COMBO-PLATTER OF RIESLINGS

The two producers sent a total of thirteen wines, so I tasted them interchangeably, enjoying the contrasts. I won’t make a habit of this, but it seemed right this time.

STRUB 2017 NEWBIES

New to me at any rate, and sadly, not enough of them. Many of the most interesting wines (the “GG”s and the Pettenthal Silvaner among others) weren’t included, so my quick notes from October ’24 at the winery will have to suffice. Many growers still send only what their American importer offers, omitting the uncommercial and/or the fascinating quirks. Nonetheless, we shall persevere.

The three sweet wines could either just barely be tasted, or couldn’t be tasted at all. I doubt very much if the wines were faulty – I have known the estate for 35 years and they are highly competent. I think it was a problem with the screwcaps themselves, or else a reduction they caused, or conceivably an issue with the bottling line, but then I’d have to assume the sweet wines were bottled at the same time. I’m also guessing these were rogue bottles, but in any case I’m not writing about them, as they don’t show “true.”

A FEW 23s FROM JAKOB SCHNEIDER

A new facility has been built on what was, when I first visited here in 1978, the barn. Now it is an up to date winery, at last, and it will allow a highly talented grower with first class land to show his entire potential.

They, too, sent the “American portfolio,” though I tasted everything eight months ago in Niederhausen.

A note: I am separating the notes for the two estates, though I’m tasting them interchangeably. Together it’s just 13 bottles, plus the contrast will be instructive. Sebastian Strub apprenticed at Dönnhoff and took away (at least) some of the Nahe sensibility. There’s also a bit of terroir overlap between Nierstein’s red-slope and the soils of some Niederhausen sites – Klamm most notably.