Whatever happened to? (German Riesling missing persons edition)

In the “Top 5 German Producers” thread, the mention of a Mittlerhein producer - Toni Jost - that had fallen off the radar got me thinking. “What ever happened to…” Producers that were once readily available have disappeared from site, at least regionally. Maybe they switched importers, and had distribution changes. Maybe they dipped in quality, and thus got “dropped.” Could be any number of reasons, good or bad.

There are a few that spring to mind for me:

Karp-Schreiber
Lingenfelder
Gunderloch (I know they are not really gone, but who is importing them to the USA these days?)
Bruder Dr. Becker
Pfeffingen

Anybody got info? Tasted the wines lately?

We currently have access to a couple of Pfeffingen items within the Rudi Wiest portfolio
Specifically 2019 estate dry riesling and the 2019 Scheurebe dry

itb

Saw a few bottlings of Gunderloch on wine.com

Interesting. I thought the Wiest portfolio was defunct.

I believe most of Wiest’s portfolio was absorbed by the German Wine Collection, which appears to be made up of Rudi alumni.

Gunderloch is imported by David Bowler I believe.

Last I saw Bruder Dr. Becker was brought in by Dee Vine but I don’t believe that’s the case any longer.

Gunderloch is imported by Bowler as said above, Evan Spingarn who runs the German book is an enthusiastic champion of theirs.

Others that are either gone or just hard to find:

Steinmetz - supposedly with Broadbent but I never see the wines.

Karthauserhof - great vineyards but they are also on their 3 or 4th importer in the last several years.

Heymann Lowenstein - I am sure everyone has seen the closeout wines on winebid, who knows who imports them now

Bruder Dr. Becker - has been represented by Savio Soares for a long time but I never see the wines

Furst - I think they are without an importer but I know Mr. Panzer brings them in.

Joh. Peter Reinhart - Sold to I believe Vols.

Van Volxem - Another domain that goes through importers like water

Mobitz - Sadly closed but at least the vineyards are in good hands with Wasenhaus R.I.P.

So many great wines not properly imported into the U.S. I don’t think you could say that for any other major wine producing country.

Seems like someone should do something about that
cough S|M cough

David I think it is primarily because distributors who do not have a specialist in German wines have a really hard time selling them. And some growers really don’t give a shit about “working” the U.S. market. One top grower told me he could care less if he sells any wine in the U.S. because he can sell all of his production in Germany so he has gone through importer after importer who pick him up, can’t sell the wines and then drop him. As far as I know he has never been to the U.S.

Think about Skurnik and Vom Boden they have had very little churn in their books. They have German experts and their growers are here constantly (in non pandemic times). I have probably seen Cornelius 25x in the U.S.

As a German wine lover it is very frustrating and not to be too commercial but it is one of the reasons why I personally decided to partner with Stephen on source | material.

1 Like

You beat me to the punch…

And you are doing God’s work.

I love the wines of Germany so much, and it drives me crazy how hard it is to get them the recognition they deserve, with the exception of a select few estates.

Re: Gunderloch: I actually picked up some wines this past weekend - nothing from Gunderloch, but ended up with a Gunderloch box with David Bowler listed on the shipping label. Looks like they are the importer for Gunderloch now.

Johannes Hasselbach poured a few 2016s and the 2017 Jean Baptiste Kabinett at Rieslingfeier two years ago. I thought that his wines -albeit young - were as good as anything that I’ve had from Gunderloch in past vintages, and hope to find more of his wines. Prior to this, Gunderloch was an up-and-down producer for me.

Johannes’ sister Stefanie is married to Alwin Jurtschitsch, who presented their equally impressive Rieslings from Kamptal at Rieslingfeier '19.

Unfortunately, neither the Gunderloch or Jurtschitsch wines are well-distributed in MA. The retailer that my box came from had carried the 2018 Jean Baptiste, which I missed their offer for.

As far as the others, the only one that I’ve tasted in the past 2-3 years was the 2015 Karp-Schreiber Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr BA. It was good, but a BA from one of the top sites in the Mosel should not be merely good.

SommSelect had a couple of Rieslings from Steinmetz in recent months. I opened a 2016 Wintricher Geierslay Riesling GW recently, and all I can say is that it’s too bad the wines are not better distributed.

I bought a few of the aforementioned Heymann Lowenstein wines on Winebid - we’ll see how they are.

Furst made great wines, but I have not seen anything recent. Maybe I don’t want to know what the GG Spätburgunders sell for nowadays…

Van Volxem is another one that I wish was more readily available - very unique wines.



Wittman is one that I have had a hard time finding these days: curious who is bringing them in now?

Loosen. I wonder how well they’re doing, as you’re not the first person to ask and to mention not seeing the wines. It’s kind of crazy to me given the quality across their offerings. Then again, as mentioned here, German wine…

I think in 16 they were imported by Grand Cru selections. Perfect example of what happens to German producers. Grand Cru is a fantastic importer with many great wines Lafon, Roulot, d’Angerville and on and on. They taste a wine like Steinmetz and say wow these wines are incredible and the prices are incredibly reasonable we can sell one German producer. And then they don’t!

Steinmetz nailed 2014, they might have been the wines of the vintage in the Mosel it is crazy that the small amount that comes to the U.S. does not sell.

Sorry, but Loosen does a shit job on distribution. They talk a good game, much like Ernie’s winery.

3 Likes

Johann Peter Reinart?

Sorry that was a typo it is Reinert

Thank you, that is correct. I misstated the Wiest relationship.

cough cough

Massanois brings Karthauserhof in and we sell to our direct markets: NY/NJ, CA, IL, & DC/northern VA

We also have some back vintages in stock. Message me and maybe I can coordinate to help find good homes for the wines we have.