- New, Micro Production Winemaker
- Protege of Daniel Vollenweider
- The Remarkable Precision You Can Only Get with Terrific Attention, Skill and Small Quantities
- I Have Enough Riesling Producers, But These Are So Great, I Had No Choice but to Sell Them
- He Leases .14 Hectares in The Great Wolfer Goldgrube
- Only A Few Hundred Bottles Each Year
- Well Known Musician By Day/Winemaker by Night
- No One Would Ever Bring This In Besides Fass Selections
- 2018 Markus Heeb Wolfer Goldgrube Riesling Trocken
- Crystalline, Super Fine Mineral Structure
- To Die for
- Nose: Confectionary Slate, Meyer Lemon, Grapefruit
- Palate: Rich and Ripe but So Refined, Delicate and Mineral
- Crystalline and Persistent
- 2018 is 91 Points Mosel Fine Wines
One of the advantages I have at Fass Selections is that I can get in on the ground floor with part time winemakers that are dealing in extremely limited quantities. Also it gets their foot in the door to the many great palates on the list. If it wasn't for Fass Selections some of these micro producers from Germany would not be here. I think it's important as well to get these cutting edge and very new producers that I think have a distinctive voice to you.
Markus Heeb
Markus Heeb has that voice. I've never met Markus. He sent me samples on the recommendation of a client and friend whose palate I respect. We emailed back and forth and his wines sounded interesting as did the little I knew about his background. He works for Andres Vollenweider as his vineyard manager (or winemaker?) and that caught my eye. Vollenweider is a Swiss guy who makes brilliant and precise Rieslings almost in a Willi Schaefer style. So my interest was piqued.
Markus Heeb is a musician and works in a symphony orchestra near Cologne. I didn't know this until the other day and as readers of the emails know we love classical music at Fass Selections. He plays the clarinet. He worked in the some vineyards in Pfalz and Franken starting in 2007. In 2012 he started with Vollenweider on an internship. He fell in love with the Mosel. He rented a vineyard and then started a small business alongside his day job as a clarinet player in a symphony orchestra. It's a tricky life as it's over a 2 hour drive from where he lives to where he works in the Mosel with the wines. It's really something else.
Wolfer Goldgrube
His vineyard is the same as Vollenweider, the great Wolfer Goldgrube. I love this vineyard and if you drive around the Mosel enough you can even get sick of seeing the sign as the vineyard is located in the middle of the Mosel and to get anywhere you gotta drive by it. It's prime time real estate. It's got lots of old vines and is steep and slate as slate can be. Vollenweider became its muse as it was not famous or notable before he started making great dry and sweet wines from it. I think this is a Jr.
What he said is below.
"What I am curious about in Riesling is structure, not fruit. It`s not always to avoid to find a certain fruitiness in the wines ;-), but that´s not what I aim for, great German white wines with persistency and a mineral structure would be what I go for."
Markus Heeb
That right there is why I loved these wines. They are not about fruit. There is fruit. It's unavoidable in Riesling but these wines have stunning length and just amazing dynamic structure. These are brilliant wines. The glorious fruit of Battenfeld is not here in this wine. What these wines have is a crystalline, super fine mineral structure that is just to die for. These wines are an exercise in clarity and precision. I don't need anymore Riesling but to to not sell Markus Heeb is to not sell Van Gogh's if he comes knocking at your door and needs to move some paintings. You're an art collector. You've got a cellar full of Michelangelo and Caravaggio. Your walls are lined with Titian. But then Van Gogh comes. You don't turn him away. That's how I feel about these Rieslings and why I am selling them. I ask myself before every email that I write, why would I, Lyle Fass, buy this wine. For this one it's because I didn't need it but they are so great I had no choice.
I have no need for another Mosel producer. I got Martin Müllen who is about at the top in my opinion. Spater Veit also makes stunning Rieslings and of course their equally stunning Pinot Noirs. But Markus Heeb is special. The wine, not wines as in 2018 his entire production is a few hundred bottles of one wine, is just stunning. It's unique and distinctive. There's nothing like it. They are so far from Müllen and Spater Veit that it's not even close in style. I think my Müllen people will particularly enjoy the wine. He put his heart and soul into one wine at night while he gets his Benny Goodman on during the day. He's a pure artist. Art by day. Art by night. The wine, of course needs hours and likely days to open but he's making a few hundred bottles! This is not a wine to please the fish label sipping masses, this is an act of love. I love the fact that I can sell these wines. It's important for Markus to get his wines out there and have real wine connoisseurs such as yourselves taste and enjoy his wines. His wines don't have to be here. He can easily sell then likely within the Mosel with a few phone calls. But he sells them to me because he wants as manypeople to taste them as possible. Just like a true artist wants as many people as possible to experience their work. It's one offer a year for now. There might be Pinot in the future as I've been suggesting it since we started working together. But the one dry Riesling he makes from the Wolfer Goldgrube is really his Grand Cru. It's all he's got and he has put his everything into it and the results speak for themselves.
Today I am excited to sell the 2018 Markus Heeb Wolfer Goldgrube RieslingTrocken for $29.99 a bottle on a 4-pack. This wine is simply awesome. It takes hours to open up but it's wonderful and the 2018 vintage really suits Markus' style.
Gorgeous, classic and dazzlingly pure nose of confectionary slate, meyer lemon, grapefruit with a very tangy and citrus-focused vector but also intensely mineral.
Palate is rich and ripe but so, so refined, so delicate and so mineral. The delicacy is what makes this wonderful. Brilliant juicy and next level elegance. All is this is on a crystalline, crunchy mineral structure. Incredible texture with such a fresh, clean and mineral focused finish. It's so clean and so well made. It's undeniable. It's a playful wine yet ultra serious and so so refreshing. The crunchiness and cleanliness matched with the delicacy are standouts. Like one of those amazing amuse bouches at a restaurant you could eat 10 of but don't because more is coming. This is 10 of that precise delicious amuse bouche in a wine.
Below is 91 Point Review from Mosel Fine Wine.
"The 2018er Wolfer Goldgrube Trocken comes from a parcel situated higher up the central part of the vineyard, and was fermented and aged on its fine lees in stainless steel for 10 months. It offers a rather backwards nose made of wet stone, residual scents from its spontaneous yeast fermentation, fine herbs, and spices. It is only after extensive airing (think days rather than hours at this stage), that subtle and remarkable engaging flavors of lemongrass, white peach, pear and ginger join the party. The wine proved superbly suave yet engaging on the palate and leaves a gorgeously intense feel of pear, sugar, ginger, and earthy spices in the warm and superbly layered finish. A touch of power adds presence to the long and slightly warm after-taste. While truly outstanding, we would enjoy this dry Riesling on the younger side of its life." 91 Pts MFW
2018 Markus Heeb Wolfer Goldgrube Riesling Trocken - $35.99
($135.96 4-pack) (*Including tariff of $3.47)
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