With restaurants closed around the country, all distributors and importers are being negatively impacted. While retail wine is still open for business, it's only a part of the wholesale wine business's success in this state. There are thousands of restaurants in New York closed, and many of them are the driving force behind these distributor's successes, especially the small guys, who rely on sommeliers and wine professionals to embrace their small, focused portfolios. We work with here, almost exclusively, small distributors who have long relied on the forward-thinking NY restaurants to support their amazing portfolios, in addition to us retailers. After all, these small books often contain the best wines from the tiniest mom and pop producers across the world.
Now more than ever, we want to support them.
So we reached out to a few, and asked them to select a producer in their book who is near and dear to them, and guest-write ane email for us to send out to all of you.
First up is Stephen Bitterolf, owner of Vom Boden, one of the best importers of the tiniest German producers (and more) in the country. Stephen worked for many years as the German buyer at one of the best shops in New York City, and now imports some of Germany's finest and most forward-thinking producers. Producers we love, like Weiser-Kunstler, Florian Lauer, Uli Stein, and more. He also has a cool hat. Take it away, Stephen! |
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Sven Enderle & Florian Moll started something of a red wine revolution in Germany in the year 2007.With the hindsight of some 13 years, nothing they did seems particularly outrageous or radical, and yet, for German Pinot Noir, their insistent focus on thoughtful farming, old vines, minimalist winemaking and a delicate elevage, was completely anathema to everything being done by most estates focusing on red wine in Germany at the time.
Sven and Florian have never looked back. Now, they are one of the most famed and culty producers in Germany (even Jancis Robison has called them “cult”) and they no longer even submit the wines for the appellation’s approval.
Their first vintage was so damn outrageous to the basic German ideology, that it was denied the appellation status (they are in Baden, just east of Alsace) because the color of the Pinot Noir was too light and delicate. Let’s repeat that to emphasize the irony: a grape famed and cherished for its lightness and delicacy was denied its appellation because it was too light and delicate. And though it’s the ultimate cliché to compare any Pinot Noir to Burgundy, the truth is their wines have more to do with Burgundy than Baden anyway.
For anyone interested in Pinot Noir as a looking glass into the soil, these are your wines. In the cool climates of Germany, the sun of 2018 was very welcome – this is surely one of the greatest red wine vintages of the last 20 years. Yet, while these wines have a deep and perfumed ripeness, they are not heavy. In fact, they are astoundingly delicate and energetic wines. And they are a study in vine age, as the difference between the cuvées has nothing to do with winemaking, only the soil and the age of the vines.
The entry-level “Basis” has vines around 25-30 years of age, the Premier Cru-level “Liaison” vines of around 50 years old, and the Grand Cru “Muschelkalk” (limestone) and “Buntsandstein” (sandstone) vines of 60 years and older.
Tasted blind, there is no doubt these wines compete with Burgundy at 2x, 3x and more the price. It's worth noting that the fact we can offer the "Grand Cru" wines is something of a perfect storm: 2018 was not only a great vintage, but it was also a generous one, so there are larger quantities than ever before. Pair that with a worldwide pandemic and, well, wines that were normally highly allocated are, for the moment at least, available.
Tasting notes below. Do not miss these wines!
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And we have a cool story to add here-- Johannes Selbach of Selbach-Oster (an iconic German Riesling producer) was in our store years ago. He, of course, looks at our German section. Of all the selections, he picks up a bottle of Enderle & Moll Pinot Noir and looks at me, rather impressed to see it here, and says "these are very, very good wines".
Wines arrive Friday.
To order, please click here. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reply to this email or call us at (607) 319-0500.
1) Enderle & Moll Pinot Noir "Basis" 2018 750ml
Sale Price: $27.99/btl!! BUY NOW
Automatic 10% off any mixed 6 or more bottles!
This is sourced from vines around 25-30 years of age. Counterintuitively, perhaps, this was one of their later pickings, and so the wine has a bit more ripe fruit – it is a wine to be drunk younger. Still, the layers of red and dark fruit and precise and clear; the wine feels refreshing with notes of soil and mineral and spice.
2) Enderle & Moll Pinot Noir "Liaison" 2018 750ml
Sale Price: $37.99/btl!! BUY NOW
Automatic 10% off any mixed 6 or more bottles!
This is sourced from vines around 50 years of age. This is a serious, structured wine in 2018 – super lean and bright cherry fruit, bramble, spice, articulated soil tones, this is really tense and nervous and benefits from some time open, or a decant. Shockingly serious given what many people consider the “soft generosity” of the vintage. Cutting and incisive on the palate, with sweet, mouthwatering ripe fruit yet so much acidity and definition. Saturating and long with great, fine tannins. “Liaison” refers to the fact the wine has both soil types famous here, limestone and sandstone, yet the acid and definition make me think more of the “Muschelkalk” (limestone) bottling than the “Buntsandstein” (sandstone) bottling – see below for more on those.
3) Enderle & Moll Pinot Noir Grand Cru "Muschelkalk" 2018 750ml
Sale Price: $57.99/btl!! BUY NOW
Automatic 10% off any mixed 6 or more bottles!
This is sourced from vines 70+ years old, planted on solid limestone (Muschelkalk). This is one of the oldest parcels of Pinot Noir in Germany. Right out of the bottle there is a dark, compact black cherry nose; it quickly begins to show the soil, a sandy, iron-rich nose, earth and dried spice. You feel the energy and freshness and structure of the limestone, unquestionably. The palate is very compact as well, bound up and full of energy: a tense red cherry core, very sharp and energetic, really super-fine with an almost meaty edge to it. The freshness is accentuated by a sappy dark green pine needle. Really fine, drying tannins, very grippy and incisive. Spicy long finish. But wow this is structured.
4) Enderle & Moll Pinot Noir Grand Cru "Buntsandstein" 2018 750ml
Sale Price: $57.99/btl!! BUY NOW
Automatic 10% off any mixed 6 or more bottles!
Buntsandstein is “colored sandstone” – the vines here are a bit younger, somewhere around 60 years old. This wine is a bit wider, a bit more enveloping. On the palate the general register is similar to the Muschelkalk, yet it is more silky, a little more serpentine in structure. It shows a really lovely spectrum of red fruit on the palate really well integrated into soil and spice and structure. Probably showing the most complete right now though still very young.
To order, please click here. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reply to this email or call us at (607) 319-0500. |
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