TN: A few 2011 Germans

All three of these guys have 2011s waiting to be bottled, but this was a taste of the very earliest releases. Simple wines, but delicious.

2011 A. Christmann Riesling Trocken QbA -Pfalz, Germany 12,5% alc.

The 2010 was my personal QPR of the year. It’s too early to say with this one. The fruit is completely shut-down post bottling. It took a few hours for any stone fruit to emerge and for a while, it was all citrusy Pink grapefruit. Nice mineralitaet though, and plentiful acidity (right now more more in the spotlight than the fruit, which wasn’t the case for 2010 even though Christmann didn’t de-acidify that vintage.) I really like the structure of the wine though (texturally, it feels very right) and I’m looking forward to trying this after a few weeks. Shows promise.

2011 Mueller-Catoir Riesling Trocken (Black Label) -Pfalz, Germany 12,5% alc.

Much more forward than the Christmann. Lots of ripe peach and floral aromas but also not lacking in acidity. One cannot really speak of complexity at this level, just pleasure, which this wine is already showing. Drinking great right out of the chute.

2011 Bergdolt St. Lamprecht Weissburgunder Kabinett Trocken -Pfalz, Germany 12,5% alc.

FUCK is this good! So pure and crystalline with very fine pear and melon flavors (on day two it started going a little apricot on me too) Also and surprisingly with very strong acidity. This is Pinot Blanc that drinks like Riesling and boy is it cheap (Euro 7,50). Also an early bottling by Bergdolt (some '11 Riesling is also bottled.)

We also drank a very nice Bernhart ‘S’ Spaetburgunder 2009 that I didn’t take notes on. Young with rather hefty tannins, but lovely aromas and succulent fruit to boot. Pushing the envelope at 14%, but it wasn’t unbalanced and really rather elegant.

Cheers,
Bill

That’s a pretty damn good selection of estates.

Hi Claude,

If only everyone had your good taste…

It is a tragedy that that Bergdolt is not famous in the US. This is of course, because they are best known for Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc not a well respected variety over there.) As you know, they make an incredible range of styles, all very good to excellent. But they are are also underrated for Riesling (and Pinot Noir) and definitely among the very prime Sekt producers in all of Germany.

Bernhart suffers from the same dilemma, though Spaetburgunder is the culprit for them. They have sort of gotten a reputation as a poor-mans Freddy Becker, but I’d give them more credit than that -though the wines are certainly cheaper, and some are just as good if differently styled.

It is beyond my comprehension that Christmann is not well-known in the US. They are without a doubt among the top two or three in the Pfalz for Riesling.

I probably drink more M-C than anything because of the variety and depth of their range. Where else can you get amazing Riesling, Scheurebe, Muskateller, Rieslaner, Weissburgunder, and now Spaetburgunder?

Cheers,
Bill