WTN: Napa, Nahe, Ruwer, and Languedoc

A bit of a tense weekend, it's hard to be far away with an ill parent (we're going down at end of week). But routine is healing for me, and that includes taking notes on wine.

With skirt steak with a chipotle marinade, and a brocolli/chevre salad, the 2007 Rimbert "Les Travers de Marceau " St. Chinian. Pleasant medium bodied red, cherry and raspberry fruit with just a little bit of a jammy edge, but actually quite bright acidity. Light tannins, fresh, drinking well. B/B+

As an apertif, the 2007 Donnhoff Oberhauser Leistenberg Kabinett. Apples, citrus, flowers, great length, maybe a tad shut down on nose but otherwise generous. B++

With herbed lamb chops and squash, the 2006 Havens Bourriquot (Napa) from 375. A little reticent, opens with some time, big black fruit with a little tobacco leaf greenness, and just a hint of dung. As it open the fruit takes forefront, some medium tannins, good acids for Napa. B

With grilled chicken in tandoori spices and an eggplant/feta/olive salad, the 2007 Maximim Grunhauser (von Schubert) Riesling QbA (#32- do they make that many?). Tart lemonade, an herbal bitters note, serious acids. I really quite like this, but those looking for a sweet and easy QbA might be less enthused. Actually does very well with a difficult match. B/B+

Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency. 

[David M. Bueker]

Yes, they do make that many. And they are not alone in that regard.

As David said, Grunhaus makes a lot of wine. And is a fairly big estate for the top German producers, I forget the exact holding size but it's easily findable on the internet.

And If you look at the Grunhaus website you can see exactly how many wines they make. Lots of iterations of all the different categories. Much more than gets imported to the States. Plus, you can also buy ham from them!

If you look at the Grunhaus website you can see exactly how many wines they make.

They also have a hectare planted with Auxerrois and Weissburgunder and another hectare of Spätburgunder. All on the estate.

And If you look at the Grunhaus website you can see exactly how many wines they make.

I knew they made a lot of different wines, but not that many. I count 24 2009s, and that doesn't count things like auction wines or whatever else sold out. Lots of stuff you never see in States- liter QbAs (unsure if that's a separate AP), Weissburgunder, Sekt, etc.

I count 24 2009s, and that doesn't count things like auction wines or whatever else sold out.

I didn't jot it down, so I'm depending on my memory here, but I think Carl von Schubert indicated that there were something like 50 or so different bottlings in a good year, with all the different fuder-designated stuff.

Did you get the Havens on closeout? It's too bad that they went under as I liked their juice that that pricepoint. At the closeouts, it was sad to see it go at $6 per...as they say, quite the bit of blood letting.

Did you get the Havens on closeout? It's too bad that they went under as I liked their juice that that pricepoint. At the closeouts, it was sad to see it go at $6 per...as they say, quite the bit of blood letting.

Yes, on closeout though I paid more than $6- something like $9 for the halves of Bourriquot and Hudson Syrah. $15-18 for full bottles. Regular Syrah was $7-9 for 750s, Merlot Reserve $13. But I've always liked the wines, even before closeout, though I thought they were stronger before Havens sold.

I was just looking through one of my wine reference books and noticed land/production figures, which folks might find interesting for perspective.

Grunhaus has 31 hectares of land for approx. 180,000 bottles of wine per vintage.

In comparison:
Willi Schaefer: 4 hectares/32,000 bottles
Daniel Vollenweider: 4 hectares/28,000 bottles
Reinhold Haart: 7.5 hectares/50,000 bottles
Egon Muller: 15 hectares/80,000 bottles
JJ Prum: 22 hectares/180,000 bottles
Donnhoff: 20 hectares/140,000 bottles

Grunhaus has 31 hectares of land for approx. 180,000 bottles of wine per vintage.

In comparison:
Willi Schaefer: 4 hectares/32,000 bottles
Daniel Vollenweider: 4 hectares/28,000 bottles
Reinhold Haart: 7.5 hectares/50,000 bottles
Egon Muller: 15 hectares/80,000 bottles
JJ Prum: 22 hectares/180,000 bottles
Donnhoff: 20 hectares/140,000 bottles

I'm guessing the difference between Prum and Grunhaus (different amount of land but equal bottles produced) means Prum has more vines in production per hectare? I would presume both these properties wouldn't be too far off in how much fruit they generally harvest from their vines.

Yes, a pretty wide difference in bottles per ha:
Max. Grunhaus 5,800 per ha
Willi Schaefer 8,000 bottles
Vollenweider: 7,000 bottles
Haart: 6.700 bottles
Egon Muller:5,300 bottles
Prum: 8,200 bottles
Donnhoff: 7,000 bottles
I assuming figures don't include unplanted land

[David M. Bueker]

Quite a lot of Prum's land has recently gone through fleurbereinigung, and is thus younger vines. This leads to increased yields over some of the miniscule yields that come from ancient, ugrafted vines formerly in parts of the sites.

Grunhaus, as a monopole, does not have to go through vineyard restructurng and replanting. Their vine age is likely higher, resulting in reduced yields. They may also sell off some juice, but I do not know.

The numbers I got came from Der Feinschmecker Wein Gourmet 2010, a German magazine that puts out a yearly supplement on the 800 best winemakers in the country. It is sitting on my shelf and was easy to reach, but I'm not sure how accurate it is. In particular, I wonder how much variation there is from year-to-year in terms of bottles produced.

But, it does give a sense of the relative sizes of the operations.

Note also that the two lowest yielding wineries are in the Saar and Ruwer. In Germany it is also important to remember that a hectare is measured horizontally, without paying any attention to degree of steepness and therefore actual vineyard surface area (though we are mostly talking about very steep vineyards in this case), so it is more helpful to start with planting densities and measure yields as juice per vine.

Cheers,
Bill

I was just looking through one of my wine reference books and noticed land/production figures, which folks might find interesting for perspective.

Grunhaus has 31 hectares of land for approx. 180,000 bottles of wine per vintage.

In comparison:
Willi Schaefer: 4 hectares/32,000 bottles
Daniel Vollenweider: 4 hectares/28,000 bottles
Reinhold Haart: 7.5 hectares/50,000 bottles
Egon Muller: 15 hectares/80,000 bottles
JJ Prum: 22 hectares/180,000 bottles
Donnhoff: 20 hectares/140,000 bottles

Wow. Donnhoff's HUGE. No wonder I see their bottles everywhere.

I was just looking through one of my wine reference books and noticed land/production figures, which folks might find interesting for perspective.

Grunhaus has 31 hectares of land for approx. 180,000 bottles of wine per vintage.

In comparison:
Willi Schaefer: 4 hectares/32,000 bottles
Daniel Vollenweider: 4 hectares/28,000 bottles
Reinhold Haart: 7.5 hectares/50,000 bottles
Egon Muller: 15 hectares/80,000 bottles
JJ Prum: 22 hectares/180,000 bottles
Donnhoff: 20 hectares/140,000 bottles

Wow. Donnhoff's HUGE. No wonder I see their bottles everywhere.

Maybe you´re being sarcastic (I can never tell on the internet), but I wouldn´t call 12 000 cases huge even by German standards.

Cheers,
Bill

[David M. Bueker]

Helmut Donnhoff has been rather aggressive in buying land over the last several years.

Also remember with Donnhoff that one of Helmut's goals was to have a wide variety of sites within the Nahe which he now has - 8 of them separated across the whole river. Was Kreuznacher Krotenpfuhl the last acquisition - that was 5 years ago?

I agree, even 20ha is small.

To add two more - Schloss Lieser is 9.5ha and Fritz Haag is about 16.

Also remember with Donnhoff that oen of Helmut's goals was to have a wide variety of sites within the Nahe which he now has - 8 of them separated across the whole river.

Though according to the Theise catalog, Donnhoff has given up his holdings in Schlossbockelheimer Kupfergrube (to the Gutshermannsberg) for more land in the Hermannshohle.

Also remember with Donnhoff that oen of Helmut's goals was to have a wide variety of sites within the Nahe which he now has - 8 of them separated across the whole river.

Though according to the Theise catalog, Donnhoff has given up his holdings in Schlossbockelheimer Kupfergrube (to the Gutshermannsberg) for more land in the Hermannshohle.

That's true of course. I was there last week (yes all the way from Aus - in fact only arrived home twenty hours ago) and they mentioned this land swap.