Really enjoyable bottle of wine that paired superbly with a Sunday roast chicken. The fruit was vibrant and delicious, the oak was used to add a tad of smoke and spice and enhanced the overall complexity of the wine. The bottle disappeared very fast! The true test of any wine.
A 2013 Fürst Centgrafenberg at my recent Spätburgunder tasting had a tad too much oak for me and although it was still a very nice wine, harkened back to the earlier issues with too much oak in German Spätburgunder and stood out amongst the newer producers.
I wonder if Klingenberger has less oak because they have changed the oak regime or if because this is a mid-tier bottle. And as for value I think this is a very nice wine for $60-70. I could argue it does not compare with Oregon or even Beaujolais (I know not Pinot) but if I think Burgundy it is a value.
I intend to buy more.
Since we are in the Spätburgunder thread I have several recent bottles of the base Wasenhaus and it is so delicious especially after 15 minutes of air. I keep drinking them when I see them on restaurant lists because they are disappearing fast.
Also had the 19 Wasenhaus Möhlin - It is tight, it is going to be a great wine.
That is so funny. My wife’s favorite red too. We tasted them for the first time in Germany in 2017. We were on about day 6 of a trip for sommeliers and wine buyers and appointment 4 of the day and it was 7 or 8 at night. Alex had traveled a couple of hours and he pulled out his wines for the group to taste, I thought my wife was going to KILL me. After two or three tastes she uncharacteristically said lets buy all we can!
Reminds me I both forgot to both take notes and post here about a 2020 Saalwachter Spatburgunder I had sometime starting the new year.
From top of my head, a very pretty wine with more of the red fruit spectra, in addition to rhubarb note. A good wine, would like to try it in a couple of years to see where goes.
Sounds very familiar to me - there is so much to be had and regrettably not unlimited resources
While said with a very limited sample size, and it makes sense given where the wines are grown, but I find E&M and Wasenhaus sharing more resemblance stylistically and taste/profile, than Saalwachter. The latter slightly light, even more red fruit/berry nots, less stem (if any?). Gives you some idea at least and I regret not taking notes.
Since this is becoming the central repository for Spatburgunder notes (which I love!). I thought I would add a link to the Spatburgunder study at Vinegar Hill House.
I did taste Saalwächters 2019 Alte Reben. I agree it is a bit different, but i liked it and it evolved well with air. Think they might have a very interesting age curve. Going to buy a few of the top 20’s for the cellar if i find the money.
Continuing along with my Spätburgunder studies we had the 2019 Fürst Bürgstadter last night. Again much less oak than the top Fürst cuvees and much more to my liking. I think I have found the sweet spot in the Fürst line up for my palate. Very pure and delicious with close to zero oak influence. Much more mineral and higher in acidity than than Klingenberger. Lovely food friendly wine that also disappeared too fast.
I’ve got 4 of the 2019 Bürgstädter and drank all of them in a matter of 3 months. Superb, in my opinion (always drinking on a 92/93 pts level in my book, below a short tasting note). I guess the higher Cuvees just need time to integrate the oak.
Bürgstädter 2019
Brief impressions only. This was very pleasant. Quite expressive and impressively well delinated with fine, bright red fruit, some reductive and stems notes. Not overly complex but still a joy to drink without a hard edge, no weight and very good, medium+ freshness. Being a village wine only, this shows well that Fürst is among the very best German Pinot Noir producers. 92pts.
If tasted the 2015s, Centgrafenberg & Hundsrück, last year and they both blew me away (96/98pts respectively). Yes, some oak spice/toast still there but subtle enough to be a feature and pleseant additional layer.
I heard from the local importer that they were badly hit in the 2021 floods in the region: everything badly damaged (house, cellar, wine), so no wine for the time being (I got the message in Feb 2022, no update since).
Recently tasted some Dernauer Spätburguner, Ahrweiler Rosenthal and Pfarrwingert 2018. All were more then excellent if you don’t mind the ‘sulphury’ Ahr style.
Bertram Baltes did a batch of Flutweine in November. Some damaged bottles from 2019 and some mixed lagenweine (Treibgut) from 2020.
They are rebuilding steadily now and I expect great things to come. Still one of m favourite Spatburgunder wineries in Germany.
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