At the time I met Henrik Mobitz at his lovely condo in Freiburg, I had been trying to taste and sell his Pinot Noirs for a while. It always just never worked out. Lars Carlberg, who has the best subscription Mosel site out there, is the man who introduced me to Henrik Mobitz via e-mail and arranged for me and my business partner to meet him this past summer. I had heard from so many sources that these were the best Spatburgunders that Baden, and possibly all of Germany, had to offer.Today I am super excited to offer the 2011 Koepfle Spatburgunder for $39.99 (I could sell this for $60 easily, maybe more, it is that great.) I have a very limited amount of this and this is the only shot till the 2012 arrives. This wine has all of the characteristics that drive people to spend hundreds of dollars a bottle on Burgundy.
There is a story here and that story begins with the brilliant, inquisitive and multi-talented Henrik Mobitz. It started in 1996 when he made his first wine in a 10 liter glass ballon in the bathroom. He made his first Pinot in 2000.
Henrik is not a full time winemaker. His estate is a passion project and he adamantly told me he will never ever get bigger than his current production. That production is 2,000 bottles. That covers 4-5 wines per vintage. There is Pinot, Gewurz and a Weissburgunder. These are ridiculously small amounts for a normal importer, but for Fass Selections this is perfect. It makes sense for us. This has all the trappings of a potential cult wine. Pinot Noir, uber small production and extremely high quality. Don't you want to get in on the ground floor? At times in wine retail history, DRC, Jayer, Dujac, Petrus and Lafleur all went for normal prices.
Henrik has a day job working for a pharmaceutical company. He works in drug design and medicinal chemistry to develop new modalities against cancer and other diseases that have very high medical need. Henrik tells me he has trouble not to sneak in alcoholic moieties into the cpd's he designs. Sounds like some serious chemistry humor there.
At night though, Henrik tends to his vines in Freiburg, which is one of the more beautiful areas of Baden. He sources grapes from four vineyards: Koepfle, Kanzell, Steinberg and Kapelle. When I met Henrik, we immediately took a drive to his vineyards. It is about a 20-25 minute drive from his house. I must say, this is an amazing setup he has and I definitely had some major envy. The perfect escape after a long hard day curing cancer.
Henrik is not a farmer. This is important to know as he brings a fine wine background to his winemaking. Not a fine wine background in making wine but in drinking it. Freiburg is a three hour drive from Burgundy and Henrik went and still goes often. The man knows his Burgundy. The man also knows his California Pinot and his Pinots are like a hypothetical blend of both, but still with a profound sense of place that is unmistakably Germany. In one word. Distinctive. That is what I look for in wine. Henrik's Pinots have distinction in spades.
His vineyards are beautiful. I mean, head-spinning, breathtakingly beautiful. His rows are so well tended too and his 2012's on the vine looked and tasted great. Comparing his vines to a neighbor's vines is day and night. There is a Tim Frohlich sense of order in his parcels. If I have ever looked at vines and grapes and knew the wine was going to be killer, this was that time.
Before we left the vineyards Henrik took us to the top of the Koepfle vineyard and behind a row of vines heirloom tomatoes were growing. Henrik picked them for the dinner he and his lovely wife cooked for us. Wine and heirloom tomatoes from the same vineyard. Was I in heaven? Nope. Baden. But damn close.
Please reply to this E-Mail by Friday, March 29 at 7 PM EST with your orders. After that I cannot accept any more orders.
This wine will very likely be allocated - I can't confirm orders until Friday.
When I travel to Europe my absolute favorite place to be is in the vineyards. It brings me an inner peace like nothing else. After an hour in Henrik's vineyards we drove back to his house to taste the wines and have a meal.
Henrik is very outspoken and opinionated about almost everything so naturally we got along. Germans are usually very well behaved and very reserved and almost disturbingly polite and by the book. Henrik's opinions were refreshing. Not only was he a brilliant winemaker, but I could also tell that he was going to be a friend. It's always nice to work with friends.
Now the wines were poured into the requisite Zalto wine glasses and we were off. It was obvious from the first sniff and swirl that we were in rarefied air. I think I sniffed the 2011 Koepfle Pinot Noir for around 20 minutes before I took a sip. The nose is a panoply of spice. Like a bazaar. The purity was absurd. This was like top flight red Burg. So much nuance, so much complexity. The palate was just heavenly. Built like a brick house but oh so elegant and juicy. The finish lasts and lasts and the precision is phenomenal.
What struck me about this wine was how it was so different from most of the Baden/Wurrtemberg Pinots I had tasted recently at the giant GG tasting in Wiesbaden. Okay, scratch different. Better. Leaps and bounds better. I asked Henrik why and his answer was candidly brilliant. He said that in his belief, there can be no great Pinot made without high risk and freedom in the cellar (hands-off!). But as all Pinot lovers know, the reward is certainly worth the risk as great Pinot is a holy grail amongst most wine lovers. He continued that German winemaking tends to be based on fear and the need to control and the resultant wines are dull, flabby, over-oaked, over-extracted and hot. The worst ones are like caricatures of Pinot Noir.
Henrik Mobitz draws his inspiration to make Pinot Noir from Burgundy and California and that is why he decided to go ahead and take the plunge and indulge his passion. The wine world is a better place because of that and the world is a better place because of Henrik's day job.
These wines will arrive in the Fall.
Please reply to this E-Mail by Friday March 29th at 9 PM EST with your orders. After that I cannot accept any more orders.
If I could please ask you to hit reply and send me your billing and shipping addresses along with your order if you are a first time customer. My phone number is 917-912-4355 and you can reach me to give me your CC #'s (we prefer not to receive credit card numbers over E-Mail). You will have an invoice within 72 hours after the offer ends.
2011 Henrik Mobitz Koepfle Pinot Noir (Limited) - $39.99 ($233.94 6/pack) (Limited)
2011 Henrik Mobitz Koepfle Pinot Noir MAGNUM - $79.99 (Limited)
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