Enkircher Ellergrub - Riesling (15)

Riesling | 80+ jaar oude stokken, ungrafted | blauw schiefer | monopole wijngaard van 2,1 hectare | echte ‘sponti’ riesling | rijp fruit | smokey | diepgang | zeer grote wijn | potentieel tot 40-50 jaar verder rijpen | 11% met 15 gram restzoet 

Immich Batterieberg

De man achter de wijnen van Immich-Batterieberg is Gernot Kollman. Na stages bij Dr.Loosen, van Volxem en 4 jaar bij Weingut Knebel, besloot hij in 2009 het toen failliete wijngoed Immich Batterieberg te kopen om daar zijn eigen wijn te produceren. Gernot staat bekend om zijn fraaie beendroge stijl Riesling die hij spontaan vergist op eikenhouten voeders in de Mosel. Minder restzoet, maar een spatzuivere, energieke levendige wijn met een betere expressie van de wijngaard. Een Riesling met enorme klasse!

Review

From 80+-year-old ungrafted vines on weathered blue slate rocks, the 2015 Riesling Enkircher Ellergrub offers a super subtle and precise bouquet of slate oil, some citrus fruit flavors and highly delicate, perfectly ripe but also bright and fresh Riesling aromas and spices. There is great purity, finesse and vitality on the palate which reveals a super ripe and concentrated but also elegant and refreshing Ellergrub character with a lot of salt and tension. The 2015 is very intense and densely woven but also has the transparency and vitality of a grand vin. Immich-Batterieberg holds 2.1 hectares in this vineyard, so it is quantitatively the most important grand cru, and in 2015 it is also qualitatively the most important one next to the Zeppwingert. Keep the 2015 Ellergrub for at least four or five years. Stephan Reinhardt 95/100

More and more and thus far with each vintage even more convincing, Gernot Kollmann is pushing Immich-Batterieberg (one of the oldest wine estates of the Mosel valley) into the small but fine group that produces really great dry Rieslings along the Mosel, Saar and Ruwer. They are sourced from five extremely steep grand cru vineyards located between Traben-Trarbach and Enkirch. All of them were ranked in the highest class of the Prussian Vineyard Classification of 1868, which itself was based on Napoleon’s single plot classification of 1804: Ellergrub, Zeppwingert and Batterieberg (on particularly quartzite-rich slate soils) as well as the pure south-facing Steffensberg (on iron-rich slate). Since late 2014, the Trabener Zollturm is the fifth grand cru of the domaine. A very large portion of the vines are very old (60+ years) and ungrafted and, thus, provide a rare genetic diversity but also naturally low yields (30 hectoliters per hectare or even less). Combined with the organic/biodynamic farming, this leads to deep and complex, highly individual, precise and elegant Rieslings for which only the finest barrels are chosen to become grand cru. The de-classified wines from the grands crus source the Escheburg, which is an impressive super second. Regarding the 2015 vintage, Gernot Kollmann is not less enthusiastic than his colleagues. "Given this very hot summer, we are finally surprised how much acidity and finesse the wines have. Also, the harvest was very easy. Botrytis was very rare and during the vegetation period we had just four sprayings to protect our vines." The Immich team started harvesting not as early as others on October 12, but had already finished 17 days later on October 29. The crus were all picked during the last week of the harvest. The botrytis was sorted out and, in the Zeppwingert, selected for a fascinating, piquant and mineral Auslese in the old Immich style. Kollmann's range is full of highlights and only the Zollturm does not yet have the vitality and tension of the other crus. But, that's mainly due to the fact that this cru has only been cultivated by Immich-Batterieberg since 2015 and needs a couple of years to adapt to the organic farming that gives the other crus so much more precision, vitality and energy after a few years! The Ellergrub and the Zeppwingert are outstanding in their purity, finesse and elegance as well as in their terroir expression. The old-styled Auslese (which is much less sweet than most of its peers) is simply gorgeous and provided with electrifying acidity!