Egon Muller Magic, Plus Australia’s Vinous Stonehenge: Weekly Tasting Report (Nov 8-14)

Senior Editor Stuart Pigott was in the Mosel over the past week for a final round of visits for his just-published Germany Annual Report, and what a lineup it was, with the legendary Egon Müller-Scharzhof and Joh. Jos. Prom estates heading the bill.

During the last decades, while the great majority of the leading producers switched to making dry wines, this pair of giants in the Mosel region stuck doggedly to the off-dry style that was dominant when Stuart and James started tasting German wines back in the early 1980s. And they continue to refine it.

Egon Muller IV gave a long and detailed explanation of the special weather pattern that makes the 2022 vintage so different from recent hot, dry years. “When the rain started at the beginning of September, the soil was so dry it absorbed all the water and none of it went into the grapes,” he said. “The best wines we picked were those from September. Only after the heavier rain of Oct. 2 and 3 did botrytis appear, and it then spread very fast.“

Unfortunately for Muller, the botrytized grapes rarely shriveled due to repeated rain and he was unable to make the Auslese Gold Cap, BA and TBA wines for which the estate is world-famous. But the wines he was able to make are real beauties.

The most astonishing of these is the Egon Müller-Scharzhof Riesling Mosel Scharzhofberger Auslese 2022, which has a cornucopia of summer fruit and flower aromas. It is seriously concentrated but in a self-confidently relaxed way, with fabulous textural complexity at the finely-nuanced finish.

Anyone seeking a less expensive taste of Egon Muller magic is recommended the Egon Müller Riesling Mosel Scharzhofberger Kabinett Alte Reben 2022, This is very crystalline with delicate white tree fruit and white flower aromas. It has fantastic precision and silkiness on the light-bodied palate that flashes like the blade of a saber in the sun.

The Mosel region stretches out over a couple of hundred kilometers due to the way the river snakes its way through the surrounding hill country, and Stuart was not surprised to find that the harvest situation in the Saar (a tributary valley of the Mosel), where Egon Muller-Scharzhof is based, was rather different to that in the Middle Mosel. It is home to the Joh. Jos. Prum winery, often referred to by fans simply as “JJ.”

Katharina Prum has been managing JJ for more than a decade with the support of her father, Manfred. She really struck gold in 2022,  producing a string of remarkable Auslese wines. The most astonishing of these is the limited-production Joh. Jos. Prüm Riesling Mosel Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Auslese Long Gold Cap 2022 ,which is very lush and creams with a tropical fruit coulis character (so much papaya!) It also has decades of aging potential.

“We had to select rigorously and throw away quite a lot of grapes,” Prum said about the vintage. “2022 is one of the smallest harvests we had in recent times, but the results justified being so radical!“

Her row of riesling Kabinett and spatlese wines from 2022 was also stunning. Anyone looking for a steal should try the Joh. Jos. Prüm Riesling Mosel Graacher Himmelreich Kabinett 2022, with its wide spectrum of aromas ranging from crisp pear to white peach, wild berries and herbs. It has impressive concentration for the light-bodied category and is so racy it comes off as barely off-dry.

Back in the 1980s the Immich-Batterieberg winery further downstream on the Middle Mosel was an insider tip. After a period of erratic performance it came into the capable hands of Gernot Kollmann  with the 2009 vintage. The wines from a number of recent vintages were very impressive, but 2022 looks like the best of modern times.

Here the focus is firmly on dry wines, and all the single-vineyard bottlings from 2022 have a super-mineral personality, none more so than the perfect Immich-Batterieberg Riesling Mosel Zeppwingert Reserve 2022. The wine marries off-the-scale concentration and minerality with an extraordinary delicacy and light-footedness, making it as charming as it is monumental.

It came from a 0.45 hectare parcel of ungrafted vines planted more than a century ago. The best half of the grapes from there were selected for this wine, the other half going into the Escheburg cuvee (this producer’s de facto village wine). There was 12 hours of skin contact before pressing, then the wine was fermented in one 300-liter and one 225-liter barrel. The barrels had both already been used about 15 times, so imparted no oakiness to the wine.  Clearly, production of that wine is very limited and this won’t be easy to track down, but the whole range is very impressive in 2022.

AUSTRALIA'S VINOUS STONEHENGE

Wines hewn of grenache, mourvedre, roussanne and a litany of other recently planted Rhone and Italian cultivars impressed Senior Editor Ned Goodwin MW during his recent trip to the central Victorian region of Heathcote. Late ripening and equipped with a carapace of phenolics as much as obvious freshness, these varieties augur positively for exciting wines across a warmer future.

To date, however, Heathcote has been known for sturdy iterations of shiraz, largely born of ancient, red Cambrian soils that exceed 500 million years of age, making them among the oldest in the world.

Yet driving north from Melbourne airport, Ned was surprised to learn that the southernmost extremity of the Heathcote appellation, or Geographical Indicator (GI), boasts completely different geologies. Abutting Macedon, the coolest wine region on the Australian mainland, the dominant geological makeup in these parts, spread between Mia Mia, Redesdale and Tooborac, is granite.

Large, gray granitic boulders punctuate the landscape like a vinous Stonehenge, controlling the retention and refraction of heat and Australia’s intense ultraviolet light, something that “we have only recently begun talking about,” according to winemaker Adam Foster of Syrahmi. It is no wonder that his Home Block vineyard faces north, planted from east to west, and controlling exposure to the intense heat of the setting sun rather than the once-traditional north to south exposure.

Planted to a density of nearly 9,200 vines per hectare, the vineyard is spread beneath the shade of the boulders, eking out the refractive light while sheltering from its intense reflection. Foster explained that intra-vineyard competition amid the root systems ensures that just enough nutrition is gleaned from the meager soils to promote ripeness of the grapes, while controlling yields. While the vineyard was planted as recently as 2017, the quality of the wines is writ large. The 2021 Home Block Shiraz, a barrel sample, is savory and firm. There is little in the way of untoward sweet fruit, boding exceptionally well for its future.

And that, as a rule, is what defines Heathcote. There is a more savory tone to the fruit of the better shiraz than that from the larger producing regions of South Australia. While the wines can be powerful and are not necessarily pitched to the floral soprano of the northern Rhone, they are grounded, less primary and less overtly “fruity” than many other Australian regional iterations. Their tannins are also firm and strident across the palate, arcing from fore to aft while cleaving any excess into a nourishing whole.

Yet as Ned enjoyed comparative tastings across Heathcote’s subregions, he came to understand that the degree of savoriness and tannic fortitude in the wines is not only maker-dependent, but influenced heavily by aspect as much as geology. The southern granitic sites impart freshness and a certain delicacy – exhibited by the Wild Duck Creek Estate Springflat Shiraz 2021 – as much as the Syrahmi wines, while the decomposed volcanic basalt that comprises the ochre Cambrian soils of the central zone, around the Heathcote township, confer a dusty “terracotta earthenware note” according to Simon Osicka of Paul Osicka wines.

The Jasper Hill Shiraz  Heathcote Georgia's Paddock is archetypal for 2021, a riveting example from a cooler, attenuated vintage. The tannins are long-limbed, refined and flecked with that Heathcote pottery-ware typicity and a skerrick of tea tree. The same goes for the Sanguine Shiraz Heathcote Inception 2021, another stellar example.

Meanwhile, there are the Camel Ranges to consider. The warmer western side of these gentle mountains delivers greater concentration to wines such as the brilliant Tellurian Shiraz Heathcote Sommet 2021, over the cooler eastern side and its leaner, more fragrant mien. Not one is more exemplary than the Kennedy Shiraz Heathcote Cambria 2021. The northeastern extremity of the region around Graytown is unique in its own way. This zone abuts the neighboring GI of Nagambie, a subregion of silty, alluvial floodplains with dense fissures splitting the topsoils. Here, cabernet sauvignon as much as shiraz puts on a good show. The Paul Osicka Shiraz Heathcote Moormbool 2021 displays a patina of powdery tannins that immediately transports the drinker to those friable soils, the place and the wondrous diversity of a region that already delivers great things, while promising so much more.

In our Hong Kong office, Associate Editor Claire Nesbitt tasted the latest top rosé Champagne from Taittinger, the Comtes de Champagne Brut Rosé 2011. Taittinger’s rosé Champagnes are always serious and vinous despite its focus on chardonnay. The 2011 is a deep orange-cherry color with excellent weight for the vintage, which was marked by ups and downs in temperature and unpredictable summer rain and hail. It’s more open compared with their stunning 2007, 2008 and 2009 vintages, but while the 2011 is a little less structured, it’s lovely to drink now or in the next few years.

Meanwhile, the Bellavista Franciacorta Vittorio Moretti Riserva Extra Brut 2016 impressed us with its richness and finesse. It’s also a blend of chardonnay and pinot noir, vinified into a white sparkling that was disgorged after 70 months on the lees, and it’s deliciously long, nutty and biscuity – a top Italian competitor to vintage Champagnes.

And from the Australian state of Victoria, Bass Philip’s 2021 Estate wines stood out this week at a portfolio tasting at Hong Kong wine merchant Ginsberg + Chan. Their vineyards, planted to pinot noir and chardonnay, have been farmed biodynamically for 20 years in the relatively cool area of South Gippsland. The Bass Phillip Chardonnay Gippsland Estate 2021 is concentrated and full-bodied, yet wonderfully fresh, full of buttery, salty layers and notes of stone fruit and pie crust that last for minutes.

The Bass Phillip Pinot Noir Gippsland Estate 2021 is also long, more fruit-driven, with a wealth of small red berry fruit and very fine tannins.

– Stuart Pigott, Ned Goodwin MW and Claire Nesbitt contributed reporting.

The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated during the past week by James Suckling and the other tasters at JamesSuckling.com. They include many latest releases not yet available on the market, but which will be available soon. Some will be included in upcoming tasting reports.

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