Meet Mosel proprietor Sofia Thanisch of Wwe. Dr. H. Thanisch-Erben Thanisch (Bernkastel) at Jardiniere on Monday, March 7th for a three course dinner including wine pairings for only $45!
General Reference
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“Wine & Chocolate Tasting!” Come join us on Saturday, February 12th between if noon and 4:00. A Valentine’s Day theme with premium chocolates provided by San Francisco’s premier gourmet chocolate company, TCHO.
There will be wine. There will be chocolate. There will be fun. Join us. Details here.
Saturday, December 4th (Noon – 4:00)
$25 Entry Fee Includes:
“A Decade of Riesling” Flight (1999 – 2009)
Holiday Sparkling Wines
Chablis, Rosé, Pinot/Spätburgunder
Optional $15 Premium Flight “A Decade of Auslese”
“Sip While You Shop” - featuring just-arrived German Rieslings!
Sip, Buy, Relax, Repeat.
Don’t fight the holiday crowds this year. Take care of all your holiday wine needs at our “Sip While You Shop” event!
Reserve your space here! ($24, $19 for club members. Includes $15 towards purchases of $100 or more!)
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The Rieslings of this venerable old Mosel estate date back to 1636 in the same family, this being the fourth generation that is under the management of women. In this case, it is the charming, utterly classy Sofia Thanisch-Spier. This gracious woman welcomed me and some of my colleagues into her beautiful and very elegantly appointed 19th century home, situated on the opposite side of the river from Bernkastel in Kues, last September when we were in the region attending the Fall auctions. Her warmth and generosity are indeed contagious, and she poured wine after wine both recent vintages as well as older ones, as she is obviously eager to accommodate fans of the world’s greatest white varietal. Admittedly, in the late ’80s and at times in the ’90s, the wines of Thanisch had suffered from inconsistency; no doubt in part to the splitting of the property between cousins, which had occured in the mid ’80s. However, when we sat down in her elegant dining room to some 15 wines from 2008 going back to 1991, I realized that my previous assessment was outdated, and that the wines were back on track, and warranted serious attention.
My initial memories of Thanisch wines dated from my first experiences with German wine in the early ’70s, and then consequently on a far more serious level when I began working at Connoisseur Wine Imports in April, 1974. Those old Thanisch wines were always magnificent and always expensive. Together with the J.J. Prüm estate, just down river a mile or so, they set the standard at that time for middle Mosels, and they were prominently displaced in glass cases by high-end shops and gourmet markets everywhere right along side Chateau Lafite, Latour, and the wines of Romanee-Conti. I still vividly recall the ’69 and ’71 Spätlesen and Auslesen as spectacularly delicious wines that seemed almost magical in their splendor compared with more pedestrian German bottles, whose names I shall not mention.
The excellent morning tasting last September, was, for me at least, a real eye-opener, and made me ponder the possibility of direct-importing these lovely, glimmering epitomes of classic middle Mosel. But, of course, first and foremost was the investigative question regarding current importers bringing these wines into our California market, and sure enough, as one might imagine, there was one, but the encouraging news was that Sofia was dissatisfied with their work, and wanted to establish a new importer in the west. As the market, even still in 2009, was not yet back to what it had been prior to the world-wide recession, we decide not to make any commitments until the following year, but then just before the holidays last December she informed us that someone else has applied for that privilege, and she needed an answer as soon as possible. I asked her if she would consider postponing her final decision until we could visit her again this past spring. She granted us our wish, and we are thrilled she did!
The 2009s from this wonderful property are consistently beautiful throughout the Prädikat range, and we encourage you to participate in our pre-arrival offer in order to secure these wonderful wines which are guaranteed to provide very inspired drinking for decades to come!
Dade Thieriot
To see all our wines from Dr. H. Thanisch, enter the keyword “thanisch” in the UPPER LEFT search box
Andreas and Waltraud Schmitges have made serious progress in recent years with regard to their new winery and tasting facility in the heart of the small Mosel village of Erden. The new “Probestube” or, as they call it, “Vinothek”, is elegantly yet efficiently laid out with modest adornments, chique modern lighting, and tasteful artistic touches throughout. Coincidentally, their wines come off in a very similar way–bright, clean, polished, and very fresh.
Here are a couple of very dedicated and seriously focused people who are determined to make pristine wines, and have a good time while they’re at it. Two fully furnished apartments nearby are also available to guests, complete with a breath-taking view of the majestic Erdener Prälat vineyard–one of the worlds smallest yet most precious pieces of vineyard real estate.
We spent a good two hours or so tasting through the majority of the 2009 collection, and it is definitely state-of-the-art Mosel: opulent, fruity, mineral, and balanced by superb acidity…the hallmark of any great Mosel Riesling. While they own parcels in neighboring Lösnisch and Ürzig, the primary focus belongs to the finest vineyard sites of Erden: Prälat, Treppchen, and Herrenberg, comprising the majority of the 10 hectares they possess.
Believe it or not we were duly impressed by the first two wines Andreas poured us, which were a QbA trocken and a QbA feinherb from, of all formats, a litre bottle! They were absolutely delicious and very affordable. In fact, all the wines tend to be fairly priced. These folks believe in turn over, and that’s a good way to get hesitant foreigners, who are still grappling with a negative exchange rate, to come around to your wines.
It was indeed these more modest wines that caught our fancy. Wines such as: Treppchen Riesling “vom Urgestein” trocken, QbA feinherb “vom Berg”, and the Kabinett “vom roten Schiefer” (he calls it his “anti-stress wine.”). All his fruity higher Prädikat wines are stellar, and his Eiswein was clearly amongst the finest of all we tasted, and although I do not believe that ’09 is by any means a classic Eiswein vintage, this Erdener Herrenberg at 195 oechsle was the bomb!
But even better was a wine I had never encountered at this estate: a Grosses Gewächs from the Erdener Prälat, whose precious, golden fruit is normally reserved for only the noblest late-harvest nectar. These grapes were the very last ones to be brought in under perfect conditions with absolutely no rot whatsoever from vines that are 70 years old, yielding a mere 1,500 bottles total–an astounding achievement! The wine is uncannily rich, creamy and balanced to perfection yet not cloying, sweet, nor is it obtrusively alcoholic in the least–ONLY IN GERMANY!!!
Dade
To see all of our wines from Schmitges, type the keyword “schmitges” in the UPPER LEFT search box!
In the spring of 2000, after several rather challenging appointments along side my agent and old friend, Agi Ress, that featured the new wines from the 1999 vintage, palate fatigue had set in, and it was time to check into our hotel, and take a break…phew! We’d been to Egon Müller, von Schubert, and von Kesselstatt, which should have been nothing short of endless pleasure, but the opposite had happened. The wines were often cloudy, very uneven, and, for the most part, totally out of whack–unbalanced. One would be too fat and top-heavy, the next shut down and going through an ugly, awkward infantile stage. We really weren’t sure what to think about ’99 as a vintage. Was it another ’76 with loads of botrytis or was it just a big fat, ripe year that stood little chance of aging, given its apparent lack of acidity and structure? It was very perplexing indeed, and difficult to assess.
When we eventually pulled into the Hotel Weis around 6:00PM, we got our room keys, and made a beeline for the bar, and immediately pounded two super-refreshing Bitburger Pilsners–ah, the day had been saved! Just then, the owner/manager, Herbert Weis, walked in, and asked us how our long day had gone. We launched into a dissertation on the myriad inconsistencies of the ’99 vintage from top producers when he quietly asked if we’d perhaps be interested in trying some of his own wines.
He indicated that they were all from one vineyard, the Kaseler Nies’chen (literally–”little sneeze”)–one of the Ruwer’s finest sites not owned by von Schubert or Tyrell–so we figured, what the hell? In a nutshell, we were completely flabbergasted!
The wines were beautifully balanced, crystal clear, racy yet elegant and totally clean–WOW! Where had we been all day? And by comparison to the creme-de-la-creme estates we’d been hanging around all day, the prices were a joke–essentially, a fraction of what the others were asking, and showing much better to boot! Ten years later these wines are still phenomenally good and incredibly fresh with years of life ahead of them.
Talk about backing into one–this is by far one of the greatest accidental, no-brainer finds of my career, and when we visited there in early May, we thoroughly toasted a decade of mutual admiration. DVW was one of the very first importers to bring these marvelous wines into the America, and we’re not about to stop now. Herbi’s ’09s are just as lovely, pristine and elegant today as those ’99s were in April of 2000. Classic Ruwer Rieslings with wonderful minerality, ripeness supported by racy yet delicate acidity like a inspired pianist accompanying a talented Lieder singer. Here is the epitome of finesse and subtle grace in a glass–it doesn’t get better, and it isn’t more reasonably priced!
Dade
To see all our wines from von Beulwitz, enter the keyword “beul” in the UPPER LEFT search box
Boasting a wine tradition that dates back to 1223, it would be difficult to argue that Christoph Tyrell and company have a significant track record; indeed, a formidable one!
Our relationship goes back to the 1998 Trier Großer Ring auction, and purchases of Spätlese and Auslese Goldkapsel lots that are just now beginning to show their full potential; 1997 having been a glorious vintage in this tiny valley just a few miles away from the Mosel and Germany’s oldest city, Trier.
In the ensuing years, we have continued to buy Tyell’s scintillating, classic Ruwer wines at this annual Fall sale, and, because of an exclusive agreement with another major American importer, we have shied away from a more substantial position vis a vis his wines. Those days appear to be over, and as a result, we have taken a more serious view of what this amazing estate has to offer.
For those unfamiliar with Karthäuserhof, let me begin by saying that it is unquestionably one of Germany’s most important Riesling-producing properties with a glorious history of consistently excellent, typical Ruwers; meaning finely crafted, extremely elegant, jewel-like wines that have the uncanny ability to age for decades if properly stored. It is on a par with its venerable neighbor across the valley at Maximin Grünhaus–no small compliment!
Dade with the Tyrells in front of the estate vineyard.
When we tasted the 2009s in Eitelsbach, just around the corner from the Erben von Beulwitz estate, last May, the consistency throughout the range of driest to sweetest was utterly astounding, and absolutely true to the classic Ruwer type of Riesling: lacy, filigreed structure, infused with layers of mineral flavors and vibrant acidity. Don’t expect big, luscious, viscous examples of Riesling, even amongst the very ripest of them, because you will be disappointed. These wines are all about pretty, subtle, sexy, and not grotesque in any, shape or form. They are the epitome of restrained elegance and sheer finesse! You are strongly encouraged to indulge your senses in the pleasures that lie ahead in the beautiful Rieslings of the Karthäuserhof from the fabulous 2009 vintage! And don’t forget that many of the auction wines we’ve purchased since 1998 are still available, albeit in very small quantities, and will provide proof of their stunning ability to age gracefully. (A list of these wines is available upon request.)
Dade
To see all of our wines from Karthäuserhof, enter the keyword “karth” in the UPPER LEFT search box.
When I think of this estate, located on the opposite side of the Rhein from Assmannshausen and Lorch near the not-so-famous village of Kaub, I immediately recall the totally ingratiating, Cheshire cat smile of owner/winemaker, Peter Jost, whose wines precisely reflect his utterly positive personality! Continue reading »
The name Willi Schaefer evokes for me two things: consistency and class.
Another more sincere, dedicated, and nicer wine family is not to be found anywhere on earth–and when it comes to typical, classic middle Mosel, that is absolutely text book Schaefer, and his shimmering Rieslings from Graach are the epitome of it! Continue reading »
