Absolute Rieslingmania in Germany...

So…

Just returned from a weekend of Absolute Rieslingmania in Germany. Oh MAN is that Mainzer Weinbörse exhausting! I was hanging on the ropes on more than one occasion. How could I EVER believe I would have the slightest chance to even taste a fraction of the wines?? I must do some math to calculate how much time you would have at each estate if you were to embark on a quest for the Full Monthy: tasting them all.

Initial expressions is that Nahe and Mosel has hit the sweetspot. Don’t get me started on Rheinhessen. With Pfalz not so much my cup of tea. Had time to taste only a few from Baden, Wurtenburg and Franken. In fact, I even skipped most of what I consider the best producers, because I intend to visit them personally for a more serious assessment. However fun an even like this is, it’s just a quick snapshot and in no way a fair way to asses the wines properly. Or professionally, I would argue.

The more the merrier and you could do a lot of fun people watching. Hugh Johnson was there, as was Stuart Piggot and Jancis Robinson, Jean Fisch and David Rayer from Mosel Fine Wines, as well as Stefhan Rheinhardt, all looking to work quite hard in the serious task of indulging in the many delicious offerings displayed behind the counters.

Photos and impressions to come!

So Miran, what is your last name? Think we use full names here. Sounds like a great tasting!

Photos speak more than 1000 words…

Cheers,
Martin

I vaguely recall that the original saying was meant to emphasise the power of a single, meaningful image. In the case of this link, though, it should probably be more like “several hundred pictures showing several hundred different winemakers are worth a thousand words” :slight_smile:

I’m pretty sure it’s “Kopter”. Or, it is Kegel? One or the other.

Looking forward to the reading and viewing.

Miran Kegl

Sorry, no time to report now. Sipping on a 2015 Christoffel (Erdener Treppchen) Riesling Kabinett while writing this on a mobile. Back in Germany and trying to contemplate over today’s impressions. Climbing the steep terraces with Reinhard Löwenstein and then tasting the absolutely wonderful 2015s from barrel - Oh Lord, if I could only print a fraction of our conversatiom… Those who know Löwenstein know what I mean. Continued with a few hours of tasting with Clemens Busch. A mixture of vintages (2014, 2013, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2007). Makes you feel like a child in a candy store… Finished with a fee hours of tasting with the absolutely lovely Alexandra at Weiser-Künstler - only 2015s. Some brilliant wines there.

A soft start. Tomorrow it’s time for even more intense tastings. Where are all the professional wine reviewers…? :slight_smile:

Nice pics! [cheers.gif]

Martin, nice pics, but still does not put Miran’s last name on his pages. Don’t want to scare him off to Wine Spectator, but it does seem to be a requirement for this board

And speaking of picks… My own laptop computer crashed last year so I have this bulky laptop from my school with me and it doesn’t have any of the photo editing programmes on it - so will just try to post some photos to see if it works.

The fantastic terrace vineyards just outside Winningen, with the Mosel flowing slowly between the ultra-steep sides of the valley.

Reinhard Löwenstein overlooking the Mosel.

I don’t know who is the prettiest, Rheinhard or the wonderful terraced vineyards. :slight_smile:

So you get almost LIVE coverage from Germany with photos so fresh they are still warm…

It’s a rare treat to spend time with Reinhard. Marxist and philosopher and a source of I-can’t-print-this!-onliners, he’s also a wealth of information about the history of the region and about winemaking practices. And quite honest about his own successes and failures. Very refreshing to hear. Need more time and a place at my home computer to dwell deeper into those topics but I WILL try to provide some tasting notes live from this trip.

Right now they were having problems with catepillers in the vineyards. Apparently they showed up in strength, much more so than previous years, so many of them needed to be removed by hand by the vinyard´workers. While waking through the steep slopes you could see where the catepillars had been munching on very young buds, with the risk of those buds never emerging. It’s a healty reminder of a winemaker’s reality - so many thing that could go wrong and spoil an entire year. Elsewhere in Germany (and as many have pointed out - in Burgundy) there was a frost that added further pain and worries to the people leaving off the land. I also learned something knew about Reinhard that I didn’t know before, despite visiting him for many, many years. Sure, wine is a nice hobby but a PASSION…is building stone walls. He could admire a well-designed stone wall as much as a vineyard. I should have had the camera ready when he his face lit up while talking about stone walls. [basic-smile.gif]

After touring the vineyards, it was time for some serious wine tasting and having being faced with the option of tasting the 2014s from bottle or 2015s from barrel, the choice seemed quite…easy.

What a treat to climb down the moist cellar stairs and enter into the deep catacombs of the Löwenstein cellar. The 2015s are something very, very special and while I would love to share some tasting notes at this late hour, the church bell outside my window is just announcing it’s midnight here in Mosel so time for a short nap before the rieslingmania starts again tomorrow with Schloss Lieser and Fritz Haag. Before I hit the pillow, I’d like to share some memories from today’s cellar tasting with the incomparable Reinhard Löwenstein.

Photography is as much a passion as wine, so I hope you enjoy the photos. I think they are especially fun to watch if you happen to be a Riesling fan but not living in Europe and therefore not being able to visit - so here’s a glimps of how it looks like.

The sun is up! And it’s a crystal-clear day with blue skies here in the Mosel. Wish more wine lovers around the world could see these gorgeous views and remembering them when they sip on a glass of Riesling back home. There’s always something different about drinking a wine when you have visited the region and taken in the views, smells and the GEFÜHL of a place. And meeting the winemakers, of course!

Time to gravitate towards small village of Lieser and knock on the door to Thomas Haag’s Schloss Liser winery. Based on the tastings in March, he will be hard to beat this year, with what was an astonishing portfolio of wines at a quality level I in my opinion might be his best so far. How people could argue if the 2015 vintage is indeed as great as many are now reporting, is somewhat puzzling…

Before knocking on the door shouting Weeeeinproooobe, I thought I’d share some more photos from yesterday’s adventures. If the winetastings today wont be too late into the evening, I’ll try to provide some impressions and tasting notes.

The steep slopes of Pündericher Marienburg, where Clemes Busch gets most of his grapes from.

Some of the fabulous wine tasted with Clemens.

Also some vineyards (above the railway in the background) used by Clemens Busch.

A hard day’s work with Alexandra, tasting at Weiser-Künstler. The Enkircher Ellengrub wines were particularly delicious - floating weightlessly above the ground.

By the way, Alexandra told me that she will save some single bottles for all the wine journalists who will arrive later in autumn to taste the sold-out vintage - the remaining bottles are starting to flow out of the winery as we speak… With a 3.5 hectares and a total production of 2100 bottles this year, they won’t last for long.

Unfortunately I have to report that this atrocity continues to cast its ugly shadow over the beautiful Mosel valley. Right smack in the middle of the vineyards. Because some politicians wanted to make a mark on their short time in office.

So just to finish with something more pleasant, a beautiful chapel in the Zeltinger Schlossberg above the small village of Zeltingen.


Not so many tasting notes so far but I have to hurry over to Thomas Haag now and taste before the wines get sold out. When I tasted them in early March I was probably one of the few who knew what an incredible line-up he has from the 2015 vintage but as time goes by, I hear that more and more people have discovered the exact same thing, so time to hurry!

Miran, thank you for sharing. Especially enjoyed the pics of the terraced vineyards along Mosel and the barrels from the Löwenstein cellar. Great shots!

Good stuff. Thank you Martin.