Last night I brought along a bottle of 2007 Maison Pierre Overnoy (Emmanuel Houillon) Chardonnay from the Jura region to my friend Stefan’s place to watch the Champions League final between Bayern and Inter. It was purchased by a wine-maker friend of ours at the domaine. The wine already had an orange color and an oxidized taste—a far cry from the excellent 2001 (clear, crisp, and clean) and the very good ’04, which Dany Bertin-Denis of Les Enfants Rouge once decanted and poured alongside the Savagnin. In fact, I even preferred the more opulent 2006 Chardonnay from Overnoy to the ’07. Fortunately, we had other wines to drink, including a newly bottled 2008 Pinot Noir from Günther Steinmetz. This has only 12% alcohol and is quite closed down after bottling, but so impressive. I’ve always been critical of Steinmetz’s Pinot Noirs, but his 2007s marked a change in style. And the 2008 Pinots might be his best ever.

Today, I’m taking the train from Trier to Winningen to partake in Knebel’s 2009 vintage presentation.

Below is our vintage 2009 summary for the Mosel-Saar region:

A frosty January was followed by a warm April and an early budbreak. In June, many areas of the Mosel region had an uneven and long flowering, resulting in tiny shot berries (often good for quality), but reducing yields. This was due to strong rains and a drop in temperatures followed by mild humid conditions with fears of peronospora (downy mildew), which affected Riesling in certain communes of the Middle Mosel. By September, it became drier and warmer, ideal for the grapes’ ripening (especially old vines with their deeper roots in the steep slate slopes), leading up to an early harvest in mid-October under sunny skies and cool nights. Most vintners, who were selective with multiple passes in the vineyards, picked at ideal ripeness levels, despite fears of rot, and finished by the beginning of November before the rains came. Botrytis was minimal. The healthy Riesling grapes had marked aromatics and the subsequent fermenting musts were remarkably fruity. The vintage has more similarities with 2005 than 2008. The latter is a leaner, classic year with pronounced acidity, and the 2009s have more fruitiness from the start. On the Saar, there was frost in October, and only a band of sites nearer the river were unaffected and kept their leaves.  Nonetheless, the best Saar Rieslings and certain wines of the Mosel, often from side valleys, have a noticeable mineral tension, between fruit and acidity. It’s indeed an excellent vintage.

Photo: Harvesters climbing up Peter Lauer’s site in Schonfels on the Saar, one of the few vineyards in the area that kept its leaves after the October 2009 frost.

Although no one ever noticed, I realized on my own that I had mistakenly captioned this photo from Tobias on page 27 of our Catalog 2009 as Bremmer Calmont. It’s actually Stein’s revered St. Aldegunder Palmberg-Terrassen.

Stairs up one of the many old drywall terraces at Palmberg that need constant upkeep, as in other Lower Mosel vineyards, such as Winninger Röttgen, where the Knebels have some of their best parcels. Yet, much of the Lower Mosel (also known as the Terrassenmosel) have terraced sites, like the Mittelrhein nearby. Sadly, many vineyards in both regions are being left abandoned and bramble grows there instead of vines.

On the Saar, the Lauers saved an old-vine, terraced plot at Schonfels, which slopes precipitously above a high cliff and down towards the river.

Before Flurbereingung (remodeling of vineyards), the Middle Mosel, Saar, and Ruwer had more terraced hillsides than today. Fortunately, several of our winegrowers, including Clemens Busch and Stefan Steinmetz (Weingut Günther Steinmetz), have been instrumental in saving old Riesling vines or re-cultivating steep slate slopes in their respective communes.

Matthias Knebel in his cellar in the village of Winningen. Photograph by Tobias Hannemann.

At Weingut Reinhard & Beate Knebel the main harvest is winding down. The average must weights this past week were around 95° Oechsle. For example, their old-vine parcel in Sternberg, a former site within today’s Winninger Brückstück, had 104° Oechsle.

As an aside, according to Joachim Krieger’s Terrassenkultur an der Untermosel, the highly-esteemed and original Brückstück vineyard became part of Röttgen in 1912. In turn, the authorities re-named the neighboring “Im Geisen” with the name Brückstück. As if this were not confusing enough, in 1971, the newly-designated Brückstück (i.e., “Im Geisen”) also became part of Röttgen. So, today’s Brückstück is mainly the well-situated Sternberg, a reputable, old-named section of a steep hillside with terraces that adjoins the enlarged Röttgen’s. In other words, the authorites expanded Röttgen to the south, towards the village of Winningen, and this comprises both the original Brückstück and Im Geisen vineyards.

Getting back to the harvest, Matthias Knebel, who has taken over more of the winemaking at the domaine, had this to say about the vintage:

In order to clarify one thing first: we’re very pleased with the harvest. Even if yields are described everywhere as being very low, we should nevertheless be happy about the quality of the grapes. It was reported that rot was prevalent in many areas, and one has to say that there was no bad rot—neither sour rot nor acetification. The grapes possessed from the outset of the harvest marked aromatics. The musts all tasted remarkably fruity, and those from the partly drier parcels have herbal aromas. All in all, it looks like fruitier and, again, somewhat robuster wines than 2008. We’ll have to wait and see. We’ve done our job, now the [wild] yeasts are doing theirs!

On Saturday, I visited Weingut Reinhard & Beate Knebel to taste their newly bottled 2008 vintage. The elegant two-day presentation took place—as in every year—over Pentecost (a major European holiday weekend), and the sky-blue weather played along, at least on the first day. Gernot Kollmann, who consults and makes the wines alongside Beate, offered me a ride from Trier to Winningen, so we had a chance to talk and then arrived early to open and taste the wines before the festivities officially began.

The big news at Knebel is that Beate’s youngest son, Matthias, has decided to work full-time at the domaine since finishing his viticulture studies in Geisenheim. He’ll help with the vineyard, cellar, and management workload and bring his perspective and point of view to the Knebel tradition—one that carries enormous meaning for him. He has already played an increasingly important role over the past year, accompanying me to wine-tasting events in Paris and NYC and emerging as the public face of the domaine.

In addition, after long deliberation, the Knebels have decided to redesign their label, putting the cursive script on a back label, keeping their coat of arms, highlighting the family name, and drawing the reader’s eye more deliberately to site and (when appropriate) Prädikat.

I had already traveled twice to Knebel recently to taste some barrel and tank samples: once with Stephen Bitterolf of NYC’s Crush Wine & Spirits and then again with my colleague Dan Melia and Rubén Sanz Ramiro, former wine steward at the NYC’s Monday Room. On Stephen’s visit, Matthias took us on a short hike up the drywall terraces of the Röttgen vineyard. Knebel’s vines in these plots, as with Ulli Stein’s vineyards, are mostly trained on wooden stakes, with one cane per vine, and also tied down by willow. The slate, to quote Stephen, looked more like “slate bricks” in this sector of the Röttgen. Matthias also made a quick stop for us at Heymann-Löwenstein, and Reinhard Löwenstein kindly gave us some samples to take along. The next week Matthias took Dan, Ruben, and me on a (death-defying) monorail ride up the imposing Uhlen after we had tasted some tank samples with Gernot in the cellar.

True to the 2008 vintage, the wines have lower alcohol—a welcome change—than the previous few years. In fact, I was able to re-taste certain 2007s alongside their 2008 counterparts, such as Von den Terrassen Riesling trocken from both vintages. The 2008 is lighter, with only 11.5% alcohol, whereas 2007 is just now starting to open up and reveal itself. The 2008 Riesling trocken von den Terrassen was partly fermented and aged in a large, used acacian barrel from South Tyrol. Moreover, I was also deeply impressed by the 2008 Röttgen Spätlese trocken. Gernot feels that early on it had more aromatics than the typically austere and masculine Uhlen Spätlese trocken, which also needs more time in bottle. I also liked the feinherb wines from the overlooked sites of Hamm and Brückstück. Spätlesen and Auslesen with more noticeable residual sugar and Beate’s dessert wines, though all in small quantities in 2008, were pure and very good.

To celebrate this first presentation day, I was invited with other guests to a special dinner in Koblenz that paired various dishes to Knebels’ wines, including 2006 Röttgen and Uhlen BA magnums at the end.

Today, Gernot Kollmann, cellar master at Weingut Reinhard & Beate Knebel, told me that the 2008s have lower must weights than the past three vintages, so alcohol levels will be relatively low across the board. This will be a welcome relief for those seeking tamer wines for early and easy drinking. For example, von den Terrassen Riesling trocken will have no more than 12%, probably closer to 11% alcohol. He did on average no more than 5 to 6 hours of skin contact after a light crushing. Extract levels are good from the rain during the summer. So, the wines will have good depth and complexity. Acidity was high, and the extra hang time was good for getting it lower. Ripeness levels, however, stayed more or less the same. Gray rot was less a problem this vintage (unlike in 2000), but botrytis didn’t concentrate the grapes enough to get a lot of wines with noble rot. On the contrary, the autumnal season resulted in stagnating must weights. Sorting at the vine and in the cellar was important. The dry Riesling Spätlese from Uhlen or Röttgen will be scarce in 2008. Gernot felt the grapes in Röttgen had more aromatics this year, but it’s still too early to tell. A batch of Uhlen reached 98° Oechsle. There will be more entry-level than high-end wines.

At the moment I’m updating and reworking the catalog for 2009.

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, Weingut Reinhard & Beate Knebel presented their new collection, and I got to taste on Saturday for the first time their 2007s; friend and cellarmaster, Gernot Kollmann, took me through the wines. I scribbled some notes, including the third wine tasted in the line-up:

2007 von den Terrassen (or, literally “from the terraces”) Riesling trocken is a 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 °C. No additives or fining.

In between Knebel’s presentation, an acquiantance drove me to the charming domaine of Lubentiushof, and I tasted through the 2006s with the owners, Susanne and Andreas Barth. Andreas will bottle his 2007s 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.

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 seven-course dinner that lasted over four hours.