2022 Weingut Joh. Jos. Christoffel Erben, Riesling Trocken Ürziger Würzgarten, Mosel Germany.
The ultra fresh, liquid mineral like, pale golden hued 2022 Joh. Jos. Christoffel Erben Riesling Trocken is a crisp, bone dry wine with a stylish flair showing off its pure terroir, steely/flinty slate driven character in the glass with delicate florals, exotic spice, a lively range of citrus and tangy stone fruit, all in a compact light body, but with complex detaiils.I know, I just featured the Christoffel Spätlese, but serious this Ürziger Würzgarten Trocken is that good that I couldn’t not write it up now, it is one of the killer deals out there and I highly recommend chasing some down asap. I had heard Eymael was working on a series of dry Rieslings, but this was my first true Trocken labeled Christoffel and it did not disappoint, coming from the VDP Grosses Lage (Grand Cru) Ürziger Würzgarten, one f the world’s most legendary vineyards. Robert Eymael, the owner at Joh. Jos. Christoffel Erben, focuses on estate vines in the historic Ürzig Würzgarten as well as Erdener Treppchen and the fabled Erdener Pralet (done at Monchhof), all classic slate soiled, old vine, mostly ungrafted and very steep sites with this Ürzig Würzgarten set on its iconic red sandstone infused slate with its iron rich and volcanic spiciness, which transmits its character in the wines. The estate produces primarily fruity style, off dry Kabinett, Spatlese and Auslese wines, but has now added some dry stuff, as mentioned before, and this is an excellent start!
The Ürziger Würzgarten, which translates to the “Spice Garden”, as mentioned in prior notes is a celebrated steep vineyard and Loosen’s vines are highly coveted for the intensity of the fruit and the historic nature of the place. This Grosses Gewachs, as noted above, sees the exclusive use of the un-grafted old vines, they are up to 120 years old and located in a plots which rise up from behind the Ürzig Village and set on this vineyard’s famous red volcanic veined soils, sandstone and weathered slate. That gives the wines its distinctive delicate aromas, generous fruit and those exotic spices. Again, the very steep Ürziger Würzgarten, one of the prized jewels in the Mosel river valley, is planted 100% to Riesling, very close to Dr. Loosen’s iconic parcel, all which are on original rootstocks and the wines, like this dry Christoffel (baby GG) version was made with clean stainless steel fermentation, and saw a short period of lees aging in tank. These Joh. Jos. Christoffel Erben wines, introduced to me by Riesling guru Terry Theise, of renown winemaker Robert Eymael, who also has the famed Monchhof winery, that dates back to 1177, are some of the most exciting Prädikat Rieslings traditional wines in the Mosel and this new Dry Riesling 2022 is now one of my favorites too. As mentioned in prior notes, as the winery changed importers, they were hard to find, but for those people who have been looking for Joh. Jos. Christoffel, as I was, they are now imported by Massanois in the States, while Monchhof is brought in by The German Collection, which now makes them findable again as well.
($24 Est.) 92 Points, grapelive