A Visit to Immich-Batterieberg
11/26/12 -
This is Gernot Kollmann.
Perhaps you know that he used to make wine at Van Volxem, or that he was the winemaker for a bit at Knebel. Perhaps you’ve tasted some of the wines he made at the recently revived Immich-Batterieberg in 2009 and 2010. If so, you should jump to the bottom of this offer to see the wines, since we know you’ll want some of his 2011s.
It was a beautiful day in Enkirch, where Gernot lives at the Immich estate.
We had just been to visit Clemens and Rita Busch, and they joined us for dinner. Gernot, incidentally, is a great cook!
Before dinner, we had tasted through all the 2009s and 2010s. Afterward, we headed down to the cellar for a late-night tasting of the maturing 2011s.
Some growers in the Mosel use only Fuder (traditional barrels), others use only stainless steel. Gernot, as you can see, isn't particularly dogmatic.
The wines are often blended from cask, tank, fuder and barrique. Gernot quickly buzzed around the cellar, assembling blends on the fly.
We slept well that night after tasting, and got back down to business again in the morning, heading to the top of the Enkircher Ellergrub.
Look at the blue slate in the Enkircher Ellergrub:
Look at how dramatic, how steep and rugged the slope is. You can imagine how much work goes into tending these vines, especially without pesticides or herbicides, as Gernot chooses to do.
And the wines? Batterieberg and Ellergrub continue to be stunning. Escheburg, the blend from the four main sites wasn’t made in 2010 due to the small vintage, and we’re glad it’s back. We're also very excited by the appearance in the U.S. for the first time of Steffensberg and Zeppwingert, the last of which was simply breathtaking when tasted recently. Gernot works very hard and is doing remarkable things in a part of the Mosel that most people don’t know about. We’re paying attention, and think you should as well. These wines are expected to arrive into stock in the next few weeks. -jfr
