From: Mosel, Germany
Varietal: Riesling
Taste & Critical Acclaim: This Riesling is one we were thrilled to see back in Seattle, and can’t wait for you to enjoy it for yourselves. Nervy, pure-fruited, and perfectly put in the tasting note below.
Parker über: Riesling Detonation
-- Parker: From at least 40-year-old vines in steep vineyards and bottled the same day as the CAI, the 2021 Riesling Detonation combines intense and ripe fruit with delicate and coolish slate aromas and fine flintiness. It is also really delicate on the palate, which is silky, crystalline and vibrantly fresh, vital and tensioned, with bright, light and shining fruit. Definitely a wine for terroir and oyster lovers rather than fans of Riesling as a grape variety. This is a freakily straight, pure and elegant Riesling that is as pure and refreshing as pure fish. 11% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted in October 2022. 91/100
Suckling über: Riesling Detonation
-- Suckling: This youthful dry riesling has impressive depth of stone fruit with plenty of spicy and leesy complexity. Serious concentration and salty minerality for this category (just one step above entry level), then an elegant and long crystalline finish From at least 40 year old vines. Drink or hold. Screw cap. 93/100
Pairing: More of an oyster-pairing type of Riesling, but dishes centered around seafood, particularly crab or fish cakes, scallops, and smoked trout, would also be fantastic pairing partners. Some other favorites include serving this with schnitzel, pork katsu, pork belly, and pickled vegetables of many persuasions (sausage or hot dogs and sauerkraut, choucroute, and Bo Ssam- check out the recipe below!).
Pressure Cooker Bo Ssam
By Kay Chun
About. Many thanks to importer Louis Dressner for the following information!c
Immich-Batterieberg is one of the oldest wineries in the Mosel; initially founded by a *Carolingian monastery, it can be traced back to the year 911. In 1495, the Immich family purchased the property, producing traditional dry and off-dry wines under their name for almost 500 years. In 1989, the estate was sold to a new owner. The style of winemaking quickly shifted: long, spontaneous barrel fermentations were replaced with
stainless steel, cultured yeasts, and micro-filtration. The resulting wines became slicker, fruitier, and more modern.
*Throughout the period of Carolingian rule (771–843), monasteries served as centers of scholarship. For Charlemagne, the founding ruler of the Empire, they played a key role in his efforts to revive the Roman Empire, using education to return his people to the glorious culture of Christian Rome.
After filing for bankruptcy in 2007, the estate was reacquired in 2009 by Gernot Kollmann and two Hamburg-based investors. Gernot is one of Germany's finest “up and comers” and no stranger to the Mosel: since his first internship at Dr. Loosen in the early '90s, he's also worked for Weingut Van Volxem (four vintages: 2000-2003) and Knebel (2004-2008). Since taking over, the wines are once again produced in a dry or off-dry style, with residual sugar depending on each site and each
vintage.
All of the single vineyard Cru wines are once again being vinified separately in old oak barrels; spontaneous fermentations are the norm, and chaptalization, re/de-acidification, or any other intervention during vinification is forbidden. Sulfur is added in low doses and only before bottling.
As far as the sites and terroirs go, they are amongst some of the best in the middle
Mosel. 80% of the vines are un-grafted and over 60 years old, and everything is worked organically (though not certified). Five Cru bottlings are produced: Steffensberg is on a side valley behind the village of Enkirch and is characterized by deeper, softer soil composed of copper-heavy red slate.
Batterieberg is a 1.1 h monopole within the Zeppwingert and also the place that gives the estate its namesake: Carl August Immich decided to dynamite this hill between 1841 and 1845 that permitted him to create terraces and plant vines (Batterieberg translates to Battered Mountain). The slate here is grey and very rocky, with a heavy amount of
quartz. To the right of Batterieberg is Gernot's parcel from the Zeppwingert Cru. The soil is darker here. 150m further to the right is the Ellergrub. Gernot considers this his best vineyard. Here, you will find the classic blue slate of the middle Mosel. Finally, Zollturm features darker slate soils, producing a more marked, rich minerality for this
cuvée.
Three Mosel blends are also produced: "C.A.I" (named after Carl August Immich) is a blend of the bottom rows of Batterieberg and purchased fruit from un-grafted, organic vineyards. "Escheburg" is a blend of the "b selection" grapes that don't make it into the Cru bottlings. "Detonation" is the newest addition, a blend produced from the top selection of grapes from the purchased fruit vineyards.
This wine.
Farming: Organic (not certified)
Age of vines: 20 to 65 years old
Exposure: Southwest
Fining/Filtration: Light filtration at bottling (non-sterile)
Fun facts: This wine is 70% to 80% purchased fruit from three hot sites with very poor soils. The goal is to make a lean wine with lots of tension.
It is bottled with a screw cap instead of a cork.
Appellation: QbA
Winemaking: Fermentation and aging in for a minimum of nine months. 50-80mg per liter of sulfur added at bottling.
