WTN: New and Old Pfalz Rieslings

2010 Fitz-Ritter Ungsteiner Herrenberg Riesling Großes Gewächs Kanzel
The VDP has chopped Ungsteiner Herrenberg into three separate parcels, each with pre-2012* Großes Gewächs status: Mardelskopf, Vogelsang, and Kanzel. Kanzel (meaning pulpit) is the name of the highest parcel in the Ungsteiner Herrenberg site; Fitz-Ritter is the only producer who is currently making a GG from this section of the Herrenberg site.
Interesting nose of limes, peaches, fennel, barley, smoke, and minerals. Full-bodied, bone dry, round, and nicely balanced, with good underlying acidity. Tastes of apricots and citrus fruits, with mineral/spicy/carrot undertones. Quite nice aromatically, with good cut and delineation, though less structured than the top dry Rieslings of the Pfalz; this is a dry Riesling to drink over the next several years, rather than one to lay down for a decade or so. Very good overall.
Alas, I’m quite surprised to see anyone use a synthetic cork (my least favorite type of closure) for one of their top dry Rieslings.

1971 Reichsrat von Buhl Forster Ungeheuer Riesling Spätlese
From 700 ml bottle. Plastic capsule. Bottle appears to have been perfectly stored. Medium amber color. Some botrytis evident on the nose, along with aromas of oranges, baked apples, French vanilla, and honey. Very delicate and classy; fully mature, off-dry to lightly sweet. Almost perfectly balanced, with good underlying acidity, and a whipped cream-like texture. Displays notes of caramel, candied fruits, raisins, tangerines, cherry pie, smoke, and cinnamon. I am just excited to have been able to experience this wine.

I'm surprised to hear that Fitz-Ritter produces a GG. My experience with them has been with cheaper, too sweet Rieslings but I would enjoy trying the GG you describe.

[David M. Bueker]

Fitz-Ritter makes an incredibly wide array of wines (likely too wide an array IMO). For the most part the best have not seen wide distribution in the past. Hopefully that is changing.

Nice notes Andrew.

To offer my perspective: Fitz-Ritter is a decent enough producer that has some great sites in and around Dürkheim (Michelsberg is potentially excellent.) The winery has a phenomenal location to draw in crowds of tourists, being located directly in the Spa/Dürkheimer Faß/Wurstmarkt center of Bad Dürkheim and they make rather commercially-styled wines to satisfy that demand –plus lots of Sekt and Secco. There is nothing wrong with them, and they are as good or better than many Dürkheim wineries (Darting comes to mind.) But they cannot (or don’t want to) compete with neighbors like Karl Schaefer or Pfeffingen when it comes to uncompromising quality. Still, I like the wines. I’ll pick up a bottle of the Kanzel the next time I’m at the grocery store, Your note makes it sound great.

The Von Buhl sounds great. I am often engaged in conversations about the 3Bs, and while Von Buhl is my least favorite of them, there is no doubt that they are a historic estate that has made excellent wines throughout the years. These days, they still excel at the top-end and with noble-sweet wines, but the lower and mid-range wines get eclipsed by Bürklin and Bassermann by a heavy margin (and IMO, at the top-end too.) They are also very Sekt-oriented and a much larger percentage of their production comes from purchased grapes and so have less control in the vineyards (Bürklin-Wolf, for example is almost entirely estate-grown.) They also seem to favor whole-cluster pressing for many of the wines today, which can make them seem a little thin.

Cheers,
Bill

Bill:

I agree with your assessment of Fitz-Ritter. Pfeffingen is certainly doing an excellent job; I've only had one of their GGs though, and that was the Weilberg, rather than either of their two Herrenbergs.
Have never seen Karl Schaefer's wines over here. It sounds like they are making some very good wines these days.

As far as von Buhl, I really haven't seen much of their more recent Spätlesen around here, and the only Kabinett that I'm familiar with is the "Armand". (Nor do I see much of anything from Bassermann-Jordan in my area; thus my very limited familiarity with their wines.)

Andrew: Chambers Street Wines has two Karl Schaefer selections from the 2010 vintage in stock: Gerümpel Riesling trocken and Spielberg Riesling (feinherb). They've ordered 2011 Fuchsmantel Riesling trocken, as well. Full disclosure: I brokered these wines.

Lars, welcome. It's nice to see you here.

For anyone not familiar with Karl Schaefer (and Lars can surely elaborate), the style of the house is that of very pure, digital, and minerally expressive wines that show clear fruit and steely acidity. They are to me very reminiscent of the Rebholz prototype in those regards, though obviously from different terroir. The Fuchsmantel site is excellent (and like many of the vineyards in and around Dürkheim and Wachenheim is comprised of chalk, sandstone, and loam). It is also one of the most striking vineyards in the Pfalz. For my taste, Schaefer is the very best winery in Dürkheim by leaps and bounds and have risen to become one of top dozen or so in the entire Pfalz for Riesling over the past couple of vintages. I hope that their wines make a lot of friends in the US.

Cheers,
Bill

Thanks, Bill. I had to reply to Andrew. The wines from Karl Schaefer have been at Chambers Street Wines since the end of March.

Despite never meeting you in person, I've been visiting the beautiful Mittelhaardt the last several years and decided to offer some selections from Karl Schaefer. I, however, never mentioned this much. Since leaving the former Mosel Wine Merchant back in March 2011, I decided to just represent Hofgut Falkenstein and later focused on writing in-depth producer profiles and articles for my new online guide to the wines of the Mosel.

Has the harvest started in your neck of the woods?

Lars, I think you are a worthy addition to our forum. Lots of riesling talk here, much more in fact than on UK forum and Beserkers. We can all learn a lot more from you I think!

Lars, I think you are a worthy addition to our forum. Lots of riesling talk here, much more in fact than on UK forum and Beserkers. We can all learn a lot more from you I think!

Thanks, Bob.

Andrew: Chambers Street Wines has two Karl Schaefer selections from the 2010 vintage in stock: Gerümpel Riesling trocken and Spielberg Riesling (feinherb). They've ordered 2011 Fuchsmantel Riesling trocken, as well. Full disclosure: I brokered these wines.

Hi Lars -

Thank you for the information. I did read Chambers Street's writeup on the Karl Schaefer wines, and saw that you were credited there as a source of information, but wasn't aware that you were actually the one bringing in those wines.

...............................................................................................

Anyway, I highly recommend Lars' website to anyone interested in German wine, especially the Mosel.

Lars, welcome. It's nice to see you here.

For anyone not familiar with Karl Schaefer (and Lars can surely elaborate), the style of the house is that of very pure, digital, and minerally expressive wines that show clear fruit and steely acidity. They are to me very reminiscent of the Rebholz prototype in those regards, though obviously from different terroir. The Fuchsmantel site is excellent (and like many of the vineyards in and around Dürkheim and Wachenheim is comprised of chalk, sandstone, and loam). It is also one of the most striking vineyards in the Pfalz. For my taste, Schaefer is the very best winery in Dürkheim by leaps and bounds and have risen to become one of top dozen or so in the entire Pfalz for Riesling over the past couple of vintages. I hope that their wines make a lot of friends in the US.

Cheers,
Bill

Hi Bill -

Thanks for the info on the Fuchsmantel site; I wasn't familiar with it at all. For those of us in the US whose main exposure to Dürkheim's vineyards has been through Darting, we probably have a tendency to overlook its best sites. Darting does do a Michelsburg, but I've never seen a Fuchsmantel from them.

Andrew: Chambers Street Wines has two Karl Schaefer selections from the 2010 vintage in stock: Gerümpel Riesling trocken and Spielberg Riesling (feinherb). They've ordered 2011 Fuchsmantel Riesling trocken, as well. Full disclosure: I brokered these wines.

Hi Lars -

Thank you for the information. I did read Chambers Street's writeup on the Karl Schaefer wines, and saw that you were credited there as a source of information, but wasn't aware that you were actually the one bringing in those wines.

...............................................................................................

Anyway, I highly recommend Lars' website to anyone interested in German wine, especially the Mosel.

Thank you, Andrew. As for Karl Schaefer, I only brokered some cases to Chambers Street Wines.

Lars, welcome. It's nice to see you here.

For anyone not familiar with Karl Schaefer (and Lars can surely elaborate), the style of the house is that of very pure, digital, and minerally expressive wines that show clear fruit and steely acidity. They are to me very reminiscent of the Rebholz prototype in those regards, though obviously from different terroir. The Fuchsmantel site is excellent (and like many of the vineyards in and around Dürkheim and Wachenheim is comprised of chalk, sandstone, and loam). It is also one of the most striking vineyards in the Pfalz. For my taste, Schaefer is the very best winery in Dürkheim by leaps and bounds and have risen to become one of top dozen or so in the entire Pfalz for Riesling over the past couple of vintages. I hope that their wines make a lot of friends in the US.

Cheers,
Bill

Hi Bill -

Thanks for the info on the Fuchsmantel site; I wasn't familiar with it at all. For those of us in the US whose main exposure to Dürkheim's vineyards has been through Darting, we probably have a tendency to overlook its best sites. Darting does do a Michelsburg, but I've never seen a Fuchsmantel from them.

The property of Karl Schaefer preserved the one-of-a-kind terraced site of Fuchsmantel, when most producers either took out the terraces or sought less steep parcels for mechanized vineyard care. Of course, as in the Côte-de-Nuits, many of the best sites of the Mittelhaardt are on more sloping, or, even, flat ground.