Fine Wine Writing by Jonathon Alsop
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IN VINO VERITAS Fine Wine Writing by Jonathon Alsop
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GERMANIA Part Two History and hedonism at Schloss Johannisberg... September 25, 2005  According to legend, Charlemagne became the first person in history to discover a microclimate when he noticed that the snows on the Johannisberg melted earlier than the rest of the landscape. His son, Ludwig the Pious, made wine in the early 800s from vineyards planted at the foot of the mountain, and for the last 900 years or so, the entire hillside has been growing grapes and producing singular and recognized wines.Insignificance is too big a word to describe how I felt as I descended the stone stairway to the ancient cellars of Schloss Johannisberg. Dwarfed by history, maybe, but now that's too many words. Small talk as we stood on the stairs for a moment seemed smaller than usual, then winery manager Christian Witte opened the door to the cellars to reveal the entire expanse illuminated by candlelight. We crunched loudly across the loose stone floors as we walked between rows of wood casks, the candlelight falling darkly all around us. Christian spoke a little about history and continuity in producing wine. If the track record of his predecessors at Schloss Johannisberg is any measure, he is at the beginning of a tenure that could last 30 or 40 years. We were in awe, and there are not too many words for that. These cellars have outlived many owners, managers, and wine writers, I thought. Napoleon seized the winery and awarded it to a loyal ally in the early 1800s. It eventually became property of the Habsburg emperor in Austria who gave it to the Metternich family in exchange for 1/10th of the annual harvest, an amount that is still paid today. Deep in the cellar, a giant wood cask is engraved with the words of the German poet Heinrich Heine: "If my faith could move mountains, Johannisberg is the mountain I would carry with me." I realized that seeing the cellars in candlelight was perhaps the least efficient but most authentic way. We were seeing it not entirely for ourselves, but as others in history have seen it. And by the bottle, we can still have Johannisberg with us. 2004 Schloss Johannisberg Riesling Kabinett (about $25) When you hold the high ground in wine making, you get to set some standards about what's a good wine in your neighborhood. Just as all California continues to react to the genius of Robert Mondavi, all riesling is a conversation, one way or another, with Johannisberg riesling. This wine sets the bar high with abundant flowers and fruit, creamy vanilla flavors, and hints of buttered toast. It is the classic representation of riesling to the rest of the world. 2004 Schloss Johannisberg Riesling Spaetlese/Late Harvest (about $40) Richer, riper, rounder, as if someone turned the volume up and gave this wine a little bit more of everything. There's a core of ripe tropical fruit that gives the wine a nice citrusy edge. 2004 Schloss Johannisberg Riesling Auslese/Select Harvest (about $65) Since Schloss Johannisberg grows only one kind of grape, it has to harvest through the vineyards a dozen times or more to extract the different ripenesses at different times during the season. This is a gigantic amount of work, most of it by hand, but it captures and reveals wine identities and personalities that are unique. This wine is rich in pear, white peach, and guava. It tastes like honey and smells like crisp white linen. 1975 Schloss Johannisberg Riesling Spaetlese/Late Harvest and 1971 Schloss Johannisberg Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese/Raisin Select Harvest (collectors' items, retail price not available) There's nothing more annoying than reading about some earth-shattering, mind-bending wine only to discover 1) it's expensive beyond human imagining, and 2) you can't get it anyway, so I'm not going to dwell on these two wines, although I'd like to. It's amazing even to taste a 30 year-old wine -- the vast majority have been drunk up or poured out or used to clean pennies by now -- much less one that's still alive and full of flavor. Especially awe-inspiring was the 1971 TBA (Raisin Select Harvest) which was harvested after the grapes had hung on the vines so long they were literally raisins. Pressing released a sweet, thick, unctuous nectar that created an identical wine. Amazingly, even after almost 35 years, the wine tastes young and fruity, like sweet mulberries. The only things that belie the age are the golden color and a stony minerality behind the juice. This wine essentially challenges a number of ideas about what a good wine should be -- young and dry, for two -- but it ends up cracking my personal top ten list of best pure hedonistic pleasure wines. I suppose if you were a Habsburg you could plead your case and buy a few bottles of these immortal wines for something as mundane as money. Of course, I'm no Habsburg, and neither are you, so the tiny tastes I got will have to suffice for the both of us. AVAILABILITY: Schloss Johannisberg is widely distributed in North America by Valckenberg, 918-622-0424, and Old Vine Imports, Old Vine Imports, 707-585-2809. |
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