Some of you may remember my annual trips to the Middle Mosel village of
Erden for the local wine festival, a nice folksy venue and event.
For the 15 of us who went there it's a social gathering with food, wine and
company, but it includes serious tasting as well and visits to local
vintners. Fwiw, a few observations and notes follow:

2007 is close to a classical/typical year - different from the heavyweights
of 2006 and earlier. Acid levels are relatively lower too and those
preferring that may well go for this vintage, I think. Quality is uniformly
good and even lower ranking estates has some very good wines. Really
outstanding wines are harder to find here, however, perhaps look somewhere
else (Rheinpfalz maybe). Dr. Hermann has some of them, though, but they
don't come cheap. Willy Schaefer and Sankt-Urbans-Hof are both solid and
relatively expensive.

However, I use to go for the lesser known and lowerpriced ones. There my
vote goes for Martin Conrad of Brauneberg. The Juffer "Goldkapsel" feinherb
is especially outstanding but the collection is very good overall and a
couple such vintages may well earn him a fourth star... The Mülheimer
Sonnenlay feinherb is very good too and I feel that he is quite succesful
with those qualities every year.
(both Juffer "Goldkapsel" trocken and Juffer Auslese are very good too,
however)

Becker-Steinhauer of Mülheim is solid too. Normally, I rank him a little
ahead of Martin Conrad - this year a little behind perhaps. Zeltinger
"Steinmauer" Spätlese trocken and Veldenzer Kirchberg BA were my choices.
The latter had 160degrees Oe and a color and structure reminding me very
much of 1976!

In Erden village we noted that even small vintners had done very good 2007
wines, especially at Spätlese level. The best this year is Klaus Lotz,
today operated by the son Stefan Lotz. His Auslese "Alte Reben" was very
fine and with him having increased the acreage of the estate from 3 to 6
hectares we may see more of these wines. I liked also his dry Spätlese
which had a medal from "best of Riesling 2008" (a perhaps slightly obscure
event with awards to 630 of some 1800 submitted wines :-)

Another that has to be mentioned is Schwaab-Dietz, a joint operation between
4(!) brothers. They notch up the quality every year and the Kabinett was a
delight.

St.Anna is another winery with a young vintner. The Spätlese and Auslese
have good reviews but did not impress me for some reason. I may frankly have
been saturated at that time...

Andreas Schmitges is on a consistent level but was somewhat surprisingly
overshadowed by others in Erden this vintage. He is by far the best
businessman there (with a brand new "Vinothek" if his own, very elegant) and
thus the wines may be found outside of Germany.

In Uerzig I found that Joh. Jos Christoffel is back in form after some years
in the doldrums. The Würzgarten Auslese was far better than the Wehlener
Sonnenuhr Auslese of J. J. Prüm...

The number of estates continue falling and some of the remaining grow larger
so the future seems obvious: The mom and pop wineries residing in a hole in
the wall are long gone, many still manage with extensive assistance from
family members and the future may see these replaced with technology for
harvesting, i.e. intelligent robots... Average size of estates should
increase from 3-4 hecares to 6-8 or even larger in order to ensure a
reasonable living for the vintners.

I would be sorry to see large corporations taking over entire vineyards but
feel confident that such an event is in the far future. We may thus enjoy
the infinite variations of different vintners on their different plots for
some time yet.

Anders

On Oct 9, 12:42*pm, "Anders Tørneskog" >
wrote:
> Some of you may remember my annual trips to the Middle Mosel village of
> Erden for the local wine festival, a nice folksy venue and event.
> For the 15 of us who went there it's a social gathering with food, wine and
> company, but it includes serious tasting as well and visits to local
> vintners. *Fwiw, a few observations and notes follow:
>
> 2007 is close to a classical/typical year - different from the heavyweights
> of 2006 and earlier. *Acid levels are relatively lower too and those
> preferring that may well go for this vintage, I think. *Quality is uniformly
> good and even lower ranking estates has some very good wines. *Really
> outstanding wines are harder to find here, however, perhaps look somewhere
> else (Rheinpfalz maybe). *Dr. Hermann has some of them, though, but they
> don't come cheap. *Willy Schaefer and Sankt-Urbans-Hof are both solid and
> relatively expensive.
>
> However, I use to go for the lesser known and lowerpriced ones. *There my
> vote goes for Martin Conrad of Brauneberg. *The Juffer "Goldkapsel" feinherb
> is especially outstanding but the collection is very good overall and a
> couple such vintages may well earn him a fourth star... *The Mülheimer
> Sonnenlay feinherb is very good too and I feel that he is quite succesful
> with those qualities every year.
> (both Juffer "Goldkapsel" trocken and Juffer Auslese are very good too,
> however)
>
> Becker-Steinhauer of Mülheim is solid too. *Normally, I rank him a little
> ahead of Martin Conrad - this year a little behind perhaps. *Zeltinger
> "Steinmauer" Spätlese trocken and Veldenzer Kirchberg BA were my choices.
> The latter had 160degrees Oe and a color and structure reminding me very
> much of 1976!
>
> In Erden village we noted that even small vintners had done very good 2007
> wines, especially at Spätlese level. *The best this year is Klaus Lotz,
> today operated by the son Stefan Lotz. *His Auslese "Alte Reben" was very
> fine and with him having increased the acreage of the estate from 3 to 6
> hectares we may see more of these wines. *I liked also his dry Spätlese
> which had a medal from "best of Riesling 2008" (a perhaps slightly obscure
> event with awards to 630 of some 1800 submitted wines :-)
>
> Another that has to be mentioned is Schwaab-Dietz, a joint operation between
> 4(!) brothers. *They notch up the quality every year and the Kabinett was a
> delight.
>
> St.Anna is another winery with a young vintner. *The Spätlese and Auslese
> have good reviews but did not impress me for some reason. I may frankly have
> been saturated at that time...
>
> Andreas Schmitges is on a consistent level but was somewhat surprisingly
> overshadowed by others in Erden this vintage. *He is by far the best
> businessman there (with a brand new "Vinothek" if his own, very elegant) and
> thus the wines may be found outside of Germany.
>
> In Uerzig I found that Joh. Jos Christoffel is back in form after some years
> in the doldrums. *The Würzgarten Auslese was far better than the Wehlener
> Sonnenuhr Auslese of J. J. Prüm...
>
> The number of estates continue falling and some of the remaining grow larger
> so the future seems obvious: *The mom and pop wineries residing in a hole in
> the wall are long gone, many still manage with extensive assistance from
> family members and the future may see these replaced with technology for
> harvesting, i.e. intelligent robots... Average size of estates should
> increase from 3-4 hecares to 6-8 or even larger in order to ensure a
> reasonable living for the vintners.
>
> I would be sorry to see large corporations taking over entire vineyards but
> feel confident that such an event is in the far future. *We may thus enjoy
> the infinite variations of different vintners on their different plots for
> some time yet.
>
> Anders

thanks for the notes. I've liked the 2007s I've tasted so far, mostly
lower end. I do find leaner/more classic. A little surprised by lower
acidity comment, but haven't tasted comprehensively
Lots of those estates are new to me, I'll try to find out if imported
to US and put on "to try" list
thanks