Wine & Spirits - Fall 2022 - 64

Top 100 Wineries
GERMANY | BADEN
Ziereisen
In Baden's sunny southern reaches, Hanspeter Ziereisen is putting out
some of Germany's most exciting wines.
The ZiereiSenS have been growing grapeS
HaNSPETER ZIEREISEN
in Efringen-Kirchen since the 1700s, but
it wasn't until 1991 that the family, led by
Hanspeter Ziereisen, decided to have a go at
winemaking. His original focus was to take
advantage of the region's warmer temperatures
and limestone soils to grow Burgundian
varieties, and he puts out some of Germany's
best pinot noir (and pinot blanc and
gris, too). But he's also come to appreciate
gutedel-the Badenite's name for chasselas,
long a specialty in this corner of the country,
which is just ten miles from Basel, Switzerland.
Raised like all his vines-organically
in the vineyard, and patiently in the winery,
with ambient yeast fermentations and long
lees times in German-made oak casks-
the results redefine the possibilities for this
often-neutral variety. Also worth checking
out are his syrahs, their licorice and blackolive
flavors suggesting tantalizing possibilities
for this end of Germany. -T.Q.T.
2018 Baden Viviser Gutedel ($21, 94 points)
This is an ambitious bottling, the fruit chosen
from a high, wind-blown patch of limestone looking
south towards Basel, the juice aged two
years in a 3,000-liter cask. The wine is rich and
clean, more mineral than fruity, reflecting the
region's relative warmth in its broad texture and
nutty notes. The reductive flintiness that initially
colors the quince and red-apple fruit gives
way with air, opening to brighter, fresher hints
of wildflowers and hay. Sophisticated and wild,
this would be delicious with a whole roasted sea
bass or grilled halloumi. Or cellar it for another
few years and drink the lighter, more herbal
2019 Heugumber (also recommended) now.
FOUNDED:
1991
WINEMAKER/
VITICULTURIST:
Hanspeter Ziereisen
OWNER:
The Ziereisen family
ACRES OWNED:
45
ESTATE GROWN:
100%
FARMING PRACTICES:
Organic, uncertified
IMPORTER:
Skurnik Wines, NY
64
2019 Baden Grauer Burgunder ($27, 94
points) Smoky and rich, this pinot gris layers
scents of flinty reduction over fruit so ripe it's
nearly red in expression. It's all held tight in a
mineral suspension, the wine feeling intense but
weightless, the acidity brisk and vibrant. This is
fascinating wine, complex, changing, wanting
time in a decanter and an entire evening to fully
appreciate.
2018 Baden Schulen Pinot Noir ($45, 93
points) Scents of rose, herbs and light blackpepper
spice brighten up this wine's gauzy
black-raspberry flavors, while the ferrous chew
of the tannins gives the wine a steadfast power.
It's mineral-laden and firm, yet light enough to
pair with cold-smoked salmon or roasted-beet
Wellington.
WINE & SPIR IT S
F all 202 2
GERMANY | MOSEL
Selbach-Oster
Questioning what is traditional in the Mosel has led Selbach to some of
its finest wines..
The SelbachS had an ouTSTanding ShowJOHaNNES
SElBaCH
ing in our tastings this year, with ten wines
recommended from their estate, and
another two from their negociant business.
Many were from 2019, the year Johannes
Selbach's son, Sebastian, came on full-time,
after stages at Dönnhoff and Müller-Catoir,
and oenology studies at Geisenheim University.
The 2019 vintage wasn't exactly an easy
one: Yields were down due to spring frost
and summer heat waves; sugar levels were
high; and September was wet. But in the
family's hometown of Zeltingen, the estate
parcels of old vines handled the vintage's
challenges well, and the fruit the Selbachs
began picking on September 23 was ripe and
clean, with healthy levels of acidity. Two of
the most exciting wines they produced that
year were picked en bloc, all at once, an old
practice they have revived as they've found
it creates extra complexity in the wines. We
would add that the practice also seems to
make the wines even more flexible at the
table than most Mosel riesling, which is high
praise indeed. -T.Q.T.
2020 Mosel Zeltinger Schlossberg Riesling
Spätlese ($32, 95 points) All of Selbach's Zeltinger
Schlossberg bottlings were fantastic in
2020, but this Spätlese felt the most en pointe,
joyous in its burst of fresh, vivid flavor. The
vibrant acidity and saline notes make it all the
more mouthwatering, adding tang and zip to the
apple, citrus and tropical fruit. A shim of mineral
flavor, reminiscent of wet slate, supports its prodigious
fruit, adding a balancing savor that lasts.
FOUNDED:
Mid-1800s
WINEMAKER/
VITICULTURIST:
Johannes Selbach
OWNER:
The Selbach family
ACRES OWNED:
59
ANNUAL PRODUCTION:
13,000 cases
ESTATE GROWN:
100%
IMPORTER:
Skurnik Wines, NY
2019 Mosel Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Ur-alte
Reben Riesling Spätlese Feinherb ($41, 94
points) This comes from a parcel of vines over
100 years old that the Selbachs picked en bloc,
all at once, and then let ferment spontaneously
in old oak fuders. It is a seamless beauty, gliding
across the palate with honeyed notes of redblushed
peach and pear and racy, limey acidity.
It feels exceptionally balanced, able to be
enjoyed on its own or next to a pork roast, now
or with another decade of bottle age.
2019 Mosel Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Rotlay
Riesling Auslese ($74, 94 points) From an
especially stony, fully south-facing parcel in Sonnenuhr,
this is plump in its sweet, peachy ripeness.
With air, it moves toward tropical notes of
mango and pineapple, with the spicy earthiness
of botrytis and a mineral firmness beneath it all.
Concentrated and deep, it needs time.
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