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

MOSEL WINES
74
reuscher-haart
mosel • piesport
Something seems to be up at Reuscher Haart. Maybe it’s the influence of Bernd and Mario Schwang,
Dad Hugo’s two sons (who look like members of Limp Bizkit) or maybe it’s just one of those things.
In any case, the past two vintages reminded me of the majestic 1990s and brilliant 1993s. Even the
2003s, about which I was dubious at first, have firmed up wonderfully with bottling, and I now
feel my first impressions were misleading. Then along came the stunning 2004, and this estate is
really showing me something yet they haven’t abandoned their fundamental style, Mosel wine
in the form of a heavy suede jacket; if anything they’ve renewed it in even stronger form.
These are Piesporters as Justen might make them; corpulent, leesy and old-fashioned. I really
shouldn’t do the cask-tasting thing here at all. The sulfury aromas of some young Mosels are often
stubbornly present. Eventually you get a kind of x-ray
vision with cask samples, but these winesaren’t really
made for our frantic world. SHOW WELL! KICK ASS!
SELL THROUGH! WHAT’S NEXT? Not like that. Maybe
ours are the last generations who’ll live in microwavetime.
It really isn’t conducive to savoring the wine experience,
that mentality. Do you suppose there’s an incipient
movement toward a more attentive mode of living?
Not ouiji-board goopy, but just pausing long enough to
notice stuff? I hope so, or wine as we know it is doomed.
Life as we know it is doomed.
I have a stormy relationship with Piesporters. When
I first encountered Reuscher-Haart’s wines, I thought I
had found my Piesport pie-in-the-sky. In their aciddrenched,
thick, leesy style I found for the first time stunningly
detailed and authoritative wines from these maddening
slopes that didn’t need to be archly modern in
order to succeed.
Hugo & Mario Schwang
Talking with Hugo Schwang confirmed certain
thoughts I had formed about his wines. “We use no cultured
yeasts,” he said. “If your harvest is clean and you
let your must clarify by settling, the natural yeasts will
give you a wine with more character.” This made sense;
Schwang’s wines lacked the finicky refinement cultured-
•Vineyard area: 4.5 hectares
•Annual production: 2,800 cases
•Top sites: Piesporter Goldtröpchen,
Domherr, Falkenberg, and Treppchen
•Soil types: Slate
•Grape varieties: 93% Riesling,
5% Müller-Thurgau, 2% Regent
yeast wines can display. He leaves his wine on its primary
lees for a remarkable length of time: two to three
months is common, though less-ripe wines will be
racked earlier. Bottling is rarely earlier then May or June.
“I’d personally say that these are the most important factors
for high quality,” he says. “First, your vineyard, its
soil and its exposure. Second, your yields, i.e. your pruning.
Third, the timing of your harvest. Fourth, the selectivity
during harvesting. Fifth, gentle and natural handling
of the wine. We don’t use any sorbic acid and we
never blue-fine. I want my personal enthusiasm as a
winemaker to be mirrored in the wines I make.”
Last year the talk was all about organic. In essence,
said Schwang, the estate is nearly all the way there, so
why not take that small final step? What did we think? I
sad we applauded organic viticulture as a matter of
principle, but we could offer no commercial incentive. “I
hope you’ll do it,” I said, “because it’s worth doing. But
that doesn’t mean I’ll think less of you or your wines if
you don’t.”
In fact the Mosel is among the most difficult regions
to work strictly organically, yet the so-called lutte raisonné
of France, known as “integrated” agriculture in
Germany, has taken a firm hold. In essence this stops
short of certifiably organic but encourages organic as a
preference as much and as often as possible.