Hi folks
Some of you know that I use to venture into the middle Mosel for the wine
festival at Erden which takes place first weekend in October. This year we
were a group of 29 people having a great time. A social event but also with
serious tasting, this was my 19th visit - 20th for the originators who
discovered this little gem of a folksy, unpretentious but charming local
festival with vintners and families doing their best to make visitors feel
welcome and have a good time with music, food and wine.
The tastings at the "Strassenfest" and with vintners elsewhere were
instructive and I'll get to the point immediately.
The 2005 is not a great vintage, merely very good... It is very well
balanced, with a slight lack of acidity in my view, but without the common
notes of bitterness of the two previous years which may make this year's
wines more attractive to the general public. We had several excellent
wines at all quality levels, but for me the star achievement with a majority
of vintners was with the dry and semi-dry wines offered. If you have a
mental picture of dry Germans as thin, sharp and unsatisfying that no longer
holds true. Quality has risen steadily through the 90ies and this vintage
certainly is one of the very best in Mosel for these wines.
Were I to have to choose between 2005 and 2004 for the sweet ones I'd be
tempted by the austere 2004. That certainly is a more long-lived one. But
we did meet a lot of tasty Spätlesen and Auslesen - there is actually no
reason to avoid these.
The luscious and opulent 2003 wines were easily recognisable but seem to age
a little bit fast. Perhaps not unexpected, given the low acidity of that
year. Petrol and mango appeared in some of the glasses and that are notes
I'd expect from a decade old Riesling. You may want to consider moving a
number away from your cellars, i.e. drink up, or buy with some care unless
you do go for ripe old Rieslings, of course.
2002 was a good year and the wines hold well, I think. No hurry with these..

As to the individual wineries - Kees-Kieren, St. Urbans-Hof and Schloss
Lieser are worth looking for and so is Maximin Grünhaus I learned. I met
with a very good dry Fritz Haag and an excellent Spätlese from Reinhold
Haart and these wineries are probably safe bets in 2005 too.
Among the smaller ones Martin Conrad at Brauneberg does a respectable 2005
with a very nice and delicately filigree feinherb wine from the Brauneberger
Juffer, but I'd have expected more from him. Others were more enthusiastic,
however. Karsten Becker of Becker-Steinhauer in Mülheim had a lot to show,
brilliant and balanced wines with body and taste. Very good, indeed,
certainly an upcoming winery.
Andreas Schmitges in Erden at his best packs a lot of flavour into his wines
and manages to keep them smooth and balanced with the right amount of
acidity for a backbone. After one or two mildly less succesful vintages he
is again convincing.
A note may be taken of Klaus Lotz in Erden. The present winemaker is young
Stefan Lotz who consistenly was among the two best of Erden at all quality
levels. This is one to follow closely.

fwiw
Anders