I stumbled across these very brief notes which I'd intended to post awhile back, as you don't see many for these wines. Better late than never I suppose. Jim was also at this dinner, so hopefully he will add some comments.
No big surprises here but I really enjoyed the opportunity to drink these wines together. Most of the wines came from Lyle in one way or another.
2013 Enderle & Moll Pinot Noir "Muschelkalk"
An initially quiet nose with some cherry cough drop notes. With air this rapidly grows unpleasant with acrid, somewhat mercaptan-like notes. Kept the rest overnight hoping it might come around but it was still undrinkable on day 2. The natural wine blues.
2013 Enderle & Moll Pinot Noir "Buntsandstein"
In contrast to our bottle of Muschelkalk, this is very drinkable -- immediately more developed and complex, with a friendly softness. I quite liked this in a natural wine idiom.
2015 Feiden Marbleous Pinot Noir
Pinot noir from Mosel! This shows a bright juicy cherry liqueur, though slightly muted. An intermittent dirty note sticks out once in awhile, and predictably there is some debate regarding whether it is corked. Nonetheless it appears to be an off bottle.
2015 Thorle Salheimer Pinot Noir "Kalkstein"
Has a pleasantly medicinal, mulled plum fruit nose with a fresh, somewhat watery palate. There's a nice baked rock minerality here. I liked this.
2013 Holger Koch Pinot Noir Kaiserstuhl
A slightly spicy nose, and a tasty, if a bit thin palate. Jim described this as an entry level wine among Koch's pinot noirs.
2014 Henrik Möbitz Pinot Noir "Kapelle"
We debated whether to include a Möbitz wine since they need so much time, but Jim generously put this bottle forward.
It has a subtle but immediately interesting spice nose that slowly opens with time. The palate doesn't quite live up to the nose yet, but this is really tasty and was one of my top wines on the night along with the Fürst. I suspect this would have showed even better had it been opened a few hours in advance. Wonderful to have the opportunity to taste this but I recommend holding another 3+ years.
2015 Rudolf Fürst Burgstadter Berg Pinot Noir Erste Lage
A pretty dark fruit and black tea nose with some oak spice. It's very young and needs to integrate its elevage, but this improved steadily throughout the night and ended up as my favorite alongside the Möbitz Kapelle. The final half glass 24 hours later was nicely integrated, softened with delicious exotic spice.
The Fürst hierarchy of vineyards and wines is rather confusing, and they make wines from several vineyards. I believe this is positioned as a 1er cru wine as erste lage is literally, "first position", and this 2015 also appears to be the first vintage - so perhaps Berg was a recent vineyard acquisition.
2013 Weingut Ziereisen Pinot Noir "Rhini"
Quite dark in color, perhaps owing to whole cluster fermentation. It's very nice, but not at the level of a bottle I opened about 6 months ago which showed incredible complexity with dried flowers, black olive and sous-bois.
Setting aside his basic pinot noir, I believe this Rhini is in the middle of the Ziereisen hierarchy, below the Jaspis Alte Reben and Jaspis but above the Schulen and Tschuppen.
No big surprises here but I really enjoyed the opportunity to drink these wines together. Most of the wines came from Lyle in one way or another.
2013 Enderle & Moll Pinot Noir "Muschelkalk"
An initially quiet nose with some cherry cough drop notes. With air this rapidly grows unpleasant with acrid, somewhat mercaptan-like notes. Kept the rest overnight hoping it might come around but it was still undrinkable on day 2. The natural wine blues.
2013 Enderle & Moll Pinot Noir "Buntsandstein"
In contrast to our bottle of Muschelkalk, this is very drinkable -- immediately more developed and complex, with a friendly softness. I quite liked this in a natural wine idiom.
2015 Feiden Marbleous Pinot Noir
Pinot noir from Mosel! This shows a bright juicy cherry liqueur, though slightly muted. An intermittent dirty note sticks out once in awhile, and predictably there is some debate regarding whether it is corked. Nonetheless it appears to be an off bottle.
2015 Thorle Salheimer Pinot Noir "Kalkstein"
Has a pleasantly medicinal, mulled plum fruit nose with a fresh, somewhat watery palate. There's a nice baked rock minerality here. I liked this.
2013 Holger Koch Pinot Noir Kaiserstuhl
A slightly spicy nose, and a tasty, if a bit thin palate. Jim described this as an entry level wine among Koch's pinot noirs.
2014 Henrik Möbitz Pinot Noir "Kapelle"
We debated whether to include a Möbitz wine since they need so much time, but Jim generously put this bottle forward.
It has a subtle but immediately interesting spice nose that slowly opens with time. The palate doesn't quite live up to the nose yet, but this is really tasty and was one of my top wines on the night along with the Fürst. I suspect this would have showed even better had it been opened a few hours in advance. Wonderful to have the opportunity to taste this but I recommend holding another 3+ years.
2015 Rudolf Fürst Burgstadter Berg Pinot Noir Erste Lage
A pretty dark fruit and black tea nose with some oak spice. It's very young and needs to integrate its elevage, but this improved steadily throughout the night and ended up as my favorite alongside the Möbitz Kapelle. The final half glass 24 hours later was nicely integrated, softened with delicious exotic spice.
The Fürst hierarchy of vineyards and wines is rather confusing, and they make wines from several vineyards. I believe this is positioned as a 1er cru wine as erste lage is literally, "first position", and this 2015 also appears to be the first vintage - so perhaps Berg was a recent vineyard acquisition.
2013 Weingut Ziereisen Pinot Noir "Rhini"
Quite dark in color, perhaps owing to whole cluster fermentation. It's very nice, but not at the level of a bottle I opened about 6 months ago which showed incredible complexity with dried flowers, black olive and sous-bois.
Setting aside his basic pinot noir, I believe this Rhini is in the middle of the Ziereisen hierarchy, below the Jaspis Alte Reben and Jaspis but above the Schulen and Tschuppen.