Went to the Maison Sota x Estela collab in NYC this week. I surveyed the wine list and the wine I most wanted to drink was perhaps the cheapest wine on the list. The 2024 Vollenweider Felsenfest. I am currently obsessed with the 2024 Vollenweiders.
From Vom Boden
Felsenfest – a wordplay meaning “unshakeable” or “rock solid” – is the so-called entry wine of the estate. The truth is this is an absurdly serious wine for the price. It is, legally speaking, a “Kabinett Trocken” sourced from the Kröver Steffensberg, a great site directly next to the Goldgrube. This wine is so damn good; it tastes like mineral water filtered through your flower garden. This is a Mosel wine through and through.
It was stunning and everything I hoped for. High acid, tension, energy, minerality…everything I wanted in a wine at that moment with that food. My tablemates loved it and had zero idea it was one of the cheapest wines on the list.
The only problem was that it disappeared quickly so we (three of us) needed another bottle. I spied the Philippe Jouan Coteaux Bourguignons, Cuvée Thomas, a producer I love, and I wine I have enjoyed in the past. Right from the jump the wine’s aromatics soared from the glass, it was so open and just a pure joy to drink with vivid fruit that paired wonderfully with our menu. It so over performed its humble entry-level ranking in the Jouan lineup
Upon reflection I could not believe how much we enjoyed two entry-level or village types wines from two great producers. My tablemates were blown away and had no idea I got lucky and probably picked the two best values on the list.
Sounds like an incredible night, but I have to feel that there’s no way your friends chalked that one up to luck. We’ve all got friends we wouldn’t let anywhere near a wine list
It is and it isn’t. There are those poor souls without the capacity to let a time and experience drive enjoyment, and cannnot take pleasure in a simple wine when they know they could be drinking “better.”
I’m sure. But it’s definitely how you drink as well. Group dinners where the wine won’t get much air, and where the wine isn’t the focal point of the occasion, are perfect for bottles like these. Other scenarios may be different.
But yes, choosing the right wine should involve thinking about all of these considerations.
So true. I went out with friends in town from Nashville and two others and brought wine. I thought I was choosing perfectly decent and drinkable stuff from my cellar and nothing that needed the focus of a wine geek. That was true with the red I took (2014 Bachelet CdNV), but the white ended up being such a great bottle - indeed, the most delicious bottle of Chardonnay I’ve drunk in years - that I wanted to talk about it with another wino at the table. But I was the only one there so no.
Oh, it was 2014 Rhys Horseshoe and apparently the only bottle I bought that I did not give away so the first - and probably last - time I’ll drink it.
Starting with the 2025 vintage, Felsenfest will be called Mosel Riesling. A couple weeks ago, I tried the 2025 Mosel Riesling and the 2024 Im Schöttel, and I preferred the Im Schöttel. It had a bit more tension, but a touch of tannin and a hint of flavor from the new oak.
These wines showed wonderfully, far better than they probably should have for both their price point and place in the wineries lineup. Renée has a far better palate than me and she agreed and our guest is not necessarily a wine geek but works in the industry and eats and drinks around the world at top restaurants.
I do also agree these types of wines are great when wine is not the focal point. The wine geeks can enjoy while the non wine geeks might not care.
Nice way to put this Robert. Also, as a pragmatic wine geek I truly enjoy these wines when the food is the focal point where I often don’t want to spend as much on old wine as I do on the wonderful food.
So true Maureen, drinking those orphan bottles you’d forgotten about can be like a surprisingly fun lunch with a friend you have let slip away a bit … you’re left thinking, “Gee why haven’t I spent more time with her.”
At Le Duc, my wife and I shared an overpriced bottle of 2024 Mikulski Chardonnay Côte d’Or to accompany her homard breton bleu sauté à l’orange and my sole meunière. It was absolutely delicious and, if one cares about these things, performed at the level of a good Meursault village. Was it a complex, intellectual wine? No, but It was pure pleasure to drink. And sometimes, that is best.
For me one mark of an truly experienced wine lover is the discernment and courage to choose an under-the-radar or “lesser” wine with confidence. It’s the desire to explore and share a good thing without too much label bias.
Also, I am sure you are in good hands when @Robert_Dentice and Renée are ordering.
