It’s hardly a surprise that I love these wines both subjectively and for very good reason. I like red wines that lead with fruit. They aren’t the only kinds of red I like, but I’m especially fond of such wines, because they can (and do) carry a great deal of complexity, bound up in a matrix of charm. First I feel warmth and delight, and then I register all the good juju going on in the background. This can seem like a justification for simple wines, except that Walter Glatzer’s reds are often not at all simple. And other vintners’ reds can sometimes fail to reach the lofty things for which they grasp.
It’s been this way for the 32 years I’ve been tasting the wines. They’ve “improved” over the years, especially the Blaufränkisch, mostly by dint of (even) greater fruit purity, gloss and sheen. But what remains is the great friendliness and the lack of affectation. Even the topmost wines, which can certainly be as serious as anyone could desire, never jettison the completely delicious fruit that marks this estate’s reds.
The current collection is superb among the reds, and “perfectly good” among the whites. 2022 can be complicated.
Thus my constant plea for the utter beauty of these loving and welcoming reds to get the appreciation they deserve.