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The Obermosel: no story is told, untile someone tells it

The Upper Mosel has nothing to do with Riesling and nothing to do with slate. Instead, we find limestone. The Upper Mosel in fact represents the beginning (or the end?) of the Paris Basin, the geological reality that informs places like Chablis and Sancerre. Instead of Riesling, in the Upper Mosel we find a winemaking culture based on one of Europe’s oldest grapes: Elbling. It’s important to understand that Elbling here feels like something of a religion. It’s a culture, a regional dialect that is spoken through this wine of rigorous purity, of joyous simplicity, of toothsome acidity. The joy of Elbling is the uncompromising vigor and energy, the raucous and super-chalky acidity. Matthias Hild, who farms about six hectares in the sleepy town of Wincheringen, told me that back in the 1980s, when he’d have an Elbling clock in at less than 8.5 grams acid, he’d taste it and question if it was Elbling at all. Which is sort of like saying you’re not sure the music is loud enough because your ears aren’t bleeding.

Vines for the Sekt are from within 4km of Wincheringen.  After harvest the Sekt goes through a 21-day cold fermentation in stainless steel.  After malolactic fermentation the wine is stored on it’s lees for 9-18 months until disgorgment.  Dosage is 10-12g/L.

-Importer notes (Vom Boden)

“Barrel X” is winemaker Florian Lauer’s Platonic ideal of what a slightly off-dry (feinherb) Saar Riesling should be. If we were in Burgundy, this would be the equivalent of a “Bourgogne Blanc.” As an appellation-level wine, it is sourced from multiple vineyards in four different villages of the Saar: Ayl (Lauer’s home village), Saarburg, Wawern and Wiltingen. Florian says, “From Ayl and Wawern, the wine gains the fruit and power, from Saarburg the racy acidity, and from Wiltingen, the spice.”

Regardless of what comes from where, this much is certain: dollar for dollar, I’m not sure there is a 750ml bottle that delivers as much joy and zing. This is the gateway drug to Lauer, to the Saar, to Riesling… be careful. Very addictive.

-Importer notes (Vom Boden)

Consider this Stein’s “1er Cru” vineyard; though it’s a 1er Cru vineyard with 70 to 80+ year-old ungrafted vines and a serious terroir of mostly blue slate. This is the “other” Himmelreich and similar to its more famous sibling in Graach, the wines from this site always show a slimmer profile, a pronounced mineral fine-ness and lift. With only about 15 grams RS (just beyond dry), this is a wildly restrained and chiseled, old-school “Feinherb.”

Importer notes (Vom Boden)

The Grand Cru dry wines of Weiser-Künstler are among the most cerebral dry Rieslings made in the Mosel. They are wines of meditation, wines that seem to have something more to do with distillates or teas made from stone, ore and flower. They have very little easy fruit to hang one’s hat on. In other words, they are among the most thrilling wines from this fabled place.

-Importer notes (Vom Boden)