Winemaker Notes
Balance is the main attribute of our 2011 vintage, with all characteristics combining harmoniously. Prominent, but perfectly integrated acidity, powerful extract without over concentration, and a very fine nose with a noble finish.
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Peppermint, cassis, and struck flint pungently inform the nose of Immich-Batterieberg's 2011 Enkircher Steffensberg Riesling; then join hints of spice from barrel as well as grapefruit and kumquat oils in accenting a juicy reserve of white peach. Palpably dense and phenolically pronounced, this, nonetheless, serves for ample refreshment, and its prolonged, wet stone-underlain finish offers a welcome sense of buoyancy. It seems to me quite easy to imagine that were only another half percent of alcohol present, this wine's bitter elements would be too reinforced and its sense of buoyancy compromised. I am inclined to anticipate this being best drunk over the next 3-4 years. Kollmann cautions me, though, that Steffensberg was more expressive before as well as immediately following bottling than the corresponding wine from the Batterieberg, and that it might well be suffering more from its recent bottling. As for the wine's pungently reductive cast, I can testify from my experience in the 1980s with Georg Immich's wines that it is at least partly associated with Steffensberg terroir.
Rating: 90+
Riesling possesses a remarkable ability to reflect the character of wherever it is grown while still maintaining its identity. A regal variety of incredible purity and precision, this versatile grape can be just as enjoyable dry or sweet, young or old, still or sparkling and can age longer than nearly any other white variety. Somm Secret—Given how difficult it is to discern the level of sweetness in a Riesling from the label, here are some clues to find the dry ones. First, look for the world “trocken.” (“Halbtrocken” or “feinherb” mean off-dry.) Also a higher abv usually indicates a drier Riesling.
Following the Mosel River as it slithers and weaves dramatically through the Eifel Mountains in Germany’s far west, the Mosel wine region is considered by many as the source of the world’s finest and longest-lived Rieslings.
Mosel’s unique and unsurpassed combination of geography, geology and climate all combine together to make this true. Many of the Mosel’s best vineyard sites are on the steep south or southwest facing slopes, where vines receive up to ten times more sunlight, a very desirable condition in this cold climate region. Given how many twists and turns the Mosel River makes, it is not had to find a vineyard with this exposure. In fact, the Mosel’s breathtakingly steep slopes of rocky, slate-based soils straddle the riverbanks along its entire length. These rocky slate soils, as well as the river, retain and reflect heat back to the vineyards, a phenomenon that aids in the complete ripening of its grapes.
Riesling is by far the most important and prestigious grape of the Mosel, grown on approximately 60% of the region’s vineyard land—typically on the desirable sites that provide the best combination of sunlight, soil type and altitude. The best Mosel Rieslings—dry or sweet—express marked acidity, low alcohol, great purity and intensity with aromas and flavors of wet slate, citrus and stone fruit. With age, the wine’s color will become more golden and pleasing aromas of honey, dried apricot and sometimes petrol develop.
Other varieties planted in the Mosel include Müller-Thurgau, Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) and Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc), all performing quite well here.