Did you hear about the nuclear leak north of Avignon? Two rivers feeding the Rhone have been contaminated. I wonder if this happens more often than reported. France is dependent on this form of energy, and I’ve worried about this happening for years now, especially since France’s nuclear plant in Cattenon (Lorraine) lies near Luxembourg and Trier. It seems no wine critics take this issue on. Sometimes I ask myself what good is biodynamic or organic viticulture if you have a reactor sitting in your backyard? The Loire and Rhône Rivers are dotted with these and the movement against nuclear power in France is minor as compared to the mass protests that occur in Germany, where they’re now debating whether the plan for phasing it out makes sense with mounting pressure from the nuclear industry and the EU, which are using global warming as a counterargument for nuclear energy despite the grave risks as well as the toxic waste.

Many would argue that nuclear power is necessary. It’s a touchy subject, but I have my concerns about it.

In Joachim Krieger’s detailed book titled Terrassenkultur an der Untermosel (copyright 2003), he writes in-depth about the region and later describes and classifies the vineyard sites of the Lower Mosel from the city of Koblenz to the village of Hatzenport. One of the many topics he delves into are the complex soil types to be found along this stretch of the terraced Lower Mosel Valley and the myth that has been perpetuated over the years by geologists, geographers, growers, and wine writers alike (copying from one another) that the soil here consists mainly of a grey, earthy rock called greywacke (in German Grauwacke). Not only is this an oversimplification of the diverse soils found on the terraced Mosel, but is also false, for no greywacke exists on either the Rhine or Mosel-Saar.

Krieger writes that the use of the term greywacke as a broad generalization of the region’s geology failed to take into account that greywacke has minerals called feldspar, which are not present in the stones of the Lower Mosel much less the Saar, for example. In regard to the latter, wine consultant/cellar-master Gernot Kollmann explained to me that certain sites on the Saar such as Kanzemer Altenberg and Wiltinger Braunfels (in particular, the subplot of “Volz”) consist of hard grey slate and sandstone that have no feldspar, hence greywacke; whereas, other sites such as Scharzhofberg have a deep-draining weathered slate.

The complex soils found on the Lower Mosel include quartzite, quartzite-sandstone, silty sandstone, sandy and silty slate, as well as slate with quartzite. Krieger also describes the Middle Mosel, Ruwer, and Saar as relatively more uniform with its influential rock formation coming from the clayey Hünsrück slate.

For an introduction to the Mosel and, more importantly, a better understanding of the Terrassenmosel, Krieger’s book gives great insight, but avoids name-dropping and ranking growers.

Ulli Stein called me today to announce that he finally received permission from the German authorities to make straw wine (or, Strohwein). The German Wine Law of 1971 had banned this tradition along the Mosel. As with the local custom in the Jura to make vin de paille, the Mosel also had a specialty for making straw wine from ripe grapes that were dried on straw and became dehydrated, hence producing rich and concentrated wines.

Ulli went to the EU, for the German courts had upheld the 1971 Law despite other European countries such as Austria, Italy, and France having allowed this practice. He had also challenged the ban (from 1933-1987) to make red wine in the region. (In 1933, the Nazis wanted Riesling planted and banned red grapes such as Pinot Noir; Riesling received higher prices to help finance their regime.)

Because Austria has a patent for the term “Strohwein,” Ulli has decided to use the local Moselle-Franconian dialect to name the wine as Striehween. He will be the first wine grower on the Mosel to produce this old style of wine again. Look out for this dessert wine and do try his filigreed Pinot Noir as well.

In 2000-01, during my 8-month stint at Christie’s in NYC, I had my first sublet on 1st Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues in the East Village. It was located on the same block as Prune Restaurant. Back then I never ate a meal at Prune. Since returning to NYC in 2007, I’ve eaten there on several occasions with pleasure, most recently for dinner one night at the end of April. My friend still talks about her delicious dish of razor clams in a sauce she finished off with fresh-sliced bread.

The manager, Dan Melia, who made a special Mosel Wine Merchant (MWM) menu for the growers on April 14, has been from the outset one of the great supporters of our portfolio along with Rubén Sanz Ramiro at the Monday Room, Stephen Bitterolf and Joe Salamone at Crush, and Lyle Fass at Chambers Street Wines. Without them, we would have never made a mark in NYC.

Besides buying several cases of the ‘05 Knebel “Von den Terrassen” trocken for his wine list, Dan mentioned liking some of our other selections, especially the Steinmetz “Alte Reben” that he had with his family on Thanksgiving or the Stein Bremmer Calmont Spätlese trocken.

Dan also speaks fluent, accent-free German, for he lived a couple years in Germany, of all places in Göttingen, a university town known for well-spoken German. Nonetheless, he has an obvious talent for the language.

In particular, I’m fond of the decor at Prune. It has real charm. The staff is friendly and makes you feel welcome; the kitchen buys local produce and cooks seasonal, homemade dishes; and the chef-owner’s eye for details has an aesthetic quality that appeals to me. By the way, the original zinc bar and the window frames come from France.

Today, Stefan Steinmetz called me and said an early morning storm struck Brauneberg and other parts of the Mosel Valley at around 3 a.m. Two of his steeper, more drought-prone plots higher up the Juffer hillside had some hail damage. Fortunately, flowering has yet to occur, so most damage was restricted to leaves and shoots.

Because 2007 was a very good and plentiful harvest, he feels 2008 will have naturally lower yields based on his observations in the vineyards. “The vines seem tired with less grape bunches per vine,” says Stefan.

The other night I opened a 2006 “Burg von der Leyen” from our other new addition: Lubentiushof. The non-chaptalized, dry-fermented Riesling comes only from steep-slope sites. It revealed purity, finesse, and concentration. By the way, the label has the water-color titled The Leyen Burg at Gondorf (1839) from William Turner, the famous 19th-century English painter.

Andreas and Susanne Barth own 5 ha (12.4 acres) in the northern area known as the Terrassenmosel (or, “Terraced Mosel”). They built up the domaine and its reputation almost from scratch: installing a new cellar, investing in monorails for the vineyards, and replanting vines in forgotten sites. Their renovated old home lies in a steep and narrow street in the village of Niederfell. As with Knebel, one notices the attention to details with their wines and approach. Each has a tasteful ambience, too.

In 1994, Andreas, who was studying law in hopes to becoming a judge, had a vocation to make the “perfect Riesling” and decided to take over 2.5 ha of old vines in the Gäns site. An autodidact, Andreas, started up Lubentiushof with little means and made it into one of the top-flight domaines in this part of the Mosel. He avoids the limelight and prefers to make his wines in a quiet manner without the hype.

Their top steep-terraced sites are Gondorfer Gäns and Koberner Uhlen. (“Gäns” means “geese” in the local dialect.) The former is nearly a monopole, as the Barths own 3.5 out 3.7 ha. Gäns has a mixed soil: gray and blue slate, iron oxide, quartzite, sandstone, and flint stone. This imparts complexity to the wine, especially from the 2.5 ha of old vines. His Uhlen parcel nearer the village of Kobern has mostly blue slate and differs from certain plots further downstream that have iron-rich red slate and hard sandstone. Although the growers in Kobern can legally name it Winninger Uhlen, Andreas prefers to use the proper village name for his wine.

Yields are extremely low with careful, selective, and late harvesting. No flatland Estate Riesling here. The vineyard treatments are minimal. In the cellar, Andreas uses only wild yeasts with long fermentations on the fine lees in stainless-steel tanks. He avoids racking and fining and bottling takes place late, usually in September, while others have long bottled their wines for the marketplace.

Florian Lauer, who studied oenology in Montpellier, is the 5th-generation hands-on owner/winemaker of this 6.5-ha (16.1-acre) Saar domaine. Besides his studies in the south of France, he also learned from the experience and skills of his father, Peter. Florian tends to the vines and raises the wines himself. His father and grandfather before him made the wines bottled according to individual Faß (or, barrel) numbers. Today, Florian continues on with this tradition of keeping the barrel numbers on the label, albeit blending among the barrels to achieve the style he wants for the specific number in question.

Since the family owns a hotel-restaurant, most of their production is sold locally. In fact, their wines are sold out every year. The Lauers have no export. In the past, the well-respected wine writer David Schildknecht imported Florian’s father’s wines for his retail clientele in Washington D.C. and later in Kentucky.

Many of the famous Saar estates prefer their Riesling with higher amounts of residual sugar from blocked fermentations; Florian’s focus is on drier wines. He likes to ferment with wild yeasts on the fine lees for a longer upbringing in the traditional old oak Fuders.

The majority of their holdings are in the grand cru single-vineyard Ayler Kupp, a steep south- to southwest-facing site with predominantly gray Devonian slate. As with many other famous sites, including the renowned Scharzhofberg, its boundaries were expanded beyond the core area. Before 1973, the original Kupp hillside had site-specific names that the Lauers still use today on their labels: “Unterstenberg” (at the foot of the hill), “Stirn” (higher up), and “Kern” (further to the west). The Lauers have additional plots in surrounding vineyards, among them the top Saarfeilser.

The wine style chez Lauer reflects the Saar: “steely” acidity and minerality combined with finesse and low alcohol for the drier wines. His are ample and pure without noticeable sweetness to coat them.

Besides May Day, the month of May has a couple Catholic holidays making for long weekends to go along with the many wine domaines now showing off their 2007 vintage. Since returning from my wonderful two-week trip to NYC in the latter half of April, the weather in Trier has played along all month, too, with atypical dry easterly winds, azure skies, and warm weather, à la Provence.

On this three-day weekend, Knebel presented her new collection in a tasteful and friendly atmosphere. So, I got to taste on Saturday for the first time her ’07s; friend and cellarmaster, Gernot Kollmann, took me through the wines. I scribbled some notes, including the third wine tasted in the line-up:

Von den Terrassen (or, literally “from the terraces”) Riesling trocken is a top cuvée coming mostly from the best steep-terraced sites in Winningen. This is NOT your typical Gutsriesling (Estate Riesling) from the Mosel. On the contrary, it’s a natural dry-fermented, non-chaptalized Riesling that could have been labeled “Spätlese trocken.” The grapes come primarily from the terraced site of Hamm (ca. 30%, mostly from the foot of the hill and the upper terraces), Domgarten, and from younger vines in the well-known vineyards of Uhlen and Röttgen.

Gernot did an 8-12 hour pre-fermentation maceration for this wine. The golden color (also coming from must-oxidation) and aromatics reveal this. The spontaneous fermentation took place in stainless-steel tanks on the lees at temperatures going as high as 22-24 degrees Celsius. No additives or fining.

In between Knebel’s presentation, an acquiantance drove me to the charming domaine of Lubentiushof, and I tasted through the ’06s with Susanne and Andreas Barth. He will bottle his 2007 vintage around September.

In the coming weeks, I’ll add entries on the individual selections to our MWM website. As it looks, we should have a new addition to our portfolio from the Saar Valley, where I tasted earlier this week at the domaine.

Yesterday, I poured Knebel’s wines alongside Markus Molitor (arguably one of the most respected winemakers in the region) and Gernot Kollmann at Weinhaus Becker in Olewig, a top restaurant and hotel in Trier. Following the tasting, the Beckers matched various wines from the tasting event to a delicious 7-course dinner that lasted over 4 hours.

If you look closely at the section of the late 19th-century map used for the background of my blog, you will see the area known as “Rothenpfad.” This sector within the Pündericher Marienburg vineyard consists of red (weathered) slate and is one of Clemens Busch’s terroir wines. A portion of his popular spicy Riesling called Vom Roten Schiefer (literally “from red slate”) also comes from this subsection and the other half from a red-slate parcel in the Pündericher Nonnengarten, which lies near the castle.

He use to bottle a wine from the “Rothenpfad” sector under the subplot name of “Weissenberg.” Now, he bottles this under the designation of “Rothenpfad” alongside his other top terroir wines that include “Fahrlay” (a stony blue-slate site across from his home) and “Falkenlay” (mostly consisting of a richer grey-slate soil). Within “Fahrlay” he has an older terraced plot for his “Fahrlay-Terrassen” cuvée. Likewise, he has two old-vine plots within “Falkenlay” that he bottles separately, namely the steep-terraced “Felsterrasse” as well as “Raffes.” Towards the castle he culls from old vines a wine called “Noar.” All these wines, which have been farmed organically since 1984, ferment spontaneously for a long time on their fine lees in either stainless-steel tanks or Fuders without additives or enzymes usually till mid August with a residual sugar between 9 to 30 g/l. Today, their viticultural practices follow biodynamics.

Clemens and his wife, Rita, live in a restored half-timbered house built in 1663 on the banks of the Mosel in Pünderich.

The Steins like their Riesling wines with finesse. In Germany, the Stein brothers, Ulrich and Peter, have a following among the artsy crowd in Cologne. Ulli’s wife is a cabaret artist.

They don’t submit samples to Gault Millau and had a falling out with a well-known domestic wine critic. So, you won’t see their name hyped in the press. Ulli gives his honest opinion and has a laid-back style while experimenting over the years with other methods, both in the vineyard and cellar.

For example, he was one of the first to replant Pinot Noir before the ban was lifted in the late 1980s. Moreover, he makes a unique Riesling Auslese from tiny, seedless berries unaffected by noble rot that have an intense flavor. He also hand-crafted a 2001 Auslese fermented and aged on its lees for over two years in a new Allier cask with minimal handling. In addition, he has fought for the rights of small growers being paid a pittance for their grapes in steep-slate sites such as Bremmer Calmont and has been battling the authorities in Germany to bring back vin de paille taking this all the way up to the highest courts of the EU.

I would define his style as racy and linear Riesling wines, whether dry, off-dry, or sweet. From his easy-drinking liter trocken to his top Auslese wines, one finds a common thread throughout his collection, namely finesse and acidity. He wants to avoid plump wines and off-smells and -flavors. When the selected and hand-picked grapes arrive in the winery, he usually destems and does a short pre-fermentation maceration followed by a gentle pressing and a cool fermentation.

He seeks lower alcohol and higher acidity by harvesting at optimal ripeness versus over-ripeness. Except for early drinking summer wines aged in stainless-steel tanks, almost all his Riesling age at their own pace on their fine lees in old oak Fuders with no enzymes or additives. The top single-vineyard wines ferment for the most part spontaneously, though he might add outside yeasts to a barrel if need be. Moreover, his vineyard care is close to organic. (Neither insecticides nor herbicides are used.) Stein’s yields are low. He leaves only one cane versus the heart-shaped two canes per vine. These are trained in the old manner on wooden stakes and tied down with willow by skilled women.

One of most idyllic sites along the Mosel Valley is the blue-slate, steep-terraced St. Aldegunder Palmberg-Terrassen, which is located in a small side valley. His 86-year-old father still drinks his daily bottle of Stein-Wein and continues to nurture the ungrafted 50- to 80-year-old vines on this site.

Stein’s wines are reminiscent of von Schubert’s (a customer of his), namely more dry and off-dry production never muscular or opulent in style. In the States, importers have shied away from bringing the dry Mosel Riesling to their clientele. Yet, these are some of my favorite wines for crisp day-to-day drinking.

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Also, keep an eye on the Hofgut Falkenstein, an unpretentious Saar domaine from Erich Weber, whom David Schildknecht introduced to me a couple years ago. Weber particularly likes to make steely down-home, dry-fermented Riesling aged in old Fuders.

For our portfolio we have another Saar domaine in mind…