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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in her elegant dining room to some 15 wines from 2008 going back to 1991, I realized that my previous assessment was outdated, and that the wines were back on track, and warranted serious attention.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

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