Cellar Group Meets to Taste "Rhône-style Wines Not from France", Bristow, Virginia, April 2024

Organized by Grant Crandall, on April 20, 2024, the Cellar Group met at the home of Al Guber in Bristow, Virginia. Al had selected "Rhône-style Wines Not from France" as theme of the tasting. As usual, everybody brought a bottle of wine and a corresponding dish. There were 14 wines plus 2 bonus wines.

Northern vs Southern Rhône: differences (wine-searcher)

The length of the valley means that Rhône wines are the product of a wide variety of soil types and mesoclimates. The region's wine-producing areas cover such a distance that there is a widely accepted division between its northern and southern parts. Rather neatly, they are separated by a gap of 25 miles (40 km) between the towns of Valance and Montelimar, in which almost no vines are grown.

This division is reflected not only in geography and preferred grape varieties, but also in the quality and quantity of wines produced. The smaller, more quality-driven northern section focuses almost entirely on Syrah for red wines and Viognier, Marsanne and Roussanne for whites, while the larger and more prolific south employs a much longer list of varieties.

The most notable of these are the red varieties Grenache and Mourvèdre, which are combined with Syrah to produce the 'GSM' blend so characteristic of the southern Rhone. While the granite-blessed slopes of the north are paired with a continental climate, the rocky, sandy soils of the flatter south enjoy the warmer winters of a Mediterranean climate.

Prestige is also a key differentiator between the northern and southern areas of the Rhone. The north boasts old and highly respected names, such as Hermitage and Côte Rôtie, but it accounts for only five percent of the valley's total wine production.

The remaining 95 percent is made in the south under often less-prestigious and less region-specific names. The south is not entirely lacking in prestige, however, as it is here that the Châteauneuf-du-Pape appellation is located.

Arriving

Social Wines

The Wines we Tasted

14 Rhône-style Wines Not from France

Karen Stokes 2020 Skinner Grenache Blanc, El Dorado, CA 

White bean salad

Stephanie Castelli 2021 Tablas Creek Vineyard, Esprit Blanc de Tablas, Paso Robles 

Cheese

Grant Crandall 2020 Acquiesce Roussanne Lodi 

Chicken liver mousse

Deb Fiola 2017 Vindemia Winery Reggatta de Blanc (Santa Ynez Viognier Roussanne) 

Mushroom/truffle oil 4cheese crostini

Angela Crandall 2020 Straight Out of Paso Rose (44 Syrah, 30 Grenache and 26 Carignan) 

Caponata

Brian Castelli 2022 Tablas Creek Vineyard, Patelin de Tablas, Paso Robles 

Mushroom and leek galette

Rex Bambling 2016 Epoch Estate Blend 58% Syrah, 19% Mourvèdre, 17% Grenache, 6% Tempranillo (Paso Robles) 

Mini beef sausage wellington bite

Al Guber 2021 Linnie Calodo Sticks & Stones 75% Grenache, 15% Syrah, 10% Mouvedre (Paso) 

BBQ Burnt Ends

Joe Fiola 2013 Cline Cashmere (53% Mourvedre, 25% Syrah, 22% Grenache) 

Dry-Rub Pulled Pork

Christian Schiller 2018 McGah Family Vineyards Scarlett Petite Sirah Rutherford Napa Valley 

Root Vegetable Pasta

Jennifer Crafts 2018 Saxum James Berry Vineyard 64% Grenache, 15% Mataro, 14% Syrah, 6% Carignan (Paso Robles Willow Creek District) 

Roasted turkey with sun-dried tomatoes and olives

Dave Barber 2022 Magic Box from Spain, which is 90% Syrah and 10% Grenache

Turkey, Juniper and Peppercorn Terrine

Annette Schiller 2015 Cass Backbone Syrah Paso Robles Geneseo District 

Mousse au Chocolat

Al Guber 2019 Efeste Knight Commander Ciel-du-Cheval (Washington) 

Dark Chocolate

Bonus Wines

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Dear wine aficionados,

Tax season and April 15th are behind us. Now we all have time to think about exciting travel to iconic wine regions.

The first trip this year goes to iconic Loire Valley. Someone pulled out because of medical reasons, hence one room (sgl. or dbl. occupancy) has now again become available. However I have to cancel asap to avoid penalties. 

LOIRE VALLEY WINE TOUR:  Sunday, June 9 - Thursday, June 20, 2024

The Loire Valley is a huge wine region spanning from Muscadet in the west to Sancerre in the east bordering the Burgundy region and then south to the Auvergne mountains parallel to southern Beaujolais and the Côte Rôtie. This vast region has about 185,000 acres of vineyards, most of which are on the hillside banks of the Loire river and its many tributaries. The Loire Valley is home to 87 appellations and produces wines of a sheer diversity of styles and varietals, ranging from bone dry to sticky sweet dessert wines, red, white, rosé, vinified in both still and sparkling format. Signature grapes are Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc for the whites and Cabernet Franc for the reds. The wines are simply delicious, the tannins in the Cabernet Franc are tamed and the fruit is just beguiling and the exceptional high quality of the wines across the board for little money is just amazing. The Loire Valley’s viticulture is steeped in history and still today has a cohesive artisan wine culture. It respects tradition but is at the same time dynamic and experimental. It is the Loire wine region where biodynamic wine production took off and subsequently this region has become the spiritual home of natural winemaking. Currently three quarters of wineries and about 80% of the vineyards have achieved some sort of environmental accreditation. 

An added attraction of this wine egion is the stunning beauty of the châteaux which dot the landscape.  Of course we will also visit some of the magnificent châteaux and we will even stay in one to completely “feel” the Loire Valley and its incredible history.

Click here for the itinerary: https://ombiasypr.com/index.php/wine-tours/loire/loire-itinerary

FALL WINE TOURS:

GERMANY: the classic Rhein and Mosel regions: Wednesday, August 28 - Friday, September 06, 2024: The tour starts in Wiesbaden and ends in Mainz.

We travel along the main wine arteries of Germany: the Rhine river, the Mosel river, and the much smaller Ahr and Nahe rivers. Roman, medieval, and modern history accompany us all the way and will help us to understand what German wine is all about. The beauty of the landscape, the steep vineyards, the romantic Rhine valley, the quaint villages, the stories behind the wineries and their families, and the gorgeous wines we will taste at world-renowned estates will give us a renewed understanding of German wines. This is Riesling country and the spot on the planet where the Riesling grape developed tausend years ago, and subsequently morphed into the best white wine grape for producing crisp, fruity, elegant, delicious wines. There is one exception: the tiny Ahr valley and Assmanshausen in the Rheingau where Pinot Noir always was and still is king. If you are a Riesling fan, this is the ultimate tour for you.

RHÔNE:  Northern and Southern Rhône: Sunday, October 13 - Wednesday, October 23, 2024: The tour starts in Lyon and ends in Avignon.

Join us as we explore in detail the wines of the Rhône Valley. We start in vibrant, cool, sophisticated Lyon, the capital of Haut Cuisine. We stop in the Northern Rhône where names such as Côte Rôtie, Crozes-Hermitage make us crave a glass of wine. We follow the eponymous Rhône river south to Avignon, the city that was the seat of the papacy for the better part of the 14th century. We stop in Châteauneuf du Pape. We do a side-kick to the gorgeous Dentelles de Montmirail where we find the wines of Gigondas, Vacqueyras, Séguret, and the sweet wines of Rasteau. The southern Rhône belongs to Provence. Provence: this immediately ignites a deep yearning for the fragrance coming from Lavender fields, for the special light the Impressionist artists masterfully captured in their paintings, for a very special "savoir vivre", and for the dark red, fruity, spicy wines.

Don’t hesitate to contact me via telephone, WhatsApp or email for any questions you may have. I am happy to speak with you. 

Enjoy the beautiful spring season.

Best

Annette

Wine Tours - Wine Education - Wine Events

Annette Schiller, Diplom-Volkswirt

Washington DC - Frankfurt am Main

USA: Ph and WhatsApp +1 703 459 7513

GER: Ph and WhatsApp +49 -177 337 0281

www.ombiasypr.com

Office:

6404 Woodsong Ct

McLean, VA 22101 - USA

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Chain Bridge Cellars, owned and run by Doug House, is a leading wine store in the greater Washington DC area, a few blocks away from where Annette and I live. In the recent newsletter I was very happy to see the announcement that Gernot Kollmann, co-owner and winemaker at Weingut Immich Batterieberg in the Mosel valley, was coming to the store for a tasting.

Gernot presented 5 of his bone-dry Mosel Rieslings. Following the tasting I had the Weingut Immich Batterieberg Riesling Trocken C.A.I. 2021 with a dozen of Virginia oysters at home. 

Gernot and I go back a number of years.

In 2015, Annette organized a winemaker dinner with Gernot Kollmann (plus Clemens Busch, Weingut Clemens Busch, Mosel, and Dominik Sona, Weingut Koehler-Ruprecht, Pfalz) at the trendy BToo on 14th Street NW in Washington DC (now closed).

We visited Weingut Immich Batterieberg in 2017 on a Germany Tour by ombiasy led by Annette Schiller. 

Weingut Immich Batterieberg is part of the Louis/ Dressner portfolio.

Invitation/ Chain Bridge Cellars (McLean, Virginia) - Producer Spotlight:  Profoundly Dry Immich Batterieberg Rieslings with Winemaker Gernot Kollmann

Bone Dry. Mosel Riesling.

That’s what Gernot Kollman does and, as Wine Advocate wrote a few years ago, “under the direction of Gernot Kollmann, Immich-Batterieberg has quietly grown to become one of the Mosel's top domaines for dry Riesling.”  

Come see how as you meet Gernot and taste:

Wallflower Mosel Riesling Briedeler Herzchen Trocken 2018 - Made at the estate and with estate fruit in collaboration with Virinia's Early Mountain winemaker Ben Jordan!

Immich Batterieberg Riesling Trocken C.A.I. 2021 - the "entry level" bottling honoring estate founder, Carl August Immich

Immich Batterieberg Riesling Escheberg 2020 - a blend of select parcels from all of Gernot's crus.

Immich Batterieberg Riesling Briedeler Herzchen 2020 - From a steep south-east facing location with gray to red slate on the right side of the Pündericher Marienburg.

Immich Batterieberg Wermut NV - Not even going to try to describe the kaleidoscope of aromas and flavors here!

Gernot will share the story of his estate (including why there’s a cannon on the C.A.I. label), his vines, and how climate change has helped reshape Germany’s most famous Riesling region. As usual there’s no charge for our Producer Spotlight tastings held upstairs around the tasting table, but we do ask that you reserve one of the five 30 minute sessions from 5pm to 7:30pm so we can make sure everyone has plenty of time to enjoy and appreciate the wines.   Don’t miss this one! 

Weingut Immich Batterieberg at Louis/Dressner Selections

Louis/Dressner Selections is a wine importing company founded in the early 1990’s by Joe Dressner and his wife Denyse Louis.  The “M” was added when Kevin McKenna joined forces with them a few years later, thus completing the LDM triumvirate. LDM, as they are known, were never interested in scores, never interested in wines with “gobs of fruit,” and never interested in highly paid wine consultants.  They are interested in low-impact, organic farming methods, and they are interested in elegant wines, especially those from the Loire Valley and Beaujolais; they were exploring these wines at a time when few others were.  Their focus has always been on the vignerons, on the people who make the wines.

Weingut Immich Batterieberg/ Bowler Wines

Bowler Wines: We are very excited to be working with Gernot Kollmann, one of the most watched winemakers in Germany. After working at Van Volxem and then making the Knebel wines in 2008, Gernot had the opportunity (with partners) to purchase the historic estate of Immich-Batterieberg. 

The Immich family history in the Mosel dates back to the Middle Ages, when a Prince von Esch possessed the 12th-century building. Located in the center of Enkirch, the original section of the castle, Escheburg, is named after him. The Immich family would own the estate for over 500 years (1425–1989). In the mid-19th century, Carl August Immich needed more cultivable land on which to plant vines. His holdings included the Enkirch hillside, which was less a hillside and more a steep cliff face of solid stone; using sprengbatterien (a battery of explosives filled with gunpowder) from 1841 to 1845, he reduced the site to rubble, which not only made it cultivable but also gave the vineyard its name, Batterieberg (“demolition hill”). The estate's name refers to this site.

The estate consists of 13 ha. Holdings include 1.1 ha of the best parcels in the Batterieberg (grand cru in grey slate + quartzit), as well as parcels in the great vineyards of Ellergrub (grand cru in blue slate), Steffensberg (1er cru in red slate) and Zeppwingert (grand cru in grey slate + quartzit). All of these sites contain parcels of very old, ungrafted, pre-phylloxera vines--a genuine treasure trove of vine material almost unknown elsewhere in Germany. The Escheburg is a dry Riesling, firm and impressive, made from a blend of ungrafted vines from Steffensberg, Ellergrub and Batterieberg. It represents an astonishing value. Batterieberg is located within the larger Zeppwingert, which along with Ellergrub and Steffensberg were among the highest-ranked vineyards according to the 1897 Mosel-Weinbau-Karte, the Prussian viticultural tax map of the Mosel. Gernot's most recent acquisition in 2014 was a small, dizzyingly steep site in neighboring Traben called the Zollturm ("toll tower") which he uses partly for his Sekt and partly for a grand cru cuvee named for the site. The wines are all produced dry in a combination of used casks and stainless steel with full fermentations, ambient yeasts and nothing added to the wines except a low amount of sulfur. The wines are therefore natural and vegan. They are also compellingly vibrant, long-lived in the cellar, and most profoundly terroir-driven.

Immich-Batterieberg has been practicing organic viticulture for ten years and will certify for the first time in 2022. 

Tasting with Gernot Kollmann at Chain Bridge Cellars

Gernot presented 5 wines, all bone-dry Mosel Riesling.

Virginia Oysters and Dry Mosel Riesling

 

Following the tasting I had the Weingut Immich Batterieberg Riesling Trocken C.A.I. 2021 with a dozen of Virginia oysters at home. 

Post-Rieslingfeier and Pre-Big Glou Dinner with 3 Top Winemakers from Germany at BToo in Washington DC: Clemens Busch, Immich-Batterieberg and Koehler-Ruprecht, USA (2015)

 

In 2015, Annette organized a winemaker dinner with Gernot Kollmann (plus Clemens Busch, Weingut Clemens Busch, Mosel, and Dominik Sona, Weingut Koehler-Ruprecht, Pfalz) at the trendy BToo on 14th Street NW in Washington DC (now closed). 

That you have 3 top German winemakers at one dinner table does not happen too often, at least not in the USA. We were very lucky and thankful to have Clemens Busch, Weingut Clemens Busch, Mosel, Gernot Kollmann, Weingut Immich-Batterieberg, Mosel, and Dominik Sona, Weingut Koehler-Ruprecht, Pfalz, pouring their wines at a lovely dinner prepared by Chef Bart Vandaele at the trendy BToo on 14th Street NW in Washington DC. At the initiative of Gernot Kollmann, Annette Schiller, who organizes wine tours to Germany, Bordeaux and the Bourgogne, put together the event.

See: Post-Rieslingfeier and Pre-Big Glou Dinner with 3 Top Winemakers from Germany at BToo in Washington DC: Clemens Busch, Immich-Batterieberg and Koehler-Ruprecht, USA (2015)

 

Picture: Gernot Kollmann, Weingut Immich-Batterieberg, Annette Schiller, ombiasy WineTours, Dominik Sona and Franzi Schmitt, Weingut Koehler-Ruprecht and Clemens Busch, Weingut Clemens Busch, at Bart Vandaele's BToo in Washington DC

 

Picture: Weingut Immich-Batterieberg, Weingut Clemens Busch and Weingut Koehler-Ruprecht

Picture: Reception at BToo

Picture: Clemens Busch, Dominik Sona and Anthony Ramdass

Picture: Gernot Kollmann, Ken Kelly (Former President of German Wine Society, Washington DC Chapter) and Mark J Dryfoos at BToo

Picture: Gernot Kollmann and Ken Kelly (German Wine Society) at BToo

Picture: Dave McIntyre (Washington Post) and Clemens Busch at BToo

Pictures: Dinner at BToo 

 

Tasting and Vineyard Visit at Weingut Immich-Batterieberg in Enkirch, Mosel, with Gernot Kollmann - Germany-North Tour 2017 by ombiasy WineTours

 

We started the day in the Ahr Valley, visited 3 world class winemakers in the Mosel Valley during the day and finished the day in the 2 star Michelin Restaurant Schanz in Piesport with a fine-dining dinner.

We had breakfast in Bad Neuenahr in the Ahr Valley. From there we drove about an hour for our first appointment at Weingut Markus Molitor in the Mosel Valley. After lunch, we spent the early afternoon at Weingut Immich-Batterieberg with Managing Director/ Winemaker Gernot Kollmann. The third visit was at Weingut Fritz Haag, with Oliver Haag.

The visit at Markus Molitor was tasting only. At Fritz Haag and Immich Batterieberg we also visited the vineyards. All 3 tastings were most impressive.

At Weingut Immich-Batterieberg, Gernot Kollmann was our host.

 

See: Tasting and Vineyard Visit at Weingut Immich-Batterieberg in Enkirch, Mosel, with Gernot Kollmann - Germany-North Tour 2017 by ombiasy WineTours

 

Pictures: Tasting with Gernot Kollmann

Pictures: In the Vineyard with Gernot Kollmann

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