Germany · Pfalz · Forst an der Weinstrasse · White · Still · wine-wine · 1422052
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| Vintage | Packing | Offers | Bids | Market price | WA rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 1 x 3L | 0 | 0 | ||
| 2018 | 1 x 3L | 1 | 0 | 2974.64 | |
| 2018 | 12 x 75cl | 0 | 0 | 8923.92 | |
| 2020 | 12 x 75cl | 0 | 0 | 8226.12 | |
| 2020 | 3 x 75cl | 0 | 0 | ||
| 2020 | 6 x 75cl | 0 | 0 | 4113.06 |
Rating: 95 –95
Bassermann's 2021 Forster Kirchenstück Riesling GG exhibits a ripe, elegant and finely spicy nose still dominated by Stockinger (?) oak and sur-lie aromas. On the palate, the wine is dense and compact, fresh and very long, revealing much substance and concentration. It needs time, but structurally, everything is there for a long-distance run. 13% stated alcohol. Tasted in Wiesbaden, August 2022.
Rating: 91 –91
Bassermann-Jordan’s 2011 Forster Kirchenstuck Riesling Grosses Gewachs leads with site-typically musky, narcissus-like perfume allied to intimations of lemon, grapefruit, white peach, walnut, and a maritime amalgam of salinity and alkalinity. Expansive but firm in feel, this finishes with considerable but ultimately well-integrated bitterness of citrus pip, peach kernel and walnut, balanced by saliva-inducing salinity. I would not be surprised to witness even more nuanced complexity developing with a few years in bottle, but suspect that this will never boast quite the satisfying primary juiciness exhibited by several of its immediate siblings. 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: 92 –92
White peach and lychee garlanded with musky narcissus scent Bassermann-Jordan’s 2010 Forster Kirchenstuck Riesling Grosses Gewachs, then go on to inform an oily, glycerol-rich palate that nonetheless harbors welcome primary juiciness as well as animal and mineral intrigue of an intricately complex sort. Piquant yet rich notes of peach kernel, toasted hazelnut and grains put me in mind of white Burgundy, adding a further layer to the complex tapestry of this stone-tinged, ultimately under-stated yet by no means overly austere and in some ways still site-typically decadent bottling that ought to merit following through at least 2018. 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: 87 –87
Bassermann's 2006 Forster Kirchenstuck Riesling Grosses Gewachs displays formidable concentration, but as with the corresponding Jesuitengarten, there is a certain amount of roughness. Ripe peach, tinged with bitter peach kernel and musky animal notes add interest, and there is certainly ample sheer persistence. Time will tell whether further interest or any sense of polish emerges. 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