It all started with a tasting of Bürklin-Wolf-wines hosted
by Christian von Geradze. So after trying all these I was
in a Mittlehaardt-mood and tried some wines from other
producers nearby.
According to many Bürklin-Wolf is the new star of the
Mittlehaardt-region. Christian von Geradze is highly
influenced by Burgundy, both in the making and in the
organising. He has classified his vineyards in commune-wine,
PC (Premier cru) and GC (Grand cru)-sites. This
classification is not to be mistaken with the VDP's
classification (erste gewächs etc). To support his views
Christian von Geradze uses a map and classification being
done by the Royal bavarian land taxation laws from 1828.
There are three groups of vineyards from where Bürklin-Wolf
has their PC and GC-vineyards. Those three are:
1. Vineyards south of Wachenheim which leads into the vineyards on teh west side of Forst
2. Vineyards northwest of Deidesheim
3. Vineyards west of Ruppertsberg.
Especially the vineyards in the first group has a very
special soil which contains a lot of black basalt.
Christian von Geradze has done a lot of research on the
matter and found out the basalt was taken out from mines
close to two very small lakes in the Haardter forest (quite
close to the vineyard of Odinstal in Wachenheim, for those
interested). The basalt was probably carried from here and
hammered into the vineyards by workless soldiers after the
napolean war. Of all the vineyards no one has a much basalt
as that of Pechstein, which indeed gets a very special
minerality.
So to the wines. Christian von Geradze makes mostly dry
wines. None of the dry wines has prädikats. The style is
rich, clean and perhaps a tad fruity. They are all well
made, but I would like to see tham a tad "rawer and wilder".
They sometimes becomes to nice for me. Perhaps because von
Geradze admitted doing some malolactic fermentation.
Wachenheimer Riesling 2002
So this is a "commune"-wine to start with. Straw colour.
Intence and honeyed and sweet nose. Some peach and lightly
leafy aromas. Medium bodied in the mouth. Lighter than
expected from the nose. White peachy and honeyed fruit.
Decent balacnig acids. Medium length. Good starter although
nothing special.
Wachenheimer Rechbächel PC 2002
The next two are PC-wines. The Rechbächel being a 2 Ha.
monopole of Bürklin-Wolf with viens panted in 1971. The soil
being mostly sandstone. It was the only dry wine from 2002
where they did no malolactic and that showed. The colour
was straw towards green. The nose more subdued and showing
more mineral, stoney, slate, green apple and honey. Good
body in the mouth. More acidic and structured, showing
more stone and white fruit. Good length. Actually one of
my favourites of the day.
Wachenheimer Böhlig PC 2002
From a vineyard beside Rechbächel and closer to the
village. Bürklin-Wolfs vines are planted in 1971. The
soils has some parts with more chalk. Those without are
declassified by Bürklin-Wolf. This showed a deeper yellow
colour. Nose more honeyed and sweet again. Perhaps more
complex. A "bigger" wine in the mouth, but perhaps so due
to lower acids. Concentrated and more yellow and sweeter
fruited. Good length. A much kinder wine than the
Rechbächel. Good.
Gaisböhl GC 2002
The we went onto tasting two GC's. No village-names on
these bottles. The Gaisböhl is in Ruppertsberg and is a
5,7 Ha. monopole of Bürklin-Wolf. Vines planted in 1977.
Soil being mostly sandstone. The wine had a colour equal
to the last wine. The nose being more elegant and even
more fruity with a touch of spice and honey. Good body and
very fruity in the mouth. Concentrated yellow fruity
aromas. A slight spritz. More elegant than the Böhlig
with better balancing acids. Very good.
Pechstein GC 2002
The Pechstein is a vineyard in Forst. Bürklin-Wolf has
1,6 Ha. with vines here planted in 1978. This is the
vineyard with the highest content of basalt. Colour was
equal to the last wine. The nose completely different.
Showing "black" stoney aromas, white pepper (almost like
in Wachau) and some earth. Good body in the mouth. Very
elegant wine and more structured. Slightly leaner with
more leafy armoas and a touch of white pepper. Nicely
balanced acids. Great wine.
Gaisböhl GC 1998
Then we tasted one older vintage of the Gaisböhl. This had
a yellow/green colour. Intence honeyed nose with more
spice nd a slightly leafy note. Good body. Concentrated,
but a little soft style. A bit closed in the middle and
leaving a slighly buttery finish which I did not like very
much. Not my favourite of the day.
Forster Riesling auslese 2002
The we tasted a couple of sweet wines. This wine contains
only grapes from four GC-sites; Ungeheuer, Kirchenstück,
Pechstein and Jesuitengarten. The juice got blended by a
mistake and therefore only had to be marketed as
village-wine. The colour was straw and towards green. Nose
was closed but showed some raisins and some apricot.
Fullbodied in the mouth. Sweet entrance, but very acidic
towards the finish. Closed down fruit, showing some
apricot. But this has concentrated and a marvellous
structure. Give it time and it will be great.
Wachenheimer Rechbächel TBA 2002
At the end Christian von Geradze brought this little gem.
A TBA with 318,2 g/L rs, 17 g/L. acid (!) and 7,5% alcohol.
The colour was brown with a lightly green rim. Nose showed
a lot of botrytis, apricot and raisins. Extremely powerful
and rich in the mouth. Fat, honeyed, botrytised some
caramel in the entrance. Then the long acidic finish.
Tremendous wine and the most acidic TBA I have tasted.
Then notes from other wines from the Mittelhaardt I have
tasted recently.
Deidesheimer Leinhöhle riesling kabinett 2002, Bassermann-Jordan AP: 058 03
Straw colour. The quite elegant nose has green apples,
flowers and wet stones. Medium bodied and quite sweet.
more Mosel-like structure. Appley frui and some stoney
minerals. Good acids but the finish is troublesome. Being
bitter, rustic and showing some alcohol (11%). Not good.
Forster pechstein riesling spätlese trocken 2002, Bassermann-Jordan AP 033 03
Straw/green colour. Very nice and mineral nose showing
"black" stones, light spice and some peach. Full-bodied
and dry in the mouth. Concentrated and mineral wine. Young
and with good balancing acids. Again a tad rustic in the
finish, but not as troublesome as the last wine. Very good
wine.
Kallstadter Steinacker Gewürztraminer spätlese trocken 2001, Koehler-Ruprecht AP: 09 02
Then to something completely different. Kallstadt is in
the northern end of the Mittelhaardt. Saumagen and
Steinacker being two very large einzellagen, but
Kohler-Ruprecht produces great wines from both. This
gewürztraminer had a light straw colour. The nose was
leafy and flowery with hints of rosewater and light slate.
Good body. Slightly sweetness in the mouth. Typical
gew-floweriness but with a bitter and leafy edge to it.
Good acids and very high for this grape. Good structure
and a more underripe style of gewürztraminer. Good length.
Very fine wine.
Kallstadter Saumagen riesling spätlese 2002, Koehler-Ruprecht AP: 06 03
Light straw colour. Nose shows peach, slate and apples.
Good body. Sweetish wine with a tad low acids in the
balance. A little odd balance with warming alcohol in the
finish. Aromatically fine, but young. Did not "get" this
wine completely. Something odd.
Kallstadter Saumagen riesling auslese R 1996, Koehler-Ruprecht AP: 18 97
The "R" is Koehler-Ruprecht's top dry riesling. It had a
goldcapsule, but I guess all bottlings of the R has. The
first time I taste this bottling. This was completely shut
down at first. Needed 2-3 hours before opening up. The
colour was yellow. The nose showed intence flowery and
stoney flavours, hints of honey and gooseberry. Very
powerful wine in the mouth. Breathtakingly large wine.
Enormously concentrated flowery and mineral aromas. This
is more Savennieres than Pfalz. Not for the faint at heart.
Perhaps not the elegance of Bürklin-Wolfs top wines but
IMO more interesting. Good acid and balancing alcohol.
Very young, but mostly just the largest dry white I have
ever tasted. A freakshow. Give it another 10-20 years.
Tremendous wine.
Arnt Egil Nordlien
March-04