The evening was spent in Traben-Trarbach at the first
“Klitzekleinen Ring”. A collection of good friends of young
winemakers trying to create a more local and unformal tasting with local
products. Some professionals, some not. The
tasting was held in the “alte rittersaal” in Trarbach. The beautiful old
building covered with candles gave an almost magical atmosphere to the tasting.
9 local winemakers and one guest from the Pfalz served their wines. The quality
was uneven, but what the heck. It don’t get more
beautiful than this.
Weingut Artur Mentges - Wolf
Kinsheimer Hubertuslay riesling kabinett trocken 2004
A bit shy nose. Slate and strawberries. Light and
quite dry in the mouth. A little elegant. Decent wine.
Kinsheimer Hubertuslay riesling spätlese trocken 2003
More fruit and floral sweetness in the nose. Medium bodied in the mouth. More concentration. More sweetness in the
fruit. Also more simple. Decent
acids for the vintage.
Trarbacher Taubenahus riesling QbA halbtrocken 2004
Floral and quite sweet nose. A bit earthy. Simple with nice acids. More sweetness in
the mouth.
Kinheimer Rosenberg riesling auslese halbtrocken 2003
Earthy, floral nose. In the mouth more body and more
off-balance with the alcohol. Medium acids and length.
Kinheimer Rosenberg riesling auslese fruchtsüss 2003
More slate and perfume in the nose than the ht. Sweet and rich style. Balancing ripeness quite nicely. Simple
style. Medium acids and length.
Kinheimer Hubertuslay riesling beerenauslese 2003
Sweet and a bit rustic and raisiny BA. Decent balance and
length. Good, but no great BA.
Weingut Clemens Busch - Pünderich
Clemens Busch is a more well-known producer, making drier wines from the
Pündericher Marienburg that can be quite nice wines. Here he mostly presented
dry wines from the 2003, which really did not suit my taste.
Pündericher Marienburg riesling kabinett trocken 2004
Mineral, but a bit shy nose. Quite light and slim wine in the
mouth. Elegant. Some minerality there, but a
bit closed. Fine structure. Good wine.
Pündericher Marienburg riesling spätlese trocken 2004
More concentration here. Still mineral and elegant. A whiff of bitter flowers on the nose. Good structure. Very good wine.
Pündericher Marienburg Fahrlay riesling spätlese 2003
From a parcel in the Marienburg-vineyard. Sweeter nose.
Some more slate. Ripe, dry style with high alcohol and
a little low acids. Not a good balance.
Pündericher Marienburg Weissenberg riesling spätlese
2003
A little more subdued and mineral wine. Dry wine. But sweet and ripe fruit in the mouth. A
little better acid, but again too high alcohol for me.
Pündericher Marienburg Falkenlay riesling spätlese
2003
Some floral sweetness and mineral nose. Not as ripe style. Dry
wine with slightly fat in the mouth. Even some
botrytis? Better acids and balance. But still high
alcohol.
Pündericher Marienburg riesling spätlese “Fass 36”
2003
More mineral and sour-sweet nose. Again a touch of fat in the
mouth. But the alcohol is less obvious here and the balance better. Decent acids. Good wine.
Weingut Johannes Lenz – Pünderich
Generally there is a great background in all the wines from Johannes Lenz, but
they need to be made cleaner and with more care. Then he might head for
something very good.
Pündericher Marienburg riesling spätlese trocken 2004
A bit candied nose with hints of freen flowers and seaweed. Fine
structure in the mouth. Nice style, but the candied aromas
is a bit off-putting.
Pündericher Marienburg riesling auslese trocken 2003
Sweeter nose. Quite fine, but again with an element of candy/chewing gum. Quite high alcohol in the mouth. Chewing
gum in the fruit, which again is off-putting.
Pündericher Marienburg riesling kabinett halbtrocken
2004
Cleaner more floral nose. Light sweetness in the mouth. Decent
structure and a kabinett on the lighter side.
Pündericher Marienburg riesling kabinett 2004
Mineral and the chewing gum again in the mose.. More obvious sweetness and a bit simpler wine in the mouth.
Pündericher Marienburg riesling Beerenauslese edelsüss
2003
Nose has paint and flowers. Something not correct here. The
same taste.
Weingut Martin Müllen – Traben
Next up was Martin Müllen. As we had tasted most of the wines just a few days
later we skipped tasting most of his wines this evening. I did not take notes
on the two I tasted which was the Kröver Letterlay spätlese** trocken 2003 and
the Trarbacher Hühnerberg auslese 2003. We ended up in a little argument over
the Letterlay as I found it a little alcoholic. Martin diasgreed finding the
wine very good and calling it a great riesling for the
winter. We agreed more on the Hühnerberg which was sweet and good.
Weingut Melsheimer – Reil
The wines from Melsheimer had an even quality to them.
All were quite good and made in the traditional sweet style and the quality
stood a little above many bottlers this night. But there were no highlights
among them.
Reiler Goldlay riesling kabinett 2004
Fine floral sweet nose, som slate. Sweet kabinett with decent concentration, a
little mineral and a little too low acids in the
balance.
Reiler Mullay-Hofberg “Langeberg” riesling spätlese
2004
Intense sweet and floral nose. Fine. Sweet in the mouth. Clean and fine fruit aand concentration.
Also better balance. Very good wine.
Reiler Mullay-Hofberg “Schäf” riesling spätlese 2003
Again intense and riper nose of flowers. Sweet and richer in
the mouth. More one-dimensional and less acids making
the balance heavier than the Langeberg.
Reiler Mullay-Hofberg riesling spätlese #65 2003
Floral nose, but more earth (unclean?) and bitter flowers. Sweet
again, but a little better balanced than the Schäf. But the fruit is not
as clean.
Reiler Mullay-Hofberg riesling beerenauslese #68 2003
My notes are missing from this wine, but I remember it was a quite good and
very typical BA. No less, no more.
Pündericher Marienburg “Staden” riesling eiswein 2004
Again my notes are missing. But this was also a typical eiswein of fair quality
and good structure. Perhaps a little less interesting than
the BA.
Weingut Paul Moog nachf. – Traben-Trarbach
This is a part-time winemaker in Traben-Trarbach. Here
I actually liked the two QbAA’s better than the two prädikatsweinen.
Trabener Kräuterhaus riesling QbA trocken 2004
Quite elegant nose of slate and spices. Dry and light in the mouth. Fine and floral sweetness and spices. Decent
structure. Nice QbA trocken.
Trabener Gaispfad riesling kabinett feinherb 2004
From one of two Trabener-vineyards lying on the Trarbacher-side of the river. This
showed a quite greenish nose of bitter flowers and less
minerals. Light and dry feinherb in the mouth with a decent
structure, but a little simpler fruit than the QbA trocken.
Trarbacher Schlossberg riesling QbA fruchtsüss 2004
A bit shy nose. Some minerals and slight earth. Sweet and spritzy in the mouth with good structure. Not very concentrated, but nice and mineral-driven QbA. Again a fine QbA.
Trabener Gaispfad riesling auslese fruchtsüss 2003
Sweet, but nose very clean nose of earth and bitter flowers. Quite
sweet and seimple in the mouth. Not the best balance. No.
Weingut Richard Böcking –Trarbach
This is the owner of the fabolous “alte rittersaal” in
Trarbahc where this event took place. The wines of Böcking is
made in the cellars by Ulrike Böcking. The wines where of the
more interesting, but again not quite fully refined and a little green. Especially
interesting was the wine from Ungsberg.
Riesling qualitätswein trocken 2004
A bit sub-dued nose, some mineral. Dry and mineral in
the mouth. Light with fine structure. Quite
simple, but a fine wine.
Trarbacher Ungsberg riesling qualitätswein feinherb
2004
Much more interesting wine. Mineral with pear and
apricot.Off-dry in the mouth. Fine structure and
mineral fruit with some apricot. Fine wine. According
to old vineyard-maps the Ungsberg was regarded as one of the best vineyards in
the
Trarbacher Schlossberg riesling kabinett halbtrocken
2002
Green flowers in the nose. Halbtrocken in the mouth, lacking
concentration. Decent acids, but too little fruit
here.
Trarbacher Schlossberg riesling kabinett feinherb 2004
A little shy nose. Some flowers. Gives little. Again a little lacking concentration, but better showing some
flowers and minerals. Decent structure.
Sturmnacht 1792 riesling auslese 2003
Quite intense nose of green flowers. Feinherb-style in the
mouth. Sweet entrance, intense and powerful wine.
A bit floral and mineral. Quite
simple fruit. Good structure for a 2003. Balancing the
alcohol ok.
Weingut Staffelter
This producer was a real hit and miss. The higher prädkat-wines were here the
best. We also had a talk with the son here, who joined his father in 2004,
after finisheing education as a enolog. He seemed to
have a good attitude for the winmaking, so perhaps this is a producer to watch
out for in the future.
Riesling kabinett trocken 2004
Green nose with some minerals. Light and dry aperitif-style of riesling. Acidic, but shows little fruit.
Riesling spätlese ¾ trocken “Vieilles vignes” – Alte reben
2003
Floral and mineral nose. Quite fine and more intense.
Halbtrocken-style in the mouth, floral and mineral, medium acids and
unpleasent, almost spirit-like, finish.
Dhron Hofberger riesling spätlese halbtrocken 2001
Quite evolved nose of petrol and green flowers. Mature halbtrocken, slightly
floral but low concentration of fruit. Seems hollow and flat
with not much structure. And from such a vineyard and
vintage?
Kröver Steffensberg riesling spätlese 2004
Young floral, slatey and appley nose. Clean and focused. Sweet,
but not the most powerful spätlese in the mouth. Fine
floral, young fruit. Slatey. Good structure,
acid and length.Fine and young wine.
Dhron Hofberger riesling auslese 1993
Fine and evoloved nose. Petrol, mineral depth. A little earthy. Sweet and more intense in
the mouth. But not powerful for an auslese. Fine petrolly and mineral fruit. A bit low
acids. A bit lacking in structure. Best on the nose.
Kröver Paradies riesling eiswein 2002
Golden colour. Fine and fruity nose. A little evolved.
Slight earth and botrytis? Slightly
fat in the entrance, again a little hint of botrytis. Concentrated
and fresh style. Long and acidic finish. A very nice eiswein.
Weingut Vollenweider – Trarbach
As we already had tasted the wines from Daniel
Vollenweider I did not take notes this evening. We tasted the 04 spätlese
feinherb, spätlese (AP 04), Padauer and the 03 auslese and 01 regular spätlese.
The 04 confirmed that it is another good spätlese-vintage for Daniel. The 01
spätlese is evolving nicely and still young with great structure.
Weingut Janson-Bernard – Zellertal (Pfalz)
The guest was a young winemaker from Pfalz who just made his first wines. The
style was mineral and slim wines. Perhaps not the most concentrated and with
some green notes, but of good quality.
Zeller Kreuzweg riesling kabinett trocken 2004
Mineral nose. Slight grass and earth. Dry, mineral and slim in the mouth. Good acids and
structure. Aperitif-style. Quite
fine.
Zeller Klosterstück riesling kabinett 2004
Sweeter, more floral nose. Hints of slate. Appley and sweet in the mouth. Young and
mineral. Again good structure and acids. Fine wine.
Zeller Schwarzer Herrgott spätlese trocken 2004
More intense mineral nose. Slate, some flowers. Dry and again slim style in the mouth. Mineral.
Some depth. Slightly bitter finish from the alcohol.