Tag Archives: Germany

Pinot Noir from Bürklin-Wolf

I currently have a backlog of notes to write up. Here is a short adaptation of some scribbled notes I made back in January.

Dr. Bürklin-Wolf, Pinot Noir 2012, Pfalz
Dark ruby with hint of brown on the edges already. Fresh in the nose, however, with the initial whiff of warm squash balls as well as minty notes. Then raspberry and hints of blackcurrant.. Great structure on the palate. Stemmy, minerally (yes, I know …), raspberry, elegant, good finish.

Surprisingly excellent from a winery known more for its world-class dry Rieslings.20171211_200055

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Cuvée X and the tale of 2007

20171203_183748I have always had a soft spot for 2007. Weather-wise, I can still recall the spring heatwave in March and April. Everything blossomed really early in Basel. The sun shone intermittently thereafter. The summer rain fell at just the right times and in judicious quantities. Peak temperatures around the mid-20s were the norm. But the autumn was gorgeous. In short, the climatic conditions were conducive to properly functioning human activity – even if the city’s open-air swimming pools welcomed fewer visitors than normal.

What is good for man is also good for the vine. And 2007 was a very solid year for both white and red. Though maybe more so for red – the warm spring and autumn, added to a moderate yet still half-decent summer, resulted in plenty of crucial hang time.

As is normally the case, conditions further north in the Pfalz were very similar. Based on this knowledge, I treated myself to three bottles of 2007 ‘Cuvée X’ a few years later. This was probably Knipser’s flagship red at the time. Essentially a Bordeaux blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc, Cuvée X – along with its rare, super-premium sibling Cuvée XR – seems to me to have been one of the trailblazers for a whole slew of bold yet elegant red blends that were still relatively unheard of in Germany in the early 2000s. Other ‘game-changers’ that spring to mind include Markus Schneider’s ‘Steinsatz’ as well as Andreas and Steffen Rings’ ‘Das Kreuz’.

My first bottle, opened in around 2012, was still way too young. Now here is the second bottle, a full 10 years after the vintage.

Knipser, Cuvée X 2007, Pfalz
For the wine’s colour, see the photo below. Immediate elegance on the nose. Dark chocolate, mocha, concentrated dark forest fruits and savoury tobacco. This sounds quite dense and brooding, but the aromas are pure and understated. Green peppers also emerge a little later. Incredibly elegant on the palate too, its fresh acidity almost reminding me of a Pinot Noir but with a somewhat darker, denser characteristic. The tannins are supple and melt on the tongue, lending a silky, airy mouthfeel that belies the medium-to-full body underneath. Waves of complexity wash over, with tertiary notes of lead (pencil shavings), iron (blood) and cigar tobacco, as well as dark berries and mocha. This leads to a long, persistent finish. It feels effortless. The 2007 vintage has done an ample job on its own in providing the requisite polish and ripeness. Instead, as with so many of its Germanic ilk that it helped to inspire, the wine oozes structure and elegance.

Ten years on and Cuvée X is starting to come into its own.

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Mütterle

Pfirmann from the sleepy village of Wollmesheim in the Südpfalz are a winery I’ve been following for a number of years. I tried, and liked, some of their wines on a trip to Prowein in Düsseldorf a number of years back. I still have no idea how I got accreditation for that event – all I said was that I was a translator who blogged about wine in his free time.

Pfir20170710_210831mann, Mütterle, Riesling trocken 2014, Pfalz
Distinct lime on the nose. Like a lime cordial. Then quite a blistering aroma that reminds me of crushed bone or sea shells. Maybe some floral nuances and starfruit too. Noticeably on the slimlined, elegant side for a wine with 13.5 per cent alcohol. But still flavoursome. There is ample inner density and complexity. The lime notes on the nose translate like-for-like onto the palate. Iodine-like mineral water notes and a touch of quince. Keen acidity and very dry. By no means austere. Serious, yes. But not austere. The longer I keep taking sips, the more grip and succulence come to the fore.  Exceedingly moreish and mouthwatering – the contents of the bottle seem to evaporate magically over the course of the evening.

The label looks so cool, it hurts.

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Scherer & Zimmer, Gutedel spontan

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Since leaving Basel at the end of April, my wife and I have been reacclimatising ourselves to everyday UK life. Although we are feeling much more settled five months on, we have no idea what awaits us in the next year or so, let alone the next five years.

Yet whatever happens in the meantime, I can always content myself with ordering the wines from my old hunting ground every so often. A sizeable proportion of my most recent order consisted of Gutedels from Markgräflerland. This was the stand-out bottle:

Felix Scherer & Micha Zimmer, Gutedel ‘spontan’ trocken 2015, Baden
Spontaneously fermented (from the grapes’ own yeasts) in used Burgundian pièces. Bright light yellow with an ever-so-slight reddish hue. Biscuity on the nose, with hints of peanut as well as well-integrated wood. Savoury and yeasty in the mouth. A refreshing lime-like tingle of acidity washes over my palate – unusually so for a Gutedel. Quite concentrated in what is ostensibly a light to medium body. Little fruit to speak of. In my mind’s eye I can visualise crushed dry white stone. The acidity returns to lend elegance on the finish. Made in much the same idiom as Ziereisen’s Steingrüble, I would say. Even the price (12 euros) is quite similar. Like Steingrüble, this represents classic ‘old school’ Gutedel. A very worthwhile handcrafted wine.

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