this; the nose is immediately 3dimensional.
The palate is stiffer, with a longer spine of front & center minerality; this
is utterly generous and expressive, more piquant and wry than the Himmelreich, compelling
even more attention. It’s hard to fathom how any wine could give more beauty
and satisfaction; for all its virtues it asks to be drunk, not preened over.
SOS: 2 (8-25 years)