2004 Kanzemer Altenberg Alte Reben

The vines informing Niewonidczanski’s 2004 Kanzemer Altenberg Riesling Alte Reben are “only” 80 years old. Pear nectar, sweet and musky flowers, and salt spray set the tone for a mouth full of quince, pear, wafting, pungent flowers, marrow, wet stone, and mineral salts. Refined, red-slate, typical pungency, and fruit succulence are discretely but memorably deployed in the finish. Young Roman Niewodniczanski’s plan is to redefine – or at least to turn back the clock on – the concept of fine Saar wine. He is doing this by reclaiming old vines in traditionally great sites and subjecting them to long, lees-inflected vinification that results in a continuum of residual sugar levels generally neither trocken nor sweet. “Niewo”, as he is generally known, can certainly epitomize the old adage about making a small fortune in the wine business. He starts with the Bitburger Beer fortune. But if his wines cannot command the prices necessary to pay for themselves, he says, he’ll do something else. Thankfully, at least in Germany, consumers are showing a willingness to pay the high price that his low yields and almost absurdly labor-intensive viticultural approach dictate. Niewo’s intentions to achieve if not legal then V.D.P.-internal recognition for his many vineyards are lagging behind commercial acceptance, and he has reluctantly cut back on the number of single vineyard designations among this year’s bottlings. He and his new, exceedingly young cellar master Dominik Volk have triumphed in 2004 through a regimen that included late harvest (two pickings on each site, each time with two buckets), trie de table, extended pre-fermentative maceration and long lees contact. Nearly all of these wines, incidentally, had been bottled very recently when I tasted them. Various importers including: Ewald Moseler Selections, Portland OR