Only Sold to Michelin-Starred Restaurants and Fass Selections
The 2010 is Just a Crazy, Crazy Great Wine, Ready to Drink
Both from Centgrafenberg, One of My Favorite Vineyards
Franken is the Volnay/Pommard/Corton Style to Baden's Vosne Romanee Style
Our sales of German Pinot Noir are going through the roof (we cannot keep them in stock) and for good reason. The Germans have always had the terroir to make great Pinot but have finally figured
out the cellar work (mostly the proper use of oak) to make great pinot. Today's offer is from Franken. where the wines are totally different from those in Baden, where Enderle & Moll and Ziereisen are located. Franken wines are mineral and earthy and similar to the wines of Volnay and Pommard whereas Baden Pinots are more spicy, sensual and deeply fruited. Christoph Walter is one of the top producers in Franken and makes stunning, balanced, mineral, complex wines from two of my favorite vineyards in the world. While the Baden Pinots are great, many of you, based on personal preference), will prefer the Franken Pinots. Vive la difference. Up first, and the so called meat of this e-mail is the 2010 Christoph Walter Spatburgunder Centgrafenberg for as little as $27.99 a 4-pack. Run and buy this wine because for well aged Pinot from a Grand Cru vineyard (he is not in VDP so his wines cost much less) you cannot and will not ever find a better deal. The wine is just ridiculous. I've gotten tons of OMG emails about Walter, almost as much as Enderle & Moll, albeit with the style being so different. If I could refresh your memory 2010 is probably best Spatburgunder vintage until 2015 came along. It has very high acids but also incredible concentration and depth of fruit. These wines will age for a very very long time. The wine has ridiculous, Mt. Fuji levels of concentration. You will not believe it as soon as you taste it. It's Premier/Grand Cru all the way. Intensely rich palate with mouth coating and super suave yet big tannins. Sappy as all can be and is so long and just coats the mouth with dense sweet fruit and finishes with a nice interplay between earth and mineral. The nose is all earth and minerals. Impressive weight in the mouth. Just an incredible wine for almost no money. You cannot find Pinot this great at this price from anywhere in the world besides Germany at the moment. As authentic as it gets.
Next up, I have, as there is no other way to put it, something ridiculously special. One of the rarest of the rarest. After we finished tasting, Christoph asked me if I wanted to taste another wine. I said of course. He goes away and gets a bottle. He says he only sells it to Michelin starred restaurants and never to retail or to people who visit the winery. He made 300 bottles of the Christoph Walter 2007 Pinot 274 which can be had for as little as $49.99 on a 3-pack. But, wait, what is this wine? It is my Franken dream. It is 50% Spatburgunder and 50% Fruhburgunder. Mind. Blown. Also the Pinot 274 clone is the best clone Walter works with. I knew this wine had to exist but only Christoph had the cojones to make it. Make no mistake this wine is drinking superbly at the moment. Fruhburgunder is a Pinot Noir variant that ripens 3 weeks earlier than regular Pinot Noir and is something I swoon for if I can find it. Insane aged Burgundian nose. Sous-bois up the wazoo. Leafy, earthy, dusty, wet poodle. One of those noses you smell and two things happen. 1), You cannot stop smelling because of the purity and vividness of the aromas and 2), You can't stop smelling because there is no way this is from Germany. It smells most like the 1978 Billard-Gonnet Pommard Rugiens Phillippe Billard opened for me a few years back. It is all there. I swear it smells like great aged Grand Cru Red Burgundy. Huge, dense, ripe and sweet fruit and killer inner mouth aromas. Stunning secondary flavors of truffle, leather and sweet fruited earth. Big tannins. Amazing. You will not believe this wine. I could not believe this wine and it was trapped in my mind all trio. This is VERY LIMITED (obviously) and will be ALLOCATED if need be.
I am very, very lucky to work with Christoph Walter and with his exquisite wines all coming from a vineyard I think I know better than any in the world, which is the Burgstadter Centgrafenberg. I also believe this to be one of the great vineyards of the world. On par with Clos de la Roche, Mazis-Chambertin, Wehlener Sonnenuhr, Niederhauser Hermannshöhle, and whatever you call the magical ground that Enderle and Moll Muschelkalk comes from. It is vineyard royalty. It was made famous by Rudolf Fürst, then it got even more famous by the pioneering work of Paul Fürst, his son and Christoph works alongside his son, Sebastien Fürst, who is a good friend of mine. I've visited Fürst around 8 times at their winery that sits plop in the middle of the Centgrafenberg. It is a spectacular winery and one of the most special and tranquil places I've ever been. The Centrgrafenberg is protected by a forest on most edges and there is always blue netting as the wild boars are always coming out of those woods to feed on the Fruhburgunder and Spatburgunder. They like Silvaner and Riesling less. The vineyard, with its imposing tall forests on on most sides and sloping downward right into Burgstadt itself is quiet and zen like.
Christoph's rows, as we were waking through in mid August were badly damaged from hail in some parts and there were so few grapes. But what little was there was so nice. Tight, small, compact clusters. 2016 will be very limited but extremely special I think. But the nice thing about representing someone like Christoph, who after my most recent visit, I can 100% say, with certainly he is a humble genius. He has been making really brilliant Pinot Noir in this sleepy village for 20+ years and it barely gets out. Some to Scandinavia. In Germany it is available of course, but not much. Whoever has gotten the first batch and has opened and tasted them, knows the genius that is Christoph Walter. He holds his wines back till they are ready to drink and we are the better off for it, because as much as we love to all have cellars, we also drink much of our wine way too young. It's the nature of the beast. Christoph, is doing God's work in holding these back and today I have two gems that are current release. Yes, these are BOTH current releases. The wines, if I had to describe them briefly, would be as distinctive as they come with character for days. That is the initial impression. There is nothing like them. He is kind of like the red Martin Müllen, except even crazier in that the holding back when ready program is even more extreme. They are woodsy Pinots with a stunning depth of fruit at every quality level. I love the woodland, earthy character of these wines with zero sacrifice of the tiny berry crunchy fruit that the Centgrafenberg is famous for.
2010 Josef Walter Spatburgunder Centgrafenberg - $29.99
($111.96 4-pack)
2007 Josef Walter Pinot 274 - $52.99 ($149.97 3-pack)
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