Nahe and Mosel visit, July 2010

My wife and I went on a tour of Germany in July 2010 for three reasons:

- To return to her familiy's town of origin (Prenzlau or Schenkenberg depending on which branch of the family)
- To see the passion play at Oberammergau, which is only performed every 10th year
- To visit the Mosel and Nahe.

We managed to weave a four week tour of Germany around these three items, and I’ll assume for this forum only the last item is of major interest (although I’m happy to discuss the other two).

Before leaving Australia we arranged appointments with 7 wineries:

Dönnhoff
Schaefer Fröhlich
J J Prϋm
Reinhold Haart
Willi Schaefer
Schloss Lieser
Fritz Haag

We were staying in a holiday villa owned by Andreas and Waltraud Schmitges so we took a good look at their wines too.

Thank you to Neville Yates from Eurocentric and also to Patrick Walsh from Cellarhand (both are Australian importers) for their help arranging the appointments.

Some things that became immediately apparent:

- This set of producers are, as reported in many places, among the crème de la crème of Mosel and Nahe.
- The quality of the wines we saw varied from very good to excellent – almost no duds among about 100 wines.
- Being Australian was an interesting thing – we were a bit of a curiosity as we had come a long way.
- I quite like 09. I’ve seen it reported as somewhere between 07 and 08, and I can confirm that if you have to generalize, that’s not a bad way to do so.
- 09 Trockens (and GG’s) seemed far better in Nahe than Mosel (where we saw no GG’s). Kabinetts and higher pradikat wines were on a par, based on our small sample.

Highlights:

- How good Schaefer Frohlich was
- The 09 Schmitges Eiswein
- The 09 Schloss Lieser Langhe Goldkapsel from Niederberger Helden
- Being invited to visit J J Prϋm at all
- Seeing my wife, who has a high quality but uneducated palate, learn so much.

Anyhow please feel free to read the more detailed version of events – I’ve posted reasonably detailed notes here:

http://www.vinoculation.com

And the disclaimer: this blog has no affiliations, other than the other major contributor being one of my partners in my New Zealand hobby/venture, Auburn Wines (I am otherwise not ITB in any way).

At the time of writing (late morning of the 30th of July US time) this post I have one more chapter to add, which includes final thoughts, overall impressions and favourite wines.

cheers

Andrew

Sounds like a great visit. And in addition to the Prum visit, I'm jealous that your wife was game to join you for all these tastings!

I've only visited the Mosel once but my wife's enthusiasm quickly started dragging after the second tasting visit (well, technically during the middle of the first, but...)

So, how did you get into Prum? And why didn't they show any 09s? Even if they're not bottled, surely you could have tasted something?

[David M. Bueker]

Prum generally does not do barrel samples except for a couple of journalists. They are also notoriously late, and since they allow nobody into the cellars we will never know why.

We just emailed Prum and asked if we could visit, they were the only CD where we didn't gt an introduction from an importer too. I suspect that coming from Australia was something of a novelty. We were aware they are hard to get into, so we didn't push at all beyond what they were prepared to offer for tasting - and you're right, the 09's weren't in bottle. No tasting facilities, we tasted in one of the reception rooms in what must have been the family home.

Wow, great list of producers there, sounds like fun! The Nahe is such an interesting wine region, so very out of the normal tourist destinations, it's an interesting area to visit. But it's not exactly hopping with entertainment possibilities!

Having only 7 winery visits in four weeks probably helped your spouse handle the wine geek factor. My spouse is very forgiving: it' s only after about four hours per day she gets a little twitchy...

Wow, great list of producers there, sounds like fun! The Nahe is such an interesting wine region, so very out of the normal tourist destinations, it's an interesting area to visit. But it's not exactly hopping with entertainment possibilities!

Having only 7 winery visits in four weeks probably helped your spouse handle the wine geek factor. My spouse is very forgiving: it' s only after about four hours per day she gets a little twitchy...

Those 7 visits were packed into 3 days...

Andrew,

What a fantastic report. Thank you for taking the time to write it up... a dream vacation for sure.

Were you able to taste '09 Bockenauer Felseneck Spatlese GK while at Schafer-Frohlich? I'm curious as to how it compares to the regular bottling...

Andrew, Great job!!! Thanks for the report!!

Salute

Thanks Gents,

Chris, no we didn't see the 09 Spatlese GK during the visit with Tim Frohlich. I have some of the 08 and have opened 1 bottle - outstanding wine,

cheers

Andrew

PS The final wrapup chapter is now up,

Did you see any evidence of elevated highway construction?

I'm assuming the plans for the bridge are moving forward, since I haven't heard anything otherwise.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hochmoselbr%C3%BCcke

Dave, no, no evidence of construction. Amai Prum talked about the bridge in the future tense, including the need to fight it and some of the challenges in doing so. I dont think it has been started yet. We were staying in Erden which is around the corner of the river in the background. We drove past Zeltingen (the village in the foreground) a number of times, and didnt see any construction evidence.

regards

Andrew

The bridge is almost done. It's even more horrendous than I would have imagined. Truly a multi-generational distaster.

See these photos from the owner of S. A. Prüm:
https://www.facebook.com/weingutsa.prue ... 6150835672