Germany · Pfalz · Forst an der Weinstrasse · White · Still · wine-wine · 1823064
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| Vintage | Packing | Offers | Bids | Market price | WA rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 1 x 3L | 1 | 0 | ||
| 2018 | 6 x 75cl | 0 | 0 | ||
| 2019 | 6 x 75cl | 1 | 0 |
Rating: 96 –96
The 2021 Forster Jesuitengarten Riesling GG is one of the stars of the vintage in the Pfalz and all Germany. It displays very clear, concentrated and ripe fruit with yeasty and smoky spicy notes on the very deep and complex nose. Vital, pure and fresh on the palate, tremendously compact, with lots of energy and salinity, this is an exceptional dry Riesling from the small Forst grand cru. 12.5% stated alcohol. Tasted in Wiesbaden, August 2022.
Rating: 94 –94
The Bassermann-Jordan 2011 Forster Jesuitengarten Riesling Grosses Gewachs is pungently scented with mint, sage and coriander as well as bittersweet, iris-like floral perfume. These combine on a polished palate with generously juicy quince and pear matrix for a soothing and metaphorically cooling effect. A stony undertone helps showcase the sheer succulence of fruit as well as the billowing herbal and floral notes in a long, luscious finish. This is an unusually fruity and youthfully generous expression of its great site, but one that in no way lacks interactive complexity of herbal and mineral dimension. Expect memorable performances through at least 2022. Director Gunter Hauck greeted me with a nearly complete collection of Ulrich Mell’s 2011s – and what a collection! Regrettably, I have repaid his generosity – after having had to accept significant gaps in tasting a number of recent line-ups – by being delayed in publishing these tasting notes on them and many of their vintage 2010 predecessors. Although picking of Riesling in 2011 began here already in the first week of September – to insure “crunchy” acidity – due to those instances where a second budding had followed May frost, certain sites did not ripen fully or get picked until late October and early November, making this one of the longest harvests on record at Bassermann-Jordan. In general, remarks Hauck “we had no difficulty achieving 90 Oechsle in Riesling and could have had more, but we preferred to harvest a little earlier here and there to insure good acidity so that in twenty years there will still be some Spiel to the wines.” Late picking was also what enabled Auslese, Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese to be selected in Hohenmorgen, unprecedented for at this address, not to mention the estate’s first smidgeon of Kirchenstuck T.B.A. since 1971. Often the purest botrytis is that which comes early, but in these instances its late appearance dazzled. Even so, Hauck notes that “if we hadn’t been required” – i.e. for the sake of the Grosse Gewachse – “to do a double selection, we would not have had this phalanx of botrytis wines.” And speaking of rarities, I tasted one promising example from 2011 of those (non-Riesling!) experiments that the team here is conducting with skin maceration and “orange” vinification in amphora. After the almost universal penury of 2010 (which chez Bassermann worked out to just 29 hectoliters per hectare overall), 2011 featured frost in many of the estate’s lower-lying vineyards, so that the volume of generic bottlings was especially reduced. (There was so little Auf der Mauer Riesling in 2010 that I wasn’t offered an opportunity to taste it.) In a sign of the times, with the exception of one generic Riesling bottling from purchased fruit that I did not taste, the 2010 and 2011 collections here are made-up entirely of either legally trocken or unabashedly sweet wines (which in 2010 “begin” with Auslese). Incidentally, a rather garish new variation on this estate’s art nouveau label now graces most of its Rieslings. And in another labeling change, the capital “S” was dropped with 2011 from those dry Rieslings where it had over the last couple of vintages appeared – writ rather large – in apparent allusion to “selection,” or perhaps “superior.” Importer: Importer: Magellan Wine Imports, Inc., Centennial, CO; tel. (720) 272-6544
Rating: 90 –90
Pungently resinous green herbs and tobacco along with smoky black tea and crushed stone make for a fascinating aromatic display in Bassermann-Jordan’s 2010 Forster Jesuitengarten Riesling Grosses Gewachs, and those elements interact with apple and white peach on a firm palate. This rather introverted Riesling finishes with restraint yet intrigue. I suspect it will become more impressive over the next several years and merit following through at least 2017. (Incidentally, this bottling incorporates the mere hundred liters of Forster Freundstuck from the vintage.) Director Gunter Hauck greeted me with a nearly complete collection of Ulrich Mell’s 2011s – and what a collection! Regrettably, I have repaid his generosity – after having had to accept significant gaps in tasting a number of recent line-ups – by being delayed in publishing these tasting notes on them and many of their vintage 2010 predecessors. Although picking of Riesling in 2011 began here already in the first week of September – to insure “crunchy” acidity – due to those instances where a second budding had followed May frost, certain sites did not ripen fully or get picked until late October and early November, making this one of the longest harvests on record at Bassermann-Jordan. In general, remarks Hauck “we had no difficulty achieving 90 Oechsle in Riesling and could have had more, but we preferred to harvest a little earlier here and there to insure good acidity so that in twenty years there will still be some Spiel to the wines.” Late picking was also what enabled Auslese, Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese to be selected in Hohenmorgen, unprecedented for at this address, not to mention the estate’s first smidgeon of Kirchenstuck T.B.A. since 1971. Often the purest botrytis is that which comes early, but in these instances its late appearance dazzled. Even so, Hauck notes that “if we hadn’t been required” – i.e. for the sake of the Grosse Gewachse – “to do a double selection, we would not have had this phalanx of botrytis wines.” And speaking of rarities, I tasted one promising example from 2011 of those (non-Riesling!) experiments that the team here is conducting with skin maceration and “orange” vinification in amphora. After the almost universal penury of 2010 (which chez Bassermann worked out to just 29 hectoliters per hectare overall), 2011 featured frost in many of the estate’s lower-lying vineyards, so that the volume of generic bottlings was especially reduced. (There was so little Auf der Mauer Riesling in 2010 that I wasn’t offered an opportunity to taste it.) In a sign of the times, with the exception of one generic Riesling bottling from purchased fruit that I did not taste, the 2010 and 2011 collections here are made-up entirely of either legally trocken or unabashedly sweet wines (which in 2010 “begin” with Auslese). Incidentally, a rather garish new variation on this estate’s art nouveau label now graces most of its Rieslings. And in another labeling change, the capital “S” was dropped with 2011 from those dry Rieslings where it had over the last couple of vintages appeared – writ rather large – in apparent allusion to “selection,” or perhaps “superior.” Importer: Importer: Magellan Wine Imports, Inc., Centennial, CO; tel. (720) 272-6544
Rating: 91 –91
A metaphorically cooling array of herbs and striking suggestions of salinity and alkalinity in the nose of the Bassermann-Jordan 2009 Forster Jesuitengarten Riesling Grosses Gewachs give way to a polished, bright, and persistently pungent palate impression whose tactile sense of crushed stone minerality and saliva-inducing salinity make for a striking finish. Suggestions of white peach and papaya; grapefruit, lemon, and brown spices convey a sense of fruit richness in what is still a relatively tightly-laced context. This ought to gain in expressiveness over the next several years and perform well for at least the better part of a decade. What I tasted of Ulrich Mell’s latest collection is pretty consistently excellent. That includes, just as last year, several highly expressive entries in its residually sweet Riesling echelon, where total levels of sugar are successfully being dialed back from levels that prevailed a half dozen years ago in order to achieve greater refreshment, elegance, and youthful drinkability. As usual, despite an extremely cordial reception by director Gunter Hauck and a visit from owner Achim Niederberger, I was frustrated in my attempt to take the full measure of this estate’s latest accomplishments, since a considerable number of dry wines were not offered for tasting based on their having sold out early-on at the winery, while only a very small subset of Bassermann offerings are to be found stateside. Incidentally, reds, nobly sweet Rieslings, and Grosse Gewachse continue to be finished with natural cork, whereas all other Bassermann-Jordan bottlings – representing around 80% of production – are now sealed with screwcaps. The top dry wines here – including all of the Grosse Gewachse – were bottled already in June. Importer: Magellan Wine Imports, Inc., Centennial, CO; tel. (720) 272-6544
Rating: 90 –90
Tropical and citrus fruits along with pungent herbs in the nose of the Bassermann-Jordan 2008 Forster Jesuitengarten Riesling Grosses Gewachs lead to a sleek, refined, but not terribly complex palate performance. The purity and sheer length are admirable; the wine needs time to show its potential; and it should be worth following for 10-12 years. The 2007 has filled-in and added complexity since I tasted it in September, 2008, and is now showing even more impressively than as recorded in issue 185. Ulrich Mell picked most of Bassermann-Jordan’s crop in early and mid-October, but clearly in the top sites there was already ample ripeness. As usual, I was unfortunately not able to taste all of the dry wines at the estate – Kirchenstuck, with its 1,200 bottle production, being predictably among the absentees – and these wines are exceedingly difficult to come by once they have been sold out on subscription inside Germany or allocated to export markets, each of which typically receive only one or two different crus. In a sign of the times – slipping sales abroad and disinterest in non-trocken wines (above all from the Pfalz) inside Germany – no wine was bottled this year at Bassermann as Spatlese. But lower yields across the board were certainly also a factor in that decision, with this year’s volume of Grosse Gewachse down by a third (and with no Kalkofen bottled in that prestige category). The several nobly sweet wines I tasted were among the best I have had in recent years, and the tendency toward overdone sweetness that has previously struck me as characteristic of Mell’s approach was this year nowhere in evidence. Importer: P. J. Valckenberg International, Tulsa, OK; tel. (918) 622-0424
Rating: 91 –91
The Bassermann-Jordan 2007 Forster Jesuitengarten Riesling Grosses Gewachs exudes musky, narcissus-like and chamomile floral notes mingled with hints of herbs. It comes to the palate plush and glossy, with pear and peach fruit wreathed in flowers and herbs and tinged with pear pip and peach kernel; then finishes with intensity yet refinement, surely set to remain fascinating and delicious for at least 10-12 years. General Manager Gunter Hauck thinks wine maker and vineyard manager Ulrich Mell and the Bassermann-Jordan estate had their greatest aesthetic as well as commercial success yet in 2007. This includes their nearly 26,000 bottles – sold almost entirely by subscription – of seven Grosse Gewache, only three of which they enabled me to taste. (And the estate’s dry wines seem to be virtually absent from the U.S. market.) On the strength of my experience, this is indeed a strong collection at the dry end, although I continue to run counter to the grain of at least most German wine writers in finding the Bassermann-Jordan sweet wines (harvested this vintage already in late September and early October) marginally less impressive and at times overwhelmed by their sheer sweetness, rather than possessing precisely the clarity, elegance, and subtlety that are generally among the strong points of the estate’s dry Rieslings. Importer: P. J. Valckenberg International, Tulsa, OK; tel. 918 622 0424
Rating: 86 –86
Also recommended, but no tasting note given. The crop was virtually cut in half vis a vis normal, and hail spoiled the possibility of Freundstuck or Pechstein Grosses Gewachs as well as of other normally routine bottlings. Ulrich Mell and his team harvested nearly all of this year's nobly sweet wines (which represented the largest crop in those categories for many years) prior to the great October 3 rain. But even so, the subset of these that I tasted was hardly of uniform quality or distinguished by clarity. After that, the bulk of the harvest - including most of the -great growth- material - had to be harvested as quickly as possible. Lesser sites were intensively picked-over during the day to remove botrytized berries, relates Commercial director Gunter Hauck, so that they could be harvested overnight by machine, -because by the next day it would already have been too late- and the results of the earlier triage would have been rendered futile. -We had all shades of rot,- adds Hauck with a chuckle. Importer: P. J. Valckenberg International, Tulsa, OK; tel. (918) 622-0424