December 14, 2009

Wow - 2007 Clemens Busch Riesling Marienberg Rothenpfad Grosses Gewachs

I had a chance to taste this incredible, dry German Mosel riesling the other night. Talk about blind tastings. I had never heard of the producer, had no idea what region in Germany it was from and no sense of the what the wine would or should be. I did know it was a Grosses Gewachs bottling, essentially Germany's recent Grand Cru designation for dry white wines. I'll admit this is my first taste of a "GG." It won't be my last.

2007 Clemens Busch Riesling Marienberg Rothenpfad Grosses Gewachs
The color was a brilliant greenish gold, making me think of an Austrian riesling. Then the aroma. Green peas? Is there gruner veltliner in here? It's hugely complex aromatically,with honey, mineral, apple and intense tropical aromas. In the mouth it's leaner than the rich smell, not some complex at this stage but with great finesse, purity and length. This is verrrry interesting wine.

I googled the producer and found Lyle Fass' terrific write up on Rockss and Fruit from his visit to the Clemens Busch estate last year. Check out the pictures of the Marienberg vineyard. It must have been an old quarry. I was pleasantly surprised to find Lyle's references to the tropicality of this wine and the "Austria meets the Mosel" aspect of the producer. I can see that in this one wine.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Cost?

Vincent Fritzsche said...

$60.

Michael Alberty said...

OK, here's an Elevage exclusive deal. 49.00 a bottle for anybody that mentions Vincent's blog while at Storyteller.

Lars Carlberg said...

Thanks for the write-up. Clemens Busch made two GGs from the 2007 vintage. One is called Rothenpfad, which is the name of a site within the Marienburg vineyard in Pünderich. Before coming across your blog, I happened to post a shot of this sector on our Mosel Wine Merchant blog.

Vincent Fritzsche said...

Thanks Lars. I was wondering about the labeling specifics. I wasn't sure if there were two GG here or just one. Makes sense that the specific site within the larger vineyard could warrant a separate bottling, much like vieilles vignes bottlings from within Grand Cru vineyards in Burgundy.

Lars Carlberg said...

You're welcome. For the 2008 vintage, Clemens Busch bottled three GGs: the regular, Rothenpfad, and Falkenlay. The regular and Falkenlay come from two different sections with gray-slate soils, and Rothenpfad has predominantly red slate. His 2008s are leaner and quite impressive. I also like his Kabinett trocken and vom roten Schiefer bottlings from this vintage.

Paul Cunningham said...

Hi Vincent, sorry you missed this one at Gruener tonight, I know you were busy pouring Pinot. What you missed however, was a flight of Kabinett trocken (unbelievable), the 2007 Rothenpfad (excellent) and a Fahrlay (slightly off dry, richer). Then never-before-in-america hand-smuggled 2008 Rothenpfad (red slate) and 2008 Falkenlay (gray slate, off the charts). (These mentioned by Lars). When I say missed, I mean OMG. Had nice chats too with Clemens and Dan (auf Deutsch). Great wines - MWM & Triage are bringing in a lot of good stuff these days.

Vincent Fritzsche said...

Paul, you're making me incredibly jealous that I missed out on this event. Thanks for the report. I can't believe I missed it.

Paul Cunningham said...

I was not prepared to be so bezaubert!